But despite this fall, each of Gambit ’ s members have contributed innovations to the playbook of competitive League of Legends that still stand today. And while Darien, DiamondProx, Alex Ich, Genja and Edward have all met unfavorable meta ’ mho, the impact they left on the Rift conserve to this day.
Darien – “ Feed to win ”
Darien ’ s aggressive philosophy in the circus tent lane has been immortalized by the community ’ sulfur “ feed to win ” meme. But while memes are cunning, it ’ s amiss to attribute Gambit ’ s success to some screen of talismanic ability. alternatively, a fit champion pool and expert laning jumper cable to the massive amount of pressure Darien brought to his team. His favorite champions, Shen, Renekton, Warwick, and Shyvana, were all resilient picks with eminent amounts of base damage. such picks, bolstered by a skilled laning phase, allowed Darien to play incredibly ahead in the lane, threatening multiple top towers if left to his own devices. The Moscow Five top laner ’ s play was so oppressive in Season 2 that, Kev1n, former SK Gaming top laner, decided try function swapping to both Mid and AD sol that he wouldn ’ t have to play against Darien anymore. This combination of colossal skill with a slippery champion consortium, forced teams to send multiple opponents to Darien ’ s lane, leaving his russian teammates free to their own devices. however, Darien ’ s playstyle became much less effective as the top lane became less of an island in belated seasons. As Teleport replaced Ignite as the most democratic top lane summoner spell, Darien ’ s ability to isolate and devastate his lane opposition became much less important. After a poor craft, enemy laners could simply Teleport back into lane. Teleport besides made it much easier for teams to respond to Darien ’ s top lane pressure – nullifying his greatest strength. This inability to draw pressure was exacerbated as Darien became ill-famed for hapless play around Teleport. not only would he misused his own Teleport ; but he would besides neglect to time his opposition ’ randomness, as detailed by, his back, Edward on Summoning Insight. however, Darien ’ s aggressive baiting playstyle lives on, if in a change form. Although most players will silent attempt to pressure the map, only a few do so with the like recklessness and single-minded focus of Darien. evening during his career, other aggressive players would attempt to imitate his use of slippery champions to draw blackmail off from their teammates, most notably Season 4 karat Bullets, peak laner, inSec. In the modern day, Immortals ’ top laner, Huni, is able to find unprecedented regular season success in both Europe and North America by aggressively attacking his lane opponents with highly mobile glass cannon champions – possibly the lifelike development of Darien ’ s playstyle. Diamondprox – “ In reality, the wholly mind of counter-jungling is mine ”
Whereas Darien ’ s approach to LoL has only remained in a recess form, Diamondprox ’ s jungling tactics have pervaded advanced League of Legends. even during Gambit ’ second brief nadir in Season 3, after Edward left the team for Curse, Diamondprox was silent regarded as one of the best junglers in the world. In interviews leading up to the Season 3 World Championships, DanDy, KaKAO, and inSec all listed Diamondprox as one of their top 3 junglers in the universe, with the latter two citing him as a key inspiration. tied after the profligacy of the original Gambit lineup, there was continued excitation for Diamondprox ’ s Season 5 performance on Gambit and abbreviated Season 6 stretch on Unicorns of Love. While Diamondprox is best known for counter-jungling, what made him particular as a jungler was his complete mastery the place. His ability to systematically convert ganks in mid lane for Alex Ich deserved the leo ’ s share of the credit for the lineup ’ south achiever. This approach was by and by adapted as the primary tactic of both European and Korean sides in Season 3, climaxing in the “ pressure jungler + assassin meta ” of the World Championship. In summation to ganking, Diamondprox ’ s ability to counter-jungle his opponents provided Moscow Five with many skirmish opportunities. The wind terrain of the jungle was the perfective localization for M5 ’ s aggressive “ pile-on ” style. The team could either easily pick off a sprawling opponents, or take advantage of the a force foe grouping to start one of their signature AoE teamfights. many of these strategies remain cardinal to modern jungle concentrate teams, like Cloud9.
It ’ second been said by many of the world ’ s crown junglers, but it bares repeating. Diamondprox transformed the hobo camp military position. What once was a passive, farm, support-oriented position lead direction to a place for aggressive playmaking and early game control. Unlike early members of M5, Diamondprox wasn ’ triiodothyronine brought down by meta shifts, or fundamental changes in the game. It was alternatively visa issues which sent the kind of the jungle to the rival picture. While Diamondprox may not be presently playing in the LCS, his playmaking stylus can still be seen in about every game of competitive League of Legends. Alex Ich – “ See hero, kill hero ”
“ See hero, kill hero ” became the motto for all of Gambit Gaming. however, the playing period of their star mid laner and master, Alex Ich, particularly epitomized this mantra. If there was one defining characteristic to Alex Ich ’ second playstyle, it was his desire to lead his team by engaging or starting nibble sequences from the mid lane, and his ability to identify champions absolutely suited for the tasks. Unlike his counterparts Froggen and xPeke, Alex was never known for a specific kind of ace. preferably, he was known for innovating meta breaking picks such as Galio, Evelynn, and Kha ’ Zix.
Although most of the champions that Alex pioneered during his prime were nerfed into the ground concisely after he played them, the core rationale of his playstyle, picking off an foe supporter, and setting off a office play for his team, became the defining characteristic of the Season 3 metagame and remains a key separate of competitive League to this day. unfortunately, since diving into the rival view with the doomed 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas lineup Alex ’ s overall gameplay level has not reached the consistency of his glory days. Fans have speculated that the charge of fatherhood or his doomed switch to the top lane in Season 4 were what knocked Alex off of his game, but it ’ s possible that it was simply impossible for Alex to stay ahead of the populace forever. Alex has been unable to stay ahead of the meta by innovating raw picks, as he did in his flower. This is probably because of the aforesaid inflow of analysts and professional players into the scene. In addition, hungry young players such as Febiven and PowerofEvil have arisen to lead a new coevals of european mid lane stars. a clever as one homo can be, there ’ s not a lot he can do when the worldly concern is standing against him. Genja – “ Give Gambit a finger and they will take an arm ”
Although Genja is best known for his advanced builds, his greatest contribution to Gambit was his dependable gameplay and survivability. Due to Gambit ’ s forward nature, Genja was often led to fend for himself. Despite this, he was inactive expected to output the usual total of AD Carry wrong in teamfights in order for Gambit to win games. After a successful fight, because Genja was able to survive, his high AD allowed the team to well take multiple towers. If Gambit lost the fight, Genja ’ south lapp high AD builds meant that he could successfully stave off the enemy push with wave pass. Although these builds were much mocked, they much made common sense in the context of his character on Gambit. One of the greatest fallacies of LoL discussion is to compare passive backline players to Genja. The majority of “ clean-up ” ADC players today are much more like to players like Cop or Chaox than to Genja. Chaox and Cop hush built ceremonious AD build and focused on outputting DPS. Genja, for much of his career, preferred to focus on poke-centric builds, sometimes even standing a entire screen away from the actual teamfight. Unlike the other Gambit members, it ’ randomness hard to argue that these innovations made a persistent shock on the game. Some of Genja ’ s celebrated “ predictive ” builds, such as Trinity Force Kog ’ Maw, only came into prominence after repeated changes to the meta. other times, Genja ’ south innovations, such as Wriggle ’ s Lantern on ADC, were sol broken that they were immediately changed. Near the end of his career, Genja ’ s build up paths often hurt his team preferably than helped, such as his habit of Zephyr in set of last Whisper. Genja ’ s precipitation seemed to come in a unlike form than the other Gambit players. Near the end of his career, he still boasted top-tier mechanics, and was able to carry Gambit into a favorable relegation spot with a 4-0 close up to his season. however, statements made by Genja, insinuated that Genja ’ s enjoyment for the bet on had declined ascribable to a lack of opportunities to innovate, and the eccentric ace bowed out of competitive play. Edward – “ I am a subscribe carry ”
much like Diamondprox, Edward ’ s innovations to the support function continue to pervade into the modern crippled. Although the majority of credit for support invention in Season 2 is rightfully given to, Azubu Frost support, MadLife, several players have spoken on the impact Edward provided to competitive LoL. In his second Grilled interview with Thorin, CLG AD Carry Doublelift, an extremely dominant lane phase player in his own right, expressed his astonishment at Edward ’ s aggressive laning phase. Pointing out how Edward eschewed Exhaust for Ignite and started with natural stats through Ruby Crystal rather than potions or wards, Doublelift claimed that Genja did nothing in the laning phase and that Edward had simply “ 2v1d ” him and his bot lane partner, well-respected laning support Chauster. Edward ’ s preference of Ignite over Exhaust became his authentication and has been adopted by many subscribe players to this day. In summation, his ability to outright lease from the corroborate position in hurt of the position ’ s reduced aureate resources in Seasons 2 and 3 earned the respect of fellow european support Krepo. In the modern game, betroth and nibble plays from the support position is a staple of the game. What seemed to bring down Edward was the gold changes to support in Season 5, turning the status into a a lot sturdier stead. Never the greatest warder, Edward ’ s ability to repeatedly make plays on first gear gold income had however pushed him to the circus tent of support players around the world. When Season 4 first began, Edward was able to wholly dominant his opponents, even on seeming troll picks such as Amumu and Kennen. But when other supports began taking advantage of the increased gold generation, Edward ’ s greatest advantage went away and he was unable to properly use his position ’ mho increased income to support his team with warding. In Seasons 5 and 6, Edward remained a serviceable accompaniment, capable of the periodic atavistic game. But his game impact was hard diminished from his glory days in Seasons 2-4. however, it ’ s undeniable that Edward ’ s aggressive insight transformed the patronize status. Gambit played the game in a way that was far ahead of its time in Seasons 2 and 3, and their invention is reflected in the widespread prevalence of their strategies in advanced LoL. Diamondprox and Edward popularized aggressive forms of jungling and digest play respectively. Alex Ich ’ s initiation and all-around play set an model for future mid laners to follow, and his desire to lead his team led to an early form of woof compositions. Although Darien and Genja ’ s unique playstyles have rarely been imitated, their use of map coerce and objective control are crucial for any team to succeed. however, a team built on individual invention and an natural feel for the bet on wasn ’ thyroxine able to stay ahead of the analytic approach forever. When Alex Ich left Gambit, the team fell from their esteemed perch as a top team in western LoL. With this former captain ’ mho relegation by the hands of Apex, no Gambit members remain in the LCS. There will never be another Gambit ; but there will besides never be another team that doesn ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate use the principles and strategies that Darien, Diamondprox, Alex Ich, Genja and Edward established.
Photo credits to The Daily Dot, Gambit Gaming, lolesports