Overall, 2014 was not a very successful year for Gambit Gaming, especially if you compare it to our accomplishments in 2012 and 2013. With that in mind, we decided to look back at some of the positive occurrences that took place last year. Whereas they might not be that impressive in the grand scheme of things, they were significant for us and our fans given the context at the time they happened.

Read: First Blood #11 featuring P1noy

Spring Split and Darien's Spotlight
Even though we barely qualified for LCS EU Summer by overcoming Copenhagen Wolves in the 5^th place decider match in Spring Playoffs, for the majority of the Spring Split our team didn't drop below the 3^rd place. Up until the 9^th week, our team on average was occupying the 2^nd place and was in turn competing with Fnatic, Roccat and SK for the 1^st place in the standings (see: Time Line). Our records weren't by no means outstanding, but it was enough to stay on top due to the intensity of the competition.

Every player on our team had his own moments of brilliance, but if we want to be frank – Darien was in the limelight the most. His playstyle was far from being a textbook play, but most of the teams were still falling into his age-old trap. Evgeny did not hesitate to draw the attention away from the rest of our team, running circles around our opponents, while Diamond & Co were securing global objectives. Last but not least, he pioneered several builds that other pro players are yet to make work: Manamune on Aatrox, AP Renekton and IBG on Shyvana, and has even forced a Warwick ban.

Fan Support at IEM Katowice
We cherish interaction with our fans wherever we are, but there are few if any tournaments where we get this kind of support. It became apparent that we have a huge following back in 2013, when we had a miraculous run against both Azubu teams. What shocked us though this year, was a standing ovation from a crowd even after our crushing loss against KT Bullets in the semifinals. We are looking forward to coming back to Katowice again in 2015.

The Final Super Week of Summer
After a series of unsuccessful performances in the first part of the split, it took us some time to adapt to several enforced changes, but we managed to pull ourselves together and secure a 4-1 score in the final Super Week of the split (including tiebreaker match against CW). More than anything, it was refreshing to see Diamond on top of his game. He managed to replicate his MVP worthy performance on Evelynn against SK.

IEM Cologne
This tournament did not feature the top teams from Europe and North America, but we were still looking forward to face quality teams like Roccat and CLG. At the end of the day, there is nothing wrong with adding another trophy to your collection. It was our sixth IEM victory that granted us a chance to win a second IEM World Championship.

Going into this tournament, our only aim was obviously to win, but there were several other benefits from attending it as well. We got a chance to introduce our new players. They impressed us with their individual performances and earned themselves new fans. Besides that, we got a valuable insight on our own gameplay – game footage is certainly helpful in preparation for the upcoming season. Overall, it is great to end a year on a good note and to have a boost of confidence going into new LCS split.

Finding Great Replacements
Last year we lost three players that were integral to our legacy and international success. There are probably few Western players, who achieved so much in the competitive LoL scene. It was heart breaking for us and our fans, but we had to move on and find a mix of players that we believe can compete at the highest level at least in the West.

We ended up recruiting niQ, Cabochard and P1noy. All of them are experienced players from the Challenger scene who still have a chance to prove themselves at a major level of competition. Our goal was to find players from our region who have not been part of a major team yet and therefore are hungry for success. We believe that recruiting upcoming talent is the right way to go and we are actually proud that we were able to achieve this goal.