An E-Sporting Chance: Teeming With Teams
League Of Dotcraft, Too
Our e-sports Eye (Of Sauron) is Jeb Boone.
In E-sports, teams come and go like the tides. Even after the e-sports boom of 2010, stability is difficult to seize and maintain.
Last week, Quantic Gaming disbanded. Quantic fielded StarCraft 2, League of Legends and Call of Duty squads that performed with relative success for two years. For teams to do well financially, it takes a bit of charity and a willingness to sacrifice.
“I got into this philanthropically,” said Mark Ferraz, CEO of Quantic Gaming in an interview with ESFI last month.
“I’ve risked my family, I’ve risked my career, I’ve risked my saving, I’ve risked my everything, everything I’ve ever cared about on the face of the planet to see this happen,” added Ferraz.
It wasn’t enough.
Just a few weeks ago, Ferraz sat down with the members of Team Orbit, a League of Legends team, at a Holiday Inn in Austin, Texas. He signed them as the inaugural members of Quantic’s League of Legends division. For those players, Quantic’s demise is devastating. For the entire e-sports community, Quantic’s downfall is a time to reflect on the things that have gone wrong after the boom of 2010.
While Quantic made its name as a console shooter team, gamers of all stripes grew to love the team. They leave behind over 100 rostered players in their Call of Duty, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends divisions.
Just as some teams fall, others rise.
DOTING ON DOTA 2
Team liquid not only partnered with Evil Geniuses for this season’s SK Planet Proleague in Korea but also formed their own Dota 2 Division. The acquisition of a Dota 2 division is quite an achievement for Team Liquid. Liquid has moved from a clan to a forum hub for StarCraft and onto a professional StarCraft 2 and Dota 2 team over the years.
Liquid’s Dota 2 team will include players such as Brian “FLUFFNSTUFF” Lee, Sam “BuLba” Sosale, Steven “Korok” Ashworth, Tyler “TC” Cook and Michael “ixmike88” Ghannam.
“Though each of these players brings something unique to the table, they do have one thing in common; they are all hardworking and respectful individuals who have their minds set on long term dominance. As we understand that it can take some time for a team to truly become united, we will give them as much time as they need to figure things out,” said Victor “Nazgul” Goossens, founder of Team Liquid.
Just before Team Liquid announced its acquisition of a Dota 2 division, North America’s premier e-sports team, Evil Geniuses (EG), made a startling announcement.
Lee “Jaedong” Jae Dong would be joining EG’s StarCraft 2 division. Jaedong “The Tyrant” is heralded as Brood War’s greatest Zerg player. With eight championship titles to his name, Jaedong is without a doubt EG’s most storied StarCraft 2 acquisition.
“I feel like I'm facing a new challenge. Unlike other players in Korean eSports Association (KeSPA) it seems like I am confronting a lot more changes than others. I also feel pressured that I will be playing at the first foreign team in SPL. Personally however, I feel excited about these changes and it seems like I will be having a lot of fun as well,” said Jaedong shortly after the acquisition was announced,” said Jaedong in an interview shortly after the acquisition was announced.
For many fans of StarCraft: Brood War, Jaedong joining a foreign team would have been unthinkable. At the height of Brood War’s popularity in South Korea, foreign fans were few. Names like Jaedong, Flash and Bisu resonated in the ears of Koreans and the foreign faithful as some of the best in the world.
But Jaedong’s first appearance with a foreign team was less than stellar. In the EG-TL partnership for the SK Planet Proleague team league, EG-TL was 4-0’ed by KT Rolster, Flash’s team. Jaedong lost to Stats, the Protoss player for KT Rolster.
Flash and Jaedong, two of the world’s greatest StarCraft: Brood War players have struggled to transition to StarCraft 2. In spite of Jaedong’s appearance in the world’s most competitive league, Korea’s Global StarCraft 2 League, Flash seems the dominant player.
But the season is young – there is still time for Jaedong and EG-TL to showcase their skill in Proleague in spite of their first loss.
As they chase glory in Seoul, Quantic’s former players will be searching for teams to take them in.
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