In the fourth HWC Online Qualifier last, newly formed team “Renegades”, consisting of Ninja, Commonly, Spartan, and Victory X were able to place 3rd. The great individual performances not only showed us the great level of talent they have, but it also showed us their level of potential. Although Commonly has since left the team to join Evil Geniuses in place of Lethul, they still have a bright future ahead of them.
Over the past three seasons, we have seen Ninja hop from one team to another, not being able to win with any of them. I initially thought that his roster for Team Liquid, consisting of Ace, Mikwen, Chig, and himself, would do great. However, with Mikwen leaving to nV, my high hopes for this team quickly deteriorated. With Renegades giving Ninja his best placing yet in any qualifier, a new light is starting to shine for Ninja and an opportunity for him to once again find success is opening.
The last game in which Ninja was able to truly flourish was back in Halo 4, where he was able to win four events. Although he may have not been the most individually talented player in an admittedly subpar period, his strong dedication to his team and the game allowed him to continuously place well, making him one of the more successful and well-known players. During H2A, you could easily tell that there was something off with Ninja and his attachment to the game. It’s hard to say exactly what it was, but one could easily see that he was not as emotionally attached to H2A as he was to H4. During his off time before scrims, instead of grinding like he did with Halo 4, he would instead play H1Z1 on stream. With this lack of dedication for the game, Ninja’s general performance ended up being below what was expected of him. This lack of performance caused Ninja to leave or be removed from several teams, causing him to never gain any solid chemistry with any roster.
Looking at how Ninja has been approaching Halo 5, it is obvious that he has been taken a different approach to this new game. On stream and off, Ninja is still grinding and showing his devotion to the game and his career. During scrims, we’re starting to see the loud and emotional Ninja of H4, helping his team to maintain motivation even during tough matches. His overall performance has also greatly improved, with Ninja being able to slay better as well as being able to work more efficiently with his team.
Ninja has surrounded himself with a great team of players that seem to all get along and all have the same common story in this game. It’s amazing how these players seem to perform so well together even though they struggled with their past teams. Hopefully, this lineup can help bring Ninja back to his dominant form. He seems very comfortable and happy his team which is already a great start but this team definitely has a lot to work on if they want to ever win a qualifier or even an event. Depending on who they pick up to replace Commonly, they have a good chance at the HWC.
What do you think about Ninja and this Renegades team? Do you think this team has what it takes to win? Who do you think they’ll bring in to replace Commonly? Let us know in the comments below and remember to follow eSports Guru for all your competitive Halo needs!
