While the name SVIFT is certainly a familiar sight, this latest iteration is a completely new creation. With more than a dozen Premiership gold medals amongst the whole roster, as well as some of the hottest NA talent, one could assume that they are clear-cut title contenders. And while they well may be, this squad got built to only play officials. While their status as a team capable of a real challenge for first place remains to be proven, their star-studded side will surely be enough to entertain.
The Scout pair will be entirely American, with slemnish and jayhyunpae representing the other side of the pond. The average European viewer will mainly remember these two as key members of the Ascent squad that took second place at Insomnia65, but the yank duo have been around for quite a while.
slemnish is definitively the most experienced of the two, with him formerly being a core member of both EVL Gaming and Ascent, having reached second place six times back in ESEA days, as well as winning a bronze medal with Meat Market during RGL’s first season.
jayhyunpae made his Invite debut with black swan and played the last two seasons of ESEA with Ascent, but recently had a Scout awakening, getting second place with 100 Beasts while playing as the bashful Bostonian during RGL S2. He will be returning to his Soldier roots domestically however, with froyotech's sudden recruitment of the player to fill in the shoes of yomps.
nubbi only started playing in Prem last season, but made quite an impact already. Finishing second with 6ix, he reaped the “Prem debut of the season” award with 75% of the votes and grabbed the "Roamer of the season" spot as well, the latter award being helped by an impressive Market Gardener kill against the Frenchies. He’ll be surely looking to prove that he can hang with his more experienced peers, and to further build on top of his impressive first season.
Resident PugChamp overlord nas boii will be on his signature role of Demoman. While he is best known for his skills in a pick-up game setting — with over 2500 games played on PugChamp (and somehow winning ETF2L’s fresh meat cup twice) — recent forays into Premiership, most recently with wer das liest ist doof, but also with The Bus Crew, showed his ability on the biggest stage too.
Team leader nas boii retraced how his team came to light, and pondered about their chances against keener opposition:
We had issues with our original roster, which was supposed to be jay and slem on scout, ever_x on pocket, nubbi roaming, me on demo and ace med. Sadly, it just didn't really work out, so me and nubbi just made a team with top prem/invite players that didn't wanna scrim but could be down to play an official a week.
We’d expect to finish around top 3 but seeing as we are not scrimming that might be a stretch.
We have a really good roster with DM monsters but how far can that take you without actually practicing and watching demos ?
Finally, seeds will be making his return on the Medic class. The English Medic rose straight to the top when Se7en picked him up from Div 2 back in Season 29 and has remained on the podium in every Premiership season following. The Pocket Soldier slot will be divided between papi, kaptain, and Thaigrr depending on their availability on each Thursday. Thaigrr is mainly known for his beastly scout playstyle, but he got his start in the top-flight on this specific class and it’ll be interesting to see him comeback to it. papi used to form a devastating combo with seeds, and I do not have enough words to describe how good kaptain really is, so watch Beater's Kaptain Legacy instead.
Everyone knew that they were trouble when they walked in, SVIFT is :
- Scout: slemnish
- Scout: jayhyunpae
- Roamer: nubbi
- Pocket: papi / Thaigrr / kaptain
- Demoman: nas boii
- Medic: seeds