MeT (Mexico eSports Team) joined the Mexican R6 scene ahead of the most recent 2020 season of the Mexican Championship, which acted as one of the three sub-regions of the Latin American region. While the roster consisted of a number of players from various mid-tier teams in the nation, the team struggled throughout the 2020 season winning up just two maps and two points across the season.
Now, in order to rectify this, the organisation has made an unprecedented move to bring in two foreign transfers from North America in the form of Mason "DotDash" Brasher and Brandon "wrath" Matousek.
DotDash previously won CCS Season 3 and finished fourth at DreamHack Austin alongside GhxsT, Hyper, Beaulo, and Sweater on Disrupt Gaming before joining a number of Challenger League teams -- including Rise Nation -- during 2019. Most recently, he joined the Canadian Division team of Altiora, where he finished in third place.
Wrath, meanwhile, has played in both Challenger League Seasons 10 and 11 with the latter being on the ex-Rise Nation lineup of Vanquish Gaming. These two players now finally meet up in the LATAM region after a number of games against each other, becoming the first foreign players to play in the region.
This is allowed as the Mexican Championship requires all players to be living in Mexico while playing, with no specific nationalities required, hence allowing the two American players to compete for the otherwise Mexican team.
Leaving the team meanwhile will be the player of "Irving" as well as the team's American coach of Xander "Hunterkash" Luelsdorff, who helped them through the first stage of the 2020 season. During this time, Irving achieved the lowest rating in the league (ignoring substitutes) at 0.75 while playing Thermite and Jaeger, hence leading to this change. This means that the roster will consist of six members for the rest of the season.
We spoke to one of the founders of MeT to ask about the changes and their hopes going forward:
Firstly, can you introduce yourself and your role in MeT?
My name is Rafael “Aslan” Castillo, I’m Co-Founder and Co-Owner of the organisation. I oversee esports teams management, market analytics, and social media development, although I have to say I have a soft spot for our Siege team.
This will be the first time a LATAM team has picked up a player from another region for the season. Why did you come to the decision to do this and were there any difficulties in doing so?
In MeT we have always been thinking how to break the paradigms we encounter in our region.
NA has always been a highly demanding and highly developed region in Siege, which in turn requires better and smarter players, therefore yielding more experienced and all-around developed players. We know that to get to a Major (to really compete) we need to bring in experiences from other regions, which will help our team to further develop a more structured gameplay, individual and collective skills, as well as a strong mentality.
Of course, there are difficulties, the first of them is the fact that we are taking two US Citizens and bringing them in into Mexico. The culture, scenery and customs are different, as they are very far from home and coming to the unknown. Having a nice and settled gaming house in one of Mexico´s most safe and beautiful cities (Querétaro), as well as taking matters seriously, communicating constantly, and making the right offer really helped speed up the process.
Why these players in particular?
In the case of Wrath, his gun skill, game sense and experience in CL were more than enough for us to want to sign him in. Mexican Siege is very aggressive, and gun skill is a determining factor.
With Dot, we were looking for a smart player that knows how to handle his players and rivals; a natural IGL. He really knows how to organize a team, as well as setting up strats, adaptations and counter our rival´s intentions. Refrags, floods, and the already mentioned adaptations are things that our region has not completely developed and that can be a determining factor when we face teams from outside our region.
Another important factor was that both Wrath and Dot were already acquainted with each other, which can play an important role both in-game and outside of it.
We have a really good base with Hydre, Rubyz, Ravz, and Tensek, neither of them lacking the skill, game sense, and intelligence. Add two big promises from NA and you get a Mexican superteam.
With these pick-ups, there are likely some language barriers between the English-speaking Americans and the Spanish speaking Mexicans. How is this being addressed, and will it be an issue?
Thankfully most of our players and staff have a high level of English, which we have complemented with English lessons to those who don’t speak it properly.
Ranked in Mexico is played on NA servers -- that has really helped with most of the in-game communication because they are all used to giving and receiving calls in English. That mixed with a few hours of dry running maps for specific location-based calls have been enough to make the language barrier non-existent.
MeT finished Stage 1 in last. What are the realistic aims for Stage 2 with these new additions?
We are aiming for getting as many points as possible, and we are confident we can be undefeated this split. Although our current point situation is bad, the tournament has been really close, there are no highly dominant teams as in other regions, and we know our situation can be fixed this split. Training and scrims have proved successful, and the roster isobjectively playing better than a month ago.
Of course, we need to get everything set up properly, then we can aim for the next Copa Elite and Majors.
And finally, how is MeT supporting their lineup?
Gandalf (our co-founder and co-owner) and I have always been there for our players. We are in all training sessions, discuss strats, gameplay issues, watch and get scrims. Communication never ceases. Be it personal or in-game problems, economical and psychological support, or even printing MeT keycaps for my guys in my 3D printer. Now with the gaming house, we are glad we can finally get to know our players personally, so they get to feel at home.
Mix that with the support, encouraging words and social presence of the rest of our partners, especially Mexican World Cup football player Alfredo Talavera, pro football player Sebastián Fassi and Santiago Arbide and Alejandro García from AMERO, and you have more than a team; a family of people supporting each other in the good and the bad times.
Respect, solidarity, honesty, empathy, and discipline are principles MeT will always hold dearly.
We also spoke to Wrath about his move from the Canadian Nationals to the Mexican Championship:
Why did you decide to join MeT?
After talking to the organisation and one of my former teamates that was on a top Mexican team about the leagues. I figured that there is probably a lot more opportunity to play in the Mexcian league than being stuck in the Challenger League with its current format.
What roles will you and DotDash be taking up?
I am playing entry and roam and Dot is playing hard support and will be the IGL for the team.
Will there be any language issues and if so how are you dealing with them?
So far, language has not been much of an issue as everyone's English is pretty good and it will only get better over time. I am half-Honduran, so my Spanish is decent, which also helps whenever there are any problems.
What is your goal for Stage 2?
The organisation has put a lot of resources and faith into the team, so I would say top-two would be ideal, but, of course, I want to win it all.
These changes mark the seventh and eighth (non-substitute) players that will play in multiple regions in the top-flight after Gomfi, SlebbeN, Alphama, and Sloppy moved from EU to NA, Virtue moved from APAC to EU, and Quantic moved from APAC to EU and back.
Also of note are the multiple Mexican players such as Geoo and Art who played in North America before Mexico was moved into the LATAM region. However, this will be the first time we see a transfer into the LATAM region.
This new lineup will now hope to escape the relegation zone and challenge both Estral and Timbers -- the lineups which played in the regional mini-major -- at the top of the Mexican Championship:
Ivan "Hydre" Chavez Alan "Ravz" Vega Ruben "Rubyz" Carmona "TenseK"
Mason "DotDash" Brasher Brandon "wrath" Matousek
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