When European team SVIFT announced they would be fielding a North American team for ESEA Invite Season 26 under the SVIFT NA banner, there was excitement not just because there was another cross-continental team after Ascent announced a new roster under the Ascent.EU banner. But because scout Thaigrr would play for both the European and North American teams.
While Thaigrr was able to deliver a strong performance in North America despite ping disadvantage, the same could not be said for timezone disadvantage, sleeping through his 4 AM alarm multiple times. This eventually brought the team to search for other players who would be awake during match time. Consequently, Thaigrr will be rotating from starter to substitute for SVIFT NA, but will continue to play for SVIFT as their main scout.
With the British scout now able to sleep without worry of missing scrims or official matches, highfive will be moving to the scout spot formerly occupied by Thaigrr, leaving the team with a pocket soldier spot that would be occupied by former Gnomercy soldier marmadukeGRYLLS.
Rise and shine! It’s marmadukeGRYLLS, wide awake and ready to play. (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix and Jasmine "Jasbutts" Ho)
Thaigrr has been a proficient player in the European region, most notable during ETF2L Season 27 when he had been picked up by Arctic Foxes and helped cement their 1st Place victory against Se7en. For ETF2L Season 28 and ESEA Invite Season 26, he was a starter for SVIFT as well as a starter for SVIFT NA respectively, making him the second non-North American scout to play in ESEA Invite since yuki in Season 14 with The Runaway 5.
marmadukeGRYLLS has also been notable in the North American player base. The soldier player fielded his team Gnomercy through ESEA Season 25, and with them secured 3rd Place after being knocked out by Ascent in the lower-bracket finals. Within the year, he has played with Legalize Ranch in Season 24, and competed with Street Hoops eSports at ESA Rewind 2017.
We attempted to reach out to Thaigrr for a statement, but he was still asleep. Roaming soldier garbuglio, who was awake, was able to give us a statement instead:
We're sad that Thaigrr had to step down but we understand considering the time of day he was expected to play, we've picked up marmaduke who is a very good soldier and moved highfive back to scout, and now with a consistent roster we are hoping to start improving a lot faster.
With a full North American lineup, SVIFT NA is now:
- Scout: highfive
- Scout: slemnish
- Roamer: garbuglio
- Pocket: marmadukeGRYLLS
- Demoman: delpo
- Medic: phorofor