GAM Esports
| File:GIGABYTE Marines logo.png | |
| Short name | GAM |
|---|---|
| Game | League of Legends |
| Founded | May 2014 |
| Location | Vietnam |
| Owner | Đặng "Wil" Tuấn Linh |
| Managing director | Nguyễn "Izumin" Khánh Hiệp |
| Head coach | Phan "JackieWind" Huy Phong |
| Manager | Tô "Fakie" Đông Pha |
| Main sponsor |
|
| Website | gam |
GAM Esports (formerly known as the GIGABYTE Marines, the Boba Marines, and Team Miracle) is a professional League of Legends team competing in the Vietnam Championship Series (VCS), the highest level of competitive League of Legends in Vietnam. The team first rose to international prominence in 2017, after their exceptional performance in that year's Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).[1]
History[edit]
2014[edit]
The team was founded in May 2014 after companies Tt Esports and Boba Net began a sponsorship with Team Miracle, which renamed to the Boba Marines five months later. During the 2014 VCS Summer Split, the team played as Tt Miracle Boba and finished the split in eight place with a 3–4 record. However, they were able to avoid relegation after the addition of former Saigon Jokers support and World Championship participant Junie.
2015[edit]
For the 2015 season, Archie, GoNy, and QTV rejoined their former teammates after leaving the Saigon Jokers, and the team renamed to the Boba Marines. The Marines failed to qualify for the spring split of the 2015 Garena Pro League (GPL), but did qualify for the summer split after finishing third in the 2015 VCS Spring Split. During the mid-season, the Marines replaced their mid laner Navy with Optimus from Saigon Fantastic Five. Despite showing improvement and winning the 2015 VCS Summer Split, the Marines were unable to win the 2015 GPL Summer Split.
2016[edit]
In 2016, the Marines finished third in the 2016 VCS Spring Split and fourth in the 2016 Mountain Dew Championship Series Summer Split (MDCS; i.e. VCS). The GPL also changed their qualification guidelines so that only champions of regional SEA tournaments could participate, meaning the Marines were unable to participate in GPL 2016.
2017[edit]
Before the 2017 season, the Marines' management made the decision to release their entire roster excluding Optimus and Archie. Afterwards, star players Ren, Levi, Slay, and Sergh joined the Marines as top, jungle, AD carry, and substitute support respectively. Tinikun also joined as head coach. The team received new sponsors, Gigabyte Technology and Adonis Icyber Gaming, and renamed to Marine Esports. As the GIGABYTE Marines, the team won the 2017 MDCS Spring Split and the 2017 GPL Spring Split without losing a single game, qualifying them for the 2017 Mid-Season Invitational (MSI).
At MSI 2017, the Marines finished the first round of the play-in group stage with a 5–1 record, only losing to Virtus.pro. In the second round, the Marines won the first two games of a best-of-five against Team SoloMid, before being reverse swept and losing 2–3. In the third and last qualifying round, the Marines beat SuperMassive eSports 3–1 to secure a spot in the main event. At the main event of MSI 2017 the Marines finished last in sixth place, with a 3–7 record. Despite their placement, the Marines' performance secured Vietnam a guaranteed group stage seed at the 2017 World Championships[1] and an additional spot in the GPL.[2]
The Marines were placed in Group B at the 2017 Worlds Championships, where they initially tied for second with Fnatic and Immortals,[3] but had the highest seed going into the tiebreaker matches due to them having the shortest combined victory time. However, the Marines lost their tiebreaker match to Fnatic and did not advance to the knockout stage.[4][5]
Shortly after the 2017 World Championships, Slay and Stark both announced they would be leaving the team.[6] Optimus left the team post-season on 16 October 2017[7] and Levi joined American team 100 Thieves on 26 December 2017.[8]
2018[edit]
The Marines finished third in the 2018 VCS Spring Split regular season with 9 wins and 5 losses, qualifying for playoffs, where they defeated Young Generation 3–1 in the quarterfinals and UTM Esports 3–1 in the semifinals. The Marines then played in the finals against EVOS Esports, narrowly losing to them 2–3.
On 14 June 2018, the team officially renamed to GAM Esports due to sponsorship changes. GAM placed fifth in both the 2018 VCS Summer Split and the 2019 VCS Spring Split, narrowly failing to qualify for playoffs both times. Levi rejoined the team from JD Gaming on 14 May 2019 for the 2019 VCS Summer Split.[9] The Marines ended the summer regular season in first place with an 11–3 record, qualifying for playoffs once again. In the semifinals they swept Lowkey Esports 3–0, moving on to face Team Flash in the grand finals.
Current roster[edit]
| GAM Esports League of Legends roster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | Coaches | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Phan "JackieWind" Huy Phong
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Tournament results[edit]
| Placement | Event | Final result (W–L) |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | VCS A 2017 Spring | 12–0 |
| 1st | VCS A 2017 Spring Playoffs | 3–0 (against Young Generation) |
| 1st | GPL 2017 Spring | 3–0 (against  Ascension Gaming)
|
| 6th | 2017 Mid-Season Invitational | 3–7 (main event) |
| 2nd | Rift Rivals 2017 GPL-LJL-OPL | 1–3 (against  LJL)
|
| 1st | VCS A 2017 Summer | 13–1 |
| 1st | VCS A 2017 Summer Playoffs | 3–0 (against Young Generation) |
| 1st | GPL 2017 Summer | 3–0 (against Ascension Gaming)
|
| 9th–11th | 2017 World Championship | 2–4 (main event) |
| 3rd | VCS 2018 Spring | 9–5 |
| 2nd | VCS 2018 Spring Playoffs | 2–3 (against EVOS Esports) |
| 3rd | Rift Rivals 2018 LCL-TCL-VCS | 1–3 (against  TCL)
|
| 5th | VCS 2018 Summer | 8–6 |
| 5th | VCS 2019 Spring | 6–8 |
| 1st | VCS 2019 Summer | 11–3 |
| 1st | VCS 2020 Spring | 13–1 |
| 2nd | VCS 2020 Spring Playoffs | 2-3 (against Team Flash) |
| 1st | VCS 2020 Summer | 12–2 |
| 2nd | VCS 2020 Summer Playoffs | 2–3 (against Team Flash) |
| 2nd | VCS 2021 Winter | 11–3 |
| 2nd | VCS 2022 Spring Playoffs | 2–3 (against CERBERUS Esports) |
| 1st | 31st SEA Games, Vietnam qualifier | 3–1 (against Saigon Buffalo) |
| 1st | VCS 2022 Spring | 14–0 |
| 1st | VCS 2022 Spring Playoffs | 3–1 (against Saigon Buffalo) |
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "GIGABYTE Marines | LoL Esports". www.lolesports.com. LoL Esports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Wolf, Jacob (25 July 2017). "Eleven teams protest GPL and Riot Games' mid-season rule change". ESPN.com. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Newell, Adam. "Here are the results for the group stage at the 2017 World Championship". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Newell, Adam (12 October 2017). "Fnatic stage miracle comeback to claim Worlds quarterfinal spot". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Goslin, Austen (12 October 2017). "Worlds 2017 Group Stage: Group B finale recap". The Rift Herald. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ "Slay left Gigabyte Marines after returning home from MSI, and Stark may be leaving too". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Mickunas, Aaron (16 October 2017). "Optimus has left GIGABYTE Marines". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Abbas, Malcolm (26 December 2017). "100 Thieves complete academy roster, sign Levi". Dot Esports. Retrieved 21 May 2018.
- ↑ Endres, Elena (16 May 2019). "Levi set to rejoin GAM Esports". Dot Esports. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
