KabaL, the in-game leader and support for Melty Esports Club, has parted ways with the team after scheduling conflicts with his existing life commitments. He has left the team on good terms, and Melty appear ready to sign ex-Aera’s tek to fill the gap.

KabaL has been a driving force for the team ever since their formation. His instant understanding of the game allowed Melty to dominate the early beta phase and he continued to call at a high level for the team despite their slip in the rankings. Throughout this time, he was able to deliver a high level of support play on a range of heroes.

Melty fell from being the best team in Europe during early beta, plateauing out as a tier two team in recent months. Talking to KabaL, he believes the problem is a mental one:

...the melty problem is not a question of amount of hours but a mental problem. When they convince themselves they will win and are putting in 100% effort in skill and focus and communication, we could beat everybody.

Melty are certainly making in-roads to fixing the problem. The team got a second wind recently as the organisation became able to provide them full-time support for the upcoming months. Melty are hoping that the shift to a more intense attitude will fix their confidence and mental focus, allowing them to bounce back to former glory.

With the aid of Melty’s full-time support, the team made a decision to increase their playing hours and make the most of their practice time. Driven by a free schedule and youthful ambition, Melty opted to change their schedule to a ten-hour day ending in the early hours of the morning. This wasn’t possible for 35-year-old KabaL, who lives with his wife and requires more of a balance between esports and his life commitments.

According to KabaL, he suggested times that would mirror a regular working day but was vetoed by the team. His years of experience led him to believe that the team would be much more focused and successful with a proper work/life balance, but when the team disagreed he was unable to continue and had to leave.

KabaL says:

...the problem is that the players want to keep 17h-3h rhythm. For me it’s unhealthy and not in coherence with any form of social life. I did suggest 9h-18h30 from Monday to Friday for training plus official tournament on the night and weekend but they did not want that. They are still youngsters and they love this way of life! But I need to see the sun.

Problem is their rhythm of life destroys their mental focus and communication, and instead of redefining their hours they push the schedule 2h too late.

If the current melty line-up fails hard in the next event, because they commit all their life to it, I think the team will split up hard. With the same amount of hours but with better planning so they can see friends, life, family, sport etc. their motivation and mental game will be stronger. Just my experience with 18 years in esports.

KabaL is now a free agent looking for a new team. He would be a solid pick for any existing team searching for a support or strategy caller, or perhaps any fellow older gamers making new teams…

tek is the most likely candidate to fill the gap on Melty

Although Melty have not signed a replacement or confirmed who they will take on, many expect tek to join the roster especially after he was seen with them in the GosuGamers NA #16.

tek left Team Aera earlier this week, presumably as soon as the spot opened in Melty. He has a vast amount of history in TF2 with Flippy, baud, DeGuN, and NiCO as well as experience on the original G2 Esports roster in Overwatch. He is not a support or IGL however and despite being an excellent Pharah, the new patch has shaken up the meta significantly and particularly appears to hurt the previous dominant Pharah meta.

Melty have begun to adapt their roles by shifting former Pharah expert DeGuN over to support. After the recent boost to McCree, Flippy has also switched over to dps from offtank, but it must be stressed that the new patch is throwing everything askew and it will take the team a while to settle into their roles (if indeed they keep them).

While the atmosphere appears to be genial between all the French teams (helped on by past friendships), at some level the battle between Team Aera and Melty will be a grudge match should tek join. We still have not seen how these two teams stack up against each other, much less with GamersOrigin thrown into the mix.

Beyond the battle for the top French team, KabaL may well join Kryw as players who left Melty but found a home in a more successful team. Melty must be careful not to throw away their talents away in the dash for short-term improvement.

The roster for Melty Esport Club is:

  • Laurent “DeGuN” Prinderre (Support)
  • Julien ”baud” Robert (Support)
  • Hugo “Flippy” Perhirin (DPS)
  • Nicolas ”NiCO” Moret (DPS)
  • Amaury “moonL” Dennielou (Tank)
  • Théo "Tek" Guillebaud (Flex) (unconfirmed replacement)