[TEAM COVERAGE] Team KTHXBAI

Team KTHXBAI recently rose to the occasion when they unexpectedly defeated the Kuala Lumpur Hunters in the 6th week of The Legends Circuit 2013. Things got much more hyped up when they moved on to take down the Singapore Sentinels on the first match of TLC Finals Playoffs in Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Albeit losing the other matches after that, they were placed 3rd place, above KLH in ranking and is currently rated as one of the best teams in Malaysia. That being said, how did the team came into formation?

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Back in 2011, the idea of a competitive team first came up when Joel "Ashdragon" Ooi and Jeffery "Vyprex" Chan had thoughts of playing competitively to earn extra cash money. 

Wanting to form a team, ashdragon scouted players such as Erebros and Laymonoob while Vyprex looked for his brother Joshua "Ribenamania" Chan and Jonathan "Xare" Chan. xKenz soon joined the team in order to have more available playing members.

They eventually call themselves 'Team Dragon'. At that time, there was an issue with a lack of computers, so only two of the three brothers were able to play simultaneously. Thus, there was not any role allocated and it was simply "playing what you want during the match" 

The team did not last because of arguments, conflicts and issues such as not having a computer to play for important matches. The dream did not end that way though. 

Late 2012, Ashdragon once again initiated talks with Vyprex to reform a team as Xare and Ribenamania finally graduated from their SPM examinations - moving on into college, thus allowing more freedom in playing and most importantly, a computer to play on.

Vyprex: At that time, ashdragon told me that he had waited for almost a year for my brothers to graduate high school to reform the team

Team KTHXBAI was officially formed on January 2013 and has been in the scene ever since.

THE NAME

Where did the name "KTHXBAI" came from? It came about during a night where Vyprex and Ashdragon was discussing; in search of a name. No ideas came up and eventually, Ashdragon decided to make Vyprex responsible in creating name. In order to avoid responsibility, Ashdragon ended the chat with "kthxbai". Vyprex took the phrase up, and it soon became the team's official name.

THE TEAM

The initial roster of the starting members of Team KTHXBAI was as the following:-

Top: Xare

Jungle: Vyprex

Mid: Ribenamania

AD Carry: Ashdragon

Support: Bendo

This team participated in an online tournament at that time known as the "Inter-Varsity Challenge", representing Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman and obtained a third place finish after losing their semi-finals match. Unfortunately, Bendo - the support player at that time could not continue playing due to commitment in studies.

Thus, the team recruited Chayu "eko" Jia Ming as the Mid laner; putting Ribenamania down as AD Carry with Ashdragon as support. Thus, the lineup for Springs Playoff Finals was as the following:

Top: Xare

Jungle: Vyprex

Mid: Eko

AD Carry: Ribenamania

Support: Ashdragon

The team competed in the Springs Qualifier, KOTH North Region at A-Station Cyber Cafe, Kampar and by defeating teams like Everything to Win (Paradox Gaming), they managed to qualify themselves in the finals against Team Secret but unfortunately lose out in the finals. KTHXBAI qualified into the Springs Playoffs Finals 2012 by clinching 2nd spot. 

Things did not go well though for Spring Finals as team got into a serious argument during a scrim with Team Secret. Ever since the argument, the team did not practised for over 2 weeks. The team got back together 1 week before the match and tried to do what they could, but eventually dropped out of the competition 0-3, losing against Broski, Paradox Gaming and 4moD.

The team lost their morale and motivation to continue competing for a period of time, before changes start taking place.

THE REFORMING

Upon hearing rumours of the disbandment of Team Secret, the team approached Tofu.Alex (Solo), the Top Laner of Team Secret to join the team, thus forming the team that eventually rose to fame as one of the best teams in Malaysia

With the addition of Alex "Solo" Keoh in the team, Xare was finally allowed to be moved into his most comfortable position, the Mid lane. Thus the line up of Team KTHXBAI was as the following:

Top: Solo

Jungle: Vyprex

Mid: Xare

AD Carry: Ribenamania

Support: Ashdragon

The team progressed pretty well, winning most of the match and cruising through The Legends Circuit Summer 2013's qualifications with the score of 4-0 with a comeback victory against Nothing to Lose (NTL). 

To further add on into the team's pool of players due to regular weekly matches, the team decided to add Wilson "wcws" Cheah, jungler of the disbanded Team Secret into the team as a Jungler.

THE CRISIS

Things went well for the team, not losing any match throughout the entire TLC Finals until Week 5, where the team lost their first game against KLH and eventually SpongeBobSwagPants (SSP) who was actually at last place of the circuit.

It was a terrible week for the team, as losing both games in a week allowed Paradox Gaming and Nothing to Lose to catch up to clinch the last spot for the TLC Playoff Finals. Fortunately, the team managed to pull together and won all the games from then on, against the top seeded KLH, Paradox Gaming and Nothing to lose (Yet another comeback victory)

THE LEGENDS CIRCUIT FINALS 2014

As the other competitions for Team KTHXBAI, the team never  had chance to practice for TLC's Finals due to the universities' final term paper. 

The team got together 2 days before the match and trained as hard as their could and went into the competition with totally nothing to lose despite their manager, Matt putting an extreme amount effort in creating the hype and support for the team.

Things did not went as planned, as they caused an unexpected upset against the Singapore Sentinels. That , however was the peak for the team though, as they eventually lost against Neo.iSG Exile and then Singapore Sentinels who came back from the losers bracket after knocking Kuala Lumpur Hunters out of the tournament.

KTHXBAI managed to clinch 2nd Runner Up for the TLC Playoff, as is currently the number 1 team in Malaysia

THE FUTURE

With TLC 2013 ended a month ago, what is coming from the team? Vyprex had officially announce his retirement from the scene from Team KTHXBAI's Facebook page as well as Solo and Ashdragon casually announcing their retirement through the post itself. No one knows what is going to happen

Sure thing is, there is going to be a big change.