Rocket League – Snowball Esports [Legacy] https://legacy.snowballesports.com Oceanic Esports News & Content Tue, 11 Feb 2020 23:49:53 +0000 en-AU hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://legacy.snowballesports.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/cropped-sb-favicon-32x32.png Rocket League – Snowball Esports [Legacy] https://legacy.snowballesports.com 32 32 Rocket League Oceania kicks off Australian bushfire relief campaign with Gamer Aid Australia https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2020/02/12/rocket-league-oceania-kicks-off-australian-bushfire-relief-campaign-with-gameraid/ Tue, 11 Feb 2020 23:10:55 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=7890

With the esports season back in full swing, Australia’s best Rocket League players will be getting behind the wheel for a good cause.

The Gauntlet, run by Rocket League Oceania, has been renamed to the Gamer Aid Gauntlet for the next season to raise funds for Australian bushfire relief in partnership with charity Gamer Aid Australia.

It comes after a successful fighting game community event saw Gamer Aid raise over $8,000 for charity, with the Rocket League community ready to step up their own efforts.

“The response from the community has been extremely positive,” said Ben “Dover” O’Connor of RL Oceania.

“[The Rocket League community] have shown eagerness to provide help for fire relief and to contribute to the restoration of the environment. We could not be more excited to play our part in helping Australia bounce back from the recent disaster.”

Partnering with Gamer Aid made sense for the tournament organizer. The charity, started by Aiden “Ayekay” Hiko and Joshua “Swifty” Swift has raised over $50,000 for various organizations across Australia after the bushfire crisis of 2019-2020.

“It’s a huge honour to be able to work alongside Gamer Aid and the fantastic people behind it,” he added. “Since the beginning of the fire season we have been interested in hosting an event dedicated to helping bushfire victims.”

The Gauntlet is also one of the most esteemed events in the Rocket League calendar for Australian players, featuring top tier talent from the Renegades, Canberra Havoc, Ground Zero, and more. Having top-tier talent playing for a good cause has helped Gamer Aid realise their dream.

“The Rocket League Oceania team does amazing work each year in putting on this event,” said Ayekay. “This year they saw the devastation and wanted to do something about it, so they linked up with Joshua Swift [Gamer Aid co-founder], and brought the dream to life.

The top teams in the region will duke it out every week for eight weeks through the Glove and the Gauntlet. It’s not just for show ?— there’s serious bragging rights on the line.

“The one thing to expect is amazing games on the pitch,” said Dover. “The OCE teams are phenomenal players who never fail to deliver on jaw dropping moments.

“The Gauntlet is designed to host close matchups, pushing the players to really step up and show off what they got.”

In the spirit of giving back, people can donate to the cause to get a chance to win prizes. By purchasing a Gamer Aid Gauntlet tee, or donating to the RL Oceania channel on Twitch, your money will be going towards Gamer Aid’s initiative across Australia.

Ayekay said that he’s “hopeful” this is the last event Gamer Aid Australia will have to plan, but the charity will always be on the lookout to help communities in need across the country.

“In the case that there are more things to raise awareness for, and communities to work with, we would absolutely love to work with TOs both in Australia and around the world,” he said.

The Gamer Aid Gauntlet kicks off this week. The Gauntlet Week 1 will take place on February 13. Catch the action live on Twitch.

Find more info at the Rocket League Oceania website and on their Twitter.

Disclaimer: Joshua Swift, one of Gamer Aid Australia’s founders, is a stakeholder in Go Next Media, the owners of Snowball Esports.
]]> Snowball Esports: 2019 in Review https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2019/12/31/snowball-esports-2019-in-review/ Tue, 31 Dec 2019 04:50:48 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=7548

As we close out the decade it’s time for our yearly wrap, and a look back at what we accomplished this year.

In 2019, we went through some major growth at Snowball in a couple of areas. At the beginning of the year, San Hoang and Chelsea Moss became the first content producers outside of myself on the team since Snowball began. Having them on board allowed us to maintain the same quality while continuing to pump out more content, especially during the OPL splits.

The team covering MEO 2019.

We hit up IEM Sydney, the Melbourne Esports Open and PAX Australia this year, and brought our flavour of coverage to those events.

In September, we announced that Snowball will partner with META High School Esports next year. We’re really excited to work with Nigel Smart, Woody Wu and the rest of the team on this for their 2020 season, providing high quality content and regular coverage.

I took a different approach with my year in review, going month to month and picking some key pieces from each to give you some insight into our year.

January

The likes of Andrew Wray and numerous others try and cheekily convince me to take on ridiculous time consuming projects all the time. After finding out there would be no tipping system for OPL like in 2018, we’d had discussions about trying to fill that gap and do something via Snowball but ultimately decided it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort to set up and maintain a competition.

We now know how weak-willed I can be when the community yearns for something. I ended up building an entire tipping league just days before the OPL returned in January. Over 200 OPL fans participated in the competition during the Split 1 regular season and some won some great RP prizes courtesy of Riot.

February

A great feature from Reece Perry on Jessica “ARTeMis” Majrouh and Carnage after their efforts at the WESG qualifier in Perth. This piece was also produced by one of our talented new additions at the start of this year in Chelsea Moss.

March

I am intensely proud of this piece from Ellis Longhurst. Ronan’s story is one that resonated with League of Legends fans both here and overseas, and is one of the most viewed Snowball pieces of all time. Ellis took a unique approach composing this story as if it were to become a six-part Netflix series, it’s an intensely inspiring read.

Also during March was the OPL playoffs for Split 1, which marked the return of Snowball’s Gauntlet Run series, kicked off by Harry Taylor.

April

I’m fairly sure this is the longest OPL recap of all time from Isaac McIntyre, and with good reason. It tells the tale of Order’s run through the OPL gauntlet, after barely scraping into the playoffs and taking down each team against all predictions on their path to the final.

Also worth noting in April was an interview ahead of the Mid-Season Invitational with Bombers coach Westonway which garnered international attention as people looked to find out more about the oceanic representatives, and announcing our IEM Sydney coverage, with the intent to bring a team to the event for the first time in Snowball’s history.

May

Along with a myriad of written and video interviews with CS:GO’s biggest names, we had one of our newest writers Ashley Whyte put together a great feature on IEM Sydney, and the legacy that it’s created in our region after we talked with Michal ‘Carmac’ Blicharz.

As part of our IEM Sydney coverage, the popular Survival Guides made a return, this time with Sydney local Bernadette Wong at the helm.

June

After a stellar split in the OPL, Victor “FBI” Huang became the first Australian to make the journey to North America following in the footsteps of New Zealand’s Lawrence “Lost” Hui as told by Isaac McIntyre.

Other notable pieces from June include Emma van der Brug putting a spotlight on the Girl Gamer Festival coming to Sydney, a foray for us into Hearthstone with Legacy signing Grandmasters star FroStee, and the acquisition of the Chiefs Esports Club by ICON.

July

Building up grassroots esports in Oceania has always been a focus for us at Snowball, so when Ashley Whyte pitched a feature on the latest BrisVegas LAN in July and why it’s important to have these kinds of events, it was a no-brainer.

August

The Melbourne Esports Open was Snowball’s biggest event by far of 2018, and this year was no different. Armed with a team of 7 at Melbourne Olympic Park, we worked to bring high quality coverage to as much of the event as we could.

I’ve spotlighted the two OPL final previews, on Chiefs and Mammoth, because it marks something really important to myself, and the wider management of Snowball. These pieces show more than most the growth in both Harry Taylor and Emma van der Brug. Both of them were added as community panelists for Snowball’s OPL Power Rankings in Split 2 of 2018.

These features are a testament to their hard work and dedication to growing themselves, and I’m intensely proud of that. Pair that with some stellar creative work from producer San Hoang and you have some bar-setting content.

September

Although we capped off MEO coverage in early September, also with the unfortunate debut of Roaming Wray, this feature from Andrew Amos on James “Yuki” Stanton is my highlight for September. It’s not often you see players have careers spanning this long, and it’s even rarer when they span as many titles as Yuki has, and Ducky did an excellent job bringing this story to life.

Also at the tail end of September, Go Next Media was announced to the world.

October

I believe this feature is the crown jewel of Snowball’s 2019. It was an absolute pleasure to produce, and was a complete product of circumstance. Andrew Amos was in Korea to cover the Overwatch Contenders Gauntlet right in the middle of Raid’s stay in Busan.

This is the calibre of content we strive for. You don’t often see this kind of unbridled view from retired esports pros in Oceania, and I can’t thank Julian enough for sharing his story with us.

Another notable mention from October was our PAX Australia content, my personal favourite of which was Ellis Longhurst’s look at the Mortal Kombat tournament finals.

November

In one of the most worked-on investigative pieces in Snowball’s history, Andrew Amos with the help of Isaac McIntyre and myself aimed to tell the full story of the scheduling controversy between multiple Oceanic orgs and ESL Australia.

It’s a story we didn’t take lightly, and took the time to make sure we reported the facts of the situation after obtaining full email transcripts between the teams and various other parties.

Other notable pieces from November include my report on the Essendon Bombers leaving esports and selling their OPL slot to Pentanet.GG, Ellis Longhurst’s visit to the Red Bull Fight or Flight PUBG event in Sydney, and Kevin Walker’s Snowball debut with pieces exploring Overwatch 2 and its impact on competitive and a chat with New Zealand’s Overwatch World Cup team.

December

I love this feature from Isaac McIntyre, and it’s a good one to grasp the scale of the offseason oceanic League of Legends has had. We’ll have a piece recapping every move of the ‘OCE exodus’ as its been dubbed in the new year, but his chat with Stephen for this piece shows how dedicated these pros are, and I’m super happy to see so many of them head overseas next year.

Andrew Amos put in some work on the Australian Overwatch offseason this month, announcing the Sydney Drop Bears new roster and telling the story of a new super team being built on our shores.

I’ll leave you with a sneak preview of something that’s currently being worked on, our brand new site!

On behalf of the entire Snowball team, thank you so much for a great year, we can’t wait for 2020. There’s much more to come!

]]> BREAKING: ICON acquires Chiefs Esports Club https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2019/06/26/breaking-icon-acquires-chiefs-esports-club/ Wed, 26 Jun 2019 07:58:12 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=6678

Icon Esports has acquired the Chiefs Esports Club, effective immediately, with the new enterprise set to compete under the Chiefs’ current organisational branding and structure.

The major acquisition will see the Chiefs take over operations for Icon’s Rocket League team, which will be travelling to Valencia to compete in the Dreamhack Pro Circuit Tour in early July.

The Icon-helmed organisation will also continue competing as the Chiefs Esports Club in the Oceanic Pro League, and the Oceanic Challenger Series. Participation in CS:GO tournaments, as well as Fortnite and PUBG events, will also continue.

According to representatives within Icon Esports, the acquisition of the Chiefs is a natural extension of their ambitions to create a leading esports organisation in Oceania. The new venture will also look to continue to support the development of local regional players.

“We are excited to commence the next chapter of our involvement in the esports market here within Oceania and more importantly with the Chiefs”
– Nick Bobir

“Over the last few months, we have made strides to develop new business lines which give back to the fans, grassroots and help promote the local landscape to new audiences. As a business, it’s important to diversify and strategise for the future and we can’t wait to share the activation announcements in July,” Icon chief executive Nick Bobir said.

Icon has already taken steps to support the development of Australian and New Zealand representatives with their new ‘Ecosystem Development Program’. The first stage of this project from the combined Icon-Chiefs venture will be announced in July. It has already been confirmed the project will “include a number of esports” across Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.

The acquisition of the Chiefs Esports Club is a major move for Icon, which was founded earlier this year by a cohort of private investors. Icon’s first foray into the competitive side of the esports industry was with the former Tainted Minds Rocket League roster.

They now take on a leading role in one of the biggest esports organisations in Oceania. The Chiefs have been operating in multiple gaming titles since its foundation in 2014, including League of Legends, Counter-Strike, and Rocket League.

The Chiefs have won the Oceanic Pro League four times, and have represented the region three consecutive times at Sydney’s premier CS:GO event IEM Sydney. The org’s Counter-Strike team has been regarded as one of the region’s best since their formation and were crowned back-to-back ESL AU&NZ champions in Season 6 and 7.

Recently, the Chiefs former Rocket League team managed a historic top-four finish at the Rocket League Championship Series Season 6 finals in Las Vegas.

]]> Tainted Minds to proudly fly the Oceanic flag at DreamHack Pro Circuit Leipzig 2019 https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2019/02/15/tainted-minds-to-proudly-fly-the-oceanic-flag-at-dreamhack-pro-circuit-leipzig-2019/ Fri, 15 Feb 2019 05:55:32 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=5591

DreamHack Leipzig 2019 kicks off the Pro Circuit for the calendar year, and the German-based LAN tournament will see premier Oceanic organisation Tainted Minds flying the Australian flag high when they begin their campaign this Friday.

For the esports club that has represented the region Down Under in the past two Rocket League Championship Series Finals, the journey to Leipzig marks a new chapter, with more LAN tournaments, more international challenges and certainly more opportunity for massive success on a grand scale.

CJCJ arrives at the RLCS Season 6 Finals in style. Source: @TaintedOrg on Twitter.

It’s an opportunity Cameron “CJCJ” Johns knows is a big move for the organisation and the region, especially considering the team can cut their teeth on even more experience against some of the best teams in the world if they succeed in a deep run into the competition.

For CJCJ, DreamHack Leipzig marks his third appearance on the world stage, after his two previous outings with Tainted Minds as well as his Season 4 attempt with Pale Horse Esports at the season-end event that saw his team come up against powerhouses like PSG Esports and Mock-It Esports.

Interestingly, it’s the first time Johns will appear at an offline international event that the Chiefs Esports Club aren’t competing in, giving the long-standing Oceanic veteran and the whole Tainted Minds roster – Nathan “Shadey” Logan and Jonathan “Express” Slade – the chance to fully fly the Australian flag in all its glory.

“It feels great to fly the flag for our region.”
– CJCJ

It’s an interesting feeling, CJCJ revealed, and one that comes with just a little bit more expectation and pressure around the team. It’s certainly something the Tainted Minds star is embracing.

“Individually I enjoy the added pressure that [being the sole Australian representatives] brings,” Johns said. “We’d love to have the Chiefs alongside us, but it feels great to fly the flag for our region.”

“This is our first tournament of any format for the year, so we are looking forward to dipping our feet back in the water and re-establishing ourselves into these pressure situations. We don’t have any expectations, but we’ll definitely have a goal of making it out of our group.”

Tainted Minds’ draw sees them open their Leipzig adventure against North American organisation Splyce, who recently earned their promotion to the Championship Series after a 6-1 record in the second division Rival Series and a 4-0 victory over Rogue in the promotion playoffs.

If the TM roster can overcome the lineup of Jamie “Karma” Bickford, Trevor “DudeWithTheNose” Hannah and Jake “JWismont” Wismont, they move to potentially face of the tournament’s four invited organisations, NRG Esports.

The premier NA esports club boasts standout Rocket League professionals like Garrett “GarrettG” Gordon, Jayson “Fireburner” Nunez and Justin “jstn” Morales, all of whom have proven time and again their world class talent.

The Tainted Minds Rocket League team preparing for DreamHack with Stumpy. Source: @TaintedOrg on Twitter.

It’s top-tier clashes against teams like Splyce, and especially defending North American champions NRG Esports, that drives CJCJ as he and his roster continue to chase international success in Rocket League.

“We love to play against the best teams, so a potential match against NRG is very exciting for us,” Johns said.

“Playing Splyce first is going to be a great initiation into the tournament for us, as we have been able to scrim them in the past and have more of an idea of their playstyle than most other teams in the tournament.”

The 20-year-old also feels like Leipzig presents an opportunity to show more of what the team is capable of, especially after the roster fell into the Loser’s Bracket after a 3-2 slugfest with Evil Geniuses went against them, before they were punted from the international stage in a 3-0 defeat to eventual champions Cloud 9.

“We didn’t play anywhere near the level we are capable of against Cloud 9, and since that match we have been able to establish a more solid foundation and structure in our game,” he said. “It’s going to be a key factor in big tournaments like this.”

“When we are playing well it’s very hard to stop us from scoring. We are certainly looking at getting our foot in the door of any other major tournaments which may lie ahead.

“We can’t wait to kick off what is going to be a huge year for us, and we’re looking forward to testing ourselves at DreamHack Leipzig in what is one of the strongest tournaments we’ve ever seen.”

The German-based Rocket League major will have one other Oceanic representative in its midst – former Chiefs Esports Club star Matthew “Drippay” Den-Kaat will take to the stage alongside Gabriel “CorruptedG” Vallozzi and Jason “Klassux” Klass for Evil Geniuses.

Drippay made the international roster switch to the North American giants earlier this year, and now prepares for his first major tournament with the historic team. His campaign against Norwegian team Nordavind, before a potential battle against Team SoloMid for qualification to Day 2 of the event.

Tainted Mind’s first match will kicked off on Friday evening, at 9:15 AEDT. If they are successful against Splyce, their clash with NRG Esports will be played later the same evening.

The first stop on the DreamHack circuit will stream all feature matches at twitch.tv/dreamhackrocketleague.

]]> ‘I will do the Oceanic region proud’: Drippay makes history with Evil Geniuses transfer https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2019/02/02/i-will-do-the-oceanic-region-proud-drippay-makes-history-with-evil-geniuses-transfer/ Sat, 02 Feb 2019 06:00:44 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=5394

After forging his legacy as one of the greatest Rocket League players to have ever competed in the Oceanic region, Matthew “Drippay” Den-Kaat is now making the cross-region move to Evil Geniuses in North America.

The transfer is a momentous one for Oceania, as Drippay’s switch across the Pacific is the first time an Australian talent has been signed by an international organisation in the Rocket League Championship Series, and the “major move” is already front-and-centre when the 18-year-old thinks about his future.

“Making this major move for the Oceanic region has definitely played on my mind, it’s not only a big step forward for me, but also the OCE region as a whole,” Drippay said. “Hopefully this inspires young talent in the region to keep working towards what they want to achieve.

“I will try to do the Oceanic region proud.“

“With this being the first cross-region roster move I think it will definitely open the gates for more [similar] moves, especially if Oceania continues to perform on the international stage.”

Although Den-Kaat’s talent was obviously on show for all to see as he played with organisations like Legacy Esports and Alpha Sydney early in his career, the Australian striker found himself unsigned alongside Jake “Jake” Edwards and long-term teammate Daniel “Torsos” Parsons and competing under the title ‘Billy Fan Club’ before the Chiefs Esports Club acquired the trio in August of 2017.

From there Drippay and his squad won back-to-back Throwdown Esports: RLOC grand finals, first sweeping aside Pale Horse Esports Club 4-0, and then clinching their second trophy with the same scoreline against Tainted Minds six months later.

Then in June of 2018, the Chiefs went on their first deep run in the RLCS as the fifth iteration of the season-ending tournament was hosted at Copper Box Arena in London.

Drippay, alongside Torsos and Jake, defeated Evil Geniuses 3-2 in a five-game epic to progress in the upper bracket, before a 1-3 defeat at the hands of the eventual champions Team Dignitas dropped them into the lower bracket.

Although their campaign ended with a three-game defeat against Cloud 9 in the Losers’ Round 3, a 3-0 over Team Envy saw Drippay score three of the Chiefs’ five goals and create the final two, putting the young Australian team on the international map.

Their 5th/6th place finish in Season 5, coincidentally the same placement as Evil Geniuses, then spurred them to go one step further the following season, as they entered the year-end tournament as Oceanic runners-up behind Tainted Minds.

Armed with a new recruit – Cameron “Kamii” Ingram – after Jake had announced his retirement nearly a year to the day since signing with the Chiefs, the boys in blue and white once again reminded the world why Oceania is to be feared in international events.

Two 3-2 victories over PSG Esports and NRG Esports put the Chiefs up against the star-studded unsigned roster of We Dem Girlz, with Drippay collecting the Day 1 MVP trophy for his efforts.

Although the Chiefs slipped to a 0-3 defeat against We Dem Girlz, their run in the losers’ bracket kept the momentum going, and the Australians sent Evil Geniuses out the tournament with a 3-1 win, only falling in a two goals to one over-time clash on Mannfield.

Cloud 9 once again proved too much for the Oceanic representatives to deal with however, and a 1-3 loss to the North American roster left the Chiefs with a fourth place finish – the best placement Oceania had ever seen.

This series of strong showings, and some individual brilliance from Drippay, saw heads turning from the North American league, the young striker revealed.

“I didn’t need to think about my decision that much because getting a chance to compete in North America and playing with Evil Geniuses is a massive opportunity that I can’t really turn down.”

“After RLCS I was getting a fair bit of interest from the international teams,” he said. “A spot on Evil Geniuses opened up after one of their players left to join G2, so EG reached out to me straight away, showing interest in me joining their team.”

As well as the fact that Drippay is now joining an organisation first founded in 1999 and with two decades of history behind it, the Australian star also joins a roster dripping with talent – Gabriel “CorruptedG” Vallozzi and Jason “Klassux” Klass will be Den-Kaat’s teammates in 2019.

“I’m really looking forward to playing with CorruptedG and Klassux,” Drippay said. “I get along with them really well and they are great to play with. Our manager and coach Fireworks [Stephen Swims-Fuleihan] is also super helpful and it’s an honour to play for such an amazing organisation.”

“[Because of this] I am holding very high expectations of myself now that I’m playing in NA,” he added. “I will now get to play against the best teams on a regular basis and this will help me reach my potential as a player. I am still holding the same expectation of being the best team in the region”

Although Drippay is definitely excited to be joining up with some of the best talent the North American league has to offer, he admitted it’s “definitely sad” to be splitting from long-standing teammate and friend Torsos.

“It’s been insane what we have achieved together, and we have made some unforgettable memories along the way,” Den-Kaat said. “It’s definitely sad to be leaving Torsos. I hope he continues to find success, and I’m sure he’ll keep smashing it in Oceania.”

If Drippay is keen to see Torsos and the rest of the Chiefs roster continue smashing it in Oceania, the organisation’s owner Frank “Sangy” Li is even more invested.

Sangy, who created the esports club in August of 2014 and entered the Rocket League scene three years later with what would become one of the region’s finest ever teams, said he was “very proud” of Drippay’s North American transfer, even if it was “incredibly sad to see him go”.

“[Matthew] has worked incredibly hard over the past two years and represented us with all the Chiefs’ values,” Sangy said, before imparting a cheeky message to the 18-year-old and his new organisation. “I wish him all the best in North America, but I can’t wait to beat him and Evil Geniuses at RLCS again.”

Li also revealed the quality of the Chiefs’ line-up had seen offers from international clubs come in before, but due to their lack of offered relocation the Oceanic team owner had waited for one that could see his star players flourish to their full potential.

“I think that Drip, being the player that he is and with his meteoric rise, would have caught the eyes of international clubs a while ago,” he said.

“I think myself, and the rest of the squad, always knew there was a possibility that he and anyone on the team would be a target for importing given the consecutive top level finishes at the World Championships, which is no mean feat for any team.”
Frank “Sangy” Li, Chiefs Founder

Sangy also echoed Drippay’s sentiments that many other players with the Oceanic region could make the league swap that Den-Kaat has made in 2019.

“I believe there are several players from the region that have the talent to compete overseas, chief among them being our lads Torsos and Kamii, as well as the Tainted Minds squad who have had several close encounters but could never quite seal that first win,” he said.

“That being said, Drip was a special case and has put up the most MVP performances on the world stage, so I think it’s not a surprise he was picked up and that would have been an easy decision [for Evil Geniuses]. From my knowledge G2 Esports, who picked up Chicago from Evil Geniuses, were considering Drippay as an alternative option too.”

Despite the obvious allure of creating world-class talent that can join the highest ranks in Rocket League, Sangy also admitted he would like to see the Oceanic region become a league players may not want to leave immediately, even if it will take a long time.

“I’ve always been a proponent of retaining local talent, and wanting Oceanic competition to be the best it can be, but I also don’t kid myself that playing in a major region is a huge opportunity for development, exposure and to earn a shit-ton more money,” the Chiefs owner said.

“The goal is obviously to work hard until [perceptions of Oceania] change, but that will take several years, and we will never fully get to a point where we can match them. We can only hope to build the Oceanic esports profile to a point where the decision to transfer to another region is not as easy.”

The Chiefs Esports Club recently announced their replacement for Drippay in the form of former Order young gun Aidan “ZeN” Hui, a youngster that downed the Chiefs’ roster in the 2018 Elite Series Season 1 semi-finals.

The Chiefs, now equipped with the roster of ZeN, Kamii and veteran commander Torsos, will compete in the seventh season of the Rocket League Championship Series, when it returns later in 2019.

Drippay recently kicked off his career with Evil Geniuses with a third place finish at the DreamHack Pro Circuit Leipzig 2019 Closed Qualifiers, missing out on a seeded place at the event behind Bread and Ghost Gaming in the North American bracket.

The organisation will still compete in the German-based event through open sign-ups. The first matches at the major will be played from Friday, February 15, and you can tune in to watch Drippay’s games at twitch.tv/dreamhackrocketleague.

The North American Rocket League Championship Series’ Spring season is slated to begin on Saturday, March 30.

You can follow Drippay, Sangy, Chiefs & Evil Geniuses on Twitter.

]]> Snowball Esports: 2018 in Review https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/12/30/snowball-esports-2018-in-review/ Sun, 30 Dec 2018 05:22:24 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=4852

This site was named after what a lot of people consider to be one of the ideal ways to win in League of Legends – eke out a small advantage and snowball your lead to victory. Never did I envisage our journey as a content platform following a similar path.

Esports is a strange place. It’s an industry that has such a large global exposure but is simultaneously in its infancy. I know that term is thrown around quite a lot especially in a region like ours, but the reality is the region is still developing platforms outside of viewing esports.

How close are we to getting player agents, how close are we to a players union, when will we see commercial broadcast rights? These are crucial services that take a serious amount of investment and time to establish, but we’ll get there.

The legacy.snowballesports.com site, 2018 (colourised).

Snowball was born out of frustration due to a lack of content relating to the offseason changes in the OPL heading into the 2018 season. Just two mates, an off the cuff blog on a bare bones WordPress site, and many opinions. After all, both of us had close ties to the Oceania League of Legends scene.

In the span of less than 12 months, that small blog between two mates now covers three esports and one major tournament – three of them with regular content cycles. Snowball now has 20+ team members regularly developing content for us, a sleek website and 2019 is set to be even bigger.

However, 2019 can only get bigger for us by the effort put in by all of our hard working contributors in 2018. Inero’s Pick 6 was the first post to make the front page of Reddit, generating over 10,000 hits.

We took the leap into Overwatch – thanks to our now Overwatch Content Lead Andrew Amos’ constant pestering – leading us to cover two international events.

We had one of the largest media representations at the inaugural Melbourne Esports Open, with six contributors covering three different games over the two day festival. We also appeared at Rift Rivals, the University Esports League finals, League of Origin and Supanova Brisbane.

But there’s always a strive to better and make the snowball smoother, faster, and bigger.

In 2019 we’re going to diversify our content platforms, you’ll be seeing us a lot more on Twitch and YouTube. While we love written content and it will always be at Snowball’s core, there’s a high chance a lot of our readers also watch the likes of Thoorin and Travis Gafford, and we want to fill that void in the oceanic region, so we will look at expanding into video content.

We spent the latter part of this year adding the Gfinity Elite Series to our regular coverage schedule, and from that we are looking forward to branching out into more CS:GO and other game coverage.

The OPL Roster Tracker was the biggest single undertaking of 2018 for the team.

It’s also time for us to start working better together. Everyone in the region has been incredibly supportive of our work but we want to push the boundaries of esports content together. We’ve started this in our collaboration with Riot Games, getting the OPL Roster Tracker off the ground and even having it and other OPL content featured in the League of Legends game client.

However, if you are a publisher, team, tournament organiser – anyone involved in esports in Oceania – let’s collaborate. If there is content you need help building, let’s open the conversation. We depend so much on your rights and players, allow us the chance to give more back.

Of course, there is the elephant in the room – the strain in any organisation’s running – financials. Snowball currently has no other revenue than our loyal and valued patrons on Patreon. Building this out will be a major focus in 2019.

We’re hoping by working closer with key stakeholders and producing more quality content across multiple platforms that we will be in a position to further grow and support our community through this next year.

Last of all, but most importantly, I have to thank all of you – the readers – for interacting with our content. It’s what drives us to do better day by day.

We are extremely open at Snowball Esports, and if you would like to become more involved please let us know – we have no shortage of opportunities. This can range from content creators, to marketers, established business people looking to mentor our project or even tournament organisers needing experience.

On behalf of the staff and our team of contributors, thank you for joining us for the ride thus far, we hope you’ll stay with us as we look forward to another year of producing great content for the Oceanic region.

Follow us on Twitter and other socials for the latest updates and content releases. If you’d like to support us further, consider checking out our Patreon for more ways to get involved, exclusive perks and more!

]]> Gfinity Elite Series Australia: Rocket League Grand Final Recap https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/12/30/gfinity-elite-series-australia-rl-grand-final-recap/ Sun, 30 Dec 2018 02:43:47 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=4835

With the two best teams in Australian Rocket League pitted against each other in the Gfinity Elite Series Final, the aggressive Sydney Roar and the methodical Sydney Chiefs gave us an enthralling match right down to the last touch.

In the regular season, the Roar were able to get over the Chiefs in relatively surprising fashion in a 3-0 sweep, with the top four in the world team only scoring three goals against Oceania’s second seed in a convincing loss.

Looking to redeem themselves for that loss in Week 4, the full strength Chiefs held no punches against the Roar. While the Roar was putting on the pressure early, it was Kamii who drew first blood after just over two minutes in Game 1.

While Roar were up 2-1 in the final minute of Game 1, Torsos beat Shadey and CJCJ in the air to force overtime, before taking advantage of an infield clear by Express to seal the deal. However, the game could very much have been a blowout right from the start had Express not put in the defensive yards, racking up five saves alone in the first game.

Game 2 was slightly more convincing form the Chiefs, who were looking to make this a quick 4-0. Drippay slid past the exposed Roar into an empty net to open up the account, before Torsos set up Kamii to double the lead.

CJCJ brought it back to a one-goal game, but in their attempts to equalise in the final minute, their overcommitment cost them with Drippay sealing Game 2 3-1.

After the break though, a much more composed Roar appeared. While they were still pressing and making aggressive plays, they weren’t exposing their goal as much, and it paid off with CJCJ scoring the first goal of Game 3.

From there, CJCJ shot a bullet into the top left after Express centered the ball to double the lead, before Shadey slipped a neat goal under the jumping Kamii to extend the lead to three. Torsos shot off the roof to try and get Chiefs back in the game, but Roar kept the pressure on and broke the Chiefs 4-2 to bring back one game in the series.

Motivated by the loss, Chiefs came out all guns blazing in Game 4. Drippay went from goal line to goal line in a brilliant solo effort to start the game just 22 seconds in, before Torsos and Kamii sealed the deal with just over a minute remaining. Both teams put in miraculous defensive efforts in Game 4, but it was Chiefs who prevailed with the first clean sheet of the series 3-0.

Now on tournament point, Roar had nothing to lose. Looking to get the first goal on the board once again, CJCJ took Express’ pass down the line and angled it beautifully into the bottom right to get the first, before Torsos once again cut off a Roar clear, allowing Kamii to swoop over the two defenders and equalise with 42 seconds to go.

In overtime though, it was a different result to Game 1, with CJCJ swiftly sliding behind the Chiefs defense to take the game after a missed clearance 2-1.

Just like Game 4 though, Game 6 saw the fire lit in Chiefs’ belly once again, forcing the Roar into a scrambling defense from the get-go and never allowing the underdogs to settle. Torsos opened scoring just after one minute, but Express beat Drippay in a neat 1-on-1 to bring us a leveled game.

It wasn’t enough to bring us to a Game 7 though, as Drippay got one back on Roar before a stalwart defense denied any semblance of a comeback, with the Chiefs taking Game 6 2-1 and the series 4-2.

The Gfinity Elite Series will return in 2019 for Season 3, where champions Sydney Chiefs will be looking to retain their title of Rocket League Champions against some of the best talent Australia has to offer.

]]> Gfinity Elite Series Australia: Rocket League Semi Finals Recap https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/12/16/gfinity-elite-series-australia-rl-semi-finals-recap/ Sat, 15 Dec 2018 22:12:29 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=4735

With one team seeking revenge, another looking to defend their unlikely title and two new challengers stepping up to the plate, this week’s Gfinity Elite Series Rocket League playoffs saw some teams live up to expectations while others fell short of triumph.

With the Sydney Chiefs bringing their main roster back after their ELEAGUE Cup run, everything was at stake for the team who this time last season lost their first Australian LAN in over two years. Going up against young guns and top-seeded Brisbane Deceptors, led by ex-Chiefs player Jake, they looked determined to make sure they booked their rightful place in the final.

The game started out slowly, with Chiefs getting the first break with 28 seconds left on the clock in Game 1. While Jake was able to secure overtime with a great solo effort, Torsos finished off the Deceptors to take the lead in the series.

After a dominant Game 2 saw the Chiefs in the lead at the first break, the Deceptors struck back in Game 3 in a back-and-forth affair. While Torsos and Kamii played off each other for the Chiefs, SSteve and Jake were finding innovative angles to strike back at the veteran roster.

With overtime on the horizon and scores locked at 2-2, SSteve snuck behind the Chiefs defence to set up Jake off the backboard to claim the victory for Brisbane, who were looking to make their resurgence in the series.

It was short-lived glory though for the playoffs rookies. Game 4 saw SSteve make some miraculous saves on the goal line but it wasn’t enough to keep Brisbane in the game, while Game 5 saw Chiefs keep a clean sheet as they drove all over the defeated Brisbane.

The currently “fourth best team in the world” claimed a 4-1 series victory and booked their first Gfinity Elite Series finals appearance against the winner of crosstown rivals Sydney ROAR, and last season’s victors Melbourne ORDER.


The second-seeded ROAR took no time at all to get a headstart over third-seeded ORDER, scoring in the first two minutes of Game 1 after great synergy between Express and Shadey. While Julz snuck one in to take it to overtime, Express was able to punish the aggressive ORDER to give the ROAR the early lead.

ORDER looked to close the gap in Game 2, going blow-for-blow with the ROAR, but great passing pressure created by the ROAR saw another game slip by the champion’s fingers in the dying moments. It was a similar story again in Game 3, this time with CJCJ topping it off with a fancy air dribble as ROAR looked to sweep ORDER.

Game 4 saw ROAR dig the grave of ORDER with brilliant mind games to set up a goal for Shadey, who looked to pass but instead took it himself off the backboard to give the ROAR a 2-0 lead in the game.

ORDER dug their heels in with some superb defensive efforts, and while Julz got a consolidation goal, it wasn’t enough to take the game as the ROAR secured their first ever finals appearance in any game 4-0.

With a Sydney v Sydney rivalry heading up the finals of the Gfinity Elite Series Rocket League, this is one game you won’t want to miss. Six of the most talented players – all of whom have played in RLCS LANs – will bring all the fireworks to the Hoyts Entertainment Quarter this Sunday.

The Gfinity Elite Series Finals continue on December 16 with Street Fighter V and Rocket League. Tune in on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to watch the games live. You can also head to gfinityesports.com.au for details on schedule and tickets.

]]> Gfinity Elite Series Australia: Week 5 Rocket League Recap https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/12/08/gfinity-elite-series-week5-recap-rl/ Sat, 08 Dec 2018 02:30:21 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=4382

Plenty was at stake in the final round of the regular Gfinity Elite Series regular season, and the Rocket League on offer did not disappoint.

With the Sydney Roar, Sydney Chiefs and the Brisbane Deceptors securing Top 4 spots after last week’s games, Melbourne ORDER and Perth Ground Zero were battling for that final spot in the playoffs and a shot at glory.

Sydney Roar and Brisbane Deceptors were only separated by one point heading into the final week, making the games between the two crucial for final seeding into playoffs. The winner was almost guaranteed first place, giving them a favourable match-up against the fourth seed for playoffs.

While they came in as the underdogs, the Deceptors set the Roar alight right off the bat in Game 1, with Jake opening up the scoring 55 seconds into the game, capitalising off Roar’s aggressive play. They continued to up the pressure in the back and forth affair, with the motto of “fighting fire with more fire” working out for the Deceptors as they took Game 1 3-2.

Game 2 was much the same, with Jake tagging in SSteve’s early crossbar miss at 29 seconds in. Another quick fire back from the Roar equalised the scores, while they extended their lead to 2-1 halfway through.

Not to be discouraged, the Deceptors kept the pressure up, breaking through after time had finished to force overtime, before cracking Roar’s armour again 3-2 with a great airshot from SSteve.

On match point, Roar finally opened the scoring on their account 18 seconds into the game, but once again Deceptors punched back quickly and the teams saw another 2-2 overtime. Brisbane kept the pressure high all series, culminating in a missed Roar clearance setting up the overtime winner for Brisbane as they swept the Roar with three 3-2’s.

The winless Melbourne Avant were looking to regain some pride, but were met with a shellacking at the hands of Ground Zero 6-1 in Game 1. Lim scored a hattrick as the Avant defense looked hapless at stopping the barrage of Ground Zero shots on their net.

Bango, however, had other ideas, looking to claw Avant back into the game and hopefully net their first points on the board for the season. With a neat popup to start up Game 2, as well as setting up Vive with a great pass, his efforts were in vain as Ground Zero again took the win 3-2, setting up match point for the Perth team.

Game 3 was much of the same story, with Bango scoring goals from impossible angles, but it wasn’t enough to net Avant a victory as they fell 3-0 to Ground Zero who were looking at claiming the final spot in playoffs off the back of an ORDER loss against Sydney Chiefs.

With the main roster of the Chiefs in Atlanta for the ELEAGUE Cup, the Chiefs had to field their draft roster of Kia, Requiem and Chance against the defending champions. ORDER came out firing in Game 1, capitalising on the chaotic style of defence put up by the Chiefs in a 4-1 victory.

Game 2 was much closer, with Kia managing to keep Chiefs in it with a late goal, but the meticulous passing play of ORDER completely over ran the aggresive playstyle of the Chiefs in another 2-1 victory.

With the extra point secured and playoffs locked in, ORDER looked to put the match to bed with a clean sheet, and they did exactly that with a 2-0 victory in Game 3. Dumbo found himself in front of an open net early, while ORDER took the ball back to the middle and then picked apart Chiefs again for two early, unassailable goals.

Source: @GfinityAU on Twitter.

With the results this week, Brisbane Deceptors find themselves on top and booking a date with the Sydney Chiefs hot off their ELEAGUE run in Atlanta, while their cross-town Rivals will be taking on defending champions Melbourne ORDER in the other semi-final.

The Gfinity Elite Series returns with Street Fighter V and Rocket League this Sunday. Tune in on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to watch every game live. Head to gfinityesports.com.au for details on schedule and tickets.

]]> Gfinity Elite Series Australia: Week 4 Rocket League Recap https://legacy.snowballesports.com/2018/11/30/gfinity-elite-series-week4-recap-rl/ Fri, 30 Nov 2018 01:00:17 +0000 https://snowballesports.com/?p=4107

With each team only having two games left to lock in their spot in the Top 4 and the playoffs, every shot, every missed opportunity and every goal could have massive consequences on who we see lifting the trophy in just a few weeks time.

The Chiefs were sitting pretty at the top of the table, undefeated after taking down the Brisbane Deceptors the previous week, while it was the Sydney Roar and the aforementioned Deceptors nipping at their heels in the standings.

It was derby week, and our first match was for the title of best team in Victoria as ORDER suited up to do battle against Avant. For ORDER, they could put their destiny in their own hands with a win here as going 2-2, one win above Ground Zero, meant that while GZ were expected to beat Avant, ORDER could lock their playoff spot by taking down the Chiefs.

Avant had failed to win a series, and had failed to win a game since Week 1 after being thumped by both the Chiefs and the Roar in Weeks two and three respectively. They needed this win here to go into their match against Ground Zero with a playoff spot on the line, if they won, the speculative results would favour them moving on.

But it was ORDER that drew first blood in the derby, taking away the first game 2-1 on DFH Stadium and immediately putting their Melbournian counterparts on the back foot. They followed it up with another drubbing on Mannfield, going 2-0 up in the series with a 5-2 scoreline.

Avant really needed the win here to keep any chance of a playoff spot alive, and they found it on Mannfield again with a 2-1 victory, forcing it to Game 4 and prolonging defeat for at least another round. The fourth game on Champions Field was close, and five minutes regulation passed with a 2-2 draw, but overtime was where ORDER shattered Avant’s dreams as they put one away to win 3-2 and the series 3-1.

Avant had now been eliminated from playoff contention, but our next team also needed a win to give themselves a chance to advance. Perth Ground Zero had only managed one win against the sub-strength Roar but could tie it up with ORDER with a win over the Deceptors before they played the win-less Avant in the final week.

The first game was a goalfest as the Deceptors put in six goals on DFH Stadium, with Ground Zero putting in three of their own in an effort that would have put them in the running for a win in most other games. Game 2 was a bit quieter, as Ground Zero put an early goal in before the Deceptors put in three of their own on Mannfield to move to match point.

A single loss from almost certain elimination, it was time for Ground Zero to try and step up to take the win, but it was just too much as the Deceptors netted two goals to one to keep themselves in contention for that top spot and sent Ground Zero to just above it as they now needed to win against Avant and have other results go their way to make it to the finals.

Our last series of the day was the Sydney derby between the Roar and the Chiefs, and with both teams back to their full strength and their first clash since Throwdown’s RLOC finals, it was sure to be an absolute blinder. The Chiefs were undefeated until now and could lock a playoff spot with a win here, while the Roar were looking to break out of the cluster of teams in the middle of the pack.

For what had been built up as an epic end to the day’s play, it felt relatively anticlimactic. The first game on DFH Stadium, the Roar came away with three goals to the Chiefs’ one and the victory to boot. They followed it up again with a close 1-0 game, but it was still enough to go two up in the series.

A last chance hurrah didn’t eventuate for the competition leaders as their two goals on Mannfield were outpaced by the Roar’s three and they fell to their first loss of the competition with just a week’s play to go.

Source: @GfinityAU on Twitter.

It remains to be seen who will emerge this week as our regular season champions and who will make it from the clump at the bottom of the leaderboard.

The Gfinity Elite Series returns with Street Fighter V and Rocket League this Sunday. Tune in on Twitch, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook to watch every game live. Head to gfinityesports.com.au for details on schedule and tickets.

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