Radiant Twilight
After two grueling Sundays of tryouts, a new SNC team was re-assembled from the detritus of the former one. (Farewell Luce Aeterna!) Despite losing their original ADC to a comp ruling — something about ill-advised boosts and purchased accounts, rumors abound — Coach Outlaw has already taken his squad through a victorious in-house and a tough scrim versus a gold tier team. Now we’ll see how Radiant can do against someone their own size!
Battle-hardened captain, RGE Wildstar, has been studying European strategies for about a year now, and has a high-roam playstyle that includes one of the best Pyke baron steals the Rift has ever seen. [Seriously, it was amazing!] It’ll be up to him and Squirrels — Radiant’s ultra-experienced, team-oriented jungler — to set the pace for this team going forward.
In the mid lane, it’ll be UwUStepKiwi playing his signature brand of khaos ball, which could feature anything from wolves to cows to dragons. We have no idea what Kiwi will bring out this Sunday but no champ is off the table. (Radiant’s mid starter, DrownDaPhantom, could also make an appearance, but he is currently not going to be in attendance. Hi Phantom!)
Radiant’s two newcomers to the comp scene — EJoon and Atraitus — have both already been seen hard carrying on the likes of Olaf and Caitlyn. We’ve yet to explore how far either player’s champ pool goes — EJoon consistently caught two or three bans in tryouts — but it’s been a delightful surprise each time seeing something new pop up. As the season progresses, we’ll watch for EJoon and Atraitus to find their voice in the top and bot lane, respectively, while the whole team moves in one direction.
Sunset Ravens
Team Numnums has been quietly training for a few weeks now, as practices have featured kung-fu master-ish techniques such as “no comms, just pings” and “don’t ever join your team ever, EVER, just keep going and don’t look back” aka the dreaded split push.
The Ravens feature built-in chemistry between co-coach EGirl Fox, top laner itzraider10, jungler SNC Big, and super-sub SNC Mayhem, who all played together on Elemental Developmental League last split. (Both of Ravens’ other mids, CC3025 and SNC Grim, will be missing.) Their familiarity with each other should elevate Ravens’ gameplay, or have them descending into a pile of giggles…
The gifted bot lane duo of Xandradraeda and whatbotlane are both goal-oriented, highly-focused players. Xandradraeda has been working on the Jack of All Champs challenge for a few weeks — win a game with 150+ champs — and with twenty-eight M7s under his belt, we daresay Xandra is totally unbannable. As for whatbotlane, aka Zaidi, he’s out to destroy every enemy ward on the Rift, and regularly executes the type of vision control that every coach hopes for.
In short, everyone on this roster is capable of carrying a game — we’ve seen every member shine in multiple scenarios — and we’re anticipating some tremendous teamwork for the rest of SNC to pay attention to.
Sun Guardians
Featuring three members of our training team from last split — when they were merely the Sun Bears — Sun Guardians has already gone through a bevy of coaches — goodbye Furry, goodbye Falcon — while their core lineup has remained the same. All it could take to bring some stability to the team might be the addition of a demon lord… 👺
The first SNC team to go all-SNC IGNs, Sun Guardians may look a little more inexperienced on paper but their on-the-Rift coordination is already unparalleled, with a matching skin theme that has already made its appearance multiple times. Hint: it features a lot of horses.
For this special Sunday engagement, SNC Cerionna will make his return to the stage — and bot lane — while SNC Sleepy takes a little rest. Cerionna’s mid-lane replacement, SNC Titan, is a European import that was picked up via Clash, and so far he’s been a perfect fit for the Guardian’s energy and chemistry. Oh yeah, he’s pretty good too!
Co-captains Hades and Cat run a rollicking ship and have these comp rookies headed toward an exciting season in Zero Gravity Gaming. And lest we forget, we’d like to thank the Picasso of the jungle, SNC Pudge, for all our team logos, featuring his own self-developed font: Clementine. You may be bald and blind Pudge, but your artwork is eye-popping! Also, Sun Guardians are undefeated so far in in-house scrims, which is a fact that can't be overlooked when there's so much on the line.
Grumpy Bears
Our newest SNC team has barely been handed the keys and had a chance to take off their shoes before being throw into our first intra-org mini-tournament. Welcome and we hope you stay awhile!
The trio of Nocent, HilkTV, and Natoa initially came to us as a prospective IBS team, but after contract negotiations and some lawyer-y talk, they’re confident they can make their mark in a gold league. Already they’ve requested the master bedroom and the fancy bidet at SNC Mansion, along with entrance into ZGG Gold. What could we do but concede to all their wishes?! (Sorry, it’s just the scratchy toilet paper and rickety bunk beds for the rest of us.)
Our analytics team says Grumpy Bears are the early betting favorites for Sunday’s Rift-offs, despite nobody having ever seen them play. Mid-laner DarthSunTzu has already hit gold, HiltTV is literally in promos right now, and we’re looking at an intriguing challenge for the other three teams.
Will these grumps prove to be the best of SNC? Or will they be relegated to tents in the backyard by next week?