Jacob "Brayll" Wolf
2015-01-13 06:17:10
Altec joined his first team in 2012, a team by the name of Team Wish. The team would later get acquired by vVv Gaming. Despite not much success, several of the team’s players are some that most League of Legends Challenger Series fans of today would recognize. Notably, Altec was accompanied by his former teammate, Aaron “Bischu” Kim.
After vVv disbanded, Altec was left a free agent. With the upcoming start of 2013 North American LCS right around the corner, it was unclear, however, as to where Altec would end up. Unfortunately, due to his age (15 at the time), he would remain a free agent until the following January.
In comes Curse Academy, a team we know now to be Gravity. Although it now can boast names such as Saintvicious, Cop, Keane, & more, there wasn’t always a time where this team was jam packed with upcoming stars & older veterans. The original Curse Academy showed truly what a Challenger Series team should be like, most notably raising upcoming talent to be of LCS caliber, especially young ones who are unable to compete in the LCS due to age restrictions.
Curse Altec - Image Credit to Major League Gaming
In January of 2013, Curse Academy would announce their official roster for the upcoming Season 3. The majority of the names are very recognizable to modern day League of Legends fans, specifically Keenan “Rhux” Santos, Christian “IWillDominate” Rivera, Eugene “Pobelter” Park, and of course, Johnny “Altec” Ru.
This team would prove to be quite good, one of the best amongst the Challenger level teams. They would end up taking 1st Place in the National ESL Premiere League V, CLG Premiere Series, and the We Will Do it Ourselves Cup. They’d also take 2nd Place at the SoloMid IPL6 Qualifier. Most notably; however, they would take 2nd Place at the IPL Summer Promotion Qualifier of 2013, losing to then Quantic Gaming, of which is now known to be the ever so North American dominant, Cloud 9.
After taking second at the qualifier, the team would move on to the 2013 MLG Spring Championship Promotion Tournament, unfortunately falling short and only taking 4th place, failing to qualify for the North American LCS. After taking another heartbreaking 4th place at the Gfinity Invitational to EU’s Copenhagen Wolves, the team would make heavy rosters the following week (of July 2013), with Altec no longer being a part of the team.
There are many players hailed to be “Solo Queue Kings”. Names like Wildturtle, LemonNation, WizFujiin, & Pobelter may come to mind; however, Altec too was and is just as dominant. After leaving Curse Academy in 2013, Altec may have gone MIA from competitive competition, but high-elo players were very aware of who he was in solo queue. Achieving multiple top 50 accounts & even Number One on the NA Solo Queue Ladder, the young star had set out to prove himself quite the monster.
With a massive amount of respect for his play, he would graciously accept a substitute position for none other than Team SoloMid. Much like other subs, he never saw a game of play with the team, but he carried the title of “TSM Altec”, one which he would keep until joining another team.
After a loss in the first promotion tournament in the Spring of 2013 and a disappointing record in the NA Challenger Series 2013, Gold Gaming LA (GGLA) decided to dump their roster, consisting of Yazuki, Kez, Bischu, bobbyhankhill, & NydusHerMain. The team would stick together and form under a new name, better known as The Walking Zed. Only a month after forming (in November of 2013), bobbyhankhill left the team, leaving The Walking Zed without an AD Carry only weeks before the qualifier for the NACS. Due to Bischu’s past relationship with the player in question, the team would opt to pick up none other than solo queue star, Altec.
Cloud 9 Tempest at Lone Star Clash - Image Credit to Wellplayed.org
The team would go on to qualify, and better yet, be adopted by a well known organization, who’s main team miraculously swept the Summer Split of the 2013 NALCS. This organization was none other than Cloud 9, who had now made The Walking Zed into Cloud 9 Tempest. Support player, Gleebglarbu would join the team, due to NydusHerMain leaving the team.
The team would go on to take 2nd Place in the Challenger Series Spring #2 (losing to now LCS team, LMQ/Team Impulse), as well as placing 2nd in the Challenger Series Playoff to play in qualifications for the NA LCS in Spring of 2014. During this time period, Altec played exceptionally well, and with his 17th birthday only right around the corner, of which would make him eligible for the LCS, the time was now for Altec to make it in.
Unfortunately, Cloud 9 Tempest would get matched against arguably the most stable team in the upcoming 2014 Spring Relegation Tournament. They’d be facing none other than Evil Geniuses, who had recently transferred to NA from the EULCS, picking up young talent Pobelter & Innox in their respected roles.
The matches were good; however, C9T were only able to take one game off of the Evil Geniuses. Despite the devastating defeat, Altec played quite well, questioning just how good long-time EG ADC, Peter “Yellowpete” Wuppen, truly was.
Unfortunately for C9T, top tier Team SoloMid was champing at the bit for support player, Gleebglarbu. As most Challenger players would, Gleeb accepted the offer, leaving C9T support-less. Not much longer afterwards, mid laner, Bischu, would announce his intent to return to college and stop playing League competitively. Jungler Kevin “Kez” Jeon would also be joining an LCS team after Complexity jungler, Ram “Brokenshard” Djemal, would have to return to Israel permanently because of visa complications.
Although the future seemed dark & grim for the young Altec, his 17th birthday was only just around the corner. Turning 17 on May 8th of 2014, the offer was extended shortly after to Altec to join none other than Evil Geniuses. With Yellowpete’s underperformance against in the 2014 Spring Split, as well as the first few weeks of the 2014 LCS Summer Split, it came as no surprise that the Geniuses needed new blood, and who better than a young, high potential AD Carry like Altec. He would sign with Evil Geniuses and the announcement was made on May the 22nd.
EG Altec - Image Credit to onGamers
After almost two years of wanting to compete at the highest level of play in North American League of Legends, Altec had finally arrived at his destination. As expected with roster changes, the early road was bumpy. The team now boasted two of NA’s top, young stars in Altec & Pobelter, as well as veteran Mitch “Krepo” Voorspoels & former OGN Champion jungler, Shin “Helios” Dong-jin. Altec himself was playing remarkably, as expected, scoring a pentakill versus Team Curse in his third week in the League.
Although set back by roster changes and not being able to qualify for the 2014 Summer Playoffs, EG made quite the run towards the end of the season, truly highlighting the potential™ of their roster. Altec, Helios, & Pobelter played extremely well and although they wouldn’t be playing in the playoffs, fans of the organization were given something to look forward to into the upcoming 2015 Season.
The team would once again face Relegation; however, this time there wasn’t even a chance of falling out of the League this time. 3-0’ing Team Coast, Altec & Krepo easily defeated their opposition Brandon “DontMashMe” Phan & Jamie “Sheep” Gallagher. Once again, Altec showed just how dominant he can be regarding the bottom lane.
The team would then make even more roster changes. After nearly 3 years of play, all the way back to the beginning of CLG.EU, veteran support Krepo announced that he would no longer be playing for the organization. As expected due to poor play, top laner Innox would also be stepping down and pursuing other roles, specifically mid lane (of which he now plays for Enemy Esports).
Shortly after the 2014 League of Legends World Championships, however, EG team manager, Brian Cordry, announced that the team would be temporarily moving to Korea to solidify Helios’s visa. Instead of losing scrim time while Helios was back home, Altec, Pobelter, & the rest of the team management & analysts would be moving with him and scrimming versus some of the top tier Korean teams, as well as experiencing Korean solo queue. While there, the team found two more players, to round out their roster. Helios’s brother, Donghyeon “Avalon” Shin would be joining the team in the top lane. Likewise another Korean, Hyeonsu “Imagine” Jang would be filling the support role. The team would also have to rebrand, due to their parent organization GoodGame being forced by Riot to only hold one LCS team. Effectively, the team renamed to Winterfox, a name of which Cordry claims, “… combines our team's youthful energy and familial nature with the cunning we hope to display on Summoner's Rift.”
So what do you have to look forward to, you might ask? Well, look forward to seeing arguably one of the top 3 AD Carries in North America play this year. A young, 17 year old star pursuing a career of which will bring him longevity. This is his year to shine, nothing to lose, but everything to prove.
Make sure to follow the player: @AltecLoL
Follow his team: @WinterfoxGG
Sources: lol.gamepedia - Evil Geniuses - Winterfox
If you enjoyed this content, feel free to follow the author at @BrayllCS