by Akhila Randeniya | Aug 30, 2019 | News
In a shocking move team BlackWatch, previously the top Overwatch team in Noob Alliance, has moved to Phoenix GaminG. Blackwatch has consistently been a thorn in the side of Phoenix GaminG’s top overwatch team: Syndicate. The two constantly lock heads at most tournaments. Their most recent encounter being at the finals of GetNailed 2019 where Syndicate were victorious.
The addition of Blackwatch to their Overwatch wing means that Phoenix will now run a monopoly in Overwatch having already established their presence in Dota2, Special Forces 2, League of Legends and a plethora of single player games. This is another notch in their belt towards the Best Clan award.
This comes immediately after Noob Alliance lost their wing leader Demigod to Phoenix as well. The questions that needs to be asked are:
If this was planned by Phoenix or if it was just pure luck that led to two massive acquisitions? Was it all pure coincidence? Will this bleeding continue for nA? And what prompted Blackwatch’s move?
We got in touch with the relevant parties and these were their responses:
PnX:
Blackwatch was one of the main competitors for our team Syndicate in the past few years and we won against them in the last tournament – GetNailed to claim the No. 1 spot in the country again. Like we always do, one of our players Preba Peexxell Shan was already playing as a standin for nA.BW for a very long time since he couldn’t find a team he synergize with. We never intended to go for an established team like BW and we were focused on developing the newer teams in our wing. However when we were told that BW was not satisfied with nA and they are considering to make their move, our management thought: “why don’t we recruit them?”. Our Overwatch wing was more than happy to have them on our side and we believe it would make our wing even more stronger with more skilled and diverse resources which can push everyone in the wing to work harder to reach that top spot. 1/6 of BW was already red and nothing could stop the remaining 5/6 turning red. We spoke to them and they were thrilled with our management style and our cultures and they were willing to face the new challenges and compete with the top teams again under PnX banner.
nA:
It is with a heavy heart we say goodbye to many of our Overwatch players in our wing. After about a year of growth and success, we have now parted ways with our old Overwatch wing due to internal problems that have arisen due to mismanagement. We deeply apologize to all our players affected due to this issue but rest assured we will look to redeem ourselves in the future. The new Overwatch wing is now in the process of rebuilding and will take off the ground in the months to come, alongside our new admin and coaching staff we will look to strengthen our wing and return it to its previous glory and more. For the players that are no longer with us, we wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors and hope they perform to their best as always.
Blackwatch/321Dive:
After almost 2 years playing for nA, we felt like we needed a change in scenery. But it wasn’t just that, some issues that could have been prevented by the admins intervention, but was not, went as far as to affect my team. I’m not sure how much they tried, but it didn’t get resolved. We felt like the nA administration was a bit lackluster in their duty towards the wings and teams. Those issues led to some disagreements within the team as well.Our choice of PNX is based on the recommendation of ppeekkxxell and the status of the clan in Sri Lanka. Plus I think the reward system of PNX is an excellent method to motivate players to keep playing and strive to be the best. If other clans adopt this method, at least to some degree, it would help get a lot of new players into gaming, which will help the development of E-Sports in Sri Lanka.
by Akhila Randeniya | Aug 6, 2019 | News
A familiar face in the DOTA2 community and long time member of Phoenix Gaming Dhanushka ‘HeLLa’ Batuwitaarachchi has joined n00b Alliance.
Hella has been playing Dota for approximately 8 years with most of his time being spent on Dota Allstars.
He joined PnX in 2015 to play the Funnet Tournament in 2015. As a member of Phoenix Gaming HeLLa has been part of a quite a number of prolific teams such as ‘One Night Stand’(that won Kings of LAN DOTA2 2016), Weapons of Destruction and SyFy.RiSinG. In 2018 he was appointed as the Dota2 Wing Leader for PnX.
However for quite some time there have been unsubstantiated rumors that HeLLa was uncertain about his future at Phoenix. At the recent rendition of KoL DOTA2 HeLLa played as a stand in for nA|Infinity. This is a common occurrence in the community where players from an outside clan plays as a stand in due to conflicts between clans, but this only fuelled the rumors.
Naturally we got in contact with Dhanushka to get his side of the story and asked him what motivated his sudden move.
He had this to say:
Truth be told I wanted to join nA from a long time ago but at that time nA community was pretty small and they didn’t recruit much and since my all time favorite and one of my best friends ‘The Kade.Munky’ used to play for PnX I figured why don’t I too. I don’t have much time left in the competitive scene and now I have been selected to a team in which I am really happy (nA|Infinity Gaming ) so therefore I can’t always play as standin. The team has synced up really fast and the team is like family , I have no choice but to join them. I want to thank everyone at Phoenix for giving me exposure that I got over the last 8 years. It hasn’t always been a fun ride but I’m thankful for everything that happened. I am excited about my future at n00b Alliance and hopefully I can reach my full potential with them
We reached out to PnX to get their take on this move and this is what they had to say:
Hella has been a hardworking wing leader for DOTA at PnX. He was great at managing the existing teams and creating new teams. However as a player to move up his career in DOTA, he couldn’t find the right team in PnX to fit in because most of the time the other players around him weren’t upto his skill level and Indomitus already had their squad full leaving no space for Hella. However Hella was quite successful with Team SyFy until when some of the SyFy members had to retire and again Hella was left alone. So most of the time Hella ended up playing for teams in other clans as a Standin. I guess he played more with nA teams than PnX teams and we never stopped him from doing so since we wanted him to grow his career and we didnt want clan rivalry to be an obstacle for it. So we guess that the decision what Hella took is the best that he could do for himself and we aren’t against it. We may have lost a good wing leader but its not fair by us to stop him from being a better player. We wish him all the best in the future and hope he returns back someday when everything in pnx is set and ready for him to play under our banner again. We regard this transfer as a loan out to nA.
by Akhila Randeniya | Aug 4, 2019 | News
Deshan “Demigod” Thathsara is a player that needs no introduction. A prominent figure in the Overwatch community Demigod(Demi) started off with playing COD4 for Xiphos Esports in 2016. During this time Demi also tried his luck at other games like Dota2 and Mortal Kombat competitively. A few months later he left.Unhappy with the Xiphos management, namely the lack of communication with players Demi took his talents to Noob Alliance. It was around this time that Overwatch was released into open beta. His stint in Noob Alliance lasted for around four years.
Demi’s time in Noob Alliance as Overwatch wing leader was spent primarily in grooming younger players for the competitive arena and formed approximately 10-15 teams. His responsibilities included organizing tournaments, allocating referees and hosting streams.
His sudden departure to Phoenix GaminG left many in confusion and disbelief. Phoenix is considered to be Noob Alliance’s biggest rivals not only in the Overwatch community but also in the race for the coveted Best Clan award.
The following is an extract from our interview with Demigod:
Q: What was your motivation behind this move?
A: When I was at Noob Alliance, I gave it my all to make the overwatch wing strong. I don’t know about the current state, but it was one of the strongest wings at Noob Alliance.
I left because of a certain player at Noob alliance. He was appointed as a wing leader for overwatch even though he didn’t contribute anything towards the growth of overwatch at Noob Alliance. All he did was undermine my work .Assigning players positions and moving them up in the hierarchy just because they won’t leave the clan will not work if they don’t have any passion for the clan itself. The person who has it will stay no matter what happens within the clan including this both ups and down they might encounter along the way.
The clan couldn’t do anything about it because he was a player for an overwatch team and a COD team. So, it got to a point where staying in the clan was not a logical thing to do. It was too much stress for me because I have my own life to deal with. In the end I made the decision which was to leave the clan. If cyanide and Gerald were more involved when this was happening this could have been different.
Q:Why Phoenix GaminG? What made it so appealing given the history between the two clans?
A: I’m not a person who stays in a clan for money or titles. This is what phoenix offered me;
“You will be joining as a member and form an overwatch team and you will be captain for that team. Once you put a solid foundation then you can decide whether you will be going as a wing leader or in the direction of our social media or streaming platform. When you build trust and friendship then you can choose which side you want to go. People will not be blocking your growth or be a problem for you for sure”
This is more than enough for me to join them. If they offer me a role or position which suits my personality or skill set I’ll be more than happy to take it if not I’m happy to be a part of the phoenix community
After all, “මාළුවා නහින්නේ කට හින්දා xD “
We reached out to the two clans to get their take on this move and this is what they had to say:
Noob Alliance
Demigod was a key factor in building our Overwatch wing from the ground up, we would even go as far as saying he was a key factor in building the entire Overwatch community in Sri Lanka. These are facts that no one can deny. While it’s sad to see him leave our organization due to conflicts, we have no doubts that he would excel in Phoenix Gaming – bringing their Overwatch wing to new heights, as he did with ours. Our future in Overwatch is uncertain at this point, with other key teams leaving, we have not yet decided on what direction we will be heading.
Phoenix GaminG
Demigod has been a popular figure in the Overwatch scene and we believe that he was the backbone of the Overwatch wing in nA. Our Overwatch wing has always been a close competitor with nA. All credits go to our skilled and dedicated players and management. When demigod left nA due to his personal reasons, despite the fact that we already had a solid Overwatch wing, we considered to recruit demigod since we knew of his potential and the additional value that he could bring into PnX to grow the clan as a whole. He decided to join us without any hesitation since he wanted to be in a place where his efforts are recognized and valued. This has always been the case in a majority of our recruitments. Players want to join us simply because of the unique style of management that we maintain and we guess that is the unique selling point of Phoenix GaminG. We hope that demigod will be a valuable addition and we as a clan will be able to cater at our best for demigod to grow his career in the future
by Akhila Randeniya | Aug 2, 2019 | News
The DOTA2 Kings of LAN (KOL) commenced on the 16th of July and had to be played online due to connection issues. Nevertheless the tournament delivered exciting game play. The fan favorites x3|Victorious Secret breezed through the tournament and managed to snatch another tournament win for themselves. nA-Infinity came in second after valiantly giving it their best at the finals. Meanwhile x3|Death Company managed to land at third place after an intense third place decider match against Maze gaming.
x3|Victorious Secret
Muksith ‘Tenza’ Ajwath
Heshan ‘SathaN’ Sanjaya
Shauban ‘Batman’ Rushdi
Kalindu ‘Torch’ Keith
Isuru ‘Deathwish’ Lokuge
nA – Infinity
Azman ‘Darcrow’ Khan
Dhanushka ‘Hella’ Batuwitaarachchi
Sajid ‘Fearless’ Ali
Inam ‘Fate’ Rishan
Sharintha ‘Smoak’ De Alwis
x3|Death Company
Poorna ‘Legend’ Ranthilake
Anupama ‘Beaver’ Wettasinghe
Mihin ‘Krimjaw’ Lokuge
Mandula ‘Midnight’ Sugathapala
Shenal ‘AB’ Daniel
Stephan ‘Issueno1’ Sam
Nisal ‘Anarky’ Sugathapala
The draw and results can be found at: https://glk.challonge.com/kol19dota2
by Akhila Randeniya | Jul 31, 2019 | News
The knockout stages of the tournament commenced on the 20th of July with four Sri Lankan teams participating. These matches were played on a Bo3 format.
PnX | Lanka Lions and PnX | R [ 3 ] D were able to make their way to the quarter finals and carry the Sri Lankan flag further into the tournament.
However, despite their valiant efforts Team Legendary Noobs and nA| Team Phase were not able to qualify for the quarter finals and were eliminated.
The quarter finals will be played through the 3rd and 4th of August.
The match ups can be found at: https://challonge.com/3ca32svk?fbclid=IwAR2G2B_O39ZeuXEQEpflRl_Q_d_lrbGZa1ktM_U5I4VHmLpxVs66fBpE3T0
by Rav | Jul 30, 2019 | News
Sri Lankan CSGO took one more step forward with their win over Indias team Elements at the Conquerors Insignia South Asia tournament. This puts myRevenge e.v Sri Lanka in the top 8 bracket of the South Asia qualifier and well on their way to the top position.
Follow the Conquerors Insignia schedule: https://beta.playtonia.com/event/139/game_detail/#schedule
