With recent news of the amateur team that competed in the
LCS Summer Relegation, DoubleBuff (ex 1 Trick Ponies) is joining Denial Esports and moving into a
gaming house (http://www.reddit.com/r/leagueoflegends/comments/1fp3l8/doublebuff_join_denial_esports_moving_into_a/). Several reasons are as
followed on why I think the gaming house idea is bad: Having to move to the California area, eligibility into the LCS, and
a team’s ability to perform.
Stated in
their Reddit post, Denial are heading off to a boot camp session in Ohio and then
heading off to California for the next season's qualifiers. Why to California? Because the LCS takes place in California. This
means that most professional teams need to be around the California area where
they meet up in L.A. for the LCS. If teams are not around that area, they are
facing huge traveling expenses. If the teams are in the area, they still need to pay for expensive housing.
Denial Esports aren’t qualified to be in the LCS until the
next season in spring, in which, they still need to compete in the Qualifiers to be qualified for the LCS. This seems like a risky move for the team.
If Denial Esports cannot make it into the next LCS season, they could lose
Denial Esports as a sponsor and possibly disband, thus, the volatility that is the LCS that
I’ve talked about in my previous opinion segment. In the same situation, Denial Esports may suffer
the MRN curse, where Marn had to break lease with the house and disappoint the team's sponsors by disbanding the team.
As an amateur team that went 0-2 in the first round of the
Summer Relegation, I feel like Denial Esports is wasting their time with a house. Losing 0-2 is really a setback on how
well you can show your strength and what you can offer to becoming a LCS
qualifying team. However, the house can also do good. It gives more opportunities to coordinate and to improve as they simulate an LCS-like environment (playing next to each other).
I know I used Denial Esports as an example, but this is all true for all amateur teams. From my days of watching the Halo series when it was on the MLG circuit, amateur teams didn't really see any recognition until the end days of Halo 3 and some of the beginning of Halo: Reach as older teams had massive roster changes and seeding changes. Sure, MLG did some stuff like hold the amateur tournaments, but it's different from the LCS. MLG had about 5 events per year that allowed for more teams to reach the top 10 or the top 5. With the LCS, you need to wait 3 months for the end of the first split and then you go back into relegation, giving barely any room for recognition unless you place high in events or win the Ranked 5's stuff.
I’m not trying to bash, discredit, or ruin Denial Esports' reputation at all, but from the way I see it, Denial is taking a big gamble on a house for an amateur team in an already huge gamble that is Esports. All in all, I hope to see Denial Esports get somewhere, whether it is number one in a big event or their dream goal, the LCS.
