So after a recent journey into some old webspace I noticed root-gaming.com had finally gone offline removing most traces of what was once my favorite Starcraft team.
In June of last year Complexity gaming acquired ROOT after their long standing issues with finding a proper sponsorship.
With this merger the team was half absorbed by coL (CatZ, drewbie, Minigun, DdoRo), while half broke off (Slush, KiWi, Sheth, Fayth, Destiny). You could even argue leading up to the sponsorship troubles another key part of the team was forced to move on to find some backing (Sheth, qxc, Major).
I also know that part of ROOT's backend management guys were picked up by organizations as well. (edchang, SunDevil to IPL). I'm not sure how that coincided with ROOT's dissolving.
Ignoring the ending, in their time ROOT managed to do something that few teams in this space have accomplished. Create a likeable, inspiring brand.
They were an organic collection of talent, easily among the best assemblies of North American players, and one without the Brood War pedigree that teams like EG/TL relied on to build their image.
Over the course of the beta and early release they had fantastic clan war results, I've heard some very high win rates cited by CatZ but finding the exact records is a bit hard. But fans can attest, they were successful and had strong feuds building with big name teams which added to their draw.
Beyond that they created a mascot (a CatZ drawn little Root man), colour schemes (earthy tones reflecting the name). They had some success with content creation, tournament hosting, and were the first foreigner team to independently set up a training house.
So the brand was strong, everyone had an opinion on them, either as passionate fans or opponents of their style. Exactly what you want from a team.
Now when Complexity picked them up my question is, when not create coL.ROOT?
This move has precedent, when Complexity acquired Cross Counter as their fighting team section they became the brand coL.cc or Complexity.Cross Counter. I'm not sure of the relative successes of that move, but there is no flaw in the concept. You are leveraging an established brand to boost up the main one.
The counter arguments I thought of at the time, have pretty much been eliminated as time went on.
-It would be against the philosophy ROOT was founded on.
That was the DIY, indie mentality that a group of passionate players/back end guys could build the idea from the ground up, from its ROOTS.
Well maybe so, but it is not like Complexity was the man or something. Complexity is fairly grass roots on their own, and despite having real sponsors they enjoy a communicative honest relationship with the community in general. Credit to their founders.
As well many players moved onto other brands FXO, ReIGN. Independence and passion are great, but having at least some financial backing in a space hardly brimming with cash, is completely fine. You can't sell out for minimum wage.
-It would be against the players left behind who joined ROOT believing in their philosophy.
Again maybe so, but I might guess that the players enjoyed the people, the framework more than the desire to purely handle the backing side themselves too. Slush/KiWi/Fayth reportedly went back to the ROOT tag at some Canadian LANs. Destiny wore it for quite a while before being with Quantic.
The players on the outs from the original ROOT if Complexity picked up the tag given recent movement (like qxc to Complexity) would be Slush, Destiny, Major, dDoRo and Sheth. Each player has their own circumstances why it might be acceptable, from Sheth being in good hands to Destiny probably being free of a team concept for a while.
-ROOT is gone. The players on Complexity now are too different.
Now if they did do this it would apply the ROOT tag to some players who hadn't been there before, Complexity rosters is quite vast. ROOT.Nada, ROOT.complexityacademygraduate? It doesn't really make as much sense.
It might be too late for this idea. With Complexity going worldwide.
But on reflection, I still see the property as valuable.
Maybe rebuild it as a clan/B-Team attached to Complexity, a way to remold the Complexity Academy as an attractive commodity? (with CatZ/Drewbie as talent scouts?).
Maybe section off Complexity into coL.ROOT + coL.Korea, to allow their foreigner talent to compete without the boost from Korean gamers (like so many large teams are doing now.) It might be a strategy to put the pride back in their performance and gain some of the results of yesterday or foster foreign talent.
Who knows?
All I know is since the dissolving of ROOT, the scene seems a little more sterile, and a little less interesting. What ROOT actually was, wasn't a collection of people, it wasn't an idea, it wasn't a logo. It was simply an incarnation of the raw passion and desire to blast apart the scene and be successful that so many organizations embodied at launch of this game. Something definitely worthy of keeping around.
Complexity is still my team, but I just see failures from this stance to take the players of ROOT but not keep their spirit.
And I never got to buy those ROOT t-shirts. I know many people were with me
Man, I miss ROOT so much. What you said at the end, "an incarnation of raw passion" is just so true. CatZ and Drewbie said they were going to make a pro team with SC2, and that's exactly what they did through hard work and desire. ROOT was the real "team team" I guess. Every guy in the team was tight, and ROOT was tight with the community.
I wish Complexity would have done as you said, allowed ROOT to continue with the coL tag as well. Miss it so much.
Outside of our community, no one knows ROOT. Complexity, on the other hand, has been around for almost a decade - and established brand in many, many genres. Why would Jason Lake wants to rebrand the entire organization for adding several players? Lake is a good business man, he is not stupid enough to add a co-brand unless it's worth a lot of money (see FnaticRAIDCALL).
I love ROOT too, but half of ROOT's reputation comes from being indy. As soon as ROOT got picked up by an organization, that indy cred ceases to exist. There's little value in resurrecting/retaining it.
This certainly wasn't intended as a knock on Complexity's brand, I'm well aware of their history. It's merely musing on if there was/is any possible salvaging to what was a really great thing.
Only the parties in the know on merchandising, team management really know the answer to that.
Even the idea of using it as a sub brand is endearing to me. You have hite SparkyZ, Los Angeles Lakers, but so many ESPORTS organizations are content to use plainer branding like Evil Genius or Quantic. I guess I just tend to be more of a 'Gama Bears' naming philosophy type of person. And Complexity ROOT scratches that itch.
I'm not exactly convinced that you can't put forth a sub-brand or recycle it in some way that it doesn't steal focus from the main brand. But I certainly see the difficulties.
On May 10 2012 08:40 MegaBuster wrote: Great find.
I'm not exactly convinced that you can't put forth a sub-brand or recycle it in some way that it doesn't steal focus from the main brand. But I certainly see the difficulties.
We need to keep in mind that complexity has been a huge team in the competitive gaming/esports scene for a very very long time all the way back to CS 1.6 and im sure even earlier.
So to them, rebranding or sub branding wouldn't be good. However, the complexity sc2 team is comprised by primarily Root members in NA and the players still have the same personality they did in the past.
On May 10 2012 08:40 MegaBuster wrote: Great find.
I'm not exactly convinced that you can't put forth a sub-brand or recycle it in some way that it doesn't steal focus from the main brand. But I certainly see the difficulties.
We need to keep in mind that complexity has been a huge team in the competitive gaming/esports scene for a very very long time all the way back to CS 1.6 and im sure even earlier.
So to them, rebranding or sub branding wouldn't be good. However, the complexity sc2 team is comprised by primarily Root members in NA and the players still have the same personality they did in the past.
Their fighting game division is complexity.crosscounter so they're not against doing it, but we don't know the particular details of the deal. Keep in mind col's sc2 division doesn't just features root members, even when they were first acquired and the whole of root did not go across so it might have just been a decision not to make a point of it.
01:23:00 "I'll never allow a team in EG with another name." - SirScoots
Complexity is totally different, look at their roster, the FG players are basically known as Complexity.CrossCounter.
Its an interesting topic, if you look up the VOD of ESFI's End Game with Jason Bass, they briefly touch on the topic of sub-branding, but don't actually discuss ROOT IIIRC. Still an interesting topic, and worth listening to.
I thought about this some myself as well, and ultimately I came to the conclusion for Complexity the brand CrossCounter, has much more to offer than ROOT, and its simply a business decision.
I also imagine that its a big possibly that CatZ/Drewbie wanted to keep ROOT as ROOT, it is what it was, they might not want to make it something new.
While I miss root a lot, they were such a good team, however they couldn't get sponsers. I don't think a team in a team should have there own name, it's silly. When you are getting paid by a team you should wear the tag. Root gaming and I have such fond memories. They were the only team that really interacted with fans, in there own clan channel catz would sit around and talk to people in there while laddering. But yeah nice post.
EPT![[image loading]](http://www.gosugamers.net/starcraft2/images/features/ROOT-Gaming.png)
