Esports
Esports has a rich history of amazing matches, but sometimes it takes significantly more than one game to settle the score, creating the amazing rivalries that have built the scene.
The amazing documentary Against All Odds, charting OG’s incredible victory at TI8, is coming first to Red Bull TV. Find out more here.
There’s nothing quite like a grudge match in the world of esports. Sure competing for thousands, or millions, of dollars and the prestige of the largest trophies in esports is pretty solid motivation to win, but it always matters more if you have a history with the people on the other side of the stage. Some rivalries stem from beef, personal animosity or even betrayal over the years and others purely from outstanding competition, but regardless of the origins a rivalry match is way more interesting than seeing two teams who have no history together compete.
Over the long history of esports there have been hundreds of memorable rivalries, some are player vs player, others are team vs team and some even span multiple games becoming organisation vs organisation. Perhaps more so than traditional sports rosters change and teams fall from the top level of competition and a somewhat regular rate so some rivalries eventually fizzle out, but they will always live long in the memories, just like these unforgettable clashes.
01
NaVi vs Alliance – Dota 2
When it comes to the world of Dota there is only one rivalry that matters: Natus Vincere vs Alliance. The two faced off as two of the top teams in the world a few times before TI3, but that was when the legendary rivalry was born. In the single greatest match in Dota history Alliance managed to take down NaVi 3-2, with the win coming thanks to the iconic million dollar Dream Coil from Gustav "s4" Magnusson. The match was unbelievable at the time, and as you might expect NaVi were not happy to have lost.
In the months following TI3 everyone was clamoring for more matches between the two teams, and over the year we got multiple chances to see the two face off. The two squads traded wins, proving that they were both still the two best teams in the world. These matches were so good they were dubbed Dota’s El Clasico, after the famous football rivalry between Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Rosters eventually changed and both teams fell from the very top tier of Dota, but even to this day a NaVi vs Alliance match still has something about it that makes it special. And with both teams making it to TI9 we could once again see their rivalry reignite on the biggest stage of them all.
02
Mango vs Armada - Super Smash Bros. Melee
Over the years there have been many rivalries between the gods of Melee, but none have been more intense than Adam "Armada" Lindgren vs Joseph "Mango" Marquez. The rivalry kicked off at Genesis 2009, Armada’s first event in the US after dominating the European scene. The two met in the winners' final, where Armada took the win in a close match, and then they faced off again in the grand final, with Mango coming from losers so having to win two best of fives instead of just one. The final was an instant classic, with Mango taking the win and setting up what would be one of the most back and forth rivalries in esports.
Over the years the two would go on to meet in countless finals and other matches, and every one would deliver in some way. Perhaps the biggest stage they met on was in the grand final of Evo 2017, with hundreds of thousands watching the action. Armada would win the match in fairly convincing fashion for this rivalry, but it was another significant match in this rivalry that continued right up to Armada’s retirement in 2018. At his final Evo he knocked out Mango in the losers' final, in what is, for now, the final chapter in this rivalry.
03
Flash vs Jaedong – Starcraft
You simply could not write about the biggest rivalries in esports without mentioning what many consider to be the single greatest feud in all of esports. Lee "Jaedong" Jae Dong and Lee "Flash" Young Ho were two of the best StarCraft: Broodwar players in Korea, and their matches over multiple years remain some of the best StarCraft we have ever seen.
First meeting in 2007, when Flash was a newcomer to the top levels of competition and Jaedong wasn’t much more experienced, the two would go on to have many classic battles that were always incredibly close. While Jaedong could seemingly beat everyone else on a consistent basis, Flash was the player who could always push him to the limit and even take him down on a regular basis.
Thanks to the way the Korean StarCraft scene was set up you would often see the two play against each other multiple times a month, and you could never tell who would come out on top. Often one of them would suffer a crushing loss only to come back and win the next competition days later. Every match was worth watching, and there are too many classics to even mention here. As far as rivalries at the very top end of the competitive scene go, few can even come close to matching this.
04
Daigo vs Justin Wong – Street Fighter
Evo Moment 37 at Evo 2004 is quite possibly the most impressive comeback in all of esports. The technical skill it takes for Daigo Umehara to continuously block Justin Wong’s attacks with just a sliver of health left and win the match is straight up unbelievable. Amazingly this was the first meeting between the two fighting game experts, despite them being the two best in the world well before this point. It is without a doubt the defining moment of the rivalry between the two that has spanned years of Street Fighter competition, but this rivalry is much more than that.
The two have faced off countless times across multiple different Street Fighter titles. They have faced off across the biggest stages around the world, and while there have been times where it felt like one had a major upper hand on the other, they have remained quite even and often traded wins. The Evo grand final in 2009, which Daigo also won, was another classic moment and the perfect stage for Capcom’s franchise to return to the top of the fighting game esports world with Street Fighter 4. Chances are we'll never see this rivalry produce another moment as special as #37, but even if the two never face off again that moment enough would be enough to keep this rivalry as one of the best ever.
05
FaZe Clan vs OpTic Gaming – Call of Duty
There are quite a few rivalries that span games, but this one goes even outside of esports and into the very early days of YouTube. As YouTube was starting to grow a big community around Call of Duty gameplay videos was formed, with the highlight being insane sniper montages that saw players hitting shots that required unbelievable skill. As the scene grew OpTic Gaming and FaZe Clan became the two premiere groups for these montages, and the competition between them pushed subscriber numbers through the roof as they tried to one up each other constantly.
As the organisations grew they jumped into the competitive Call of Duty scene, and the rivalry transferred over. The crowd at CoD events obviously knew who OpTic and FaZe were thanks to their YouTube success, and would cheer for their favourite of the two, creating amazing atmosphere for matches between the two. It also helped that for most of the early Call of Duty competitive scene OpTic and FaZe always had loaded rosters and would often meet in the finals of events.
Recently the rivalry has simmered down somewhat with both orgs struggling for different reasons over recent years. An OpTic vs FaZe match is still a big deal, and something to get excited about, but with OpTic now being owned by Immortals and rumours of the OpTic core going elsewhere next season this rivalry could start to fade away in the coming years, so enjoy it while you still can.
06
SK Telecom T1 vs KT Rolster - StarCraft and League of Legends
The Telecom war is by far the most iconic rivalry in the world of Korean esports, spanning years and multiple games. South Korea Telecom and KT Corporation (formerly Korea Telecom) are two of the largest telecom companies in South Korea, and both have sponsored esports teams for years. Not only are the organisations battling in the world of big telecom, they also battle in esports and getting one over their business rivals has always been a big deal.
Things started out in the world of StarCraft, unsurprising for two Korean companies, and has since transferred to League of Legends where the two organisations have long been two of the best teams in the world and not just Korea. SKT of course are the most successful LoL team ever with three Worlds titles, but if they weren’t around there’s a case to be made that KT would be in that position. While SKT have found more success, KT have pushed them all the way, often sitting just behind their rivals. With both teams having less than ideal 2019s so far their rivalry has moved out of the main spotlight, but at this rate they could be fighting each other to avoid the promotion tournament come the end of the Summer Split.
