In July, the NACL Promotion tournament took place, deciding which teams would and wouldn’t make it to the next split of NA’s Tier 2 league. There, amateur organization Dorado Gaming stood out among the 64 total teams competing in the Open Qualifiers, and after a 3-0 win in their qualification match against last-place NACL team Pulse Star, they earned a ticket to the NACL.
The team is set to maintain four of the five players that they fielded during their qualification. That includes Polish toplaner Jakub “Ariana” Śliwonik, who previously played at the ERL level, in the Ultraliga. Jungler Siddhant “Kaido” Nath returns as well, who spent one split in the NACL in 2023 on Team Liquid First, a provisional roster that struggled and failed to re-qualify for the following split. Midlaner Chase “Shochi” Capello has the most Tier 2 experience, with a great rookie year on Cincinnati FEAR in 2023, where the team placed fourth and third.
Shochi’s following year, on Supernova and CCG Esports, didn’t see as positive results, but he's still one of the NACL's premier midlane talents, and, as Dorado put it on social media when announcing his return, a "
#SoulfulWhiteBoy". For support Eric “
Mixtsure” Yin, on the other hand, this is a true first shot at Tier 2, him being a rookie to the NACL. Dorado’s one departing player, Fatihcan “
Fatihcan” Demir, left to play on CCG Esports, also in the NACL, where he’s role-swapping from botlane to support.
"You should expect us to be top 3 nacl" - shochi
Replacing Fatihcan in the botlane role is Jeremy “
Sushee” Roussy,
another NACL rookie who’s just 18 years old. Sushee did, however, actually get to play in the big leagues once before,
spending time as a substitute for legendary botlaner Yiliang “
Doublelift” Peng,
on his now-disbanded team Near Airport. Sushee played two best-of-threes with NA, winning both in dominant performances over starting NACL botlaners. Actually,
the team won as many series in playoffs with Sushee as they did with Doublelift. After having shown he’s got what it takes to play in Tier 2, Sushee now finds his way in with Dorado.
Also joining Dorado is a new head coach: Raymond "Griffin" Griffin, who competed as a pro in the LCS years ago under the name Wiggily. Griffin has been coaching in the NACL since 2023, with several splits under his belt working as part of teams like Wildcard Gaming and AOE Esports.
Dorado Gaming themselves responded to Sheep Esports’ questions on their organization and goals. As Dorado put it, they’re “an org built up from the depths of Platinum and Gold,” emphasizing their “T3 roots” that they’ve used as a foundation to work their way to the NACL. Dorado also stated their value in “giving young talented players opportunities," which they assert their current roster reflects. With high-potential NA rookies like Mixtsure and Sushee, the future looks bright in the NACL for Dorado.
Dorado Gaming and NACL/Riot Games
