November 23, 2018

Recap: October – November 2018

Happy Holidays to all of our readers!

Thanksgiving has officially ended but we hope you filled up on enough turkey and mashed potatoes, but if not, here’s something to dig in to. We’d like to give our share of thanks for an incredibly eventful month for Noble Esports. All of it will be summarized in the first of many newsletters that will be published via this blog on a monthly basis.

For our first entry, we’ll be covering what exactly happened from October 20th to today. So without further ado, let’s get started.

Championships for various esports events were all the rage the past month, such as the Forza Racing Championships, which would see its conclusion in London’s Gfinity Esports Arena on the weekend of October 20-21. Noble b0x, our sole Forza representative whom we signed in June 2018, sped his way to the top of the Forza Racing leaderboards for the entire 2018 season, earning his qualification into the Championships with a 2nd place finish. After conquering the group stages, b0x sought to top off his career with a victory at the Forza Championship. Though he came within arm’s length of this achievement, b0x finished in 2nd place, taking home $15,000 out of a towering prize pool of $100,000.

Hambinooo and 1Will, members of the Noble PUBG roster, were as equally absorbed into their own endeavors that same weekend, competing in a pair of duos events where they would both excel. After taking first place in a charity event called “Gaming for the Cure,” a fundraising tournament which was hosted by GRUNTO Esports and the National Breast Cancer Foundation, the two sought to carry their momentum over into the Season 6 Finals of the Rexzilla League. The gap in points among the Top 3 was as narrow as an alleyway, but the Noble PUBG crew finished in 3rd place with 1,531 points, ranking below both Hooked Esports and Polar Ace. Chicken dinners all around! Since then we wholeheartedly said goodbye and best wishes to Hambinooo!

With another esports-centric weekend in the books, Noble’s hunger for victory wasn’t satisfied as we entered into a new week. Our focus shifted back to the Rainbow 6 Pro League, an R6 esports circuit presented by ESL and Ubisoft, as we prepared for our final match in the fourteenth and final play-day of the North American league. Eight teams, Noble among them, clashed with one another for the right to advance to the Season 8 Finale of the Pro League, which occurred just last weekend. In our case, we faced down Mousesports in a gritty deathmatch, emerging victorious with a set score of 6 wins against their two.

Unfortunately, in spite of the victory, the Noble R6 roster still faced a risk of relegation from the Rainbow 6 NA Pro League due to their 7th place position in the standings. The team would therefore be required to play against the Elephant Gang in a relegation match on November 6th, with the losing team dropping back into the R6 Challenger League. Almost as if to blend in with the night-time setting, a shadow loomed over our team as they faced a risk of elimination. In spite of the pressure, our lineup tightened their decision-making process, leaving little to no room for error as they traded wins with the Elephant Gang. After three close games, Noble closed it out with a 2-1 win, thus ensuring their participation in Season 9!

With our latest results archived, Noble’s Twitch team flocked to the San Jose Convention Center in California to take part in Twitchcon 2018. As the name suggests, Twitchcon celebrates the growth of the incredibly successful streaming platform Twitch.TV, which was initially founded as a spin-off of Justin.tv in June 2011. Twitch’s popularity ballooned over the years, eventually leading to the rebranding of Justin.tv as Twitch Interactive to emphasize its new focus as a broadcasting platform. Initially founded on the basis of nurturing a gaming community, Twitch now supports live streams of just about…anything, be it music concerts or even esports circuits they have or have not directly sponsored.

TwitchCon was without a doubt an incredibly memorable event delivered by a team whose values are rooted deeply in professionalism. Our streamers had a phenomenal time, as did we!

We took a momentary reprieve after the conclusion of TwitchCon until November 8th, at which point Noble Prodigy came out on top in the Bengals Madden Club Online Eliminations series. This was an online circuit where the winner would be qualified to represent the Cincinnati Bengals in the live finals of the EA Madden NFL 19 Club Championship, which would take place in Redwood City, California from January 30th to February 2nd. As a result of Prodigy’s achievement, he’ll be representing the Bengals – and Noble, of course – in a final 32-team bracket where the winner will take home their largest share of a $700,000 prize pool, which is $100,000 in this case.

On that same night, we welcomed four new streamers to our Noble Twitch team: , , , and ! If you want to get familiar with our Twitch team as a whole, we’ve archived all of them here and linked each of their Twitch pages to their pictures. Just give each of them a click and you can enjoy their content as it comes!

On November 11th, we bade farewell to two of our longtime members who’d been with us since the days of Mortal Kombat XL: Tweedy and iLuusions. Both exhibited a sense of community and an unyielding drive for self-improvement, which are strong qualities for any esports enthusiast to have. The organization wishes the both of them continued success for the future.

 

Then came a new week, and with it, another championship to conquer: the finale to the second season of the Injustice 2 Pro Series, which began in May 2018. Throughout the year, players from all around the globe competed in qualifiers to either improve their standings in the global leaderboard, or in regional brackets specific to Canada, Europe and Latin America. When an LCQ at East Coast Throwdown 2018 reached its conclusion, the sixteen best Injustice 2 competitors were flown out to the PRYSM Nightclub in Chicago, hometown of Netherrealm Studios, to compete for the title of IPS Season 2 Champion and their share of $100,000 (an additional $50,000 was distributed at previous events associated with the league).

Semiij and Rewind, the latter of which was recently crowned the Injustice 2 Champion at Evolution 2018, were among those who’d entered the final stage of the Injustice 2 Pro Series. By the end of the evening, both Rewind and Semiij were counted among the last four finalists standing, the other two being Echo Fox SonicFox and his ex-teammate Scar. The quartet would finish their final matches with the world watching via social media and the ESPN3 and Disney XD television networks.

Both performed amazingly well in the finals in spite of being under pressure. Semiij’s run ended at 4th place, whereas Rewind finished in second after a series of grueling final matches with SonicFox, who, like Semiij, has been one of his longtime training partners.

Our players have deeply invested themselves into their competitive careers over the course of 2018, and it was a privilege to bear witness to the fruits of their labor. Though the year is quickly approaching its end, the growth and experience accrued by our players has put them in a healthy position to continue adding to their success as we inch towards the 2019 season.

To our current followers, we thank you deeply for your unyielding support. To our newer followers, we welcome you and ask that you follow all of our social media so you can stay updated on our future endeavors!

Thank you for reading, and we will be back in December with our next newsletter!