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The Untold Story of Media Pixel eSports

Prior to the EU Live Finals, very few people had heard of Media Pixels. However, after taking down the tournament favorites, SNOW, as well as seed #1, Rebirth of Kingdom, in a clean sweep, they created an impressive footprint in the EU competitive scene. The question we all want to know now is: who the heck are they and where did they come from?!

In the Beginning

Media Pixel eSports was a team comprised of completely unknown talent prior to the first VGL qualifying event. Their initial roster consisted of:

  • Coucou (now the player manager)
  • KValafar (laner for Media Pixel eSports)
  • REDemption/Taisakusan (rumored to be a part of G2.Kinguin 2)
  • Ikka777 (Unknown)

In their first VGL qualifier, they were eliminated during the round of eight by the future second place team, R3D Chimera, now formally known as SK Gaming (Chimaera). After a rather disappointing first event, losing to their fated rivals, and then also losing two core members of the team, Media Pixels needed a new roster and a somewhat fresh start.

The Roster That Would Later Succeed

Moving into their second qualifier, they received a fair amount of qualification points as well as a revamped roster. They moved player Coucou to a managerial position, and brought in the former leader of Kings&Queens, Palmatoro, to play jungler. They also dissolved their secondary competitive team, which included the rising French support player, Mowglie, to play in their roster for the next event.

KValafar

The silent and more supportive carry of the squad, KValafar, is the oldest member of Media Pixel. He has been playing with the team since their initial startup with Coucou and Mowglie as a little-known team in Pinnacle of Awesome. Since failing at a good placement for the first VGL qualifying event, KValafar set out to improve himself as a player and as a captain to the team. Considered lackluster and frail in the lane by even some of his teammates, he set out with determination to improve himself and is now an important piece of Media Pixel eSports. KValafar loves to play more supportive heroes so his jungler is allowed all the pieces of the pie. True to this style, his favorite and most comfortable pick is Adagio, a staple grab in the current European meta.

Palmatoro

If you asked me two months ago what I’d thought of Media Pixel eSports, I’d say they’d need to drop Palmatoro, then hope to find a new player from Europe’s solo queue talent to fill the role if they ever wanted any chance at beating SK Gaming and SNOW. However, in hindsight, I would’ve been totally incorrect, as he soon became the single most important piece to the Media Pixel puzzle.

Probably the most surprising player of this lineup – and the most improved – Palmatoro went from one of Europe’s most inconsistent junglers, to one that can almost rival SK L3oN, the latter of which is said to be the best jungler to come out of the European scene in quite some time. In less than a month, Palmatoro’s champion pool increased drastically, he gained confidence as a frontrunner in the team, and he even began solo carrying games with ease. Most fluent as a mid- to late-game oriented player, he looks at Krul as his ultimate pick. The win in Poland only helped him and everyone else realize just how far he’s come as a player and what can be waiting for him in the future.

Mowglie

The face and attitude of Media Pixel eSports, Mowglie is a well known streamer in the French Vainglory community and is highly praised as one of the most consistent supports to come out of Europe. Aside from consistency, Mowglie is an innovative leader to the European competitive scene, with his favorite hero pick being Phinn and favorite role as a “third carry.” Unlike most supports in Europe, Mowglie plays with a “you are mine” attitude. As the roam player of the team, he utilizes the information he obtains to control the pace of the game and of the team in his own unique way. Mowglie acts as a central control point, or shot caller, for Media Pixel eSports.

Then And Now

When the boys at Media Pixel eSports were asked to be interviewed for this spotlight, they acceped only under the condition that they tell their own story, not us. Without further ado, this is straight from them:

“Media pixel is a shop in France (http://www.mediapixel.fr/) selling gaming and IT equipment, and also acts as a cyber-coffee shop with eSport PCs. We used to play in this shop with cOucOu and Mowglie, as well as some other friends. So after we decided to make a Vainglory team and had no idea for a name, we just took the tag of the shop ^^ For fun at start , but in the future maybe Media Pixel will become more present in the French eSports scene.

At our start it was just Mowglie and Ika777. They were always playing with each others so hard, smurfing at low elo with epic scores (80 win for 1 lose) stomping hard on the ladder. After KValafar came in , we started to have some really great success! Sadly though, issues with Ika777 started to come up after losing in the VGL. He was playing without care about laner decision and opinion. So we asked KValafar to become the strongest laner to make Ika more confident about his plays. Since ika was not recognizing his own mistakes, even through our hard work, we just arrived at a point where we decided he’d leave the team.

So we searched for another jungler and then luckily we found Palmatoro! He was acting like a real teamplay-oriented guy, and we practiced a lot with him. Now we are reaching a point that every player of the team won’t play with anybody else. KValafar and Palma just synergize so well together in game. It’s like we have the same play style and minds. We know instantly what the others want to do and we push the effort of all players for it. On the vocals, every bit of information is fluent and important. We are communicating really well at the moment. For every single thing that can sound stupid for others, it is incredibly useful for us. We put so much faith into Mowglie, our shotcaller, so we help him by doing anything and everything we can possibly do.

After failing in the second event, we felt betrayed. The rule changes from VGL really destroyed our chances at advancing, even though we know it’s our fault for losing. It hurt, and really put us at a bad spot.

It was great news to have gotten the qualification call after Prometheus forfeited. For us, it meant we have a chance to prove to Europe that we deserved to be part of this tournament. We are really thankful to rivals and actually really close friends, SK Chimaera/Prometheus, for this opportunity.

It feels amazing for us, even if it’s a little game only just starting. All the emotions were there, the pride, the joy. I mean being on that stage, even with no public, it was so intense, and we want to go back !!! ^^All the people we met during this journey were awesome and we hope to see them again.”

— Media Pixel eSports

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