Awakening -- The Bangkok Titans rise in SEA
The last year has been nothing short of remarkable for the Bangkok Titans. The team that had never made it out of the bottom four of the Garena Premier League (GPL) has evolved into one of the top teams in the region and a legitimate threat to take a Wildcard spot at Worlds.
Building a Team
The Titans’ story begins like most of the non-Taiwanese teams in Southeast Asia (SEA): at the bottom of the GPL. Despite their monopoly of success in Thailand, the Titans never translated that success to the regional league. Their troubles were only compounded by their constant roster changes. In 2013 alone, the team cycled through 16 players in an effort to create the best squad. For the team's manager Sukij "SVBU" Nonta, the pain was necessary to catch up with the Taiwanese teams that dominated the region. "We had to find players with talent and determination, which wasn't easy, as the professional esports scene in Thailand is still not taken very seriously," SVBU says.
In their search, the Titans acquired some of the best players from the other top teams in the Thailand. One of those players was Pawat "WarL0cK" Ampaporn, the jungler from Blackbean. When he joined the Thai champions, he quickly realized that the situation wasn't ideal. "I had little to no idea what was going on and the team itself had a lot of problems that were hard to fix," he says.
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The constant roster changes had damaged team's coordination and made it hard for them to work together as a unit. They came in last during the Winter Split of 2014 and fifth in their six team group that Spring. Three days after their Spring campaign ended, the team added Chayut "007x" Suebka and Nuttapong "G4" Menkasikan, the jungler and mid laner of MiTH Flashdive, to their roster. While G4 and 007x were strong players on MiTH, it seemed that the Titans were doubling down on the mistakes of the previous year.
The changes were vindicated by how well the team performed in the Summer Split. G4 and 007x were upgrades over their predecessors, and WarL0cK adapted to his role in the top lane. They were unable to beat either Taiwanese team in their group, but they split with Singaporean Insidious Gaming Legends and defeated the Filipino Imperium Pro Team to qualify for their first berth in the GPL Playoffs. While they were soundly beaten in the Quarterfinals by ahq, it was a clear sign of improvement for the team.
Splitting a Region
During the 2014-2015 offseason, there was a massive change to the GPL when the Taiwanese teams were split off into their own league, the League Master Series (LMS). For the Titans, who lost four games to Taiwanese teams in Summer's Group Stage, it improved their chances to return to the Playoffs. "The split has helped motivate a lot of players and teams in the GPL to improve themselves as the championship felt more in reach," says WarL0cK.
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With the migration of the Taiwanese teams to the LMS, Vietnam was expected to take over the top spot in the region. The Saigon sister teams (Fantastic Five and Jokers) were two of the strongest in the old GPL after ahq and The Taipei Assassins, and the strength of the Vietnamese domestic league meant the new Vietnamese teams would also be a threat for BKT. "The competitive environment here isn't as strong as Vietnam's at the moment," admits SVBU. "This creates a significant problem regarding practicing and player development." In order to try and compete on the same level as the Vietnamese teams, they invested in improving the team's infrastructure.
Along with the additional coaching support, the team was experiencing its first stable roster in years. The stability allowed them to develop much needed rapport and trust. "We kept doing what we were used to doing instead of stressing all the time," WarL0cK says. "As a team we tried to enjoy the game a little more, which improved the team environment completely, and I would say that's where our success came from."
Awakening the Titans
With newfound confidence, the Titans took the new GPL by storm. As G4 established himself as a premier mid laner, the team started to win games through the communication they'd always lacked. They dropped a single game in their first Group, and they took out three Vietnamese teams in their second. In the Playoffs, they had a convincing sweep of Insidious Gaming, and while they lost to the Saigon Fantastic Five (SF5) in the Finals, their 2nd place finish automatically qualified them for the Regional Finals.
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But when the SF5 were unable to acquire visas for the International Wildcard Invitational in Turkey, the Titans were given the nod. This second chance to prove themselves came as a surprise for the team. WarL0cK says, "We were informed pretty late that we had to attend instead of SF5 and didn't have any time to prepare." Despite the short notice, the Titans had a strong performance early in the tournament, going 5-1 in the Group Stage, their only loss coming to Brazil's INTZ. Their tournament came to an end in the Semifinals, where they lost to the hometown team Beşiktaş e-Sports Club 3-0, but the Titans showed the evolving strength of themselves and SEA as a region.
Following the IWCI the Titans returned to SEA and cleared the Summer Split's Group Stage easily, not dropping a single game. While they've already qualified for a spot in Regionals thanks to their strong finish in Spring, they still have something to prove. "I do think that we're much stronger than what we have displayed", says WarL0cK, "So I hope to be able to show that in the future."
On August 3rd, the Bangkok Titans will have that chance as the second leg of the GPL begins!
Images courtesy of Garena and ESL.
