Gambit Esports
 | |
| Founded | 2013 |
|---|---|
| League | League of Legends Championship Series Europe (LCS) |
| Team history | MTG (2011) Team Empire (2011) Moscow Five (2011-2012) |
| Based in | Berlin |
| Head coach | Kévin "Shaunz" Ghanbarzadeh |
Gambit Gaming is a European esports organization formed in January 2013 after the acquisition of the previous League of Legends roster of Moscow Five. The team previously had a team competing in the European League of Legends Championship Series.
History
Formation of Gambit Gaming
On January 10, the now-defunct e-Sports organization Moscow Five released their League of Legends roster. The event was precipitated due the arrest of Moscow Five's CEO Dmitry 'ddd1ms' Smilianets in July 2015, which left the organization with a lack of funding for several months.[1] Four days later, on January 14, it was announced that Gambit Gaming had acquired the former M5 roster.
Pre-Season 3
Marking their first appearance in an offline event as Gambit Gaming, in late January 2013, the Russian team would compete in IEM Season VII - Global Challenge Katowice as one of the eight qualified teams. Gambit Gaming would go 1-2 in the group stage, winning against MYM, while losing to Curse Gaming EU and Azubu Blaze. Because of this, the round robin had a tie between MYM, Gambit and Curse Gaming EU, who all went 1-2. A time coefficient was used to break the tie, giving Gambit Gaming a spot in the semi-finals. Gambit Gaming, as the underdogs, would defeat Azubu Frost 2-0, then go on to take first place by knocking out Korean powerhouse Azubu Blaze, who they had lost to in the group stage. Gambit Gaming took home $15,000 USD (~11,609 Euros) as well as a direct seed into the IEM World Championship.
Season 3
Spring EU LCS
Having qualified as Moscow Five, Gambit Gaming would compete in the European Season 3 League of Legends Championship Series. Gambit would be a highly respected threat throughout Spring, being one of the most feared teams to play. They would complete the European Spring LCS Split in 2nd place, with a record of 21-7. This ensured their LCS spot for the summer split portion of the league. They would then take second place in the Season 3 EU Spring Playoffs, losing 2-3 to Fnatic in the final.
IEM World Championship & MLG Winter Championship
Gambit attended the IEM Season VII - World Championship in Hannover, Germany in March. The team dominated their group, going undefeated with a 5-0 score, placing them in the semi-finals. They then faced CJ Entus Frost and lost the set 2-1, knocking Gambit out of the tournament and seeing them finish in 3rd overall.
The Russian team was invited to play in an international exhibition at 2013 MLG Winter Championship, playing first against Americans Team Dignitas, they won 2-0, by constantly pressuring their opponent. Gambit then faced Korean top contender KT Rolster B in the exhibition finals but were unable to beat them and secure 1st place, losing the match 2-1.
LCS All Stars
In April, Gambit Gaming players Danil "Diamondprox" Reshetnikov, Aleksei "Alex Ich" Ichetovkin, Evgeny "Genja" Andryushin, and Edward "Edward" Abgaryan were publicly voted to represent their respective positions on the Europe LCS All Star team, to compete at All-Star Shanghai 2013 and play against the world's best All Star teams, chosen in the same fashion.[2] However, a rule stating that only 3 members of any team, could be inducted onto the team caused Genja to be replaced as AD Carry by Evil Geniuses' Yellowpete. The team's top lane was sOAZ from Fnatic. The EU LCS first faced off against heavy favorites Korean OGN Champions, and although good early game play from jungler Diamondprox looked promising for the team, the Koreans overtook them in a 2-0 set. Their next opponent was from their sibling league, the North America LCS. Both teams played an explosive two games of up and down fighting, however, NA LCS ended up being the victor, knocking the EU LCS out of the tournament.
Summer EU LCS
A few days before Summer EU LCS started, long time support player Edward would leave the team, stating "First of all, the main reason of such end is misunderstandings between me and Genja. Despite to the fact that we played together for more than one year we didn't fit to each other. Secondly, I don't like the current atmosphere in the team after few bad results in a row. Due to these factors I have decided to leave the team."
In July GoSu Papper left the team to join Team Curse.[3]
Edward was then replaced by Darker who eventually lost his spot to Voidle, who was then released on November 4.
On August 17, Gambit Gaming would finish the Summer Split tied up for 2nd place, at 15-13, along with Fnatic, Evil Geniuses and Ninjas in Pyjamas. However they managed to secure a 4th-place finish after losing the tie breaker against Evil Geniuses, going on to defeat Ninjas in Pyjamas in the losers bracket then losing again to Evil Geniuses in the deciders match, which granted Gambit Gaming a spot on the Summer Playoffs.
Gambit would then play against Ninjas in Pyjamas in the Summer Playoffs, defeating them 2-0 and advancing to the Semifinals where they would lose 0-2 against Lemondogs, dropping the 3rd Place Match to face Evil Geniuses, in a match that decided the third team that would represent Europe in the Season 3 World Championship. Gambit was victorious and claimed the win over Evil Geniuses, 2-1.[4]
Season 3 World Championship
Gambit was placed into a tough group with fellow European rivals Fnatic, North American third seed Team Vulcun, Korean OGN Spring Winners Samsung Galaxy Ozone and Filipino champions Mineski. They earned an undefeated 3-0 their first day of the group stage, looking extremely strong as Europe's third seed. Gambit continued to play solidly throughout the groups, finishing in a tie for 2nd place with Samsung Galaxy Ozone at 5-3. In a close tiebreaker game against the Korean team, Gambit emerged victorious and advanced to the playoffs with fellow European competitor Fnatic.
Gambit faced off against the Korean first seed NaJin Black Sword in the quarterfinals. NaJin Black Sword was called a "dark horse threat" by caster MonteCristo since they had not competed in the previous two months and had recently replaced their starting mid laner, SSONG, with substitute player Nagne. After winning the first game, Gambit succumbed to the Koreans 1-2 in a close match, thus being eliminated from the tournament and taking home seventh place.
2014 Season
Gambit's first tournament in the new season was the IEM World Championship. The team performed well, but were knocked out in the semifinals by KT Rolster Bullets.
Spring EU LCS
The Spring Split was a slight disappointment for Gambit. Also, due to visa issues, Darien, Diamondprox, Alex Ich, and Genja were all unable to play in the 6th week of the Spring Season. Zorozero, Hulberto, Nukeduck, and fury III substituted for Top, Jungle, Mid, and ADC respectively. The team only managed a 5th-place finish in the split. This was a fall from Gambit's high standards, but still meant that they had a spot in the Spring Playoffs. The team ended up coming in 5th in the tournament, after losing to Team ROCCAT in the quarterfinals.
Summer EU LCS
In May Alex Ich left Gambit for Challenger Series team Ninjas in Pyjamas to spend more time with his family.[5] His departure from Gambit ultimately meant that the Summer Split would be worse for the team than the spring split. Gambit struggled throughout, with Darien, Diamondprox and Genja becoming substitutes for periods over the split. The team finished in 7th place, meaning that they would have to fight for their LCS status in the Spring Promotion. With Krislund substituting for Genja, Gambit held on to their place in the LCS, beating SK Gaming Prime in their promotion matchup.
2015 Preseason
On November 5 Gambit announced that Cabochard was joining the team as the new top laner,[6] dispelling rumors of a potential return to the team by Alex Ich in the toplane position. Two days later the team announced that Krislund was permanently joining the team as the starting AD carry. At the same time, he switched his ID to P1noy. After these two additions, the starting roster going into the 2015 season was Cabochard, Diamondprox, niQ, P1noy, and EDward.
Gambit was one of the fan-voted teams to IEM Cologne, along with Team Dignitas and Counter Logic Gaming. They won the tournament after beating Counter Logic Gaming in the final. At the start of the 2015 EU LCS Spring Split, Gambit moved into a gaming house in Berlin.
2015 Season
Due to their 1st-place finish at IEM Cologne, the team were invited to compete at the IEM Season IX - World Championship. After a Round 1 loss against CJ Entus, Gambit Gaming were knocked out of the tournament, losing to Team WE in Round 1 of the losers bracket. Domestically, they finished fourth in the spring LCS round robin and then tied for fifth with Copenhagen Wolves in the playoffs after a quarterfinal loss to Unicorns Of Love. After the playoffs, the team released Leviathan from his position as head coach, citing commitment issues in the latter half of the season.
Gambit Gaming had an unsuccessful Summer Split. After a rocky early start to the season and a combined 0-4 record in the first two weeks, Gambit improved to fifth place after 8 weeks, largely thanks to the coaching of Shaunz. At one point the team had the potential of finishing as high as fourth. However, going into the last week of the split, FORG1VEN received a four-game-long penalty from Riot as the result of toxic behavior in soloqueue. Moopz subbed in as the team's AD carry for the last 2 games of the split. Losing these 2 games, the team finished the regular season in 8th place, meaning that they would be playing in the 2016 Spring Promotion. The team faced mousesports, winning the series and securing their place in the 2016 Spring Season.
Gambit's LCS spot was sold to Team Vitality in December 2015.[6]
Former roster
| Nationality | Alias | Real name | Age | Role | Joined | Left | Hometown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Russia
|
Diamondprox | Daniel Reshetnikov | December 24, 1992 | Jungle | 2015-11-16 | ||
 Sweden Malaysia
|
Betsy | Felix Edling | December 24, 1992 | Mid lane | |||
 Armenia
|
Gosu Pepper | Edward Abgaryan | May 1, 1994 | Support | |||
 Belgium
|
ImSoFresh | Karim Bbahla | July 29, 1992 | Jungle | July 2015 | ||
| Belgium
|
FORG1VEN | Konstantinos Tzortziou | July 23, 1992 | May 2015 |
Counter-Strike
On January 8, 2016 Gambit acquired a CS:GO roster consisting mostly of former HellRaisers players.[7] The players were Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov, Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev, Rustem "mou" Telepov, Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov, and Jan "wayLander" Rahkonen. Gambit qualified for MLG Columbus 2016, beating Renegades and Cloud9 in the offline qualifier and later placed 9–12th at the main event. Gambit announced the departure of wayLander on April 18, 2016[8] and officially signed Ivan "spaze" Obrezhan on April 19, 2016.[9]
Roster
| Nationality | Alias | Name | Join date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Russia
|
Dosia | Mikhail Stolyarov | 2016-01-08 |
 Kazakhstan
|
AdreN | Dauren Kystaubayev | 2016-01-08 |
| Kazakhstan
|
mou | Rustem Telepov | 2016-01-08 |
| Russia
|
hooch | Dmitry Bogdanov | 2016-01-08 |
| Russia
|
spaze | Ivan Obrezhan | 2016-04-19 |
Former
| Nationality | Alias | Name | Join date | Leave date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Finland Russia
|
wayLander | Jan Rahkonen | 2016-01-08 | 2016-04-18 |
References
- ^ Good, Owen (July 27, 2015). "Big-League eSports Team Owner Among Those Charged in Huge Hacking Case". Kotaku.
- ^ Mitchell, Ferguson (May 8, 2014). "Alex Ich joins NiP to spend more time with family". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Mitchell, Ferguson (January 14, 2014). "Everything you need to know about the upcoming 'League of Legends' season". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Funk, John (September 13, 2013). "League of Legends World Championship viewers guide: the teams, the players, the stories". Polygon. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Mitchell, Ferguson (May 8, 2014). "Alex Ich joins NiP to spend more time with family". The Daily Dot. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
- ^ Lingle, Samuel (Dec 10, 2015). "Team Vitality buys Gambit Gaming's LCS spot, signs kaSing". The Daily Dot.
- ^ Juillet, Jacob (January 8, 2016). "Gambit Gaming sign CS:GO roster". TheScore eSports. TheScore Inc. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
- ^ Cechladze, Arthur. "wayLander leaves Gambit CS:GO". Gambit Gaming. Retrieved 18 April 2016.
- ^ Mira, Luis. "spaze joins Gambit". HLTV. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
External links
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1 The 2020 Mid-Season Invitational was cancelled and replaced by the 2020 Mid-Season Streamathon due to the COVID-19 pandemic. | |||||||
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