Sideswipe And The Curse Of Alpha Grand Champion

When the alpha test period was released on the 24th of March, 2021, eager players flocked to test the game which held the potential to be the future of mobile gaming. During this short stint of time, only 4 players were able to achieve the elusive achievement of Alpha Grand Champion.

Heading into the game’s official release later in 2021, these 4 were expected to be some of the pillars of Sideswipe Esports, but some 3 months later, the original kings of Sideswipe seem to have crumbled. Here’s the story of each of the 4, where they are now, and whether this title may hold a curse with it.

Karnodi

The first ever Grand Champion in Alpha, the OCE player Karnodi was the game’s first ever great player. He invented the horse kick shot, and in many aspects was ahead of the competition.

But since alpha ended, with the long gap between the alpha stage and pre-season, Karnodi was rarely seen and effectively didn’t play the game during pre-season or season 1. Initially sighting irl issues, there’s a good chance that Karnodi lost love for the game before it truly took off, and may never be seen in the scene again.

Killionaire23

A dentist, neurosurgeon, and then an alpha Grand Champion. Originally based in OCE, Killionaire was dominant in alpha, particularly when paired with HammerToes, and quickly made his way up through the ranks.

But in between alpha‘s finish and pre-season, Killionaire relocated to Europe for work, putting him out of the OCE scene. Yet even with the change in scenery, Killionaire quickly found his feet in the lead up EU Weeklies, getting 2nd place in the first 2s event and 1st in the second.

And then he stopped. With a busy real life making it difficult to keep up with the demands of high level play, Killionaire made the choice to quit while he was ahead, effectively departing from the scene before the EU Masters even commenced and leaving us to wonder what could’ve been, as his progress showed no real signs of slowing down.

Hammertoes

The only one of the 4 to be alpha Grand Champion in all 3 modes, and also the first triple Grand Champion in pre-season, the Australian was the epitome of grinding in the early days.

His streams were a daily occurrence, for hours on end, and his work ethic couldn’t be paralleled by anyone, not in the region nor outside of it. This was reflected in his early RLO Swipe Series results where he made top 4 in week 1 of 1s, the final in week 1 of 2s, and a top 8 in the second week of 1s.

Yet soon after, the rise of Hammertoes quickly became the fall. Having played the game so frequently for an extensive period of time, the burn out became clear and Hammertoes’ hours within the game, and interest in playing, quickly declined.

Paired with this, unfortunately, was a vast drop off in performance, as he failed to even reach top 16 once in the next 5 weeks of 1s competition, falling out of the finals despite the fast start.

Although he continued to place decently in 2s with Fin under the Semicircle banner, the end result seemed inevitable as Hammertoes was picked to pieces in the finals series where the team went 1-6, with Hammertoes looking completely outpaced in an arena where he once ruled.

Hammertoes does still play the game, be that sparingly, but even though there is still time to recover, the speed and mechanics of the series may be quickly escaping his grasp.

Fisci25

The only non-OCE alpha Grand Champion was Fisci25, the North American phenom. He worked hard in alpha to get his title despite the ping issues, and heading into pre-season, the grind continued as he quickly rose to the top of North America.

And for a period of time, Fisci25 looked to be on top. He was the first ever player to be signed to an organization in NA, joining the prestigious Aphelion Esports with team mate Alex (now one of the big 4 players), and in the first week of action, came 1st overall in the 2s.

However, slowly but surely, the region caught up. Over the course of the next 6 weeks, Fisci’s grip on the region would slip before eventually falling down to a new low in week 7, where he failed to make top 16 in either 1s or 2s, not even winning a series in the latter where he was once considered one of the region’s best.

Fisci does still play the game frequently and is the last of the 4 to be properly competing, but having already fallen so far, it will be a long way for Fisci to climb to get back to his early season heights.

The Curse

So the question is this: is the title cursed? Seemingly, all 4 players have struggled with the expectation and have failed to consistently be at the top in tournaments. The answer, most likely, is that after all the time spent grinding, waiting in queues, and trying to get ahead, has left the group burnt out.

I hope that some of these guys can return to highest level of Sideswipe one day, I really do, but until then, the curse is well and truly present.