The Azubu Divorce: Snipers and Assassins Break Up
Riot·1/9/2015, 1:55:18 AM·0 votes·6,522 views
Season 4 in Southeast Asia can easily be considered the Year of Azubu. Their ownership and operation of the Taipei Assassins and Snipers was only challenged by fellow Taiwanese rivals AHQ E-Sports Club, but even they failed to prevail against the co-dominance of Azubu's twin kings. Though a lack of international results stung their pride, their fans were nonetheless rewarded by their emotional investments into the region's unarguable best.
That's over and done with.
"The change was made just a few days before World Championship 2014 because of some internal and external issues," said Liu. Though he wasn't able to be specific about the reasons for their departure, he notes that their prior involvement was far more than simply buying the rights to have their name mentioned in the same breath as the team. "They're not just title sponsors, but also tried to encourage the Azubu teams to produce continuous esports-related content to make this industry more complete."
TPA and TPS were among the first organizations to regularly operate under Azubu's streaming services, alongside North America's Counter Logic Gaming. Azubu had formerly sponsored both OnGameNet champions and CJ Entus Blaze and Frost, back in 2012, though both had taken place prior to the launch of their livestream services. While both CJ teams now also stream out of Azubu, as part of a package deal with KeSPA, neither of the Taiwanese teams' players are listed anymore.
According to Liu, the Assassins are now sponsored by Asus, a multinational Taiwanese electronics and hardware company best known for their laptops. But their sister team found different suitors.
The Snipers now operate under the AHQ banner, temporarily making it an organization of triplets – AHQ, AHQ Fighter, and the newly acquired Snipers. But that relationship didn't last the full month of October before the Snipers underwent yet another massive upheaval. Top laner Lyu 'Zonda' Jhong D was released, and the bot lane duo of Awei and GodJJ were bought out by Hong Kong Esports to join former TPA stars Wai Kin 'Toyz' Lau and Wang 'Stanley' June-Tsan. The Snipers were now in name only, as they were formally "merged" with AHQ Fighters – now title sponsored by Logitech at this point – with no remaining members of the old roster that dominated the Nova League of 2013.
With only the name left, and the players that once defined a promising co-ruler of the Southeast Asian throne scattered across different teams, the Snipers have largely fallen by the way-side. The Assassins, in comparison, are gearing up for a duel for supremacy with AHQ in the newly formed League of Legends Master Series, unfazed by roster shifts or format changes. The sister system that once nurtured them both is now but a distant memory.
BREAKING UP
The relationship between the Assassins and the Snipers was deliberately modeled after the sister-teams system common in Korea before the most recent rules changes. "According to our coach [Sim Sung-soo] it's always good to have a sister team to scrim with, because we can try many different strategies and have a flexible training schedule," said TPA manager Quaker Liu. With the Season 4 expansion of the Garena Premier League, it proved to be a winning bet: both Assassins and Snipers quickly dominated their respective groups, and secured finalist and semifinalist placings in back-to-back splits over the course of winter and spring. But that relationship was terminated some time after the Snipers were hit with a double-whammy as team captain and support player 'Chen MiSTakE' Hui-Chung announced his retirement, followed by Machi E-Sports knocking them out of the GPL through the summer qualifiers. Though the Snipers' successes in the prior splits secured them enough circuit points for the World Championship qualifiers, the lost momentum proved fatal to their ambitions in Season 4. And in the wake of the dissolution of Azubu's involvement in Southeast Asian esports, it was also fatal to their partnership with the Assassins.TWO WEEKS NOTICE
"The change was made just a few days before World Championship 2014 because of some internal and external issues," said Liu. Though he wasn't able to be specific about the reasons for their departure, he notes that their prior involvement was far more than simply buying the rights to have their name mentioned in the same breath as the team. "They're not just title sponsors, but also tried to encourage the Azubu teams to produce continuous esports-related content to make this industry more complete."
TPA and TPS were among the first organizations to regularly operate under Azubu's streaming services, alongside North America's Counter Logic Gaming. Azubu had formerly sponsored both OnGameNet champions and CJ Entus Blaze and Frost, back in 2012, though both had taken place prior to the launch of their livestream services. While both CJ teams now also stream out of Azubu, as part of a package deal with KeSPA, neither of the Taiwanese teams' players are listed anymore.
According to Liu, the Assassins are now sponsored by Asus, a multinational Taiwanese electronics and hardware company best known for their laptops. But their sister team found different suitors.
ESTRANGEMENT
The Snipers now operate under the AHQ banner, temporarily making it an organization of triplets – AHQ, AHQ Fighter, and the newly acquired Snipers. But that relationship didn't last the full month of October before the Snipers underwent yet another massive upheaval. Top laner Lyu 'Zonda' Jhong D was released, and the bot lane duo of Awei and GodJJ were bought out by Hong Kong Esports to join former TPA stars Wai Kin 'Toyz' Lau and Wang 'Stanley' June-Tsan. The Snipers were now in name only, as they were formally "merged" with AHQ Fighters – now title sponsored by Logitech at this point – with no remaining members of the old roster that dominated the Nova League of 2013.
With only the name left, and the players that once defined a promising co-ruler of the Southeast Asian throne scattered across different teams, the Snipers have largely fallen by the way-side. The Assassins, in comparison, are gearing up for a duel for supremacy with AHQ in the newly formed League of Legends Master Series, unfazed by roster shifts or format changes. The sister system that once nurtured them both is now but a distant memory.
