Tristan “PowerOfEvil” Schrage and Jason “WildTurtle” Tran will reportedly be signing for Immortals, as per Daniel “dGon” Gonzales. You’re either elated by this news or have your arms up in the air, wondering how such a thing could ever happen. Either way, you’re probably not indifferent.

We’re somewhere in the middle, reaction-wise; we’re talking about two players most folks thought would end up somewhere else — i.e. an organization that had a shot at winning the LCS or at least challenging for a spot near the very top of the standings. Immortals haven’t really been relevant in what feels like a lifetime, but with PowerOfEvil and WildTurtle, that could very well change.

No one’s expecting them to upset the long-established status quo, but they could definitely put up a much bigger fight than one would expect — especially if they can get on the same page and execute as a cohesive five-man unit. For some odd reason, people have forgotten just how incredible WildTurtle was throughout the 2020 season along with the rest of FlyQuest. They did incredibly well in spite of facing some fairly grim odds, and their two back-to-back second-place finishes were more than worthy of praise and commendation.

Now sure, his stint with Counter Logic Gaming was downright horrendous, but none of that is on WildTurtle — nor any of his teammates. CLG was basically a sinking ship throughout 2021 (and even prior) and there was nothing whatsoever any of its players could’ve done to help or salvage it. Well, other than jump ship which, fortunately, most of them did as soon as they could.

PowerOfEvil is still a top-tier mid laner at the peak of powers, and the same goes for WildTurtle. They’re two exceptional players and they’ll have fairly capable allies as well: Mohamed “Revenge” Kaddoura, Andrei “Xerxe” Dragomir, and Mitchell “Destiny” Shaw. It’s not the most mind-blowing line-up one could imagine, but it’s not half-bad either.

In fact, we’d go as far to call them a shoo-in for the playoffs. They have the experience, the mechanical prowess, and the drive to compete at the highest of levels, and while they might not be good enough to tango with the likes of Team Liquid, Cloud9, and 100 Thieves, they should still be more than capable of trading blows and eking out a few wins when you least expect them to — an underdog with a puncher’s chance, if you will.