The Sun Never Sets on the SVIFT Empire: SVIFT NA
With the end of Season 25 of ESEA’s TF2 Invite division, teams shuffled, died, and reformed to begin anew for the next season of Invite action. Among those teams was SVIFT NA. (Then known as CHEWBACCAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)
Originally, the team comprised of slemnish, Thaigrr, garbuglio, highfive, delpo, and phorofor. Garbuglio, highfive and delpo, as a core, are best well known for playing under the EVL Gaming sponsor in Season 22 following the team’s acquisition of its second roster, managing fourth-place before shuffling with the former players of RONIN shortly after.
The team’s roaming soldier, garbuglio, remarks on the team’s creation:
It was actually kind of an on-the-fly decision to make the team. We came together just a few days before the season started mainly because a lot of the players on the roster weren’t sure about playing another season, but I was able to convince them to come together.
We all knew it was possible to make grand finals with our roster if we all played well; that was sort of the deciding factor for a few players to even play out the season.
With the next season looming around the corner and the team created just days before the start of the regular season, the team was picked up by SVIFT, a TF2 organization created by SVMZI for his Premiership team in Europe.
It actually came as a surprise [joining the SVIFT organization]. At the start of the season we had picked up Thaigrr and he offered it to us and we all liked the idea so we came in under the org.
With the Invite teams locked in the beginning of the regular season, SVIFT NA were ready to take on their first opponent, Faint Gaming. Faint Gaming, coming out of a successful fourth-place finish in the previous season, were the team’s first challenge to determine SVIFT NA’s ability coming into the season. Despite the strong showing from sandblast, Thaigrr was able to overcome the ping disadvantage and carry the team to a close 5–3 victory with a strong showing on Sunshine.
But as Thaigrr became one of his team’s strongest players, he also became one of the team’s largest burdens. Due to his timezone differences, Thaigrr was forced to play official matches at 4 AM by waking up early with an alarm. As expected, this created a liability with whether SVIFT NA were able to play matches, as the English player often slept through his alarm, costing his team crucial matches in the Regular Season.
Of these matches was their first match against Ascent, the team considered then, by many, to be the second best team in North America. The game was largely anticipated, with a new roster going up against the long-standing legacy of Ascent. But despite high expectations, due to Thaigrr sleeping through his alarm, SVIFT NA were forced to request a forfeit-win in the favor of Ascent.
Going into the second week of Invite, Thaigrr was once again absent for SVIFT NA’s matchup against Velocity eSports, a team that came close to making playoffs in the season prior. However, scizor was able the stand-in for Thaigrr, allowing the team to forgo the forfeit-loss. Velocity eSports started off with a robust first half, coming into the second half with a 2–1 advantage. Velocity eSports held onto their 2–1 scoreline with strong mids and a solid defense, keeping SVIFT NA just at bay. With only 7 minutes left in the game, SVIFT NA pulled out a miracle uber pushing into Velocity’s last following two crucial picks. Keeping Velocity’s players near the spawn, slemnish and phorofor were able to capture their last point with little-to-no competition, bringing the game to an equal score of 2–2.
Tied up, both teams remained cautious, hoping to capitalize on the timer and win out with at least a 3–2 scoreline. With both of Velocity’s scouts and their demo falling to scizor and delpo’s great pipes, Velocity were forced to concede the mid and hold their uber for a defense on second. But that defense would soon crumble, following the dropping of both of Velocity’s scouts and soldiers, leaving only Jarrett and bear left to defend their last point from an aggressive SVIFT NA. Bear popped off his uber as late as could on Jarrett to save the last point, but a break in the uber would leave Jarrett to die to a sticky trap on point and the immediate loss of the round to SVIFT NA, bringing it 3–2.
With five minutes left and left at a 1 point deficit, Velocity needed to win the next mid to have any chance at even tieing up the scoreline. Garbuglio, taking advantage of Velocity’s hesitance, bombed into the combo at the mid, taking out both Jarrett and Kryptonite, as well as dealing a large amount of damage to Bear, who would be cleaned up by slemnish. Discombobulated and without heals, Velocity crumbled and were left with a complete wipe after cleanup by highfive and scizor. With full uber advantage, SVIFT NA pushed into second for free and awaited for a pick to push into last. Velocity had no choice but to attempt to contest SVIFT NA’s second hold and ubered in to little avail. Both medics popped off their uber, but Velocity were unable to make any ground or any create an advantage, retreating back into main with a Battalion’s Backup charge. But the charge proved to be too weak, as scizor managed to win two 1v1’s against knuck and marmaloo, pushing Jarrett to deal with scizor. Without support from their demo, shamoo and Kryptonite fell shortly after attempting to aggress SVIFT NA’s defense. With just Jarrett and bear left to defend last, SVIFT NA overwhelmed the duo and secured a 4–2 scoreline and the victory.
SVIFT NA’s regular season would continue to go on smoothly, with a clean 5–0 win against black swan on Metalworks in Week 2, a less-than-clean 5–2 victory against myanimelist dot net the next week on Granary, and another 4–0 victory against Cat Noises in Week 3.
With three matches without Thaigrr, the team decided that there was clearly a need for a reliable American replacement. Despite the large impact he provided to the team when he played, the team’s dependence on a teammate and his alarm clock were too costly if they wanted to remain competitive.
[Thaigrr played] better than any of us expected, I’m sure. He’s a very strong player and he helped us out a lot when we were trying to get a feel for our team. It’s unfortunate there’s such a time zone difference; it would have been fun to finish out the season with him.
In his place, marmaduke was brought in. Marmaduke was notable for his tenure under Gnomercy in the previous season, managing a third-place finish with his teammate slemnish.
With marmaduke officially on the roster, SVIFT NA had to face the number one seed in ESEA Invite: froyotech. Taking down the number one team in North America was an audacious task, but with the possibility of an upset on Product, there was the possibility of a win against b4nny’s team.
The first matchup against froyotech at mid appeared promising with every player except shade dropping to SVIFT NA, but at the cost of phorofor. With froyotech coming in with full Kritzkrieg advantage, habib was able to bring delpo down to 12 health, but was unable to secure a kill until after the uber had already faded. With an immediate bomb from garbuglio, shade and b4nny were wiped off and forced froyotech to retreat and repush with their respawned players.
Froyotech’s soldiers and demoman counter-sacced onto mid, attempting to secure a kill or a force onto phorofor, but were denied by great air denial and sighguy’s inability to connect a second rocket onto the enemy medic. With the scouts and the medic having already retreated back to spawn with full uber, froyotech were adamant to right their wrongs and finally secure a point against SVIFT NA. Holding close, SVIFT NA quickly retreated with the advancement of froyotech onto grass, which would ultimately cost them with the trading of marmaduke and the loss of delpo to arekk. Without a soldier and a demo to defend and highfive unable to force the uber on shade, froyotech captured the point after over two minutes of failed offenses. With a pick on arekk and a denied bomb by blaze, the teams traded ubers with SVIFT NA capturing the point again after a minute.
Froyotech retaliated with a successful flank by arekk and blaze, giving them a three player advantage, including a failed bomb by marmaduke and holding off SVIFT NA’s offensive capabilities. SVIFT NA reacted with an uber onto point with initial resistance from froyotech and missed shots from garbuglio on sniper. In the post-uber skirmish, garbuglio’s connected shots, a failed bomb by blaze, and a pick onto b4nny by delpo would secure SVIFT NA a point against the best team in North America.
The next round fared poorly for SVIFT NA however, with froyotech finally pulling out their aggression against the team and a strong forward hold immediately after. But a fantastic bomb from garbuglio soon after the forward hold was bolstered would drop shade and bring SVIFT NA at uber and heal advantage, but at the cost of two players. With uber advantage, SVIFT NA pushed back onto the point, but were unable to secure the point with their strong player disadvantage.
The middle point exchanged hands back and forth with scrappy bombs and fights gaining each team a player advantage. With only ten seconds remaining, SVIFT NA pushed in a desperate attempt to regain control of the point, with their timer only having five seconds remaining. Despite the cap from SVIFT NA, a well-placed trap from habib denied slemnish and phorofor from the point. With heals advantage and massive player advantage, froyotech retook the point and tie the match 1–1.
A strong middle fight revitalized SVIFT NA, coming from a close loss last round. But a bomb from blaze dashed that new-found life away as SVIFT NA lost phorofor and their heals, with froyotech gaining back the point just as fast as they lost it. With uber disadvantage and going up against a forward hold, the team pushed without heals to break the forward hold and drop shade, which was accomplished by delpo with two crisp pipes onto the enemy medic.
A solid push brought the point back to SVIFT NA, but froyotech retaliated and secured the point for themselves again. The point exchange continued throughout the round but a strong defense from SVIFT NA finally won them yet another point in the round, bringing the score 2–1.
With strong bombs and holds, both teams were neck-and-neck, with froyotech winning the next round, but with SVIFT NA’s timer at just twenty seconds. In the final round of the first half, froyotech dominated SVIFT NA, cleaning the first half off with a 3–2 scoreline and SVIFT NA’s timer at just over two minutes and bringing froyotech to match point.
Froyotech were not willing to play around in the second half, securely taking the middle point and denying SVIFT NA’s advances. SVIFT NA’s inability to capitalize on picks and froyotech’s DM ability cost them in the end, with froyotech winning the match 4–2, with only two minutes and thirty seconds on SVIFT NA’s clock.
Motivated by a strong performance against froyotech, SVIFT NA rolled through their two Week 4 matches against The Sparkle Gang and myanimelist dot net. In Week 5, SVIFT NA would rematch against Velocity eSports. With a stunning 25 frags by delpo, SVIFT NA were able to secure a strong scoreline of 5–1 after only 26 minutes.
Immediately afterward, SVIFT NA would also rematch against froyotech, with delpo dealing a majority of the team’s damage and the most kills of any of his teammates. With a 2–2 scoreline at the end of the first half, SVIFT NA seemed to be at equal odds with froyotech going into the second half. But after several failed pushes in the second half, froyotech rolled through three rounds in the latter 15 minutes, despite SVIFT NA’s fortified resistance to froyotech’s aggression.
Week 7 stood as a low point for SVIFT NA, being matched up against the former roster of Faint Gaming who had renamed themselves to Woodpig. Under the leadership of yight, dingo and laz accumulated 34 kills each against SVIFT NA, leading to a 2–5 scoreline in the favor of Woodpig. But despite the strong showing from woodpig, they would still lose to Velocity into making playoffs.
Going into Week 8, a WFF in the favor of SVIFT NA from Cat Noises and a 5–0 wipe against The Sparkle Gang essentially guaranteed a playoffs slot going into the final week of the regular season. Going into Week 9, SVIFT NA would gain another 5–0 against black swan, but would have to face off against Ascent, a team that they were forced to FFL against in the first week.
With both teams having essentially newly formed rosters, the first half remained mostly static with only Ascent managing to attain one point with the help of a strong showing from paddie and yomps. Going into the second half, the game remained slow and static, with Ascent gaining another point after eighteen minutes.
With only eleven minutes remaining, Ascent were determined to hammer the nail in the coffin for SVIFT NA. A backcap from showstopper wiped SVIFT NA’s dreams of managing even pushing the game to a tie. With garbage time essentially declared, SVIFT NA managed to finally put a point on the board, but still had no time to take it to even a 2–3 scoreline. But with that loss behind them, SVIFT NA could look towards their rematch against Ascent in playoffs.
Taking on the second seed from the regular season, SVIFT NA took the opportunity to exact their revenge against Ascent. In the first map of Snakewater, SVIFT NA demonstrated the power of their scout combo, with both scouts attaining forty kills each. But despite this strong showing in damage and frags, their point deficit in the first half exacerbated into a 4–5 loss to Ascent.
Going into Product, the strength of slemnish shined through, accumulating a total of 9,255 damage with the second highest damages coming in the 7,000 range from highfive and marmaduke. A 4–0 scoreline after the close game on Badlands surely meant that SVIFT NA could persevere into the third match and securely win the series.
But the aggression from SVIFT NA evaporated going against Ascent on Sunshine. The friction SVIFT NA was able to created against Ascent’s dominant pushes in the first half was not able to stop Ascent in the second half with strong picks and confident last pushes securing a prevailing 5–1 scoreline against SVIFT NA and a 2–1 series win in the favor of Ascent, knocking SVIFT NA into the lower bracket against Velocity eSports.
Determined to show their worth against Ascent once again, SVIFT NA dominated Velocity eSports in the lower bracket, taking 4–2 lead on Product and an asserting 5–1 victory on Badlands, eliminating Velocity eSports and moving SVIFT NA into the Lower Bracket Finals, where Ascent were waiting for them.
Ascent were no strangers to taking down SVIFT NA with a strong 2–0 scoreline in the first half. But SVIFT NA did not want to go down without a fight, pushing to gain 2 points in their favor, tying the score up 2–2 and taking the game into the golden cap, allowing SVIFT NA to edge out Ascent with a 3–2 victory on the first map of the series.
Fueled with confidence, SVIFT NA rolled through Ascent on Gullywash. Garbuglio’s use of tall hiding spots on Gullywash’s mid and confident headshots onto Nursey from highfive were able to take down Ascent’s uber and heals, securing a huge upset in favor of SVIFT NA, with a final scoreline of 5–0 against Ascent and a 2–0 series score. The only thing standing in SVIFT NA’s way was the monolith of froyotech, who had only lost two rounds to Ascent and Velocity eSports in the playoffs so far.
With a series disadvantage, SVIFT NA had to take on the task of taking froyotech down from the lower bracket, an audacious task in North American Invite. In the first map of Process, SVIFT NA were able to secure an initial first round against the North American powerhouse, but froyotech would sweep the underdog under the rug, rolling through a straight five rounds into a 5–1 victory on the first map.
Confidence wasn’t completely gone for the North American SVIFT roster, but hesitation was a key part of SVIFT’s play in the second map. In Gullywash, a change in pace with a change to the Kritzkrieg for both teams benefited froyotech more than SVIFT NA. Strong kritz ubers from habib outshined the generally lackluster ubers from delpo, often due to delpo being taken out early or poor positioning allowing froyotech to flee before any damage could be done.
Froyotech would end the series 2–0, taking their ninth Invite title and giving SVIFT NA their first second-place title in ESEA. Delpo was able to share his thoughts on their team’s performance in the grand finals:
We played well but b4nny’s immense brain was too much to handle.
SVIFT NA showed off a strong showing on their first season of ESEA Invite, managing to take down Ascent and take the second-place title from RONIN/Ascent/EVL for the first time in nearly five seasons. It’s unknown whether SVIFT NA will stick together for the upcoming season of ESEA Invite as they declined to comment on the longevity of the roster, nor did they comment on whether attending Rewind 2 was a possibility. However, garbuglio was able to share his thoughts on the future of ESEA and the Invite division.
Unfortunately, the game seems to be in a steady decline, what with IM going away and everything. But, this was a pretty healthy season of invite considering most of the teams actually stayed alive. I think there’s a chance IM could come back and there might be some rising talent in Invite [next season].
If you would like to support the SVIFT organization, check out their Twitter and their warpaint on the Steam Workshop.
The interview with garbuglio was conducted on December 12, 2017.
