A big thank you to Chad, Alec and Naser...

We haven’t done any of these types of blog posts on the site yet, and I haven’t really published any content, but I wanted to take a few minutes to thank several of the NRG staff that are moving on to new things.

Alec, who you might know as Qwerm or Bon Quish (The first person to ever make challenger when the ladder opened up forever ago) was one of our lead analysts. Alec has been with me pretty much since I got into running League of Legends teams. Alec always gave me his honest opinion on anything I asked from him (and many things I never asked for). He was always the guy who would do anything for the team regardless of his job description. I’ve seen him wake up hours before the players and make them smoothies just because. We’ve done a hundred midnight runs to Wal-Mart or Vons for everything from a personal heater because GBM must keep his room at 103 degrees to medicating Moon because he had never picked up medicine by himself. Alec is a really close friend of mine and has always put 110% of his efforts into everything we have asked him to do. I have no doubt that he will excel at his new position and I wish him luck.

The second person I want to thank for his time is Naser. When I approached Hermit to coach for NRG, one of his main requirements was that he was able to bring his own analysts over. Naser started with us as a remote analyst and we quickly realized that he was very much the counterweight that brought balance to Hermit's coaching skills and even more his personality. Naser provided a lot of value for the team and when we decided to move houses and have fewer people at the house we moved Naser back to a remote analyst position. After the first couple of weeks Naser decided that he wanted to have more input on a team than he could give working remotely. He asked me if he could explore some opportunities that would allow him to get closer to a team and do what he really enjoyed.

We hope that he finds a new home that he enjoys and are sure he will be successful.

Chad our League of Legends General Manager was probably the most integral, overworked, overburdened and generally positive person on our staff that we have had. I approached him very early on in NRG’s founding for various roles and duties and he has done probably every task that it takes to keep the many gears moving required for an eSports organization to thrive. Especially a brand new one; Chad kept the team and coaches in check when they met and practiced in Korea for the first time. He was with me before anyone moved into the house and did everything from moving furniture to making beds waiting for the players to arrive. Chad has had to fight with Riot for us, protect the players from a myriad range of distractions and deal with 50 people asking for requests on a daily basis. He didn’t necessarily sign up for the job he ended up doing and it wasn’t something he had experience doing. Despite that, he dug his feet in, worked on every stressful task given to him and kept a smile on his face most of the time while doing it.

Chad is one of the hardest working individuals I have met in eSports. He put his own skin into the game and when he told me he needed a break and wanted to do some personal things before trying to find out what he wanted to do, I fully understood. It is definitely tough that I won’t get to work with my friend every day but I’m sure wherever he goes he will be a positive force.

P.S. Chad: We both know you sucked too bad to play professional support. ex dee

As it is with anything that grows, changes need to be made and people and things outgrow each other. I think these changes will be better for the individuals and NRG.

Thank you Alec, Chad and Naser!

As a footnote;

NRG will be doing a full press release on the new members of the organization, but we would like to additionally welcome Barry (KoreanEdelweiss) Lee on board for the split to help with team management. Barry has helped NRG with a lot of things in the past and we are excited to bring him on board full time.

The other major NRG addition is David “Hermes” Tu joining our coaching staff. I’ve watched David coach through the NA Challenger Series 2015 and last spring split in the LCS. I came away very impressed with his coaching and interpersonal skills. We are all super excited that he decided to help us and the effects of his tutelage have already been felt with our effort in last week's matches.

Go follow them.

@KoreanEdelweiss

@HermesTheTurtle

Thank you,

Gerard “Atlas” Kelly