Forg1ven, prodige en eaux troubles

La fin du voyage pour Forgiven?

Aujourd'hui, après une éclatante victoire face à Fnatic, Forg1ven était attendue pour une interview comme il y en a à chaque fin de rencontre.

Seulement, ce qui ne devait qu'être une banale interview s'est vite transformée en cauchemar. En effet, le génie grec a annoncé avoir reçu une lettre de son gouvernement, lui informant l'obligation d'effectuer son service militaire.

Cette nouvelle pourrait non seulement affaiblir très clairement la structure d'H2K mais cela pourrait surtout mettre fin à la carrière professionnelle de Forg1ven.

Ce n'est pas la première fois que ce dernier fait fasse à des problèmes d'envergure, et pour cause, Konstantinos Tzortziou, de son véritable nom, avait été sanctionné à plusieurs reprises par le passé.

En 2014, Forg1ven recevait un premier avertissement de la part de Riot Games (créateurs de League of Legends) et se voyait punir d'une amende de 1000$ après avoir enfreint plusieurs règles de bienséance de l'organisation.

Mais ce n'est pas tout, la saison dernière, l'AD Carry, désormais chez Gambit Gaming, se retrouvait à nouveau sous le feu des projecteurs après l'annonce d'un ban pour 4 matchs consécutifs et ce juste avant le début des Playoffs. Il sera alors remplacé par Pinoy dans la formation russe.

Venait alors les Championnats du Monde et la belle réussite des équipes européennes. Forg1ven quant à lui était dans le flou, Gambit n'existerait plus en 2016, l'équipe était vendue à Vitality. Son avenir était dès lors incertain.

En début de saison, Forg1ven faisait son grand retour, cette fois dans la formation d'H2K avec la difficile tâche de remplacer Hjarnan au poste d'AD Carry.

Une équipe plus forte que jamais qui ne laissait échapper qu'une game à Fnatic avant que des problèmes n'affectent la structure. En effet, le midlaner Ryu se voyait interdit de jouer à cause de problèmes de visa, comme plusieurs autres joueurs de la scène.

H2K parviendra à continuer ses bonnes performances malgré tout et, avec le retour récent de Ryu, l'équipe semblait pouvoir devenir de plus en plus forte. Cependant, ce nouvel obstacle apportée par le gouvernement Grec pourrait réellement cause du tord, non seulement à la structure mais surtout à Konstantinos lui-même.

Une nouvelle interruption de carrière pour lui pourrait clairement mettre fin à sa carrière car il pourrait perdre ici neuf mois de compétition, ce qui serait un véritable désastre.

A cette heure, Forg1ven, en compagnie de ses proches et de la structure qui l'a accueillie, sont en train de chercher les solutions qui pourraient s'offrir à lui mais ceci ne semble guère facile.

La seule chose que nous, en tant que fans, curieux, admirateurs, pouvont faire, est de montrer notre soutien envers le meilleur AD Carry que l'Europe arbore en son sein.

Merci Forg1ven et, je l'espère, à bientôt.

https://community.avaaz.org/petitions/free-forg1ven-from-military-service

All rights reserved

Kevin Fischweiler

Immortals, the new titans of Esports

Truly Imm8rtals

July 24th of 2015, Fnatic goes 18-0 in the Summer Split, beating every record in the whole scene, becoming the first team ever to go undefeated.

October 25th, Fnatic isn't able to meet the expectations of a Worlds Championships final and fall to the KOO Tigers in an one-sided BO5. Europe is no more in the competition and the final will be 100% Korean.

One month later, the team announce the departure of their 2 Korean's stars, Reignover and Huni. Their destination will be unknown for 2 weeks. 

Then, on December 8, Immortals (a group of investors led by Noah Winston), after acquiring Team 8 LCS spot, finally announce his brand new roster. Huni and Reignover are there, alongside the last Summer Split champion, Pobelter, Adrian (ex-Team Impulse) and Wildturtle (ex-TSM).

For hours, days, weeks, the community is talking about this team. They could easily become one of the favorites and reign over, just like their jungler, the North America. 

But some are skeptics, TSM is, like always, seen as the big favorite. The fans don't believe in Wildturtle anymore, especially after his last year of underperformances. Adrian, after deciding to stop playing to go back to his studies, finally come back on his decision, but people are not really confident on him, some even says he was the weak point of Impulse, they are wrong.

Then comes Pobelter, champion with CLG after a crushing victory over the rival TSM, his transfer was one of the most surprising. Huhi was prefered to him despite his good games. Pobelter decided to quit CLG, not wishing to be on the bench. Certainly the best decision of his life.

Huni and Reignover were unknown before coming to Fnatic. Reignover was pro before in a team called Incredible Miracle, but they were no miracles and Reignover was seen as one of the worst jungler in Korea, he was underestimated and only wished to prove people wrong.

And they did, both of them. Even though Huni was considered as a tilt lord, he carried Fnatic multiple times, even scoring a beautiful Quadra kill at Worlds.

That's what lead us to today. Today, Immortals is now 8-0 in the North America LCS, destroying every single opponent, being scared only once in their game against TSM, when they were left behind in the early game before coming back after many (bad) baron calls.

All the team is performing, Turtle has revived, he found a team who is able to follow him when he goes wild. Adrian, like always, is efficient and his Janna, Soraka, are a poison for the opponents.

Reignover has matured, a lot. Already strong after his season with Fnatic, he seems more confident, and is in every "first blood" of his team, putting pressure everywhere on the map.

Huni also seem more confident. Of course, we will only see that if Immortals lose someday, but Huni is still very efficient and also, less sensitive to the pressure.

Pobelter is still the same kind of player from when he played for CLG, but he found a team who trust him and where he fits without worries.

As of today, Huni and Reignover are now 26-0 in a regular split and it does seem like it's far from stopping. Will the two of them be able to end another perfect split? Huni believe so and is ready to take anyone who will try to stop this unbeaten run.

In the end, only the future will tell us if Immortals can truly stay immortals and if this team can become one of the best, or the best in the world.

But right now, this team is focused on the first split of the year and will probably continue to give us a show every time they goes on stage.

"What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal"

All credits to Immortals.gg and Riot games

G2 Esports, the revenge of Ocelote

G2 Esports, shining light of Europe

The 4th week of the European LCS has ended yesterday with no real surprise, G2 Esports is continuing their insane start in the competition and are now 7-1, being only defeated by H2K.

Let's be honest here, when i saw the different teams for this split and their roster, i was skeptics about many teams, and in those teams were G2.

After failing 2 times in the Challenger Series, the organization led by the ex-professional, Ocelote, finally succeed to qualify for the LCS. It was a sort of redemption, the return of a King from the past. But Ocelote was only the manager this time, he didn't played. He left this painful task to his successor, Perkz. And he was the reason for my skepticism because, if you have the slightest interest for Esports, you will obviouly follow many tournaments, and not only LCS. You will also inform yourself as much as you can.

That's what i did, i saw Perkz many times in soloq, looking at pro's streams, and yes he was a good challenger, but he wasn't exceptionnal. He was a challenger like many others and got destroyed by Febiven every time i would have looked at his games. But Febiven at the time was already considered as one of the best midlaner in the worlds. 

Truth is, i was wrong, i didn't expect G2 to be relevant. Well i wouldn't say that i believed those guys would be relegated right away, they were much worth team than them.

But what they showed these past 4 weeks put them in a position of favorite. The so called superteam that were supposed to be Vitality, H2k, Fnatic and Origen are not far behind, but for the last two, they've become weaker, a lot weaker than they were at Worlds.

And while Origen and Fnatic are struggling, both with their own problems to work on, G2 didn't deceive once, their games were clean, impressive and with a lot of agressivity.

The two Koreans, Trick and Emperor, were being looked at, because well, they are Koreans. But having Koreans doesn't mean you will find success, ask to Gravity or Sk Gaming, they failed.

But it's not the case here, Trick is an agressive and skilled jungler, but also ballsy, picking Udyr in their only loss against H2K was probably not the best choice, but he did make amend later on. Emperor was "known" since he played for TDK in North America last split and, alongside Ninja, did pretty well but couldn't escape relegations after many weeks fighting for visa issues.

Now, Emperor is hungry, and he proved it since the start of this split, rampaging on his Ezreal. With the addition and the swap from the jungle to the toplane of Kikis, the team did an unexpected choice. But Kikis is a strong player, and he adapted to his new position in no time.

The only ones left are Hybrid and Perkz, the 2 other newbies with Trick. The first one is the support and could be called a one-trick pony Braum since his attachment to this champion is really strong. And he did pretty well, of course is Braum is what you could call godlike, but his performance on other supports are also impressive. 

Now come Perkz. As i said, i didn't expect much from him, but he prove me wrong and is now at the top of the standings, not only with his team but also individually. he is the second player with the most kills behind Zven, which is not rare but not really common amongst the midlaners. For him to be ahead of the best Ad carries in Europe, shows that is talent is here.

Perkz is probably the best midlaner in Europe right now. Febiven isn't as good as he was last split and Ryu has lost his right to play because of Visa issues which means Perkz is the new king in the midlane. His talent is growing weeks after weeks and he will continue to led the charge for his team like Ocelote did in the past.

Next week, G2 will face his most difficult schedule, facing not only Vitality, but also H2K who won in their first meeting and gave G2 his only defeat until now.

After winning against Fnatic and Origen, this is the real test for them at the moment, and if they can overcome it, there is no doubt G2 will truly be a favorite for the split alongside H2K.

From Challenger Series to the top of the standings, this reminds me a bit of Origen last year. But, unlike Origen who had 3 veterans, G2 is filled with rookies, Kikis being the most experienced with Emperor, but both only played 1 year as pros.

If the expansion of this team continue to grow better and stronger, there is no wonder that G2 could become a top team, first in Europe and then, maybe, hypotetically, also in the World. But that, is another story.

Credits to Riot games, lolesports