The New Challengers

At the end of each North American Challengers League (NACL) split, the two bottom-performing teams from the NACL will compete in the NACL promotion tournament to retain their spot in the league.

Four teams from the NACL Qualifier will have the opportunity to promote into the NACL after each split. At the end of the spring split, the bottom two teams were LiT Esports and Mirage Alliance. Both teams were eliminated from the NACL, making room for two new faces: CCG Esports and Blue Otter. Welcome to the NACL!

Sheep Esports reached out to both organizations for a description of their organizations and who they are.

Billy "Vulkzen" the General manager of Blue Otters, had this to say:

"If I were to describe Blue Otter as an organization, I would say that Blue Otter very passionate organization that strives to elevate the NA League of Legends scene. Blue Otter is known by many from the Blue Otter League that started up in 2018 and hosts leagues of various ranks with around 450 active players each split.
Blue Otter started our journey into the amateur scene in the 2023 Summer OQ1 with ThinUnclePhil as our coach and still our current head coach. As for our current roster, Blue Otter acquired the team from previous 2024 Spring OQ1 winners, Aporia, going into 2024 Spring OQ2. While we didn't win 2024 Spring OQ2 and placed top 4, we had secured our spot in the promotion tournament.

Going into the promotion tournament, many doubted us following our top-4 finish in the previous tournament and losing our first series against Winthrop University. We would go on to make a dominant run in the lower bracket, knocking out the team that sent us to the lower bracket, Winthrop University, as well as the two NACL representatives, LiT Esports and Mirage Alliance, to secure our spot for the NACL 2024 Summer Split.
Our players showed massive improvements as individuals and as a team during these qualifiers. Going into the NACL Summer Split, we want to continue our success and let the players show why they deserve their spot in NACL."

The Owner of CCG Esports Daniel "Crim" Allen had this to say:

"We started as a group of gaming friends. One of those friends became a coach at a collegiate program and thought that our involvement in esports could help the scene. After a few meetings and introductions, we decided that a project in esports would be worthwhile. Within a month of any and all free time spent meeting with owners of NACL teams, advisors in the scene, collegiate programs, high school programs, players, coaches, org staff, we knew what our focus and energy would be dedicated to.

We found that the largest missing piece to the esports eco is the lack of defined avenues to connect our youth and future players, casters, staff, and industry leaders to the professional or collegiate opportunities that will allow them to find sustainable careers in or outside of esports.

This became our primary focus, “How to bridge the gap between interested and talented youth to the opportunities that esports can provide?” We have not fully answered that question and may not for several years, but we have been able to start to build the foundation. That foundation begins with our partnerships at the high school levels, which have included casted, on-stage LANs/Invitationals for local HS, as well as our recruitment of youth coaching, players, and staff that have shown exceptional skill in their field.

While setting the foundation for how we could help the community and our long-term goals for CCG we found it very important to have a competitive program at the highest level achievable so all players, staff, and partnerships involved with CCG could not only benefit from the community and opportunities but also can be proud of the competitive teams we roster across all esports.

We had many opportunities to partner or purchase teams in the NACL, but we always fell back on the idea of achieving that goal through a roster put together by CCG. Earning the spot was ideal, so when the opportunity to put together that roster and coaching staff presented itself, we took it.

From the orgs first split in the competitive scene we wanted to work with Akash, with our Michigan ties, we knew at some point our paths would cross. Eventually, they did, coming into OQ1. After overachieving in OQ1, Akash and Shelodin really thought we had an opportunity to ramp up the roster in a few areas and be competitive enough to win the tournament. After many talks with players and roster crafting later, Akash and Shelodin brought in Bradley, Instinct, and Yukino to bolster the team’s success with Crimson and Trevor. Flocon and EU Red stayed on as subs, which turned out to be a massive need since they had stepped in for multiple wins during the Swiss stage. We were extremely proud of what this team achieved with a mix of such young talent, overpowering skilled players, and intelligent coaching.

In a perfect world, we would love the opportunity to maintain the same roster and staff going into the NACL, but when our goal is to help those involved achieve their personal goals, we must have a firm understanding that we are only a chapter in many of our players and staff’s books and if we do our job right it will never be the last chapter.

While we are ecstatic that our NACL team qualified for the Challengers League, we know that this is only a small brick in the road that we want to pave for the future of esports. We look forward to continuing to help build this community and show players, students, staff, and parents the pathways to success in esports!"

We welcome both organizations to the NACL and wish them good luck going into the summer split!