Rhinos: Staying the Course, Seeking Championship Glory
The Rhinos have been seen as the team to beat this season in the Premier League. Franchise Manager R E D confidently stated, “As a team, we are looking to go the distance. The Rhinos PL team got our first taste of the championship last season, and we hope to finally bring it home this year.”
The first thing they plan to do is commit to improving as a team. “This means setting up scrims throughout the season, going over replays to help pick out any flaws or mistakes that we need to focus on, and continually building team chemistry,” R E D explained. “We want to be as competitive as possible this season, and I believe this team is ready to do that.”
Ending the interview, the Rhinos concluded with an emphatic statement: “We are very excited for this season to get underway and look forward to all the amazing competition that we will face along the way. Lastly, Stamp and crash, tramp and bash – the Rhinos are here to clash!”
Bulls: Hungry for a Championship
The Bulls Master League (ML) team has been a force to be reckoned with. Snipes, a player for the Bulls, has an ambitious goal: “I think I can speak for the team when I say that we mainly want to focus on a championship win. However, the Bulls have one of the hardest schedules, so first we need to survive a lot of games against top teams, but our main goal at the moment is to make the playoffs and win every series we can.”
The Bulls ML team is fortunate to have higher salary guys that want to prove they are the top of ML, with a blend of lower salary guys who want to prove that they were undervalued in the draft and in free agency. They hope that their body of work this season will reflect how important this goal is not just for the team, but for every player on their roster.
Acyke, one of the Bulls Assistant General Managers, provided the franchise’s final thoughts ahead of the new season: “Our biggest goal every year is just to have a group of guys who like being around each other. We like to play a bunch of games together, and I like to think that we are just a big group of friends who enjoy gaming together.”
Tyrants: Aiming to Claim the Championship
One team in the Champion League (CL) that has gained a lot of attention in the off-season is the Tyrants. Talking to the team ahead of the season, they had a clear, if somewhat blunt, goal: “We’re winning the chip.” While I was not sure what that meant, I can only assume they are going for the championship.
The Tyrants Franchise Manager, HyperCoder, has a plan to help accomplish their goal: “Our team has been playing together nearly every day so far – scrims, ranked, casual, in-houses – as well as getting coaching and replay reviews from ML players. We plan to keep this going to make sure our team plays as well as we can together.”
HyperCoder concluded our brief interview with a friendly warning to their competition: “We wish everyone the absolute best of luck – you’re going to need it. It’s Tyrants SZN!”
Flames: Aiming High, Keeping It Casual
In a focus group survey, the Flames were voted the number one Academy League (AL) team. In a short interview, their Franchise Manager, Crazy, made it clear he wanted to go for the championship: “We’re looking to get over the final hurdle and win a championship. We’ve been to the Playoffs the last three seasons, Conference Finals twice, and came close in Season 12 but fell short in the finals, and are looking to win it this season.”
Describing his team, Crazy said, “Skill-wise, I feel like we are a very well-rounded team, and having four of us be on the same franchise for three seasons, our chemistry and cohesiveness as a team has a solid foundation. So if we sharpen the edges and fine-tune everything, I believe we can bring the championship home.”
Crazy concluded, “I am very excited for this season to start and see what it will hold for us. The Tropic Division is always a very competitive division, and I know that we’re going to have to fight every week. But we are very strong, and I’m extremely confident in our entire team and know that we can get the job done.”
Spartans: Chasing the Top Spot
In the Foundation League (FL) this season, keep an eye out for the Spartans – they have big plans. The Spartans have weekly scrims planned, and Captain TorDad is at the helm after leading them to a second-place finish in Standard last season. With his leadership skills and a team that’s looking to get comfortable playing with each other, they’re also aiming for the top spot.
The Spartans will undoubtedly face tough competition, but their determination and preparation may give them an edge in the Forge Division. TorDad built a team that made it all the way to the championship last season. As he said, “He was such an amazing captain last season, and he will be an even better one this season.”
For the Spartans Franchise Manager, ThePiggyBuggy, her goal is one not just solely based on success. “For me, I would like to see everyone get comfortable playing with each other and become stronger throughout the season.”
While all the teams are going for Season 15 championship titles, they all have different plans to reach their goal. Some are planning scrims and practices, others plan to hang with each other playing games. But who will actually be taking their respective championships home come the end of the season? That is something only time can tell.
Season 15 of Minor League Esports starts Thursday, 9th March.
The Foxes: From Rags to Riches
In the early post-season of Minor League Esports Season 13, the Foxes had found themselves in the play-ins for that season’s playoffs. Their season ended, however, just as quickly as the post-season started, as the Academy League Foxes were first out in standard and second out in doubles. This was a crushing loss, having worked so hard that season and having made it as far as they did. This, however, is just the beginning of this tale of rags to riches.
The Foxes have a very specific mindset that’s been the fundamental of their mental game for several seasons. When asked about their losses at the end of Season 13, they all shared the opinion that it wasn’t that big of a deal and that they simply lost to a better team. This roster, however, was far from over.
Most players after a season ends will collectively go their separate ways, stop playing together, or start working on getting ready for the next season as soon as the current one ends. The Foxes, however, found themselves in the VCs of their discord regularly, playing as they had the whole season well into the off-season – at least three or four nights a week, the Academy League Foxes would come together and run in-house games or scrims versus other leagues or Emilia scrims when she was still the main source of competition within the league.
Between seasons 13 and 14, there was an abnormally long offseason spanning the better side of six months. And when you couple that with the close-knit group of friends who play together, the result is an astonishing amount of chemistry between players. For months, players SupaHotBoii, Kai, Kaliber, AmericasF1nest, and Whyuacow played together, with the remaining members of the other teams. Kai and Kaliber spent those months challenging their teammates to get better, having been the flagship players during Season 13.
When the new season approached, the elephant in the room was every player’s biggest question for their FM: “Who’s being retained? And who is not?” During a town hall meeting of the players, it was immediately apparent that all players wished to be retained, having grown together through season 13 and the extended off-season. And thus, the decision was quickly made – the environment that they had created was easy to play in, easy to play with, and was always a good choice to hop in the VC.
The Foxes didn’t need to draft players – they had all the ingredients of a championship team, as SupaHotBoii mentioned shortly before season 14’s draft lottery. After draft transactions, the AL Foxes were left with just one 3rd round, 17th pick. That means that 81 players were drafted before the Foxes could pick up anyone, and they only got to pick one player.
So, who did the AL Foxes look to pick up to make their already S-tier lineup better? The players had collectively agreed, as if they could disagree on anything at this point, that they didn’t want to go for someone highly skilled. They didn’t want someone who was going to win them games or score lots of goals. No, the Foxes wanted something much different than that of other teams – they went out into scrims, tryouts, and hangouts looking for someone who everyone liked, someone who could match the energy that the current roster was already putting out. And once again, the Foxes agreed that there was one player that they loved playing with: RaspyDingo.
Raspy was the 81st pick of the Season 14 academy league draft. In his career in MLE, he’s played over a thousand matches, averaging 321 MVPR (for those of us old-schoolers that still know what that means, since the change to the Sprocket Rating). Raspy also averages 114 goals on 288 shots per game, meaning the Foxes were still getting a solid and capable player. But as they recall some of the experiences in the Foxes VCs with Raspy, they jokingly got all that and more.
Raspy is the life of the party. According to his teammates, it is impossible to fumble your mental state when he’s around. He doesn’t even have to be playing – he just hops in and, with more enthusiasm than anyone else, hypes up his teammates and keeps them focused on doing what they do best: having fun.
It all seemed on the up and up until League Operations made changes to how the league was going to function. During the elo redistribution, Kai was lost to a rank-out and moved up to Champion League, and Kaliber followed shortly after. The team was thrown into a panic, trying to figure out what they were going to do for the upcoming season, having retained effectively an entire roster and then adding to it. Now they were down two players, and their best two at that. They were scrambling for options now, having used their draft pick to draft RaspyDingo.
As a result, the Foxes picked up NullKey, Unbreki, and Westlysn1pes – three players well known to the Foxes that fit the bill of what they were looking for in a player. NullKey had a very large decision to make when picking his team for season 14, saying, “I had to pick between the Aviators and the Foxes, and the Foxes have way better colors, so-” With these two being signed, they rounded out the roster going into Season 14.
And boy, the season they are having now. As of week 5, the AL Foxes roster has a 4-1 series record, with an overall record of 17-8 in both standard and doubles. They are leading the goal differential statistic by a large margin, having scored 27 more goals than they have conceded in standard and 24 more in doubles. At this point, it is highly unlikely that the team will miss playoffs, and they’ve got their eyes set on a Season 14 title.
When asked about their ambitions, they said the following:
Whyuacow: “We are not at the top of the league until we’ve beaten every team. The score is zero-zero, and this is going to be tough.”
AmericasF1nest: “You can’t get down when you have the support that we do. We can always build off each other.”
SupaHotBoii: “We are not saying we’re the best, but we’re going to bring our best every game. It is not going to be easy, but we’re number one for a reason.”
Regarding their strategies, the team said:
SupaHotBoii: “We favor the offense and we’re very offensively based, but losing doesn’t affect us – it makes us more fired up to do better the next game. Communication between games is a massive part of the team. Always asking what could be better and what works.”
Whyuacow: “Raspy, sick ’em!”
The Foxes are a very closely knit team that has taken Academy League teams by storm, absolutely blowing them off their axles. They have proven that communication, friendship, and a grit-and-grind mentality will get better results for a team than trying to cram statistically rated players on a field together. Maybe, just maybe, the Foxes’ cunning plans will lead to the ultimate prize.
Season 14 is rolling right along, and there is no better time to continue getting to know our great players and staff. Let’s take a light-hearted look at those that make up the great MLE community. In this interview, it’s time to get to know Maple.
Getting to Know Maple
Q: What role do you play in MLE?
Maple: I am the director of the Development Team, an advisor to League Operations, a member of the mod team, and I help out with Production whenever Leachy lets me.
Q: What does the Development Team do in the grand scheme of MLE?
Maple: Development is responsible for two core areas. The first is all of our code – so our bots that provide scrims and replay submission, and so much more. The second is Data Sciences. That group tracks all stats, helps tune elo, and helps League Operations with information needed to help keep competitive integrity. They also do lots more, like babysit Adi.
Q: What brought you to MLE and how long have you been here?
Maple: Ripperr brought me here. I used to run another community, MiddleAgeNoobs (MAN), and was looking for a place to play. I’ve been here for close to 25 years!
Q: What team do you play for currently?
Maple: I’m non-playing this year, but I am the General Manager of the Sabres. Go SAB!
Q: How long have you been a part of the Sabres?
Maple: This is my third season. I started out as a Foundation League Captain, then became GM last season and again this season.
Q: What aspects of MLE do you love?
Maple: Almost everything! I love the non-toxic part the most – the people are amazing. Raspberries and Water took me on a BBQ date. The quality of play and the professionalism of our entire staff are also exciting.
Q: What other ways do you think MLE sets itself apart from other leagues?
Maple: The fact that we play all 5 games, that we are draft-based, and that our staff are the best in league and community management are big. But by far the biggest thing that sets us apart is our community and our members. MLE’s community is second to none.
We also have TyTy, and he’s pretty awesome. We also have the active support and participation of Phoebe, a Ubisoft Nadeo Dev, who believes in MLE’s community and values – so that’s saying something.
The non-toxic part was huge for me as well. My wife basically told me, “If you don’t start having fun, I’m going to break the disk.” Finding MLE was huge for me in that regard. That aspect really sets MLE apart, in my opinion.
Q: What caused you to have a desire to help out?
Maple: I love to help – it’s just in my nature. There was a spot in Admissions open, and I applied. I still think that whole admissions team is amazing. Love ya, Deejay!
Q: What has been your favorite or most fulfilling time on staff?
Maple: This is a tough one. I’d say joining League Ops and helping bring 3s in, and also working with Shuckle, Adi, Riz, and Zach on Emilio and now Sprocket has been extremely rewarding. The scrim system alone has helped MLE rekindle its community-first focus.
Silly questions:
Q: Does pineapple belong on pizza?
Maple: Yes. If it makes you happy, why not?
Q: What do you consider rule 1 to be?
Maple: Sacred.
Q: Have you ever broken it?
Maple: Only in the playoffs. Otherwise, you never break rule 1.
Q: What’s your opinion of demos?
Maple: The more the merrier. I’m a huge fan of Rocket Sledge and think demos are an important part of the game.
Q: Have you had a favorite demo play in an MLE series?
Maple: I was playing in a 2s series with Goosen, who is a Sabres Captain now and an incredible friend that I’ve made through MLE. He
