Templars of Twilight
From Liquipedia StarCraft Brood War Wiki
Templars of Twilight
Team Information
Location:
Manager:
Ilvy
Team Captain:
Approx. Total Winnings:
$2,306
Player earnings:
$3,094
Links
History
Created:
1998
Disbanded:
2010
The Templars of Twilight (ToT) were a multi gaming clan and one of the most dominant foreign Brood War teams in the years before the StarCraft II Beta.
Overview[edit]
The Templars of Twilight were founded in 1998. The team dominated German clan leagues at first, before expanding to international waters. In between 2004 and 2009 the Templars won almost all clan leagues they entered and were home to many of the most notable players in foreign history, including Mondragon, Testie, SEn and in later years ret.
Early Years[edit]
The Templars of Twilight were founded by Nightfall, Lunatic and Purefalcon in 1998. In the first years after foundation the members mostly played team games on Big Game Hunters. After the original founding members went inactive, the German Zerg Lazer took over most of the management tasks. With more time passing by, the team's focus from so-called mucho maps slowly changed towards low money maps. With the return of Mondragon, the addition of members like NorTi and Silence the team's overall skill level improved. Since their roster consisted of German players only, the Templars only participated in the big German venues: BWCL and Stammkneipe.
By 2001 the Templar's overall skill was enough to win the fourth season of BWCL and the tenth season of Stammkneipe. In addition to their participation in leagues, the team also hosted a private PVPGN based server. Any German speaking player was allowed to join, either via invite directly or after submitting a registration mail to their former captain Lazer. In the next two years the Templars gained more recognition for their dominant position within the German community. A total of ten BWCL and three Stammkneipe seasons were won by the team. Especially Mondragon's performance in 1on1 and together with Lazer in 2on2 were key to these achievements; for both Mondragon (and Mondragon/Lazer respectively) scored a 90% win ratio[1]. As a consequence Mondragon, Lazer and a few other Templars were invited into the German National Team. Furthermore, the Templars started to organize both offline and online events, the annual ToT LANs in Southern Germany close the founder's homes, and the ToT Invite tournaments respectively. Both were covered in detail by German pages and organizations - broodwar.de were used to promote both events, and the broadcasting service GIGA streamed the late stages of the tournaments.
Rivalry with pro Gaming[edit]
After more notable international players like Strafe and Ovvi were added to the roster, the Templars slowly turned into one of Europe's strongest teams. Until late 2003 most comments about the team and their individual player's achievements in events and ladders like the World Gaming Tour were positive. Roughly speaking, a rivalry between the Templars, pictured as the traditional team of friends by the community, and pro Gaming slowly emerged, even though both teams rarely played clan wars. The Templars could already match pro Gaming's German roster, whereas the international wing of their rivals were more present and successful in major events like the World Cyber Games. The duels between FiSheYe and Mondragon in between 2004 and 2006 became the symbol of the long lasting battle.
By 2005 the Templars were seen equally skilled, as they were able to send more players to premier events than in all previous years. Mondragon dethroned FiSheYe in Germany, while the Templar's roster now featured more non-German players than ever. The focus of the team changed from traditional leagues towards single show matches against professional Korean teams like Hexatron. In December 2005 Testie and SEn joined the highly successful clan. Together with Mondragon the three formed a dominant trio, present in almost all big online and offline tournaments.
Transfer and Controversies[edit]
The positive image of the Templars changed in summer 2006. At first FiSheYe, one of the star players of the Templar's arch enemy, left pro Gaming together with his long term ally Breakdown. Soon after pro Gaming announced that they kicked all players and replaced them with the Templars. This transfer was heavily criticized by the community at various fan pages[2][3][4][5].
Furthermore, Mondragon decided to add the German Protoss Selector to his team, although Selector had been caught hacking numerous times in the past. Especially the German scene discussed this heavily, after Mondragon announced to leave the German National Team, as the hosting fan page broodwar.de refused to add Selector to the roster as well. Mondragon eventually left and the team was hosted on a different page until Selector was caught hacking in 2007 again[6][7][8][9][10].
The liasion with pro Gaming ended in October 2006, as pro Gaming was disbanded, after the Counter Strike fell apart. Consequently, the Templars went back to their old tag. Selector was kicked from the Templars in 2007[11].
Era of Dominance[edit]
In between 2006 and 2009 the Templars send the most representatives to the World Cyber Games, compared to all other clans. Their roster was constantly updated with the most promising talents and experienced players. Only few teams could challenge them in wars or match the number of representatives in big events.
The international killing spree of the Templars started in 2006, when they won the first ESL Clan League. Most of the teams participating couldn't nearly match the Templar's impressive line ups, especially since the remainders of their former rival, pro Gaming, were still scattered among the teams eSa Lehnitz (FiSheYe, Breakdown) and Deutschlands Kranke Horde (German Wing). The danish multi gaming clan Meet Your Makers were able to recruit the KeSPA professionals Lx and Pj, as well as the rising star Draco and most of the international players of pro Gaming. The finale between the templars was relatively close with an 3-2 overall; the leading trio SEn, Testie and Mondragon decided the outcome.
A year later both teams meet again in the finale of the Fragbet League Season 2, again with the Templars taking the gold after beating their opponent with a close 4-3, although SEn and Testie now played under the Meet Your Makers clan tag. Another two gold medal were won by the team in the BWCL Premier Season 2 and the QCup in 2007 as well.
Later Years[edit]
After 2007 the team signed up for the two more traditional leagues, the ICCup Clan League and World Gaming Tour WGTCL. However, they mostly send out their B-Roster and consequently finished mostly as runner up. The last league the Templars signed up and won was the Titans League.
By late 2008 most of the Templars members focused mainly on individual tournaments, such as the Teamliquid- or Valor Starleague. Even though the clan featured a vast number of high class players, the last really outstanding player in their roster was the Dutch Zerg/Terran race picker ret. He was part of the team in their early years, before he went inactive for longer years. In early 2008, ret returned and improved a lot. While only finishing high in the ESL Major Series 4 before leaving the Templars in August 2009, he was seen as the most promising foreigner aside from IdrA.
After ret's departure most Templars still did well in tournaments, despite not having an outstanding player. The teams roster was still seen as one of the strongest in the foreign world. However, with the increasing inactivity coming with the launch of the StarCraft II Beta, the team slowly started to fade. In July 2010 the team announced to stop playing competitively.
Timeline[edit]
Members[edit]
Achievements[edit]
Media[edit]
- ToT Imagine Part 1
- ToT Imagine Part 2
Interviews[edit]
External Links[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Mondragon's BWCL statistics (Archive.org)
- ↑ GosuGamers coverage about the merge
- ↑ Teamliquid Poll on the merge
- ↑ Mondragon's statement about the transfer
- ↑ German community reactions
- ↑ TL Thread
- ↑ BWCL Thread
- ↑ BWCL Thread II
- ↑ GG.net
- ↑ Mondragon's statement about Selector
- ↑ News on gosus.com about Selector
- ↑ ToT) is formed
- ↑ 2001 Homepage update
- ↑ Templar Server Update
- ↑ [https://starcraft2.ingame.de/news/Paarungen-des-ToT-Turniers ToT Tournament 2002 Information
- ↑ Homepage Update 2003
- ↑ TreK joins ToT
- ↑ TreK caught hacking
- ↑ Roster Updates 2003
- ↑ Suker and Upham join the Templars
- ↑ TomsOn joins ToT
- ↑ sys joins the Templars
- ↑ Templars lose to Hexatron
- ↑ Spanish join the Templars
- ↑ Aqrash joins ToT
- ↑ iD members join ToT
- ↑ HeXeR joins ToT
- ↑ Timothy joins ToT
- ↑ SEn joins ToT
- ↑ Homepageupdate 2005
- ↑ Breakdown and Archi join ToT
- ↑ [https://starcraft2.ingame.de/ingame-de/inbroodwar/testie-joint-templars-of-twilight/ Testie joins ToT
- ↑ TreK back in ToT
- ↑ Incontrol transfers to ToT
- ↑ Avernum to ToT
- ↑ ToT joins pG
- ↑ Selector joins pG
- ↑ pro Gaming disbands
- ↑ New Homepage 2005
- ↑ Daze joins ToT
- ↑ Testie and SEn leave ToT
- ↑ ToT Team of the Year 2005
- ↑ Odin joins ToT
- ↑ Hullah joins ToT
- ↑ Homepage and Sponsor updates
- ↑ HayprO joins ToT)
- ↑ HayprO hacking incident
- ↑ DHayprO and Selector kicked from ToT)
- ↑ Cloud joins ToT)
- ↑ ZelotITO back in ToT
- ↑ iNcontroL leaves ToT)
- ↑ Yosh joins ToT)
- ↑ Infernal joins ToT
- ↑ Razer new Sponsor
- ↑ Arew leaves ToT)
- ↑ SarenS leaves ToT)
- ↑ TenSevenSuited New Sponsor of the Templars
- ↑ HayprO rejoins ToT); and Ret joins ToT)
- ↑ Ace joins ToT)
- ↑ iNfeRnaL leaves ToT)
- ↑ Arew transfers to ToT
- ↑ Cloud leaves ToT)
- ↑ Shad, AeRiaLs, and Naugrim join ToT)
- ↑ KaiSeR joins ToT) (offline)
- ↑ Ace leaves ToT) (offline)
- ↑ MoonShine joins ToT)
- ↑ Cloud rejoins ToT)(offline)
- ↑ Gan joins ToT)
- ↑ Shad and Cloud leave ToT); Yenta, aCe, and Eriador join ToT)
- ↑ ZpuX joins ToT
- ↑ ToT) starts to stream their games on LiveStream
- ↑ Ret leaves ToT)
- ↑ Belladona joins ToT)(offline)
- ↑ Gan leaves ToT) (offline)
- ↑ AeRiaLs leaves ToT)(offline)
- ↑ DaZe rejoins ToT)
- ↑ ToT) resigns from Iccup Clan League
- ↑ ToT) Brood War Division goes inactive due to the SC2 Beta
- ↑ ToT) comes to an end