MmE to TD

TD and Season 2

Formation of GGUniversity

Top 3 achievements in 2012



Leaguecraft ggClassic Presented by Arqade - 1st place

MLG Raleigh 2012 - 3rd place

IPL 4 - Las Vegas - 4th place



The Current Lineup

Monomaniac Esports hit the League of Legends scene like a bus. This scrappy little team managed to fly under most people’s radar before IPL4, despite beating out a few of the top teams in the world in order to make it into IPL4. Due to some complications with 2 of their members, last minute subs zig and Zion were picked up to compete with NintendudeX, Pixel, and Para. This would form the core of Team Dynamic who would prove themselves to be a dominant force in Season 2. With the dominance of the ‘Holy Trinity’ of teams in TSM/CLG/Dig that claimed (and still do claim) most titles in North American LoL, a 4th place finish is nothing to scoff at, especially for this rag-tag team of extremely young players.Known for an aggressive early-game style and a take-no-prisoners approach to the metagame, Team Dynamic was a refreshing contrast to the slow farmy style of teams like EG (former CLG.EU). If one tuned in to a stream of theirs during practice, it would be common to hear “screw it, let’s take Baron”. This aggressive attitude was spearheaded by jungler NintendudeX and his infamous Olaf, and ZionSpartan on his beastly Nidalee, who are incidentally the only starting members who remain on GGUniversity in Season 3.Team Dynamic had considerable success, both online and offline throughout Season 2, and really seemed to be at the head of the pack of the “Minor League” in NA, a group consisting of (at the time) Curse, Orbit, MTW.NA, Meat Playground and so on. They began to experience a decline midway through their season however, which included a public outcry on Reddit from their Jungler NintendudeX about the pressures of being an e-celebrity in a somewhat toxic community. A general drop in performance led to NintendudeX being swapped out for Atlanta.This relationship would be short-lived, however, as after his brief time away from the limelight, NintendudeX was welcomed back to TD with fanfare, and hope was restored that they may once again become a dominant force in competitive League of Legends. However, the rest of the season was marked with disappointing finishes for a team eager to prove itself.Citing interpersonal difficulties, and Zig’s “combination of a lack of desire / he was going into university and wanted to commit to that”, both ADC Zig and AP Paradoxical were released within a week of each other, though a keen observer would have noticed DontMashMe playing with TD for some time prior. These decisions were made following a poor showing at Season 2 Regionals, and a shaky looking future for Team Dynamic in Season 3 and beyond. With their momentum coming to almost a full stop, and being down a member for some time, LCS seemed almost out of reach.After the age limit was announced for LCS, a team defined by it’s youth was forced to bench another member: support player Pix3l. After a period of hibernation for the team, they emerged on the other side of Season 2 and pre-Season 3 time as GGUniversity, sporting their new AP Shiphtur and support I am Anjo. At the time of this announcement you probably thought what a lot of us did: who? Though not well known from ladder play, GGU showed they knew what they were doing with their new additions and made it into Season 3 by confidently taking down Dirt Nap Gaming at LCS qualifiers.According to a brief conversation with NintendudeX regarding GGU’s future, he states:“The current plan is to move myself and mashme into an apartment for the first half of the season. The rest of the team is still on school, and when they finish for the summer, we will decide from there if we want a house for all of us”.If Zion was comparable to any other toplaner out there I would say it was Voyboy. His playstyle is one of dominance, with a take-no-prisoners attitude towards anyone who finds himself in his lane. It was once stated that you never could tell when jungler NintendudeX was about to gank you by keying off Zion going aggressive, because he goes aggressive 100% of the time. In the earlier incarnations of this team this would sometimes lead to Zion relentlessly engaging his lane opponent and feeding them, but with training he has honed his play style to an art. A balls to the wall aggressive as all get out art, but an art nonetheless.Best known for his carefree spirit and ruthless axes, NintendudeX is a force of nature when he plays. Much of the team’s early game power comes from the leadership of Nintendude in the jungle, who is most well-known for bringing Olaf jungle back in Season 2 with a revolutionary Mastery build of 9/0/21. In fact, his ability is so feared he often draws an Olaf ban, and occasionally more bans as teams simply cannot deal with him. His ability to be aggressive when appropriate fits naturally with that of Zion and ADC DontMashMe, and teamfights in GGU games will often just erupt off a single good skill shot from Nintendude, most notably the Axe.Most of the community had not heard of Shiphtur when he was announced as the new midlane for this well known team. In spite of this he quickly made a name for himself with consistent, almost quiet, yet always fearsome play. He does not make frequent “flashy plays”, but has a calmness that balances out well with his other teammates’ personalities. NintendudeX has even stated his surprise that they found Shiphtur so easily: “we found Shiphtur basically from when we were running open tryouts for the teams mid lane spot... no one really wowed us and i decided to ask shiphtur who was just chilling on my friends list...and he did really really well with the tryout and the rest is pretty much history”.GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG. If you see this in your game, credit goes to DontMashMe. He is one of the most, how to put this, ‘fun-loving’ pro’s in the scene. From his G-spam macro and occasional-to-frequent trolling of Solo Q, community members, and even his own AMA , DontMashMe certainly knows how to have a good time. His history in League of Legends teams could probably compete with the ‘6 degrees of Kevin Bacon’ with his own ‘6 degrees of DontMashMe’, having played for Unrestricted, Curse, Complexity, TSM.EVO, and more. In spite of his inconsistent career path with teams and his ‘fun-loving’ nature, the most recent LCS event let us see a side of MashMe that the community may not have seen; he was really broken up over his play. Personally he is my ADC of choice to watch out for in LCS.As they say, behind every great AD Carry is a great Support. The story of I am Anjo begins on the Ranked 5’s ladder, where TD were testing out new supports. His play impressed the team so much they asked him to try out as well, and quickly scooped him up to round out their roster. He and DontMashMe have quickly made a name for themselves, as their lane will either win or go even; you would be hard pressed to find a game where they lose their lane. It’s this stability that I am Anjo adds to the team that makes him such a valuable member to GGU’s roster.