The Summit – Rumble in the concrete jungle
Kicking off tomorrow, 5th of June at 17:00 CEST (8:00 PDT), The Summit is the first ever LAN tournament run by the California based BeyondTheSummit studio. Six teams representing North America, Europe and China have gathered for this rather more intimate event, as BTS will look to put their own spin on the format best known from the StarCraft 2 HomeStory Cup's. With $115,000 USD on the line over the course of four days, The Summit kicks off the Western series of LAN's which will take us up until the eve of the International. These are the proving grounds, and without further adieu, these are your fighters.
Introducing the teams
Na`Vi
Na`Vi has been through some difficult times as of late. Their lack of practice since TI3 has been public knowledge, and the various distractions the players have gone through has seen a degradation in their individual levels of play. There has been talk from the organization of stepping up their practice schedule and working hard to be in shape for TI4, but judging by their latest performances in online tournaments it hasn't yet taken hold. Still, Na`Vi is a team that performs best on LAN, and if there is to be a turnaround in the teams fortunes an event like The Summit might just be the time for things to click. For now, mark it down as a long shot, especially as the promises of having a sister team to practice against are too fresh for this event.
Na`Vi.US
Whenever Steven ‘Korok’ Ashworth finds his way onto a team’s roster, it’s hard to imagine how he wouldn't steal the show. However, if we think back to the days before Korok joined Team Liquid, he found himself on the North American Quantic Gaming squad along with Braxton ‘Brax’ Paulson (and Theeban ‘1437’ Siva, for that matter). Brax, then a fresh-faced solomid who nobody had heard of, would regularly put the team on his back, especially when Korok went through a downturn in terms of his own play. And indeed, so it is that the now seasoned veteran, team captain and drafter, the mighty Brax himself leads the newly minted Na`Vi.US into battle. It’s a team of volatility but a lot of promise, and if they can restrain their overly aggressive tendencies and can keep on drafting well, they might surprise some people over the weekend.
Evil Geniuses
It took long enough, but we all knew it was coming eventually; Mason ‘Mason’ Venne will pop his LAN cherry at The Summit as an official member of Evil Geniuses. There’s considerable pressure on the team to go deep at this event as it’s seen as a sign of things to come. At StarLadder, lack of sleep and nerves got to the team and they faltered during the playoffs, but on home soil there’s going to be no more excuses. With Clinton ‘Fear’ Loomis also helping the team out as their official coach for the event, there’s perfectly good reason to expect EG to make the top two for this event. If not, it might be time to start re-evaluating those TI4 predictions.
Fnatic
Fnatic is the enigma going into this event. The absence of Adrian ‘Era’ Kryeziu will be a hard blow, primarily because it might negatively impact the teams ability to play some of their signature strategies, such as Tiny+Io. In terms of replacing a carry player however things get a lot easier, as every player who has ever played for this team, ever since Kalle ‘Trixi’ Saarinen was paired up with Johan ‘n0tail’ Sundstein and Tal ‘Fly’ Aizik back in Heroes of Newerth, they've all been core players originally. With Era on the sidelines, the most natural move would be for Trixi to take up the carry role again, but it’s all going to come down to 16 year old newcomer, Steve ‘Excalibur’ Ye, and what role he ends up fitting into the best. For now, it’s hard to feel confident about how the team will do at this event. Worst case scenario, there’s a good chance the audience will at least get a Meepo pick, as rumours say Fnatic has not one but two Meepo players now. That’s two more than most teams on the pro scene, how can you even lose with that?
Team DK
Team DK has been a complete mess after their clean sweep of StarLadder. This is a team that relies heavily on their knowledge of their opponents in order to utilize this to gain advantages during the lanes which translate into control of the game, and when that doesn't come together the results aren't pretty. Things started to perk up in the WPC ACE, and their 2-0 victory over Alliance which took them to the Grand Finals for a second time showed that the team can still execute. However, there remains a concern that they've been heavily picking heroes that put Daryl ‘iceiceice’ Koh Pei Xiang in the solo mid position, relegating Chai ‘Mushi’ Yee Fung to the offlane. While both players are capable in these roles, it seems clear that Mushi has been hurting from playing these lower impact heroes. DK should still be considered a favourite going into this competition, but for now there are clear chinks in their armor which could end up hurting them.
ViCi Gaming
ViCi Gaming may have been the third best Chinese team for much of this year, but the truth of the matter is that after their strategies were figured out at the end of 2013 they've been a pale imitation of that power. As the other Chinese teams have stepped up their play, VG are increasingly looking like they are just a bit behind the meta and failing to make up for it with their execution. They still enjoy their tanky heroes and the early aggression, but they are unlikely to catch many teams off guard. If VG want to go deep this weekend, they need to bust out some new strategies. But for a team that lives or dies with having a strategic edge, would revealing their hand now perhaps cost them their chances at TI4? Time will tell.
Once the event kicks off we'll have a daily coverage hub up here on onGamers as well as updates at the end of the groupstages and playoffs for those interested in how everything unfolded.
Photos by: BeyondTheSummit, Na`Vi, Hyperx, Fnatic, Tte and MarsTV.
