Last week marked the end of not only Rush Gaming's run in the open bracket for CWL Anaheim 2018, but also their close to 3 week bootcamp in America. The players, staff, and perhaps fans have mixed feelings about the performance that was shown in the tournament.
Here is a breakdown of what happened from the management's point of view.
Initially, Rush Gaming was one of the most anticipated teams in the open bracket. They generated lots of attention through their social media activities and this particular video.
They managed to get in contact for scrims or casual matches from some of the best in the west including GoneGaming, eUnited, and FaZe.
For most of the players, being outside of their home country was a whole new experience for them and definitely made them come out of their comfort zones. With the lack of proficiency in English, they basically stuck at their bootcamp and the places nearby. Despite that, each of the members found their own ways of staying in shape such as working out or playing basketball at a court that was nearby the place they stayed at. They also didn't have to worry too much about purchasing items in America as they used SMBC (三井住友カード) for card payments so they wouldn't have to go through the hassle of carrying around USD bills.
The rest of the time they'd be finding scrims and practicing,
and that was their daily routine.
Until we started to realize
that we weren't approaching this correctly.
It was only until a few days before the tournament, the team and management started to face the biggest flaws of Rush Gaming, team communication.
There was never a clear shot-caller in the team, and everyone would talk over each other while making the most basic callouts that doesn't really contribute to victory as much as, let's say strategizing or exchanging information and thinking of how to adjust their game on-the-fly.
The flaws of the team were only magnified when they started to lose almost all their scrims in America, something that has rarely happened in Japan.
Their consecutive victories and absolute dominance in their own local scene masked their weaknesses even more than anyone who had doubts towards the team.
The team tried to make their best efforts to fix internal issues as efficiency as possible within the short time frame. Although the players were excited for the tournament, deep down inside they must have felt that they were under prepared.
And without a doubt, the hardest pill to swallow is when you don't want to admit you're under-skilled relative to the competition.
Tournament day rolls by and Rush Gaming drops their first game in a disappointing fashion. The difference between them and their opponents was clear as day and night.
0-2 loss against Impact Gaming,
sending the team into loser's bracket.
Capture the Flag has always been Rush Gaming's forte, but it is always set to be the 3rd mode to be played in a rotation. Without being given the chance to play to their strengths definitely diminished the chances of the team persevering in CWL Anaheim's open bracket.
Luckily, they proceeded to win their first match in the loser's bracket, giving them a fighting chance on Day 2.
The crowd and also Rush Gaming didn't know much about their opponents and became really close to getting knocked out the tournament, but they managed to clutch it with a 2-1 win, showing once again Capture the Flag being the one mode they can't afford to lose on.
Find out more from this Behind the Scenes video
Next part will be up by next week, so stay tuned for updates!
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