Phaz · @Phazahp
21st Nov 2016 from TwitLonger
My thoughts on the MLG Vegas Invitees
Hey guys,
First off, it's a huge honor to be invited to this event and it's an even bigger honor to be considered one of the top 8 teams in NA with teams I've followed since February. We will not take this opportunity for granted.
The reason I'm writing this is even before the announcement when it was said we were invited in the pro discord by C9 members and of course after it was announced there has been this constant question of "Why is Rise Nation invited over x" by mainly people who haven't played us / teams that hadn't go their invite yet. Although I found this super annoying in the beginning because I think we've done a lot over the last few months to prove our worth, I thought it's something that would blow over after a few days. It seems that is not the case as I've seen it brought up on multiple platforms by players, community members or just fans and I want to clear the air about things. Before I go into this I know for a fact I'm going to piss some people off and possibly put my relationships with the players on other teams at jeopardy, but I feel for my own sanity, this is needed. I've built this team from the ground up over the last 7 months and I will not miss an opportunity to defend my team / org and our accomplishments over the last few months. My opinions are my opinions and don't reflect the same opinions my teammates have.
1. Rogue
Rogue are probably most peoples choice for best team in the world after their victory at APAC. They won the Atlantic Showdown against EnVyUs, they were one game away from being in the finals over the Overwatch Open and they beat Lunatic-Hai in impressive fashion. The problem is regardless of where their headquarters are, they are not an NA team and have never be considered or considered themselves an NA team. "But what about FaZe!" - Faze has been considered a NA team on multiple occasions, yes they flip flop every now and then, but there is no doubting the organization is NA and they have played in many of the NA qualifiers over the EU ones for the last few months (Dreamhack/MSI). I'd also classify Luminosity as in between both - Yes they moved in NA and should be considered NA now, but they previously weren't and didn't start playing NA tournaments till last week. I also don't know how they rank up against NA teams so I don't know about them being invited right off the bat regardless, but they are really good scrim partners thus far and we learn a lot from our games with them.
2. NA
NA as a region right now is in a very weird place, it's very hard to rank teams in order as there are many teams that can take games off each other and many teams that just aren't doing good as of late. With the new patch and obviously a LAN setting any of this can change and who knows where everyone will be in a month at the event and who will come out on top. I'm going to attempt to make an unbiased 'tier list' based off the last few months and base it off recent performances so people can have a bit of understanding where I'm coming from and probably what MLG saw when they were inviting teams.
S+: EnVyUs
Don't think anyone can make an argument against this. They have been number one in NA since the beginning and continue to be dominate. They obviously have something to prove by winning their first lan and will be the favorite to win the whole thing.
S: Fnatic, Cloud 9, FaZe.
Constantly dominate in the region and have been for awhile, I think any of these teams can beat each other and I can imagine at MLG any of them can win the whole thing. Cloud 9 / Faze have constantly battling in the finals of recent weekly tournaments with each other and Fnatic has obviously been as dominate as EnVyUs in this region for a long time.
A+: Rise Nation, compLexity, Team Liquid
All three of these teams can compete with tier 2, have beat tier 2 and the games with tier 2 and each other are generally very close. These teams have qualified for or been in the finals of the qualifiers for recent LAN qualifiers.
A: Immortals
Immortals and Rise Nation have been battling for as long as I remember, we were the first two teams to really out of no where and make a name for ourselves in this game and we've both had great success. I think there teamplay has always been some of the best and their mechanical / individual skill is great. The only reason I don't put them in Tier 3 is because they have yet to beat 'Tier 2' even though I think they could by now. I think if it was up to me they should of been invited, but not over us. I know the fact them not being invited will be motivation for them, they will continue to have success, come out stronger because of this and we'll probably never break the curse of having some of the closest 2-1 series over and over again.
B+: NRG
NRG they hasn't played NA for awhile so it's hard to rank them with the rest, but if you watch their VOD before the roster changes and then after it's pretty obvious they have some issues to work through before they can get back to their previous status (S). Seagull is obviously one of the best players in NA and that team has previously had major success. I'm excited to see how we match up against them and these other teams that have improved tremendously as they were away.
B: Kingdom
Kingdom is a great up and coming team that can / have upset teams higher tiers then them, but I personally don't think you can make an argument they are better than any of the teams above them in the tier list as of right now and could probably make the argument some of the Tier 5 teams have proven themselves more over the last few months.
C: The Rest (Splyce/Tempo Storm/Selfless/Method etc.)
The rest is pretty much impossible to rank. A lot of these teams can take games off even Tier 3 teams at times, but most of them have been struggling to set a roster for the last few months and in Overwatch it's very hard to build up speed without having a set group of 6. I think these teams can agree they have their problems and that when they get through them they'll be in great shape, but as it is right now that's just not the case.
Filling only 8 slots is very hard with the amount of competition we have in NA and it's difficult for any tournament organizer and even me to decide on a set 8 with good reasoning for every team. Though I'm good friends with Immortals and many of these other teams that didn't get an invite, I can see the reasoning behind all 8 invitees over the rest and I think at the end of the day there will always be 'X team should of been invited over X' with any group of 8 they invite.
3. Why we were invited specifically
We deserve it. We are the first team with 5+ members who weren't in beta to make it this far, we have four 'Rookies' that were not on a team previous to this one, every single one of us had to make a name for themselves as none of us have done it in previous games and we have had constant improvement (With a few bumps) since our victory against compLexity and our one kill away from going to the Overwatch Open series against Method. We've had huge showings such as beating Tempo/Cloud9/Liquid and are now the North American representative for MSI MGA 2016 in London (December 7th/8th). I also think for everyone of our players can make the argument / there is respect from other teams that they are some of the best at their roles/heroes in the region and can stand tall with the rest of them.
To end, I tried to be as unbiased as possible with all of this and try to think of other players/teams opinions while coming up with my own. I think generally this information can be agreed upon in some degree by most people in the NA scene.
With this being said, I'm super excited for the next few weeks of LANs we have and it's going to be cool to meet everyone I've met over the last 7 months including my teammates who I've spent months grinding with. I wish everyone the best of luck in Vegas and I can't wait to participate in and watch the games. Thank you all for supporting Rise Nation and myself over these last few months. We will continue earning your support and make you proud #RiseWithUs.