With all of the hefty news of former Gambit Gaming & Ninja in Pyjamas mid/top laner, Alexey "Alex Ich" Ichetovkin potentially moving to North America, North American LCS team, Team 8, recently announced that they would indeed be bringing Ich to NA in the position of substitute top laner. One might remember over the Summer, when Team 8 qualified for the LCS 2015 Spring Split, that current top laner, Steven "CaliTrlolz" Kim was faced with the hard decision of studying pharmacology or playing League of Legends professionally. The player was smart, and took to reddit to begin seeking help on making his decision. Not only did he reach out to reddit (of which the thread can be found here), he also began a petition to present to his school for an one year defer, so he can live his dream of playing in the LCS. With the goal of 8,888 people, the petition reached a huge 18,148 signatures, which promptly granted the school to allow Cali to defer for a year. 

Image Credit to Team BrawL

Although it seemed unlikely that Alex Ich would ever be needed to play in the LCS with this deferment, it was uncertain as to just why Team 8 was importing such a prestigious European player to fill a sub position; however, an announcement yesterday clearly showed why this move was so important. Enter BrawL, an orginization based out of Mexico, who alongside Azubu, announced they had picked the North American Ranked 5's team, "We Love Shakira". Alongside this, they would have Ich in the mid lane position. Due to the nature of BrawL being a Mexican organization, Team 8 would be assisting in getting Ich a sports visa to be able to live & play competitively in the States.  

Although Ich is surely the key player for the new BrawL.NA team, the other names on the roster are quite at home for most North American Challenger Series fans. In the jungle resides Ryan "ShorterACE" Nget, best known for his time with COGnitive Gaming & more recently Final Five, a team who went to the final four in the Expansion Tournament. Likewise, in the bottom lane at the support role is Derek "Lohpally" Abrams, who also competed in the Expansion Tournament with Complexity.White. Joining these two is James "LattmaN" Lattman at the AD Carry position, who is best known for being the former ADC of Frank Fank Gaming & XDG Gaming, as well as the ADC substitue for Team Dignitas. In the top lane resides Brandon "BrandonFTW" Chen, who was the substitute top laner for COGnitive earlier this past Summer. 

Joining the team in the management & coaching positions are some familiar faces as well. Most notably is Frank "Soloside" Fang, the owner of the former Challenger Series team, Frank Fang Gaming, who is now the manager of the BrawL.NA team. Alongside Frank is coach Hudson "HKillness" Kim, as well as Mohamed "hi im rogue" Elemam in the analysis & assistant manager role. Elemam is most notably remembered for coaching & managing an amateur team called Axos Gaming. Behind the operation on the public relations & marketing side is Andrew "Tanzil" Tanzil, who is the former marketing manager for Challenger team, Final Five. 

Team Manager, Frank "Soloside" Fang had this to say about the team and working with the organization, 

I’d like to thank Chris & the rest of the BrawL organization for giving me this wonderful opportunity to work with such a fantastic set of players & staff. As the manager for the team, I'm doing my best to be the middle man between the players & the organization, as well as assisting the players with necessary paperwork from Riot, as that can be confusing for most players. Working to secure Alex’s visa has been a very long process in the making, and it was confusing at first due to not knowing the time amount at which the governments work at; however, if they decide to delay his visa, that’s ok, we have a plan either way. Overall, we are excited to have him as part of the team and even though he is not in America yet, he’s a very fundamental part of our scrimming procedures, especially when reviewing our play and giving advice as to how to let the team adapt to his playstyle when he arrives. Unfortunately, we’re cutting it close to the Challenger split’s beginning, so if we don’t perform extremely highly, that’s understandable; however, that is no excuse as to why we should not be able to dominate the next split. 

Assistant Manager, Mohamed "hi im rogue" Elemam had this to say about working with the team thus far & plans for the future, 

I'm honored to be working with everyone on BrawL. I'm sure this team can do amazing things in the future and I'm very excited to take on the Challenger scene with such an awesome roster. #2canOrFly.

You can find more on the team: Website - Facebook - Twitter

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