The last minute resurrection of The Last Resort in the dying days of ETF2L Season 16's signup period was a pleasant surprise. In the midst of perhaps the greatest upheaval and influx of new teams and talent in the Premiership's history, a band of familiar faces returned from a two season hiatus.
Once the poster boys for underdogs throughout Europe, the then-NITROSE sextet, fuelled by a strong showing at Insomnia 46, produced a noteworthy Season 13 Premiership debut. Finishing 3rd in main season before falling at the first hurdle in playoffs; the quintessential dark horses -- Black Beauty wouldn't even be in it -- were not to resurface until a few weeks ago.
As is often the case, the full complement of players from that original roster was not available, so augmentations had to be made. The absent droso and Traxantic were replaced under fortuitous circumstances as Kiler4fun and kalhó rebounded from the pre-season collapse of Haunter's all-Portuguese team in to the arms of HYS to complete The Last Resort's Season 16 application.
Having barely clawed their way back in to the Premiership via a narrow double Golden Cap victory over Fenneks eSports in the qualifiers, the roster was beset by further issues as pocket soldier Cyber fell victim to the lottery that is university halls' internet connections. He had lucked out with an unplayable setup, but Haunter lucked in with a golden opportunity to compete once more in the top flight.
No strangers to upsets, they caused a stir in their first official, earning a draw against the number two seed, willy wonkas chocolate factory (née Team Infused); frustrating their opposition to take Gullywash 5-2 after faltering earlier 3-5 on Granary. Certainly encouraging signs for a rejuvenated squad, but the wheels would come off once more before their second fixture was ever played.
Real life had been looming large on the horizon for dONut even in the pre-season, but he had decided to try to perform a balancing act, keeping plates spinning for his various commitments, not least his intensive training schedules for both sport and eSports. These two in particular often clashed and in the end the French scout (and frequent spy!) had to step back.
His departure does not seem to have been entirely amicable, furthermore, it was to be the backdrop for the most wickedly delicious part of our gossip-laden tale. As it happens an undercurrent had been running through the teams practice results, which despite being good on the whole, were still felt to be lacking in one department by their brazen leader, HYS -- Haunter's stats.
Apparently, when questioned on his damage output and whether he could raise his game aim-wise, the legendary Portuguese pocket's response was simply to de-tag and leave the roster without saying a word. Whether this was a lack of tact on the part of HYS or a case of Haunter throwing a strop remains to be seen, but the logs I have seen do seem to ask questions; an average of 235 DPM over the seven maps I managed to dig up is not particularly impressive by Premiership standards.
Haunter's take on events was simply that he had trialled for a week, joined and then after another week HYS had asked him if he would consider a backup spot, which prompted him to leave. When I pressed him on his performances he pointed out that his level of play had not changed from the trial period in which he had proven successful. Could it just be HYS at his ruthless, slippery best? I still can't decide, but an ambitious leader he most certainly is.
Prior to his departure, Haunter had also been considered as a scout replacement for dONut, but by subtracting himself from the equation, adept scout/sniper, Rake, was able to secure the second scout spot in the squad. As I see it the Finn is an adequate replacement, but initially at least I might expect The Last Resort to miss Gallic flair that had dug them out of many holes in the past.
Seemingly flustered by the possible demise of his team and with ETF2L fixtures fast approaching, HYS also picked up Spary on demoman and attempted to fulfil the pocket soldier duties himself. Initial results were not so promising, but as it happened old hand, Traxantic, made a cameo appearance on roamer for the official against Evokate Gaming, which neatly avoided any live stream soldier embarrassment for HYS.
They took the full six points from Metalworks and Process against the disorganised Frenchmen, but the question remained; "Who will pocket?!" Enter stage left a young Swiss demoman by the name of Nadir who has proven himself more than capable of putting big numbers in recent months, both in his time with Team Colonslash in ETF2L's Division 2 and later through a voracious appetite for pickups.
In fact, it was in pickups and mixes that he began to hone his soldier skills and developed an aggressive, take-no-prisoners style that seems to have got him noticed. As it stands kalhó has switched to pocket with Nadir joining the roster as roamer and making his Premiership debut on a class he is not exactly experienced on. Some may see this as a bit of a gamble, but HYS felt that since his options for a tried-and-test pocket were poor he would take the opportunity to give some promising talent a chance to breakthrough.
Nadir himself informed me that he was a little scared of the step up in division, yet he must be confident that he can rise to challenge as it was actually he who approach The Last Resort and put himself forward. So that's where we find ourselves as of now. All eyes on the first Swiss player to grace the Premiership... bonne chance!