Going into the 2016 Mid Season Invitational, no one seemed to expect much from the International Wildcard representatives. SuperMassive eSports refused to leave the tournament without making quite the splash. Not only did SuperMassive defy the general consensus that they would leave without winning a game but it’s fair to say they had the best showing of any IWC team at an international event.

This is not to detract from a team like paiN gaming, who did fairly well at the 2015 World Championship. However, MSI is by many standards far more difficult a task for smaller regions. They are facing, in general, teams that are far more well funded and from more structured regions and more experience on LAN. On top of all of those obstacles, they are competing against the very best of each of these larger and more experienced regions. At Worlds, you’re only going to be against one top seed from a region in the group stages.

For the viewers who don’t follow the Wildcard region, the only name that was likely familiar to you was Mustafa “Dumbledoge” Kemal Gökselo?lu — best known for killing Lee “Faker” Sanghyeok last year for a first blood with Be?ikta? e-Sports Club. SuperMassive was able to prove that they were there for more than show kills on Faker this year. Notably, they did secure one win in an upset against Counter Logic Gaming.

What is more important is how they lost. SuperMassive held incredibly close games against the nearly undefeated Royal Never Give Up and the powerhouse Flash Wolves. They did fall to arguably the weakest showing team at the tournament, G2 eSports, but they held their own against the giants in a very convincing way. Nicolaj “Achuu” Ellesgaard proved to be an incredibly strong AD Carry and put up some of the best AD performances in the Round Robin stage of MSI.

Strategically, SuperMassive also was able to successful flex their top laners, rotating them for the best player for their game plan. Berke “Thaldrin” Demir and As?m “fabFabulous” Cihat Karakaya both were able to prove they are incredibly talented players and their versatility was key for SuperMassive.

By the end of their stay in the tournament, however, all of SuperMassive had made their mark and proved that the Wildcard deserves respect and should not be discounted. With how close their games were, several they were in the lead against Flash Wolves and with a solid win over CLG,  SuperMassive could have easily ended up in the mid tier of the tournament. Given their performances against the very cream of the crop of these top tier regional teams, one could even see that despite the stigma against Wildcard regions, they would quite possibly be strong contenders if placed in LCS or LMS. Holding their own was a monstrous feat against the Champions of the major regions.

The Turkish Champions League is a much smaller region than the major regions represented at MSI. While money is starting to flow in comparable to EU, it still has it’s struggles. The premier regions all play live matches and aside from LCS play in best of 2 or 3 formats. This is not something that SuperMassive had nearly as much experience in. Playing on LAN and in front of a crowd is completely different from what the majority of their experience is in the TCL. While Riot Turkey is reportedly working on changing the format for TCL, this tournament was played with very little comparative experience.

So what made SuperMassive so successful? Despite only one win, the level of performance they gave with the resources and experiences they had should be considered nothing less than a success. SuperMassive appears to have an incredible support system set up. Not only do the players appear to fully support each other even when games are rough but their coach was able to draft them to positions for success. They managed to succeed in cases where it appeared teams from the premier regions failed.

SuperMassive had nothing to lose coming into MSI, but in the end, they gained more than a few friends and certainly more respect for their region. TCL is, a without a doubt, a region to keep your eyes on.