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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/H2gszzW.jpg)
ON February 16, 2012, compLexity acquires the FIRE squad consisting of TC, FLUFFNSTUFF, ixmike88, Jeyo, and HANNAH_MONTANA. Following TI2, Jeyo and Hannah_montana go their separate ways and TC, Fluff, ixmike are acquired by Teamliquid and joined by Korok and BuLba.
After the memorable TI3 (Liquid beat LGD for top 8. The following year they would lose the rematch for top 8), ixmike is the first to leave Liquid. Months later, restless in retirement, he is seen playing with Wild Witch Doctors, also known as SNA+4. The roster is ush, sna, ixmike, wwd, and xcom.
By April 4th of 2014, SNA+4 has rebranded as Sneaky Nyx Assassins and Fluff plays his first official with them, replacing KvH. They beat eHug, it is a promising start. Perhaps Fluff has brought some professional experience and leadership to an up and coming team.
On August 13th, sna plays his last match with the team named after him versus Union Gaming. When Sneaky Nyx Assassins and Union Gaming rematch 9 days later, TC has been brought in to replace sna. Waytosexy comes in as a support for a few matches before they go back to Whitebeard.
In October, USH, the last old member aside from ixmike departs, replaced by Brax. It is later suggested that his reason for leaving is his failure to be subordinate to other members of the team. USH returns in late December, perhaps having learned his place.
In early January, 2015, Sneaky Nyx Assassins formally sheds its borrowed skin and rebrands as Fire. At the end of the month, TC becomes discontent and leaves, and Brax is brought back to replace him. It swiftly becomes a period of turmoil and 7ckngMad and DeMoN are brought in.
On February 20, it is unexpectedly revealed that the team has disbanded and withdrawn from Dota Pit, except then DeMoN goes on twitter to announce this is a misunderstanding and he, Brax and 7ckngMad wish to continue playing. This, of course, never happens. So much for FireDota. (Brax DeMoN and ush go on to found Summer's Rift).
Fluff moves quickly. On March 29, he joins ROOT and plays a match with them against Wheel Whreck While Whistling on April 13. Root has found their "final key component." ixmike88 is on the opposing side.
TC soon follows on April 20 and plays his first official against Boreal in Canada Cup, where they lose to KvH and co.
And now we arrive at the present. Root's most recent match is a loss to ush, Korok and Fogged, playing under North American Rejects.
I've tried to present these events without much editorializing. You may ask me, well what's your point? Well, my friends, maybe I don't have a point. Maybe I have pointedly tried not to make a point.
I just wish to say, good luck to all parties in the NA TI quals. I look forward to watching your games and seeing you on the other side.
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Hmmm.
So, I feel like by framing this as a history of Fluff, and specifically following the teams he's been on, your post lends itself to the narrative "teams with Fluff on them inevitably disband and/or have mass player exoduses after he joins them." My read is that this is the narrative you intend the reader to derive, as much as you protest that you're not editorializing. If I'm wrong, well...that's why they call it the internet.
But there's another narrative that I think probably fits these (and other, related) facts just as well, which is "NA Dota is a total mess, and anybody who's on a team that isn't EG inevitably ends up being on a team that doesn't stay together very long."
Imagine you'd written a post like the OP, but about TC. Or about ixmike88. Would those posts make those players look like stable team players? Or would they read like the OP, a laundry list of drama and disbandings, with just a wee bit of nudge-nudge-wink-wink hinting that maybe the guy whose name is in the title is really the lowest common denominator?
For all I know, Fluff really is a toxic team-ruiner. I'd be the last guy to know. Presumably, the reason NA Dota is such a mess is because it's full of people who can't play Dota together without disbanding teams all the time. Otherwise, they'd have, you know, formed some teams that stayed together. But I feel like presenting a player's team history that's full of drama and disbandings doesn't really tell us anything about that player in particular, other than that they play NA Dota.
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Fluff looks like a cool guy, but the way his teams always fail makes me think that has been the downside of many of the teams that he has been on.
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It's hard to make the argument that his teams failed at all. Leading Complexity to a TI and having a respectable showing, followed by placing top 8 with Liquid next year were all pretty remarkable successes for NA teams. Not to mention a few major tournament wins in between.
If anything, the latest iteration of FIRE (SNA) has been the only team that could be branded a failure relative to potential.
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i think the best part about fire last autumn was its members claiming that they're all really good friends in interviews (and that that was the greatest strength of the team)
and then people being kicked left and right every week
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Sanya12364 Posts
Thanks box.
That was a wonderful blog.
Perhaps full of lack of point.
I will look forward to more disbanding and rebanding. NAdota best dota.
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Katowice25012 Posts
I think Fluff was the first Dota player I interviewed so he's always had a special place in my heart.
On May 17 2015 14:42 ASoo wrote:
Hmmm.
So, I feel like by framing this as a history of Fluff, and specifically following the teams he's been on, your post lends itself to the narrative "teams with Fluff on them inevitably disband and/or have mass player exoduses after he joins them." My read is that this is the narrative you intend the reader to derive, as much as you protest that you're not editorializing. If I'm wrong, well...that's why they call it the internet.
But there's another narrative that I think probably fits these (and other, related) facts just as well, which is "NA Dota is a total mess, and anybody who's on a team that isn't EG inevitably ends up being on a team that doesn't stay together very long."
Imagine you'd written a post like the OP, but about TC. Or about ixmike88. Would those posts make those players look like stable team players? Or would they read like the OP, a laundry list of drama and disbandings, with just a wee bit of nudge-nudge-wink-wink hinting that maybe the guy whose name is in the title is really the lowest common denominator?
For all I know, Fluff really is a toxic team-ruiner. I'd be the last guy to know. Presumably, the reason NA Dota is such a mess is because it's full of people who can't play Dota together without disbanding teams all the time. Otherwise, they'd have, you know, formed some teams that stayed together. But I feel like presenting a player's team history that's full of drama and disbandings doesn't really tell us anything about that player in particular, other than that they play NA Dota.
I think one thing it may miss is that a common thread of these teams is that many of them were considered among the strongest (if not the obvious strongest) of their NA Dota counterparts in their time. Puppey said at TI2 he thought coL was the only other team capable of beating the Chinese (which turned out to be wrong, but he had that perception) and at TI3 they had the strongest finish of any Americans at a TI for the time. Before TI4 they were also considered the strongest team going into the qualifiers but lost to NAR, then had a fairly impressive run in the wildcard/early tournament.
To add that information would be to add a portion of editorializing and so when you make it purely facts of team reformations it may miss some of the context of the time.
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I just want to clarify that I don't think fluff is a weak competitor, and that was not an intended position of my blog. If that is what you read, it was added by your head to the facts, not mine. The fact that all iterations of his teams remain relatively relevant (for their scene) is testament to his ability.
There are weak players, even though they be popular, who cannot maintain staying power no matter how they form their teams. I don't want to name names; examples abound. Fluff is not among them.
On the other hand, however, are the players he replaces, weak? It's hard to say definitively. Sna, after leaving SNA, played with some other tier 2 teams, and they lost to SNA. I haven't seen him in awhile. Ush, whitebeard, fogged, have stuck around. KvH would later get revenge, but he's not really a household name. If a player sticks around, does that prove he's good? Maybe he just knows how to toe the line.
I was partly inspired by the Black Number by DoctorHeckle. I wanted to show a small slice of NA Dota and the way players and teams have intersected, disbanded and rebanded.
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I mean, I'm pretty sure Fluff will go down forever as the guy that aired all his personal grievances with his team on a public blog before talking to his teammates...
Does he deserve to be singled out for team shuffles and drama? Probably not. But he's one of the few you can actually point out for actual drama and not just assumed.
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Yeah, it seems like, to most people, he is exactly the same as TC and ixmike...except for those whiney blogs, and that's why he's singled out.
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Fluff has had a very NA dota career. It's sad to see it but he has been on a bunch teams with actual potential but things just end up falling apart one way or another. Teams are short-lived and only have short-term goals. It's like NA teams need to have instant success and blow up the scene immediately or they lose faith and disband. They all want to be the next SADBOYS
I feel pretty bad for kids in the lower tiers of competitive dota, not just in NA. It's not very rewarding to be at that level and most players just do not make it unless they somehow get in with a big name team or known players. Even then those players are flamed and there is a ton of pressure on them to perform. You'd think that people would be more supportive of newer players coming out on the scene but it is totally the opposite. Even if a team of unknowns beats a known team the response is "lmfao who cares". Contrast this with fighting games or SC2 where newer players are given tons of credit for even doing anything against known players. The dota community is a mess
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28100 Posts
On May 18 2015 05:19 WolfintheSheep wrote:
I mean, I'm pretty sure Fluff will go down forever as the guy that aired all his personal grievances with his team on a public blog before talking to his teammates...
Does he deserve to be singled out for team shuffles and drama? Probably not. But he's one of the few you can actually point out for actual drama and not just assumed.
Fluff will go down as the guy who showed EE the way of posting blogs on LIquidDota and not any other dirty sites 
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On May 18 2015 10:05 ViZe wrote:
Fluff has had a very NA dota career. It's sad to see it but he has been on a bunch teams with actual potential but things just end up falling apart one way or another. Teams are short-lived and only have short-term goals. It's like NA teams need to have instant success and blow up the scene immediately or they lose faith and disband. They all want to be the next SADBOYS
I feel pretty bad for kids in the lower tiers of competitive dota, not just in NA. It's not very rewarding to be at that level and most players just do not make it unless they somehow get in with a big name team or known players. Even then those players are flamed and there is a ton of pressure on them to perform. You'd think that people would be more supportive of newer players coming out on the scene but it is totally the opposite. Even if a team of unknowns beats a known team the response is "lmfao who cares". Contrast this with fighting games or SC2 where newer players are given tons of credit for even doing anything against known players. The dota community is a mess
Dota is a team game, comprised of teams of individual players. Nothing compared to SC2 and fighting games etc. etc.
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In the past, Fluff's plays and decision making leaves a lot to be desired. He certainly still has to show that he deserves to play on a top tier team regardless of the NA dota situation. For his fans, they hope that this NA qualifier will show some strong results out of this new Root team. Its not going to be a walk in the park however.
Nobody really blames the teams issues on Fluff. The bottom line is that he has never proven himself as a strong consistent player which is what every team looks for regardless of the position.
As for TC and ixmike, those two guys have different issues from Fluff.
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On May 18 2015 13:44 TheEmulator wrote:Show nested quote +On May 18 2015 05:19 WolfintheSheep wrote:
I mean, I'm pretty sure Fluff will go down forever as the guy that aired all his personal grievances with his team on a public blog before talking to his teammates...
Does he deserve to be singled out for team shuffles and drama? Probably not. But he's one of the few you can actually point out for actual drama and not just assumed. Fluff will go down as the guy who showed EE the way of posting blogs on LIquidDota and not any other dirty sites
EE always posted his blogs on teamliquid. I'm fairly sure some people here still remember the "I'm going pro at Dota2" blog
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28100 Posts
On May 19 2015 07:49 rabidch wrote:Show nested quote +On May 18 2015 13:44 TheEmulator wrote:On May 18 2015 05:19 WolfintheSheep wrote:
I mean, I'm pretty sure Fluff will go down forever as the guy that aired all his personal grievances with his team on a public blog before talking to his teammates...
Does he deserve to be singled out for team shuffles and drama? Probably not. But he's one of the few you can actually point out for actual drama and not just assumed. Fluff will go down as the guy who showed EE the way of posting blogs on LIquidDota and not any other dirty sites EE always posted his blogs on teamliquid. I'm fairly sure some people here still remember the "I'm going pro at Dota2" blog
But they weren't actually blogs, they were forum posts. Hence why Fluff showed him the way of the blog
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EPT
