Debut Defeat for Thunder Despite Early Lead

Team Norse Thunder's debut in League of Legends competition ended with defeat as the team slipped to a second-round loss in the Powered by Dai Community Gaming tournament.  

26 teams from across North America entered the single-elimination event, and with the Team Norse Thunder roster announced earlier in the day, the tournament was a set up to be a trial by fire to assess where the team were after two practice sessions. 

A first-round bye saw the team facing up against The Gang in the second round with the match's winner bagging themselves guaranteed prize money by making it into the third round. 

Team Norse Thunder got off to a good start and quickly built up a lead of almost 8,000 gold and stretched the advantage into the mid-game, but The Gang fought back in the latter stages and earned victory. 

Speaking about the team's progress after the event, Team Norse Thunder's League of Legends Coach, Eric Enlow said: "We are coming along nicely - we have players with the right drive and mindset and I am convinced we will see results in the first-half year. We have a few kinks and knots to work out, but that comes with the development of any team. 

"It was unfortunate that we lost [in the event, but] we did gain a lot of good information. In the early half of the game we secured an amazing lead, and only lost out in the latter half due to teamwork and drafting restrictions largely based on just how fresh we are as a team.

"Future events are certain to yield better results. We gained valuable insight on where to go from here and the team's future looks bright. We have our eyes set on beginning the professional pursuit within the year. I could not think of a better description than 'starved dream chasers" to describe us right now. Why starved... it is because we are HUNGRY!" 

Meanwhile, Team Norse Thunder's owner, Dave Scotford said: "We're really excited to have the League of Legends team up and running and we think we have a good group of people all involved in making it happen - from the players to the coaching staff and everyone supporting them. 

"It was awesome watching the game play out and they built up such a commanding lead, but fair play to our opponent's who came back strong to win the match. The post-match meeting laid out a good pathway of things that everyone can work on and I'm sure we'll see us winning things in the near future."