Gaming
Vainglory’s first major European LAN event ended with the underdogs emerging victorious.
Coming in as the eighth seed out of eight, few expected Media Pixel eSport to place highly in the Vainglory European Autumn Live Finals, which took place this past weekend in Katowice, Poland.
Being the lowest-ranked team in the event meant that Media Pixel had one of the toughest runs, coming up against the top seed Rebirth of Empire in their first game, but with incredible team play, and some strong positioning in key fights, they managed to sweep them aside to begin their incredible run to first place.
“I think we are still digesting what we did today,” Ricardo ‘KValafar’ Macedo, one of the three Media Pixel players, told Red Bull eSports after winning the final. “We never really thought we could come here and win the tournament like this. But after tomorrow we will start looking at it in more depth, at what went right and what went wrong. Right now we are just chilling and enjoying it after months of practice.”
Along the way Media Pixel managed to knock off both Snow, considered to be one of the main favourites by many, and Black Hawk to set up a rematch with Rebirth of Empire in the grand final.
Across all of their matches their play was a clear step above the rest, thanks to their unique drafts and willingness to take a fight anywhere, even when their opponents expected them to back off. The mask of confidence slipped just once in a game against Snow, where the young team were soundly trounced.
“Coming in we knew we could beat half the teams here, and then, after we performed so well in the first day of the tournament against Rebirth of Empire, we knew we had a chance to win the whole thing. But the match against Snow was difficult,” explains Alessandro ‘Palmatoro’ Palmarini. “The team composition we played against Snow in the game we lost is actually one we don't really like playing. I don't like playing Koshka anymore because it doesn't really fit my play style, so I think that's probably why we lost the second game.”
“We knew what Snow play like, but we never really trained for it,” added Viven ‘Mowglie’ Dugoujon. “So we used a comp that we had practised a lot, but no one expected us to actually use it in a tournament. It was a risky move, especially in a big event like this but it worked.”
Many expected that after the close first series between Snow and Media Pixel, both teams would again meet in the grand final. However Rebirth of Empire managed to defeat Snow and eliminate them from the tournament in order to book themselves the last final slot.
“After our game with Snow we were surprised that Rebirth of Empire managed to knock them out of the tournament,” says Macedo while reflecting on their entire tournament run. “Especially with a normal composition, because that's something we couldn't do. But of course we were glad they did knock them out, as it meant the only team that could beat us was out of the tournament. If we had played Snow in the final I think it would have been a lot closer, but we were playing really well so I think we still would have won.”
After a dominant 3-0 win in the final, where the team never looked under threat at all, Media Pixel were officially crowned as the best Vainglory team in Europe and received a cool $10,000 for their work. After success like that in a very new eSport, the future looks bright for the squad, and Macedo is sure that they will now stick together for the foreseeable future.
“I could not be the player that I am without Palmatoro and Mowglie, because they are there to support me and I support them. We can't work alone. Even when I play in solo queue, the game is so much harder because they aren't with me. We just started the team a few months ago and winning the EU finals is great, we just synergise so well together and I think it would be hard for me to play with anyone else. We will try to stick together as a team, but sometimes real-life issues stop that happening. Hopefully winning here will allow us to stick together and possibly become full-time professionals, because that is kind of the dream.”
So what will the team spend their winnings on? “A new iPad”, Palmarini promptly answered, which isn’t as frivolous as you might think: Vainglory is played on tablets and smartphones after all (team manager Sebastien ‘cOucOu’ Caly added, “You can get one for me as well”).
But it was Macedo who seemed to have the most practical answer of all: “We might use some of it to get ourselves something nice, kind of like a Christmas present, but the rest we’ll put in the bank. Hopefully we can use it for travel to future tournaments and maybe even get to do a boot camp together one time, I think that would be really cool and could elevate us to the next level. Everything is going to be invested for our future, to make sure we can continue to be the best Vainglory players.”
As our interview ends the players don't head straight to the bar to celebrate – instead they all pull out their tablets, join some of the teams they have been competing against in the hotel lobby and start playing Vainglory all over again. While the game may still be in its infancy as an eSport, it’s clear that the people who play it genuinely love the game, and will take any chance they get to play even more, which can only be a positive for both Vainglory’s future and in turn that of the Media Pixel boys.
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