UK esports organisation Ruddy Esports have topped the Northern League of Legends Championship (NLC) Division 1 Summer 2024 season.
Before we get onto Middlecott’s analysis further in this article, some basic bits of info for you: Ruddy have finished top of the table, ahead of Nord Esports (Scandinavia), Venomcrest Esports (UK) and DMG Esports (Norway).
Ruddy have picked up 11 wins in the season so far, in the EMEA Regional League for UK, Ireland and Nordic countries.
However, there are still the final matches of the season due to take place later this evening from 5pm GMT, determining the seeding of second and third place teams in the playoffs.
The playoffs finalists will reach the EMEA Masters Main Event, which features top teams from the different EMEA Regional Leagues, while the third and fourth place sides will head to the last chance qualifier. Update: In the playoffs, Ruddy will face Venomcrest and Nord will play against DMG.
Last season, Ruddy pulled off a miracle run to reach the EMEA Masters Spring 2024 alongside Lionscreed, who were later removed from NLC Div 1 following payment complaints.
Other teams in the NLC Div 1 Summer 2024 season include Lundqvist Lightside (Sweden), Verdant (UK), Nativz (Ireland) and BlueWhites (Finland).
Here’s some reaction from Ruddy, top-laner Built and Venomcrest CEO Jack ‘Ace’ Doe:
‘Ruddy’s new playstyle, DMG showing up, Venomcrest bouncing back, and Nord being the anti-Ruddy’
NLC Div 1 Summer 2024 season analysis of the top four teams by UK caster Jack ‘Middlecott’ Davies, the self-proclaimed Krishnan Guru-Murthy of the NLC
Ruddy have a very different playstyle from [the spring season] that is very well defined. They brought back a lot more of the early skirmishes they were doing early in spring before they went on that insane run to playoffs/finals, but this time they’re winning games.
Kituruken has only played AP junglers, Alex has only played AD mids, Alaric has been all about engage with Built and Nata being the only ones to offer true flexibility in draft.
“As is always the case with Ruddy, their greatest enemy has been themselves.”
Middlecott
In Ruddy’s two losses so far, they kinda fought themselves into a hole, which hasn’t been an issue recently with them going undefeated this round robin. However, it does whisper to you as a possibility during their games, before they inevitably end up pulling away.
Kituruken and Nata (with Nata being criminally overlooked kinda like how silkysmath was in spring), are the best players in their roles. All the others can easily argue for their position in the top three.
Whilst Verdant are the traditional rivals [to Ruddy], this split has been like watching a Premier League team play a derby vs a side in League One. The competitive edge to the fixture hasn’t really been there. Nord have supplanted Verdant in that regard, being a consistently strong side with their coach Memento calling out Ruddy in his post-game interviews.
When asked for a comment, Ruddy co-owner DonJake told Esports News UK on Discord: “#NOWANK”
When asked for context on this, he said: “The hashtag for us last split was #GOWANK, but after Built’s horrific performance at EMEA Masters, he forgoed wanking, and now it’s #NOWANK.”
ammo from the Ruddy Discord added: “Lisan alix gaib, built and #nowank, the dynamic Turkish duo of kit and alix and #ONELASTPAYCHECK for nata the adc goat.”
While DMG weren’t great for some time, they have really shown up this summer. They’ve not gone and spent loads of money, they’ve made a lot of smart purchases. For example, Bitse came last in Prime League Division 3, but has been the second best jungler in the league.
The UK coach duo in kybet and teatime have clearly been doing something right. They’ve got four lanes that can carry and they are willing to adapt what jobs people will have to do in-game to counter their opponents.
Buchi is the best top-laner in the league and is hilarious in interviews. The whole vibe is really that of a team/organisation that feels like their time has come, not through chance but from an opportunity which they’ve engineered.
VNC (Venomcrest) lost a lot of their spring split identity going into summer with zubac and passzi leaving, but they’ve been very impressive in their ability to bounce back.
The splits been quite uneventful as it’s not felt like they have massive highs or lows in terms of form. In the first week they went 2-0 and then went 1-1 every week until last, when they 2-0d again.
They have just been a consistently very good team. Something of note is that they beat DMG and Nord last week, so theoretically are the second best team in the league.
Nord are basically the anti-Ruddy.
More often than not they been about scaling and playing less aggressive, although not to the same level as in spring.
Hunt has had to drag them kicking and screaming to a couple of their wins though.
Thanks to Middlecott for this analysis. You can catch more from him in regular updates on the NLC socials, like this:
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Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
