eSports has grown immensely in the past few years and has seen some amazing prominence. With the community seeing massive growth in eSports, clans have become an integral part of it.

Today we cover the inception of a new clan “Division eSports” dedicating themselves to better the community with experience gained prior as the members used to be a part of Tech Morph gaming. Getting in touch with one of the admins of the Division clan he told us

“Division is currently a group of players that formerly belonged to the Tech Morph gaming banding together to form the Division. Our current goal for Division is to perform at the highest level because the teams we have at the moment are some of the best performing teams in the current Sri Lankan eSports scene and the teams we have are currently performing at their peaks in DOTA CS:GO League Of Legends and Overwatch”

Clans such as Noob Alliance, Phoenix Gaming, Xiphos eSports and Tech Morph gaming have been at the forefront of the eSports community for a very long period. The introduction of a new clan with some highly ranked and skilled players definitely showcases a lot of potential in fighting for the top spot.

Having gained experience from being a part of a clan we asked the admin what it was that he took away as an experience from his previous clan and his answer was a strong one.

“Definitely it would be the bond we had among the members and the positivity as a family. It was a hard decision to step away from the family we were a part of for so many years but that decision had to be taken and definitely building trust among the members takes a long time too”

Division seems to be taking steps in the right direction following a goal and striving to achieve it as a unit. Showcasing their talented lineup in the recently held GamerFest tournament held at SLIIT where both their DOTA 2 teams had a strong showing becoming the champions as well as the runners up.

Finally we asked the Division what it is that they had to say to the other clans and what we all should be expecting from them in the future.

“If we were to give a message to other clans it would be, bring it on!”

It is safe to say that Division has provided the spark to create more competition and hype in the local eSports culture and have made their mark as a force to be reckoned with. Will they be able to create some major upsets further along the year and be the disruption in Sri Lankan eSports, powerful enough to dethrone the reigning champs to be the best clan in the country? Your answer is as good as mine.

On the first map, Lijang Tower, Blackwatch was able to reign supreme because their win condition was to shut down Yato’s Mcree through the coordination of Madhu and Preebashan on the Winston and DVA, if that was done, Falca’s Phara would be uncontested,allowing him to just drop damage because one projectile from Phara does 120 damage and when damage boosted does a massive 150. However, with the new roster changes to Blackwatch,especially the tank line up, it made their win condition harder to achieve because there was a lack of coordination between the Winston and DVA and they were unable to shutdown Yato’s Mcree completely, which was a problem for Falca’s Phara. However, Syndicate forgot about the other DPS threat which was Bouncy Knight and became so focused on shutting down Falca that they left Bouncy Knight uncontested,allowing him to more than make up for the slack left by his other DPS core being shut down. The map went in favour of Blackwatch because of clutch plays from Bouncy, allowed by Falca drawing so much fire, Syndicate still put up a strong fight because of individual plays made by Acelord, Nishastic and Yato in the first map.

On to the second map. Junker town was all about which team had the better sniper, but Syndicate ran the unconventional double sniper pick of Hanzo and Widowmaker . BouncyKnight was able to come ahead with the widow 1v1 duel but False God’s Hanzo was left uncontested allowing a clutch victory of  the first checkpoint. On the second checkpoint, Falca’s Genji and Bouncy’s Widow as well as the tanks of Blackwatch were able to hold Syndicate off for most of the pushes but Acelord’s DVA bomb at the last second lost them the second checkpoint but Blackwatch was still able to hold off Syndicate at the third checkpoint. Blackwatch decided to attack with a classic dive comp with a Widowmaker and with the momentum of the first picks that Bouncy took in the team fights, Blackwatch was able to push the first 2 checkpoints with relative ease with good plays by the healers of Blackwatch keeping the team alive in key teamfights to keep the steamroll going. However at the last checkpoint, Blackwatch got sloppy and ignored a Winston with primal rage,being played by Nishastic, who was able to use his ultimate along with his health pool of 1000HP, keeping the payload contested long enough to let Acelord come in with a DVA bomb which wiped most of Blackwatch, allowing Syndicate to clean up and clinch the map victory. A special mention must go out to a sleep dart from Dogam’s Ana that shut down Falca’s Pharah,not allowing him to contribute to the final team fight.

The third map was Horizon Lunar Colony, Blackwatch was able to absolutely dominate this map solely because of crucial first picks made by BouncyKnight on his signature Widowmaker, Blackwatch ran a Widow and Phara and their normal dive comp with Winston and DVA and by taking the crucial first picks the rest of Blackwatch was able to play cleanup crew on Syndicate because the combined pick offs by Falca and Bouncy meant Syndicate had no backline supports. Building on their past momentum, they were able to snowball the second point capture as well because Blackwatch did more work and damage in the first point than Syndicate leading to Blackwatch having an upper hand in terms of the ultimate economy and with the help of a rocket barrage from Falca, Blackwatch was able to seal the deal for their attack, having a whopping 5 minutes remaining in their time bank if they had to do a retake in round 3, if it even got to that point. With that card in their arsenal Blackwatch went forth about their defence; the first point was lost relatively quickly due to a crucial pick off by Yato onto Falca’s Genji,crucial because Blackwatch opted out of playing a Mercy for the first point, thus denying the resurrect ability, giving Syndicate the first point.

The second point was a different story however; the tide was changed simply because of BouncyKnight being uncontested on his Widow, where he shutdown teamfight after team fight with his picks and even made Yato swap from a Widow to a Genji,sending a message,  because when an enemy Widow loses the duel and swaps to Genji to hard counter you.. that just becomes personal man. Mad props to the healers of Blackwatch for keeping their tanks and DPS up to allow them to stay alive through the 1v1s, however, on the back of another clutch DVA ult by Acelord, Syndicate was able to capture both points, but in overtime, this gave them the disadvantage as per assault map rules; if a team defends until overtime, in the third round the defending team (if they have a higher time bank) gets to attack and they just need 25% of capture progress on Point A to win the map. Blackwatch was able to get the job done with a good dive by the tanks of Blackwatch separating the backline from the front, from there it was just a game of divide and conquer.

Moving onto the final map, it started out as Blackwatch on Defence and Syndicate on attack on the map Kings Row, which is a hybrid map that it involves capturing a point from the defenders and pushing it all the way through 3 checkpoints

Blackwatch went for the “Meta Pick” for that map as Madhu22 played Zarya and Prebashan Played Reinhardt, these tanks are signature for this map because the attackers come through a small choke point and Reinhardt can deny entrance through the choke using his shield and Zarya can use her energy bubbles to get charged from the damage the opposing team puts on the Reinhardt which is a very strong syngergybut this comp requires great coordination while  taking the brawl to Syndicate and that is where Blackwatch failed. At the first point they let Syndicate through the choke and backing off hoping to take the fight to them on the point however the Zarya lacked the charge early game and great plays from Nishastic, who was able to just massacre with his aggression, lead to the first point capture. The second point was lost by Blackwatch due to their lackluster ultimate management, the Zarya graviton was wasted without any follow up, allowing Syndicate to win the second checkpoint with superior ultimate management and crucial picks.

The third point was easily captured by Syndicate as well because Blackwatch did not have any way of stabilizing the fight with Nishastic being so aggressive on the attack, denying any counter efforts by Blackwatch, Syndicate was able to push with 4 minutes remaining in the time bank.

For Attack, Blackwatch decided enough was enough, they ran their strongest picks as they did in map 1 with BouncyKnight on the Widow but Syndicate had played 4 maps with them and knew this was coming, so to answer this they played a Junkrat and Soldier for area denial, the Junkrat denies space for the dive tanks by simply blowing them up with his grenades if they come close to him while Yato made sure to keep Falca’s Phara in check with his Soldier.Syndicate also opted to play out of the sight lines of BouncyKnight making it difficult for him to get picks to get an advanatge in teamfights, however Blackwatch was able to crack this defense by identifying the backline of Syndicate and cracking down on it and allowing Falca to clean up with some good anti heal nades coming from Fifty. Great work was done by Sleepy in keeping his team alive through the Junkrat’s damage

Syndicate took so much time from Blackwatch who were already behind on time, the second point was further stalled by keep riptires from FalseGod which completely shut down 2 individual ULT invested  pushes from Blackwatch,however with the help of Falca’s clutch rocket barrages they were able to push the second and third point

Onto the final moments.

Round 3

Blackwatch was on attack again.They had 1 minute to do the impossible;capture the point and get the payload far enough that they could defend it from Syndicate in the 4th round. This was a game of first picks with Madhu22 and Preebashan stepped up to the plate by securing kill after kill on the backline of Syndicate and eventually obtaining the point.

During the push phase ,Blackwatch was on overtime, meaning if they leave the payload, overtime runs out and their attack was over. Syndicate knew this would happen and they had Falsegod on the Junkrat at the start to make sure if the opportunity presented itselfthey would use Falsegod’s riptire to completely blow up Blackwatch again, denying their push this is exactly what happened. The riptire came in and killed most of Blackwatch, leaving the rest of Syndicate to clean up.

The final part was Syndicates’ attack, it must be pointed out that Syndicate could take their attacks slowly because they had 4 minutes in the bank, which is what they did. They took some damage, built ultimates and let Nishastic run wild with his Reinhardt and Syndicate captured the point with 2 minutes remaining to push  less than 200 meters .This do or die for Blackwatch.

Blackwatch had to use 4 Ultimates, to shut down one push from Syndicate with 2 minutes in the time bank left.

With no defensive support ultimate,Blackwatch knew they would be vulnerable, however Falca shutdown another Syndicate push alone with his rocket barrage, but  Blackwatch had lost all their cards and Syndicate still had most of theirs.

A quick combination of a riptire and DVA bomb left Blackwatch shattered and lost them the match .“

We congratulate PnX Syndicate on achieving this feat which is in every word the equivalent to scaling the highest mountain and reaching the top besting the reigning champions. We wish both team the best of luck moving forward and hope to some more exciting Overwatch action

1.How has this year treated you when it comes to the competitive Overwatch scene?

Ruvinda

Get Nailed is the first tournament of the year competitive Overwatch wise, so its too early to say much, but many tournaments are ahead this year and we hope to play most of them.

Nishal

It’s too early to say since Get Nailed is the first tournament of the year but till now we’ve had a good run.

2. Are there new teams that are showing potential from this tournament?

Ruvinda

Considering new teams X3.INSAYN showed some good potential.

Nishal

Well for now Team INSAYN has shown a lot of potential after beating last year’s third ranked team.

3. How were the preparations coming into Get Nailed Overwatch League 2018?

Ruvinda

Well we only actually practiced for like a week due to tight schedules, since most of us started new jobs after just finishing campus last year.

Nishal

Personally I started playing League Of Legends which took a lot of time away from Overwatch but once my team threatened to bench me I threatened to shoot them, and later they were forced to play with me.We have practised a lot focusing on our team comps and strategies as much as we could and building our synergy.

4. What changes have you seen within yourselves in the past year?

Ruvinda

One of the key aspects of the game is communication, I think each of us have developed much better ingame communication now.

Nishal

To improve our team synergy and strengthen our friendship we have decided to communicate through memes.

5. Are there any new member who have joined your team since last year?

Ruvinda

Yes, two of our core players had to be replaced due to unavoidable circumstances, that is Fifty replacing Sukiribole as a healer and Ppeekkxxell replacing Jonaboy as secondary tank. Stifmeister played for us as a sub through SLCG and later joined Team Catalyst.

Nishal

As for new members we have recruited our long time 30fps quick play friend Himanshu “Falsegod” Rajinda and former Rival and mimilord Shalitha “Acelord” Chandraratne.

6. How has the Overwatch competitive scene changed over the last few years?

Ruvinda

I have seen some good teams get disbanded last year which was unfortunate, but i have also seen some new teams come together to play very well. Even though the number of teams does not seem to be increasing by much, there are a lot of new players

Nishal

Teams have been gradually improving over the years but there is still abit too much focus on solo plays and not enough team coordination.

7. What was your favorite moment during the tournament?

Ruvinda

Moment that i booped from behind to get a 4k and a demech from Prebashans selfdestruct to secure the win on illios against Catalyst

Nishal

I think it has to be the moment on Temple of Anubis when I was 2v5(ish) with Dogam and I managed to get a good Earthshatter to turn the fight around and secure kills until the rest of my teammates arrived to capture the point. My grandfather died two years ago and left me a lot of money. Now I have even more money then him.

8. What can we expect from you guys in the finals?

Ruvinda

In the semifinals we definitely had some misplays and synergy issues due to new players, I think we have fixed those issues now and gained our confidence back.

Nishal

We hope to play at our best and to repeat our previous result

9. What advice would you give the newer teams?

Ruvinda

Swap roles between players until you find the best pick for each player and the best team comp for your team, and keep practicing.

Nishal

Get Into a Team oriented mindset because you are not playing this Game alone.Understanding the importance of teamwork and being Dedicated is what is really important.

10. What message do you want to share with the opposing team before the showdown on the 16th?

Ruvinda

We’re not done yet, hope ur ready ?

Nishal

#2ez4BW

Staying true to their words, “giving wings when you need them”, Red Bull has been the driving force behind many sports and activities across the world, in Sri Lanka through Gamer.LK, Red Bull has taken the initiative to provide local gaming cafes with Red Bull products and coolers to ensure that players are energized so they can maintain maximum performance and efficiency.

The eSports scene in the second half of the year promises to be an exciting one, so make sure you are all geared up and ready to be a part of the action as Gamer.LK and Red Bull work together to give Sri Lankan eSports the wings it needs to fly. 

On the right side we had a variety of geek culture along with products showcased by sponsors, bringing about a festive feel to the hall. Stalls such as red dot geek,yamato one and many other vendors including food stalls for any refreshment needs. Without ignoring the fact that there was an extra stage on the right side of the hall for panels that showcased some amazing talent and successful pioneers in Sri Lanka including the cast from Koombiyo , a special appearance from Iraj himself and some rather unique beatboxing talent.

Red Bull was the Official Energy Drink for the event with Honda partnering up to be the
Motorbike Partner for the second consecutive year while also giving away a Honda Navi to
the winner of their mobile game Rider Rush at their stall. In addition, they also had a test ride
for visitors to try out the Navi bike at the expo. Razer was the official Gaming Gear partner
and gave away Rs. 100,000 in prizes to attendees. PlanMyNyt.com, Sri Lanka’s premier
Nightlife App gave away a Playstation 4 at the event. The event also welcomed the
partnership of Asus and Redline Technologies who provided high-end Gaming PCs and gave
away many prizes to participants. Blink International, distributors of G-Shock and Fila watches
in Sri Lanka joined as the official Time Keeper with great watch give aways at the event.
Sampath Bank was the Digital Banking Partner for the expo and holders of Sampath X-Set
cards were provided a discount on registration for SLCG. Rancrisp was the Snack partner and
WEBXPAY was the official Online Payments partner with Atom Media being the official Digital
Signage partner. MAS Holdings were the Silver Sponsors of the event with Subway as the
Healthy Food Partner, eWis as the IT Partner and Solitaire as the Agency Partner. Fox FM was
the Radio Partner while Art TV was the TV partner. Che Studio were the Portrait Partners for
photographs along with Leaf as the Print Partner, who came forward to print these

With tremendous effort, commitment and dedication coming from each cyber athlete towards their respective title the finalized results were as followed for SLCG 2017

Winners : Noob Alliance Phase 2.0

Runners Up : Tech Morph Team Envyus

Dota 2

Winner : Phoenix Gaming Indomitus

Runners up : Tech Morph Death Sentence

League of Legends

Winners : Phoenix Gaming Lanka Lions

Runners up : Xiphos eSports Legendary Noobs

Counter Strike Global Offensive

Winners : Zegg eSports

Runners up : Phoenix Gaming False Five

Overwatch

Winners : Noob Alliance Team Blackwatch

Runners up : Phoenix Gaming Team Syndicate

Special Force 2

WInners : Tech Morph Team EnvyUs

Runners up : Team Dark Knights

FIFA 17

Winner : Phoenix Gaming Android

Runner Up : Tech Morph Penaldo

Tekken 7

WInner : Noob Alliance Blazer

Runner Up : Phoenix Gaming GrimmJow

Injustice 2

Winner : Xiphos eSports Redwire

Runner Up : Xiphos eSports RassyCZar

Project cars

Winner : Xiphos eSports Bighorn

Runner up : Tech Morph Knight

Clash Royale

Winner : Hunter

Runner up : Noob Alliance Daniel

Street Fighter

Winner : Phoenix Gaming Phantom

Runner up : Tech Morph Rose

FIFA 18

Winner : Phoenix Gaming Westoxic

Runner up : Phoenix Gaming Heat

In addition these titles,  the women’s league was also an amazing feature of of SLCG 2017 which gave rise to growth in women cyber athletes, ranging from Mario Kart, Mortal Kombat XL and Need for Speed Mo0st Wanted. The champions of SLCG 2017 for womens league were as follows. 

Mario Kart

WiInner : Hima

Runner up : Phoenix Gaming Shifty

Mortal Kombat  XL

Winner : Jayani Gamage

Runner up : Phoenix Gaming TiaBuffy

Need For Speed Most Wanted

Winner : Himasha Perera

Runner up : Kavindee Kariyawasam

The winners are as follows.

Call of Duty 4 – Mohammed ‘TM Rocker’ Zaid

CSGO – Geeshan ‘Defiance’ Jeyaraj

DOTA 2 – Mirsab ‘PnX|Paradoxx’ Hassan

FIFA 17 – Ashen ‘TM Penaldo’ Katagoda

Mortal Kombat XL – Ishan ‘x3.Deadpool’ Nayanajith

Project Cars – Ryan ‘x3.LokDown’ Perera

League of Legends – Patrick ‘PnX|xzPat’ Philip

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare – Dinendra ‘PnX|Danaya’ Sandamal

Tekken – Abdul ‘PnX|AR’ Rahman

Overwatch – Hassy ‘x3.Syndrome’ Vinod

Best Clan of the Year – Phoenix Gaming

The increased number of titles gave birth to a much larger crowd and seeing is believing as Sri Lanka’s biggest eSport tournament came to a close. Taking with it once again the joy and excitement and surprise that it brought along with the finest eSports anyone can witness here in Sri Lanka

Inversion e-Sports gaming is a clan with immense talent and has shown a lot of growth in the eSports scene with over 20 members in their roster, so it was no surprise when they were recruited to the ranks of PnX from X3. Still a budding clan with plenty of room for growth, this clan has a lot of potential moving forward. With the movement from X3 to PnX this will allow Imex to grow even further and maybe help PnX secure a title in during the upcoming eSport Championships.

PnX is already Sri Lanka’s number 1 ranked clan and has dominated in a lot of titles but one: the Call Of Duty 4 title. With recent recruitments made with the intention to increase the talent in their wing for COD 4, as well as other titles by bringing in a young team of talented individuals from Inversion e-Sports Gaming lines up perfectly with what they were looking for. Speaking to a representative from Inversion this is what they had to say;

“Joining PnX was easy since the clan and its members were very welcoming, we felt that they believed in us and so our guys were really excited to take this opportunity to perform our level best towards the victory – Sameera F!R3 Warnasooriya – Founder Inversion e-Sports Gaming

Following this we have the list of players who have now joined the ranks of PnX

Sameera F!R3 Warnasooriya
Dinuka Physx Sewwanda
Deshan M!cky Dhananjaya
Chathura MANDUKA Sampath
Tharusha A l u m :> Lakshan
Nuwan 100k Dissanayaka
Sanka Shawty Rajapaksha
Amila Sasuke Thennakoon        
Binu Kawasaki Kapugama    
Tharindu Alive Gimhan    
Isuru Wax Mahesh    
Lalinda JointLP    Perera   
Dilan Tinker Godamunna    
Ashen EmPro    Ranaweera   
Shan BoTa Fidelius        
Migara Junior Sandun    
Mesanda Mo4 Maneth        
Tilan MeZZer Kavindu             
Hasitha Deathsoul Malinga            
Shane L|unatick WijethilakeNiluksha L3Nnox Dilshan        
Naveen Xax Udaynga

Niluksha L3Nnox    Dilshan        
Naveen Xax Udaynga

Speaking to an admin of PnX, he had nothing but positive thoughts and ideas in taking these cyber athletes  and giving them a shot at a place among the top players in the country

“For us at PnX it has never been about recruiting players for the sake of increasing our numbers, we saw something in Inversion e-sports gaming, their drive, their motivation towards the game meant a lot to us .When I first talked to F!R3 he shared a similar vision to ours,that is practicing day in and day out,and giving the game you love a hundred percent everytime you play. We believe in Inversion e-sports and we are excited to have them as a part of us.” -PnX Admin Javeen

We have reached out to Xiphos eSports for a statement in this regard and this article will be updated once we receive it.

PnX are currently your leaders in the Sri Lankan Clan rankings and with this acquisition of Inversion e-Sports gaming, will it further solidify their standing and give rise to new talent to help them remain at the top of the mountain? Let us know what you think in the comments below!