there is a history between these two teams that goes beyond just playing each other over and over and through many seasons of rumble. coming in down the line, right here it's team ramrod! team ramrod, the finance team. ramrod is in the rearview mirror. i mean, those guys basically took
the kobe bryant of their team and they benched him. they stabbed me in the back. their challengers approach. team rocket! esports! it's like you he got cooler friends, you know? it felt like some clichã© high school drama. he got all pretty and stuff
and now he's hanging out with the pretty people and he doesn't want to hang out with the trolls anymore. dustin beck the guy likes to talk so much [expletive] the man can [expletive] get on my nerves sometimes and he knows how to get my blood boiling. i built that team with my own
blood, sweat and tears and they were jealous that i went and joined the esports team as opposed to staying on finance and revenge is a dish best served cold. hey hodges are we going to do this? alright boys, practice! i had always wanted to work
for a video game company. now, baron is the next objective. gaming is my true passion and what i've been doing since i can remember. go, go, go, go, go! tower's down, tower's down, tower's down. the ramrods, i think we've always been 100% about winning and being
competitive and doing whatever we need to do to win. jinx in the back! jinx in the back! woo! keep going boy! rioters are here, because we love games and we love the spirit of competition. the riot rumble is an internal tournament. you get placed into a division:
bronze, silver, gold, platinum diamond, masters. once you get placed into a division you form a team. you play like, a small regular season and then there's playoffs and then it gets like, super hype and exciting, because it ends in this final.
you play in front of your friends and it's live and there's shoutcasters and the goal, of course is to win a jacket. brandon, do you have a jacket? i have no jacket. i'm due. it's time. i mean, there's too many to count. i have a lot of jackets
but if i had to be held to a number i'd say two. it's kind of the closest thing you'll get to playing in the lcs even though we all suck. yes! i got him! i... [expletive]! about 70% of the company is actively participating in riot rumble
and it's not just here in north america we actually have rumbles that go in all of our regions from oceania to eu to korea. in fact, the korean office has 100% participation in rumble, which is one of the coolest things i think i've ever heard. rumble's special, because this is
how league of legends should be played. i mean, with your friends, as five strategizing against an enemy team scouting, doing picks/bans. being able to get a bit even a taste of that type of experience i think helps people understand the responsibility we have to build the game for these players
all over the world and i think that helps us do a better job. good game. the way we heard about rumble they had announced that "hey, we're going to do this internal tournament. we're going to call it the riot rumble." i was standing next to dustin.
he looked at me, he's like "dude, we should make a team. we should make a finance team." and i'm like, "yeah! let's do it!" we ended up naming ourselves the ramrods. the ramrods, season 1 we went undefeated and we ended up being the bronze champions
of the riot rumble. they played bronze first so, technically, we were the first riot rumble champions. i think people were surprised that the finance team did as well as we did but definitely the perception was that the finance guys were, you know not really gamers, we were just
we were just the nerd finance people. we care more about business and things like that. they showed up and they played their hearts out so i think, actually, everyone really loved that until they started talking [expletive] with esports.
at that point, it was determined that dustin would split off and start the esports part of riot and he would therefore leave finance. the turning point, of course was the benching of dustin beck. dustin left finance and recruited a bunch of former professional players to be on his team.
i think that we're kind of like a happy little bystander here and he's created this rivalry that somehow we wronged him which is absolutely not true. they stabbed me in the back and i will never, ever forget that. it was very apparent when dustin got kicked from the team
cause he came back say, "fired up" to mobilize esports and get some revenge. esports had a silver, a gold, a plat and a diamond team and finance had teams in a lot of those leagues too. that whole season people were practicing
they were prepping like their jobs were on the line because they might have been. the esports team kind of rose to the challenge and we swept, so it was a very proud and defining moment for me and for the rest of the team. so, in addition to this grudge match
we still have to prep for our regular season rumble match. we do everything we can think of: two to three hours of scouting and analysis that we do. they got to the finals with illaoi. yeah, i'm not afraid of the illaoi but i'm afraid our team isn't ready for the illaoi.
i don't know how to spell her name. we just logged lots of data about all their numbers, right? who they played, kill participation damage, cs... as much numbers as we can get. just like in finance, right? historical trends try to help project their future.
so, we sat on one end of a room and esports was on the other end of the room and we'd sometimes play against each other. and one day, they were like "hey, we should scrim." and i was like "hey riv, why don't you shoutcast?" by esports shantzilla
flag toss over the wall! man! polaroid shot, take a picture. but we didn't realize that rivington would be shoutcasting it and streaming it on twitch. literally, we brought the most stacked team we could. the rule was: absolutely no mercy. they had guys who were plat/diamond
easily and we have a bunch of bronzies. the "i think i can" mentality wrapped up finance in a burrito and they get eaten alive! yeah, we slaughtered them. and it didn't feel very good. it's actually going to be the surrender from finance as they come in. our humiliation was broadcast
to thousands. they win the best-of-three bout versus finance. we may see this have to go another round some other time. on the finance side, you know there were tears. particularly brian he was just covered in his own tears
and it was a shameful sight. if dustin wants to play dirty classic dustin. let him do it, it's fine. we'll just stomp him when the real game comes. so, the match did something that both sides had been waiting a long time for.
we want to have the playing field set them to come in, you know all the pressure on the line and really settle it once and for all with a best-of-three grudge match like rumble has intended to do. guys, we're heading into game 1. in the blue corner performing all of your calculations
financially at riot games. it's none other than team ramrod! in the red corner, we have team rocket. esports! esports! i believe in our hard work and our synergy and the fact that we're just going to just kick the [expletive] out of them. this looks like a 20 minute baron
and they're going to go for it almost immediately. it looks as if ramrod has no idea they're going to baron. it looks like they're looking at baron. this is happening. blorbie! blorbie might have a little bit of an idea! oh, they've found it! shanti dives to baron!
there's the rocket and redbeard's down! they can finish it! they can finish it! right now! oh! blue team! up the gut! ramrod definitely showing that they still have some life here. they have got to get back
to the base though. go fast, guys! go fast! go fast! their base is in shambles! both nexus turrets are down what the [expletive]? nexus! nexus! magus is going again. he's trying to end the game! and there it is.
ramrod fighting for their life. what do we want to change? we don't need to change everything. let's figure out what was wrong right. and we don't need to pick 5 new champs we just figure out what was wrong yeah.
and either ban it and do the same comp or ban it and do a slightly different one. and so, they'll first pick, right? - they first pick.- i feel like illaoi was the problem. i... that's what i said! you guys! this time it's going to be team rocket on the blue corner and it's going to be ramrod in the red.
exhaust now blown for shanti and flash as he's getting collapsed on but he might just get on to hodgpodg. oh, and he ate him! yeah, that's a first blood going to blorbie. but blorbie gets first blood. whoa! now redbeard's taken out. phothenguyen saying, "hey buddy remember when you were on this team?"
i would say we're almost at full fiesta. we're going to have to see... hey, they're coming! they're coming! they're coming! they're coming! -and he is kiting up a storm-no! but it just doesn't matter. tahm kench comes in and the flash frost seals it! this is going to be a baron for team rocket.
we've gotta fight, dude! hits the field goal as bch0 takes half his life and they are going to try to end the game. and team rocket takes it 2-0. that was one hell of a game, patrick. there was a lot of, you know sportsmanship and camaraderie that went on here and, you know the finance guys, they showed up to play
and they did a good job so hats off to 'em. all aggressive talking aside those were actually really great games. we just had a great time and i think all the fans had a great time and i think that's what matters most in the end. we love these guys. we had a lot of fun just like
trying to put on a good show and we're glad we didn't get totally stomped. i mean, they call it a "rivalry" and a "grudge match", but really at the end of the day, we truly love these guys [expletive] talk and everything. that's half of the fun. rumble really helps people empathize and understand what gamers go through.
it unifies riot under, kind of one common theme. everyone's playing rumble everyone's trying to win and everyone's trying to be the best. phothenguyen! i'm phothenguyen!-phothenguyen! take it, take it! knock 'em out!
good job, man!