posted by EskayDota,
3 teams in 5 months for the Canadian superstar, where will he end up next?

North America



It's a question on everybody’s mind: where will Jacky 'EternaLEnVy' Mao end up before TI9? Well, if North America is your best bet, then it would be on a completely new team entirely.

There are 5 prominent North American teams at the moment: compLexity Gaming, Evil Geniuses, Forward Gaming, J.Storm and of course, beastcoast. The likely candidates would have been J.Storm or Forward Gaming, but those two have ruled themselves out of the running. Complexity, Beastcoast and EG are out of the equation for obvious reasons.



With J.Storm shuffling recently, Envy’s opportunity to join Fear and the gang has been missed. A recent post on Reddit asking Forward Gaming not to take Envy in favour of any of the teams current players was answered by the teams coach, KBBQ, who simply stated “Don’t worry”. Pieliedie also separately stated in an interview with Febby that he came last place with Envy at TI8, and they both understand it’s time for something new.

So; that leaves all but nowt of prominent organisations in the NA region. Envy would have to start up his own team, but that is something that he’s had issues with in the past. From the outsider perspective, it seems that Envy’s best bet at getting to TI would be in another region.

Region shopping



Which other regions are the candidates for Envy to venture into? South America is one that he’s ventured to before with Infamous. South America could realistically be his best bet at getting to The International 2019, with it being one of the least structurally sound regions – the lack of competition could mean that Envy is desirable for any prominent SA team. Bringing likely sponsors and media attention, he would be an asset to any organisation.



The other candidates for Envy would be Europe or South East Asia. For a man who is determined to get to The International, Europe is one of the most stacked regions, and by no means a safe-bet. Ninjas in Pyjamas and Alliance are the 4/5th best teams in the region, and they are certainly not easy teams to beat. For Envy, building a super team in Europe would be a challenge bigger than any before. Although, that being said, Envy is no stranger to building a European team. After all, who could forget Envy being kicked from NTH just before they became Alliance?

Lastly, Envy has previously ventured into the SEA region with Fnatic. With the current Fnatic roster already qualifying for TI9 and TNC Predator looking like they could qualify, the region’s only rebuttle comes from Mineski and BOOM ID, where only one can win the open qualifier slot. No other teams from the SEA region have DPC points, so finding a team here could be a viable option.

Time before TI



All of that being said, it’s unlikely that Envy would be able to set up a new team in another country without the funding of an organisation. If he’s looking to join a team in SEA or Europe, there aren’t any likely candidates for teams to shuffle before the big tournament – it seems like a poor choice so close to the big event.

The last time Envy wasn’t at an International was TI3, a famously bittersweet result for the Canadian. Thankfully for Envy at least, it doesn’t seem like Beastcoast will be repeating history – although we can never speak too soon.

This is the longest period of instability for Jacky, previously spending numerous years on numerous teams before switching. The kind of quick team changing we’ve seen this year is somewhat unprecedented. You can be certain that Envy will be in a team before The International, and if he fails to find one to join soon you can be certain an NP 2.0 will appear.



Header photo credit: ESL

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    EskayDota

    EskayDota

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