December 27, 2018

Recap: November – December 2018

Happy Holidays, readers! We are back with our second newsletter!

2019 is just around the corner so we at Noble want to close out the year with a look back at some of our fondest memories. The hype train has yet to suffer a slowdown, especially with the Mortal Kombat 11 Community Reveal just around the corner this January!

If you missed out on our first recap, please click here to do some catching up. Otherwise, read on to learn what has occurred since November.

On November 23rd, we parted ways with our Rainbow 6 roster after a fruitful journey through the expansive Rainbow Six Pro League presented by ESL. We signed our team whilst they were competing in the Season 7 Challenger League, after which they progressed to the Season Finals alongside seven other organizations for the eighth season. We also got a front-row seat to their performance at DreamHack Austin 2018, where they finished in 5th place and took home $1,000 after competing against fifteen other giants.

Recently they took a 2-1 victory in a relegation match against the Elephant Gang to ensure their continued participation in Season 9. Though our roads have now separated, we wish them well and thank them for their tireless commitment to representing Noble’s finest in competitive Rainbow Six.

Near the end of November, Curtis “Rewind” McCall celebrated his 18th birthday. We are also fast approaching the first anniversary of his induction into Noble Esports (he was previously signed in January 2018).

Though he’s been competing regularly in NRS games since Mortal Kombat X, it was not until Injustice 2’s release in May 2017 that he began to carve a canyon through the offline scene. Rewind came within arm’s length of making an appearance on nationwide television at the ELEAGUE Injustice 2 World Championship by participating in a last chance qualifier, in which he broke into the Top 8.

Though he ultimately did not qualify, Rewind’s results in the second season of IPS have more than made up for the setback. These results include a resounding victory at the Evolution 2018 Championships, a feat which labeled him a hometown hero in Las Vegas, and a 2nd place finish at the IPS Season 2 Finals.

We’d predicted that 2018 would be Rewind’s time to shine, as well as Semiij’s. We were right on both counts!

Now before we completely close the book on Injustice 2, we invite you to relive the IPS Season 2 Finals at the PRYSM Nightclub from our perspective. See how both Rewind and Semiij made the journey to the Top 4 segment of the event, earning themselves some time in the spotlight cast by the ESPN3 and Disney XD networks, both of which were broadcasting this climactic conclusion to the Injustice 2 Pro Series.

As you might imagine, both of these players are incredibly excited for the arrival of Mortal Kombat 11, but they won’t have to wait that long to get their hands on the game! Following the game’s unveiling at the Game Awards earlier this December, Rewind and Semiij were directly invited by Netherrealm Studios to take part in the MK11 Community Reveal at Los Angeles next month!

This first look into the future of the next Mortal Kombat title will occur simultaneously in London and Los Angeles on January 17th! The game itself is set to release for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC on April 23, 2019.

On November 27th, we welcomed the current holder of the Celeste Speed-Running World Record to our stream team: Noble TGH! Viewers can enjoy his endless speedruns of the Canadian platforming video game at his Twitch channel, linked here.

Celeste itself was developed by Matt Thorson and Noel Berry as a prototype for a game jam, but the positive feedback prompted them to expand the product into a full release on January 2018. In the game, players take control of a female protagonist named Madeline, guiding her up a mountainside whilst avoiding a series of obstacles. As the player progresses through the game, they will be able to add additional abilities to their arsenal in order to aid with their journey up Celeste Mountain.

The aforementioned record by TGH currently stands at 28 minutes and 40 seconds on the PC version as of around ten days ago, according to www.speedrun.com/Celeste.

On December 3rd, we welcomed another speed-runner to the stream team: Keizaron, a 27-year-old speed-runner from Spokane, Washington with a specialty in Pokemon games! While he prefers the Pokemon franchise, Keizaron has occasionally taken his skills to other titles such as the Megaman games, Animorphs, and Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories. Combining entertainment and skillful displays all in one, this streamer brings you the best of both worlds!

You can enjoy all of his speed-runs at www.twitch.tv/keizaron. Furthermore, a list of his speed-running records can be found here.

As you may recall from our November newsletter, Noble Prodigy won the right to represent the Cincinnati Bengals in the EA Madden NFL 19 Club Championship, which will take place near the end of January at Redwood City, California. Yet he has not hit the brakes on his drive to challenge the competition, as he would take his efforts to the Madden NFL 19 Classic in Las Vegas, where sixteen finalists would challenge one another in the hopes of winning their biggest share of $165,000.

Prodigy bulldozed his way to the Top 16 on Day 1, putting himself on the brink of qualifying for the Top 8. For his qualifier match, he was paired against the player who would go on to be crowned the two-time Madden Classic Champion: Skimbo. Prodigy put up a valiant effort, but was ultimately sent home at 9th place.

In spite of the setback, Prodigy’s determination to excel at the Madden NFL 19 Finals hasn’t faltered. We look forward to seeing him compete atop the biggest stage in Madden esports come this January! Full details on the Club Championship can be found here.

Whilst the Madden Classic was going on, Super Smash Bros Ultimate had finally released for the Nintendo Switch on December 7th. The game has quickly amassed top-grade assessments from various reviewers and has climbed straight to the top of every gamer’s list of games to add to their libraries.

Those who followed us during the days of Smash 4 may recognize Noble Sol, who was rigidly loyal to Little Mac even as a competitor. For Ultimate however, he has opted to equip himself with a lineup of characters rather than continuing the Solo-Mac crusade.

His first results, acquired from locals in Florida and Ohio, are as follows:

On December 11th, we welcomed Noble Fudge to our PubG roster just in time for the NPL Qualifiers, which would lead into the beginning stages of the 2019 PubG Pro League. Along with Boom, Edakulous and 1Will, the PubG roster took the victory in all three consecutive rounds to finish among the Top 24 teams, earning themselves their entry into the 2019 Preseason on January 7th!

We will be seeing our PubG boys competing against thirty-one other teams at the OGN Studios in Manhattan Beach next month for their share of $100,000! The venue itself, a 35,000-square-foot arena that will play host to countless esports events, will be run via partnership between South Korean broadcasting company OGN and PubG Corporation,

Complete details on the 2019 PubG Pro League’s esports structure can be reviewed at this blog post by PubG Corporation.

Finally, to close out our recap, here is a look back at a collection of fascinating occasions that unfolded during our streamers’ Black Ops 4 and Red Dead Redemption 2 sessions. If you’d like to follow our stream team, we have archived all their names and channels here for your convenience.

With that, we say farewell to another amazing year for Noble. Though it’s almost Christmas, watching our team succeed throughout all of their ups and downs is the best present that we could hope to get, and we’ll be gearing up for our next chapter in 2019!

Should you wish to continue following our journey through esports, please check out all of our social media linked below!

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