What we will be covering in this week's "Team Coverage" is the love-hate relationship in between Paradox Gaming and Nothing to Lose. As we have already covered Paradox Gaming a month ago, read on to see what we have to say about Nothing to Lose.
AN INSPIRATION FOR GREAT BEGINNINGS
Nothing to Lose (NtL)
was founded on November 2012 after the Season 2 World Championships, inspired
by the Taipei Assassins (TPA) who managed to win the World Championships.
The founding members were:
TeddyTibbers, Kyoz (Ex-NSEW team), and Vyox (Ex-NSEW team).
After scouting
for a while, NtL took in Gustaguy (aka Déjà vu), ESP Prestigious as well as
OneEyeSleepy (aka Calvin Harris). The team’s performance in scrims was quite acceptable,
and everyone was getting along. However, by mid-December, ESP Presitigious and
Vyox left because of commitment issues, while OneEyeSleepy left to join Team UnorthodoX
MY (UoX MY).
Replenishing the players wasn’t an easy task but Gloria and DeathlyScythe was brought into the team. However, tension was built up
between TeddyTibbers and Kyoz, leading to the latter leaving due to differences
in ideals and direction.
At the time, NtL had already accepted an invitation from Garena to
participate in the Invitational Match at the Garena Carnival 2013. In order to play, 3 Ex-KLH members joined in to assist the team in this tournament; the
members being
Jaeyoong, Hagane and
Monkeyz.
The final line-up
for the Invitational was: Gloria, Gustaguy, Jaeyoong, Hagane and Monkeyz.
The result from the tournament was not great as the players were not able to practice together,
bringing forth only 1 win, and 3 losses. As it was simply just a show match, things were not as serious yet - In fact it became a source of their inside joke!
TeddyTibbers: There is this inside joke around this tournament where Gustaguy’s stage fright was too prominent, paralysing him
throughout the tournament, and thus resulting in him underperforming.
SPRING SEASON
For Spring Season,
TeddyTibbers was planning to resign in order to join the competitive scene that year
(2013). However, he lacked the motivation to play when the founding members of the team left.
Therefore, he chose to focus on managing and
coaching. During this time, he approached
a friend – whom he had initially known by the in-game name of Support – to help
out by becoming the team’s analyst, and to help out with administrative tasks.
After Garena Carnival, NtL managed to recruit several members to strengthen the team namely: Legacy.Jarlaxle (PaX Jarlax),
Legacy.WeeWaa (PaX WeeWaa), Camouflauge (PaX Camou) and HuiHui.
NtL prepared for the
Rookie League 2013, Stage 1 (2nd February 2013) with the
following line-up:
Top Lane: Legacy
Jarlaxle
Jungle: Gloria
Mid Lane: Legacy.WeeWaa
Marksman: Gustaguy
Support: DeathlyScythe
Substitutes: HuiHui / Camouflauge
The aim for
participation was to warm up, train, and get 3rd place for
this tournament as
the team wanted to get experience by joining as many tournaments as
possible (thus not getting qualified early was a choice).
After that
tournament, things seemed to start moving smoothly as the team was able
to work well together. However, things did not last, as a cursed blessing plagued the team due to a decision made by TeddyTibbers (Manager and Coach of NtL)
THE CURSED BLESSING
The decision made at that time was to
absorb
UoX MY into NtL, and create a sister team that would be almost equal in
strength.
TeddyTibbers: This decision was made in order to help both teams improve faster as
they could provide feedback and scrim with one another frequently.
Although this
seemed like a solid plan on paper, the different personalities and clashing views
of the players were not taken into account. In other words, there was a huge
flaw in this plan from the get-go.
Everything seemed fine and both teams were working to perform in their respective
participated tournaments. NtL prepared for the Dell Invitational Online
Tournament with the following line-up:
Top Lane: KuroiHoshi
(XIII Ghost)
Jungle: Gloria
Mid Lane: Ozora Veki (PaX Ozora Veki)
Marksman: Gustaguy (Déjà vu)
Support:
DeathlyScythe
Subs: HuiHui /Legacy.Jarlaxle
The result for
this tournament was just acceptable for a new team. They lost mainly due to lack
of strategy/counter-plays instead of personal skill.
As for EtW (the sister team), they travelled to Kampar to participate in the King of
the Hill North Region competition, to qualify for the Spring Season Finals, as
well as gain experience as a new team.
This was of no issue to them, as they
knew how to win with their strengths. Unfortunately, EtW only managed to attain 3rd place due to mistakes made in the
game against Team KTHXBAI (Where Xare's Singed just destroyed the whole team)
This led to the 'better' players of the team feeling dissatisfied with the results as they
should have been able to achieve more with the 'better' players. Their
impatience with the 'weaker' members forced the decision to reshuffle - to put all the 'good' players into one team
Thus, the
reshuffled roster for NtL was:
Top Lane: Jarlaxle
Jungle: Gloria
Mid Lane: Weewaa
Marksman:
OneEyeSleepy
Support: HuiHui
DeathlyScythe remained as a sub
to help out for both teams, and later on focusing as a sub solely for NtL.
THE 'BETTER' TEAM
The new NtL team
seemed to be performing well, and managed to win Rookie League 2013, Stage 2. However, their next large hurdle arrived shortly after the King of the Hill
Central Region tournament.
On that fateful day, NtL lost on the first match
itself against 4Mod, a team which they frequently scrimmed against, which NtL perceived to not have any problems winning against (4Mod were one of the teams
that they managed to beat during Rookie League).
This loss was the prelude to the
team breaking up; led by an internal feud and the dissatisfaction to one
another’s personality having reared its ugly head again.
Thus, Weewaa and Jarlaxle joined Paradox Gaming, and OneEyeSleepy is benched due to him being hounded by his parents to focus solely on his studies for the SPM
examinations.
THE HUNT FOR NEW BLOOD
This led to NTL having only 2 main members remaining – Gloria and HuiHui and the hunt for new
members began.
After searching high and low, and performing player testing
in-between, Gloria managed to pull in his long-time friend from the FPS genre –
whom also happened to be a veteran MOBA player – to join.
His in-game name at
that time was 'DO YOU EVEN LIFT', all other players know him as Stray.
Also, with the recommendation of Shine.Walker, NtL managed
to find a hidden diamond in the rough; a Malaysian player who spammed Ranked
games in the Taiwanese server, CloudBurst (Taiwan IGN)
Up until this point, NtL still lacked a competent Mid Laner. However, NtL participated in the 'Challenge the Hunters' event with a temporary roster:
Top Lane: Stray
Jungle: Gloria
Mid Lane: TGG
Sanguine (Temporary)
Marksman:
HaseoHamasaki (ZeYoung)
Support: HuiHui
The results were not satisfactory but it was good practice for the core members in preparation for
the Rookie Finals, to qualify for Spring Season Finals.
Fun fact: NTL wanted to participate in the King of the Hill South Region tournament, but did
not make it. The player that we found to join the team temporarily ended up pulling
out on the day itself because he feared that JaeYoong was going to participate.
Although Exquinox was supposed to be released from PaX to NtL, it did not happen in the end as
Exquinox decided to leave and join his friend’s team Thus, Déjà Vu decided to rejoin
NtL as the Marksman.
Finally, after struggling to search for a suitable Mid Laner. NtL decided to put Gloria into Mid and the final line-up for the Spring Season was finally decided:
Top Lane: Stray
Jungle:
HaseoHamasaki (aka ZeYoung)
Mid Lane: Gloria
Marksman: Déjà vu
Support: HuiHui
Substitute:
DeathlyScythe
The performance
was just acceptable at the time, as Gloria was getting used to his new main
role, while Stray was getting his “mojo” back into the game as he had stopped
playing League of Legends for an extended period of time.
NtL managed to attain 2nd place in the Rookie
League Finals and qualify for the Spring Season Finals. But NtL, was
forever plagued by random twists of fate where ZeYoung
could not make it for the Spring Season Finals because his family had a pre-planned
vacation to Japan.
With that, the
final line-up was:
Top Lane: Stray
Jungle: Gloria
Mid Lane: HuiHui
Marksman: Déjà Vu
Support: DeathlyScythe
The Group Stage
score was 1-2, having lost to Team Secret and Kuala Lumpur Hunters, thus being
unable to qualify for the Spring Season Finals Top 4.
TeddyTibbers: The loss was harsh on us
because the possibility of winning and qualifying was higher than losing in the
group stage.
Thus, NtL was only able to clinch 5th place in the Spring Season Finals; an
achievement for a new team, although it was generally unsatisfactory for the
players.
After that
Spring Season, HuiHui retired from the competitive scene.
SUMMER SEASON
For the Summer
Season though, KuroiHoshi (XIII Ghost) had just finished National Service and
rejoined NtL. Things started looking up for us as we managed to settle with our
main active roster.
Fun fact: NtL approached Tofu.Alex/Solo to join us as Team Secret was going to
disband after Spring Season Finals. However, Solo being a “So Lou” gave his
original reasoning that he wanted to retire and focus on studies, and so
rejected our offer. Tofu.Alex/Solo however, joined KTHXBAI in the end - Editors note: HAHAHAHA
For the Summer
Season, the main 5 players were: Stray, Gloria, Déjà Vu, XIII Ghost and ZeYoung.
During TLC
Qualifiers 2013, NtL managed to score 3-1 in the group stage, losing only to Team
KTHXBAI, which was a great start for the season.
The line-up at this
time was:
Top Lane: Stray
Jungle: ZeYoung
Mid Lane: Gloria
Marksman: XIIIGhost
Support: Deja Vu
After the
competition, NtL acquired ZenSlayer and Tracy from Team Broski as substitutes, since
they did not qualify for TLC to increase the depth of the team player pool.
After more
training and discussions, the final line-up for the TLC 2013 Summer Season
became:
Top Lane: XIII Ghost / ZenSlayer
Jungle: Stray
Mid Lane: Gloria
Marksman: ZeYoung / XIII Ghost
Support: Déjà vu
/ TeddyTibbers
NtL started off the
TLC Summer Season on the wrong foot, having lost to Paradox Gaming; our
ex-sister team; as Gloria’s performance in the Mid Lane was still sub-par in
comparison to most Mid Laners in MY.
However, the momentum of the team in Week 2 increased
greatly, showing that they were quite capable of almost toppling KLH in their
first match up - which they ended up losing due to the lack of experience and poor
execution of strategy.
The next loss was against KtB due to bad planning. However, NtL managed to best Paradox Gaming,
in the 2nd encounter during week 5, which was a great boost to their morale.
NtL thought that they would have a shot on qualifying for the TLC Grand Finals, but it was crushed when KtB managed to pull off a miracle play that led into defeating KLH - Which eventually sealed the deal of NtL being at 3rd place for the TLC Series.
TeddyTibbers: This demotivated us all-round, as it was crucial for KLH to have beaten KtB, then have NtL to win our 2nd match against them - thus leading to a tie-breaker match between NtL and KtB. But as this did not happen, it
pretty much sealed the deal for us.
NtL managed to attain only 3rd place for the TLC Summer Season 2013; a great achievement for a team
that went through so many struggles and changes, yet a disappointment for not being able to make it to the Finals once again.
The manager of the team (TeddyTibbers) however, felt that it was a great achievement as it is quoted here:
"In
retrospect, we started off with an almost completely team of players whom were
new the tournament scene, and we managed to make the best of it. Now leading
into the new year of 2014, many changes will be coming in as some of the
members have different commitments and ideals. Hopefully, there will be less trials
and tribulations this year, and smoother sail - internally. *laughs*
To close this
off, I would say that although we did not get our so-called fairy tale ending,
at the least we have the consolation in that we made it that far from scratch.
We clawed our way out of the proverbial bottom of the barrel, and made
something not just for ourselves, but also for everyone that was involved with us."
The tentative roster for Nothing to Lose is as below:
Top Lane: Jarlax
Jungle: Tracy
Mid Lane: Gloria
Marksman: Poromancer
Support: Camouuu
Like the team name itself, they have Nothing to Lose. We will see what comes up for NtL in this Season of The Legends Circuit.
Edited by: Gates 'Poromancer' Tan
