Gambit Gaming vs CJ Entus Frost : Coming Full Circle

by Jerrod "Thousand Eyes" Steis 

It’s been two years since the original match-up and now everything is coming full circle. Two years ago on March 8th, 2013, Gambit Gaming took on CJ Entus Frost in the IEM World Championship. A lot has changed over the years between both teams, and while they may not sit in as high a throne as they did previously, they are starting make their way back to the top. IEM Katowice could take either of these teams back towards their former glory.

Two years ago the IEM World Championships during Season 3 were held. At the time Gambit and CJ Frost were some of the most highly touted teams. Gambit were dominating at the end of Season 2, having all of the original members of M5: Darien, Diamond, Alex Ich, Genja, and Edward. Frost had a legendary lineup including current CJ stars Madlife and Shy along with Woong, Rapidstar, and CloudTemplar.

While times have changed, I think there’s a few things that we can pull from the previous match-up that might still hold true. First off, Diamond is still Diamond. What I mean by that is, Diamond still wants to innovate in the jungle and bring in unexpected strategies and picks. Just this past week we saw Diamond pull out Evelynn probably the first time since her nerfs. It didn't work out too well, but it still shows that Diamond will pull out anything regardless of what is considered meta at the time.

Second, while Gambit’s lineup has changed quite a bit, they still have the same “See Hero, Kill Hero” mentality. Gambit has always and still does thrive when the game is put into pure chaos. As soon as a team loses control of a situation, Gambit will get rolling and it’s hard to stop them.

CJ knows how to counter this pretty well though as they showed. In 2013, CJ tried to beat Gambit at their own game and swapped their bottom lane into the mid lane in order to starve out Alex Ich on Kha’Zix. The combination of Lulu and Ezreal zoned Kha’Zix out from getting any kind of farm. Similarly to how lane swaps work in today’s meta. The difference here being, no one had really tried doing this, it was completely new and out of the blue and caught Gambit by surprise. CJ gave Rapidstar (on Gragas) blue buff to start and sent him bottom to just grab what farm he could with barrels while they zoned out Kha mid.

Looking towards this years match-up, Gambit lacks a lot of the star power they used to have. Alex Ich left and Gambit have yet to find anyone that can replace him consistently. P1noy has been doing well and so has Cabochard, but it’s pretty apparent that Gambit is still adjusting in some ways. Diamond is going to have to really pressure the map well in their game.

CJ, on the other hand has been a dark horse that came bursting out of the pre-season hot. Both CoCo and Shy have been having MVP like seasons and with Space finally getting his act together, and Madlife looking like he’s heading back to his old self, they've shown that they are no longer just a shell of their former selves.

I think the early game will play a huge part in what this game ultimately turns into. CJ has a much more in-depth strategic mind that shows in their games, but they have the tendency to fall apart if their early game goes south. Space can tilt and Ambition has his games where he doesn't do a whole lot. If Gambit can take advantage of these weaknesses they might pull an upset.

On the other side of the coin you have two of the strongest solo laners in the scene at the moment in Shy and CoCo. Both are having MVP seasons and while Cabochard has been doing well in his own right, I’m not sure if he can handle Shy on his own, and I can say pretty confidently that I think Betsy will be having his on issues in the mid lane. CJ needs to play up the fact that their top and mid are incredibly strong by comparison and have Space and Ambition just play supporting roles as CoCo and Shy carry.

Overall it should be a good match and I’m looking forward to how both teams try and handle each other since they’re not from the same region and don’t have the experience fighting each other. A lot of unique and clashing strategies could be pulled out.

TILT! - Your Greatest Enemy

by Reece "SabrewoIf" Dos-Santos 

Ever have those moments when you believe the matchmaking gods are out to destroy you? When you get players who AFK, flame, feed, and refuse to co-operate? Deep down in your heart you know that you’re playing out of your mind to ensure that your team makes it to the late game, but you just can’t help your three allies who are shouting “GG” nine minutes into the game? Yes, this happens to virtually everyone and it’s something that just can’t be avoided. Especially when you’ve just been on a tearaway win streak, those are the moments when you happen to notice the things that go wrong even more. 

What’s important is how you deal with such events. Like it or not, most of us league players are hot-headed. We will attempt to shrug off the last games problems and storm right into the next game demanding our rightful space in a solo lane ready to carry our scrub teams to the finish line. But what we don’t realize in the spur of the moment is that from the time you enter that lobby and say “Mid” instead of “Hi team, mid pref,” you’re already on tilt.

When on tilt it’s incredibly easy to notice things that are going wrong in other lanes. Suddenly, you become a professional level analyst who feels the need to direct your teammates how to CS properly and how to position themselves. In fact, for some players, it’s the hardest thing to simply not tell that top laner that he might be missing a few brain cells. In the mind of such a player, they’re not trying to flame, they’re merely trying to rally together what they believe is a rag tag group of players desperate for a leader. For some other players, Tilt will have them making mistakes they wouldn't usually make themselves, like overestimating how much mana they have left for an all in dive or believing they can make it away without having to flash. Mistakes turn into desperation and suddenly you find yourself diving three members of the enemy team in an attempt to kill the ADC and ensure your team doesn't get deleted. I mean, if you want a job done right, do it yourself...no?

Some players go into the game simply expecting to lose. What would usually be a cheerful, driven player becomes a pessimist who will sit and wait for a mistake to happen so they can say something along the lines of, “Well I knew that would happen.” The pessimist doesn't actually flame, but their general down putting behaviour and reluctance to commit a hundred percent of their ability to their actions leaves them and their team at the mercy of hungrier opponents. Other players become quickly enraged at the thought of seeing their hard work towards a certain goal reduced to nothing. Ever wanted to simply beat that promotion series but just can’t make it through?

The hardest part of defeating Tilt is simply knowing that you’re on it, but no matter how hard it may be to admit that sometimes your three game losing streak is coming down to things that you've done wrong, you have to do it. Similarly, it’s just as hard to admit to yourself that you played to the best of your ability but simply weren't meant to win that game. Things like that happen. Even the best players don’t win every single game. I don’t have to remind people of Fnatic’s terrible run in the Spring Split of LCS Season Four, where they dropped games to every single team and looked like they were on the verge of collapse. Even throughout the Summer Split, Fnatic looked shaky, but what saved them was the acknowledgement that they were tilting; that they can do better if they cooled down and talked over their strategies and game-flow with Araneae - who became their coach and their source of guidance in what could have been a dark time.

The other alternative to solving tilt is to simply stop, take a break, and commit yourself to doing something else for a while until you’ve reset yourself enough to be able to go into a game again with a clear head and renewed confidence. I myself am doing this right now. This article is being written as a way for me to cool off after acknowledging I was on a tilt. As an example of why this is so helpful, look only to Diamondprox and his sudden increase in efficiency in the last Superweek of this season's Summer Split. His gameplay was suffering as a result of Gambit’s inability to adjust properly, and he was subsequently benched. Within that break, Diamond was able to look back upon the games of his team and said while watching a game from home that he now understood how Gambit fans felt watching their performances. Fast forward to his return and the difference was clear as day. His confidence was back and he helped Gambit surge towards their best week all split.

Before every game and especially if you get wind of yourself tilting, just remember to still your tongue, ready your mind and restrain your feelings. Tilt is an internal battle; only after you master yourself can you truly master your enemies.