GO history – The booming
This new chapter of GamersOrigin’s history will focus on venturing into new esports games while reinforcing existing ones.
2017 begins with a challenge taken up by GamersOrigin: getting involved for the first time with a 7 years old competitive scene by picking up a League of Legends team. Until then, the structure’s rosters – Hearthstone and Overwatch – had been setup as the games were released, when everything had yet to be built. This time, it was about joining a well defined ecosystem, and aiming for the top.
Shemek, Bluerzor, Tonerre, Kitty and Targamas joined GO on january 16th 2017, with manager Shanky and coach Dinep.
Their arrival was in sync with an increased mediatisation of the french competitive field. The team is shooting for a podium in its debut, and through the disconnects, remakes and tie-breaks in an emotionally charged Montpellier Esport Show, GO won its first League of Legends tournament.
Titles followed one another, in LANs but also online: the team is unquestionably France’s best throughout 2017, with eight trophies and four podiums.
Two blows darken the picture: failing to qualify for the Challenger Series, which would have been extraordinary seeing how young the roster was, and the defeat against Millenium during the finals of the Challenge France. But this doesn’t negate the team’s amazing performances all throughout the season.
I’ve been with GO for a while now. We doubted ourselves a lot last year, but still managed to dominate the french circuit.
We came back with a new team, and once again everyone thought we were the underdogs. We proved otherwise and now we’re stronger than ever.
Tonerre, GO midlaner
Overwatch Contenders seasons 0 and 1 were GO’s occasion to show to the continental scene the potential of this entirely french roster, ending with a fifth place among hundreds of teams that tried to take part in the competition.
The Overwatch League signaled the end of the Overwatch adventure for GamersOrigin in november 2017. The players joined other structures, like Gaël “Poko” Gouzerch, who left for the Overwatch League where he now shines wearing the colors of the Philadelphia Fusion.
Still, we’ll remember this year as an amazing experience, both on a human and a competitive level, with a whole bunch of great moments.
On the Hearthstone side, Un33d was the man of the hour at GO. Between May and August, he won three french tournaments in a row: two GamersOrigin Championship Series and an ArmaCup. He also managed to grab international results by finishing in DreamHack Winter’s top 4 for the second time in a row, and by returning from the IGS of Lausanne with the second place.
The line-up was strenghtened by the arrival of Adrien “Charon” Tonnelier, the first change within the team since Mitsuhide’s departure in June.
Purple managed to become champion of the Americas for the second time and qualified right after fo the World Championship finals, which took place in Amsterdam in January 2018. An important GamersOrigin delegation made the trip to support the Canadian, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough, and Purple didn’t get past the group stage.
This Ouibus trip was a great moment of cohesion for GamersOrigin, all united behind Purple. We want to keep this GO family spirit that we’re really attached to, and I think we’re managing so far.
Guillaume, CEO.
Then, GamersOrigin extended to other games, starting on November 24th with a Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds roster featuring mÄydie, Unconspicuous, ElastiXx and Fanom, with Egregores as a manager.
Only four days after their arrival they proved their strength with a victory in Tribe Esport tournament and a great performance in PUBG Online Showdown.
Several roster changes were made, following opportunities and the needs of the team.
GamersOrigin entered the Starcraft II scene with Ilyes “Stephano” Satouri’s arrival. Know as one of the best foreigner ever, he qualified himself for Pyeongchang Olympic Tournament, where he represented Tunisia in January 2018.
Dofus is the most played game made by the French company Ankama. The MMORPG has a dedicated player-base and its esports scene has been growing since the Dofus World Series began. In January, GamersOrigin recruited Allister Zoo, World Championship title-holders. A few months later, they won their second title in Tours with a GO tag.
We also signed a TrackMania roster, which includes Cap, Papou, Cocow and Aurel with SoftyB as manager. Pac, another world champion, joined them a few weeks later. This roster knew there were high expectations and didn’t fail to impress with two victories during GamersAssembly 2018 and by qualifying two players for the ZeratoR Cup semifinals, a live event coming on June 30th.
The next chapter will focus on the organization next projects concerning its esport adventure #GOWIN!
