Thursday, February 23, 2017

Torch Gaming: The Local LAN Legends

     In December of 2015, 3 friends started a movement that would be considered the best brand that any local LAN had ever seen. During a snow storm in Upstate New York; Kody "sparK" Miles, Josh "Shocker" Bardeen, and Tony "Voltage" Park sat in a local pizza shop struggling to create a marketable name to brand their newly founded eSports organization. After countless ideas tossed around they finally stumbled upon a name that they all agreed on. Thus, Torch Gaming was conceived and the movement had begun.
     The #TorchTakeOver was what the players, fans, and community had coined the Torch Gaming movement as. The journey began at a small 2v2 Team Deathmatch tournament in Saratoga Springs, New York. The 3 friends who had founded Torch packed their things and drove 3 hours to this small event and won the event and brought home $300. This win sparked the mindset that anything was possible and nothing was stopping us. In addition to winning this event we made friends with Connor "Vizionz" Cleveland. Vizionz told us that one day he would join Torch Gaming and thats exactly what he did. Vizionz became a staple of the Torch TakeOver and he was our first pick up in the organization. Our first official LAN was ETG 11, with the founders networking and making connections in the scene Torch was gaining rapid success and receiving a mass of fans.

    The first NJROD event attended by Torch was accompanied by their friend Marc Arimenta or as everyone in the eSports community knows him by, "Big Marc".  The addition of Marc to Torch was a tremendous pickup and he helped us to grow even more than we already were. With the growth, came more apparel, hats, wristbands, and banners.

     Gaining a huge following, Torch was looking to expand as they attended the GameOnLLC event in Pittsburgh, PA. This event would lead to some of the connections that would only progress Torch into the next level. At this event Torch had acquired a new team, a PS4 team. This team would include Sonixs, Jaayy, Dynasty, and Parish.

     ETG 12 was the peak of Torch Gaming, with the feud between NJROD and ETG regarding who ran a better event they were also battling for the Torch crew to choose their event. ETG offered free G Fuel to everyone if we attended their event.
   
      Attending ETG 12 was the best choice we could've ever done because it lead to even more growth with in the company. One such opportunity was the acquisition of a 18+ team to compete at MLG Anaheim. This team was set to play under the Torch brand and represent us in the Golden State. The team included Mosh, Pemby, ProFeeZy, and Gunless. Some of todays top talent in the Call of Duty eSports scene. This team eventually fell through and opted out and played for themselves under the name in2ition.

      Despite all the growth, the inevitable end of Torch was bound to happen. With 2 of the 3 founding members leaving for college there simply wasn't enough time in the day to run an organization successfully and efficiently. In June 2016, Torch Gaming came to an end, and the local LAN legends were no more.

Thanks for reading and as always be sure to follow us on Twitter- https://twitter.com/ThePXLBlog to stay updated for all the latest news and stories!

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