When the FBI Destroyed the Most Dominant League of Legends Team Ever 

I came here fully expecting to see the FBI just show up to this tournament and show everyone how to really play LoL.

5 minutes in I forgot what it was about, I just thought I was watching the history of competitive LoL, not even complaining

“Vladimir Drinkman” the most Russian name I ever heard

This is not a story, this is a legend. You only see such a twist in movies. Thank you for putting this video together!

Vladimir drinkman is the most Slavic name it’s possible to conceive

I dont even play LoL and i sat through watching this

Bruh I thought gbay had died lmao. Welcome back friend.

I am from Hanover, the city where CeBiT (and therefore the IEM finals) were held. In 2012 I actually skipped school to go to IEM and watch the tournament live. During the final against Dignitas no one could believe what they were seeing when GoSu and Diamond pulled out their Alistar/Lee double roam strat, the crowd was so wild... Man I miss these times...

Hats off to you Gbay, this is an amazing video. The title got me quick

Stealing my red? Gotta steal your credit card then

I will always remember them for Darien's picks. This guy picked Warwick top, dominated with him, and forced his opponents to ban that champ the next game. Nobody played Warwick and he forced the enemy team to ban him. That is legendary.

I was so honored to play with Alex Ich. Dudes a monster, hard carried our team in HotS with one of the ballsiest plays I ever seen, he ended up hitting rank 1 in HotS too

"Playing CS and drinking vodka" - how to make friends in a Slavic country

Hit me right in the feels. I remember the days of M5 dominance...

I forgot I was still subscribed to Gbay, I don't even play league anymore but this was still a cool video bro. Nice job

5 men, 1 dream, 9 eyebrows ༼ ºل͟º༼ ºل͟º༼ ºل͟º( ͡° ͡ ͜ ͡ʖ ͡ °)ºل͟º ༽

It's actually been 84 years.

Golden age of League. Those meta shifts from Moscow Five were amazing. People don't remember how stale League was before them. Moscow Five introducing Galio, Ryze, Mordekaiser, AD Kennen, Shyvanna, Support Nunu, Udyr and so on... Champions which were unheard-of in pro scene. This was a time when i truly loved League, because Russians proved that you could play literally everything if you knew how to capitalize from those "hidden" stats with specific builds and play style.

GBAY WE WERE SO WORRIED

This was the only team who could get me excited watching league, im a season 1 old player I've seen all of this up to this day, only SKT was close, but M5 just made my day, you just knew they were gonna dumpster their opponents. it was fascinating to watch, they changed league play style forever. Thank you for such documentary

Not the FBI but LCS killed them. I've always been an M5 fan, from the Empire Nunu moment on. Friends and I watched all of the European tournaments back then... It's been years since I stopped watching competitive LoL, but these moments really bring back some wonderful memories. It is important to mention that their coach (Groove, ex CS pro) was crucial for the growth and performance of M5/Gambit. His role was somewhat similar to those in Asian teams. None of the Westerners had coaches back then. If I remember correctly, they came to league from dota. Which also explains the depth of the approach. But I cannot imagine a story about this team without a legendary quote: see hero, keel hero...

hold on. He's Russian and he's name is Vladimir Drinkman? Vladimir Drinkman What, Ivan Vodkanov was taken?

This really brought back a lot of nostalgia. I had goosebumps all over my body listenening to Deman!

It's like we discovered Michael Jackson never died

That was a good one. I actually watched the whole thing without skipping a second. That's hard to do^^ really well done.

Man M5 was my favourite team to follow. So explosive, so much fun to watch. It was a shame Gambit couldn't follow, but all good things come to an end eventually I guess. But damn that was a damn nice documentary. keep it up Gbay!

Dude, that just brought tears to my eyes. They made me enjoy LOL, and they teached me how to play, in each role, and how to be part of a team. The team was amazing, since you didn't know what to expect from them! Evelyn jungle? Or Nasus Jungle? Maybe KogMaw triforce? Ashe Manamue? Aatrox top? What about Nunu, that God dammit Nunu, on bot lane? They were the team that this game needs now: something that was amazing to watch, just for it's way of being who they are. They made me feel so old... it's been 6 years since my last match, even thought I tried LOL a couple of times. But, sorry, I can't feel the joyfulness playing a game like this anymore. I miss being a child, a fan, a fanatic. Thank you Moscow 5

Moscow 5 was my favorite team in EU since Season 2 and after I stopped playing for a couple years I never really knew what happened to them. Thank you so much for this documentary, it really helped me live through the nostalgia a bit and I feel really enlightened about what I've learned

I remember watching M5 and cheering for them. Their gameplay was so explosive, each game was unique, champions pool were unique. Now I know why, but then it was just amazing (not Anivia farming for 50 minutes).

26:37 is the explanation of the FBI involvement. Although the rest of the video is a good watch too! I'd skip here if you're short on time.

There was a team named "The Milfhunters" lol

amazing documentary didn't feel the time at all

I always like to support a new RU-vid channel

Darien with the golden renekton. Diamond inventing counter jungling. Alex Ich with his K6 resets. Genja bringing trinity force corki / kog'maw to the meta. Gosu Pepper as the thresh prince. Long live Moscow 5.

I dont play league of legends but still watched this and found it very interesting. Thanks for making this

Remember when each LoL tournament meant new strategies, team comps and playstyles? Now it's all just obeying the meta.

why did i get emotional over a team ive never heard of from a game ive never played

Lol I remember Genja used to build Tear on Varus, probably during season 3, and commentators were laughing their ass off that, as in that's a garbage buy. What do you know, Tear Varus became meta a few years later. The team was so ahead of the time in many ways. I miss these days.

All this nostalgia. Thank you Gbay. Now I really want Vanilla LoL to happen

I was playing CS:GO semi-pro when this went down. None of the guys on my team were LoL players but we constantly talked about M5 because it was insane seeing them sweep every tourney. I remember the day this story popped up we were dumb-founded.

My comment will get burrowed Down but whatever. It was the new LCS system that beat them the most. Having to travel back to Russia and to cologne again every week is really frustrating. Also they were known for preparing really hard for big tournaments by boot camping for couple of weeks or so, creating new tactics, picks and stuff. But in the time between they've been inconsistent. But with new league system when you have to play every week there is no room for something new because you have to just go for standard consistent playstyle. So ye I think the stress was rising up quickly in their team and they just begin arguing with each other all the time and eventually team got destroyed

I dont like LOL, but that was a beautifull documentary bro, well made.

While I liked the video, several points should be corrected. First of all, the major one- FBI had almost no impact on this team destiny. Yes, arrest of Smelyanets resulted in a couple of months of uncertainty, but guys just registered a new brand Gambit Gaming with the same management. Groove (Konstantin Pikiner) was the manager of this team, Smelyanets never affected them in any way except paying salaries and flight/hotels bills (and they had enough money themselves by the time he was arrested). Gameplay problems later in their careers were mostly due to personal conflicts inside the team (girlfriend problems etc), but what really broke them- is the Seasoned League system. All M5 members were from different cities, they lived thousands kilometers away from eachother. So in early days of LoL they lived in their homes, and gathered just for a week or two before a major LAN event on a bootcamp, then separated until next event. And such events were about couple of months apart from each other. So it was all fine. Guys could practice online and just polish strats right before event. When Seasoned League was introduced for EU, it created a major problem: Russia is not a member of EU, and Russia citizens can stay in EU for 180 days per year maximum and no more than 90 days per 6 months. So this team could not live in Germany as every other EU LCS team and they had to fly every week from Russia to Germany. That effectively meant that they had 1, maximum 2 days per week to practice. As every team in the region and world overall was getting better and better, learning from M5/Gambit, these guys themselves got weaker and weaker due to travelling fatigue (sometimes they had to play just a hour or two after landing) and inability to practice effectively (Edward had to fly two planes to reach Germany for example, spending about 12 hours to do so). They had to lose points during season just because they couldn't attend regular games in certain weeks to not break visa rules etc. So, they were more and more inconsistent and exhausted. Their innovative strats were able to win them games still, but they were losing more and more due to lack of practice as they couldn't execute properly. It was a tailspin that resulted in roster changes and broken synergy, that resulted in even worse results. But thanks anyway for this video, it was a good time and M5/Gambit made a lot for a LoL as a competitive game.

What an exciting time it was. I've watched this multiple times within the last few years. Loved M5 and Gambit.

"Vladimir Drinkman" That's the most Russian name I've ever seen

Gbay.. this is a genius masterpiece! I literally watched this documentary for about 6 times now. I love the storytelling, the style and just to see nostalgic gameplay and the story of M5. Also listening to your voice since about season 3 or so ... love it

Long time fan here since Season 2 Gotta say these last 3 documentaries might be not only your best content ever, but generally the best content lol has ever seen. Especially this documentary has me indulge in nostalgia, as I was a fan of M5. Awesome writing and screenplay I am glad to see you shifting to less frequent, but more qualitative videos as has been your pathos ever since you began. Stay strong and I hope your financial situation is stable

16:26 Very family friendly chat banter

m5 singlehandedly made competitive lol interesting to watch. the good old days...

I just fell in love with the M5. Didn't realize they were this great :O

Manager of the best League of Legends team in the world, still finds time to defraud over 160 million credit card users on the side. Russians take not just League, but also the "side hustle" to a whole new level.

What killed M5/GMB was the actual League schedule. Constantly playing week after week made their innovative gimmicks less impactful even though we did occasionally still see them(I remember that Thresh/Voli stuff and Kog during that one Worlds). Also, they had to travel to the LCS studio every week from Russia which put strain on them personally as well as their training time.

Ah memories. Only regret that I have is not getting an m5 icon back in s2.

Dude, I don't even play League and couldn't stop watching. Extremely well done piece of cinematography.

I love this team, they pick, how they innovated on the meta... Of course they never had problems with Koreans, Korean gameplay is aggressive, fast paced pressure with picks never seen. Exactly M5 style. They were the inspiration for Koreans. Remember how Insec spoke fondly of watching Diamondprox play.

Exclusive shots of me farming 9:30

M5 was, and will always stay for me, the best team in League and the one most enjoyable to watch! I remember season 2 when the worlds avatars came out, I was so happy with the red logo! Their games were amazing! No matter how crazy, they always had plan and not just good, they made the game look fun! It doesn't matter if it was Alex Malph mid, Darien with merlonomicon on Renekton, or Gosu on Nunu sup when none had an idea how to play it, they were just amazing! Sad that it came to an end, I would love me some Genja-Alex-Darien games right now! We will show them what DOMOI means!

S2 was definitely the highest point of watching Competitive LoL. Sure it was sometimes inconvenient finding the right site to watch on. Having to dedicate an entire weekend to a tournament was a pain, and the quality of casting and things wasn't always the best, but because big tournaments were so infrequent, you didn't really know the teams or how the compared to one another. You didn't know their pocket picks, you didn't know how the meta had changed, and it led to a situation where you'd want to watch every single game that happened that weekend because you never knew what was going to happen next. The fact M5 was a big deal back then was just icing on the cake. I'm happy League has continued to grow and evolve, but with weekly matches that mystery and excitement is just gone and that makes me sad. I don't know how you could possibly recapture that energy in a weekly format, but I hope they one day find a way to do it, because that'd be amazing.

I usually never watch videos longer than 5 or 10 minutes cause I get bored, but man was this good. Great documentary bro!

Ow wtf gbay posted again

16:26 Oh league community, it's never changed (the chat)

This channel still exists.. by God how long has it been? Last time I saw an upload was on July of 1978...

M5 showed me any champ can be played anywhere.

no one I play with now knows about M5 or Gambit Gaming. It's kinda sad that they fell off and disappeared, they were my favorite team, and they were dank af.

All I truly remember from M5 was the AP yi game.

23:07 qt lookin like he doesn't remember where he is after that game

You make me care about the competitive scene of LoL when I haven’t cared about it since season 2. Nicely done as always goldbae99.

Darien was a god, Genja the timelord, Alex Ich the man that made me start playing Kha mid, and Diamond Prox the worlds best jungler This team deserved to win at least one worlds

Vladimir Drinkman? Is he related to Punch Out's Vodka Drunkenski?

I thought GBay died after the 5 ms Irelia nerf

They are legends indeed. The editor as well. This was made well.

I have never played nor watched a single professional game of LoL, but this is a very great video. Watched it all the way through :)

I don't play league and felt like I was in a college course when you start explaining the priority and jungler stuff haha, I feel like I should have a notebook out. I really enjoy stories like this, despite my ignorance. Great video!

Man this makes me nostalgic. I started the game when they made the Shyvana meta and she was my first main/one trick.

So when is Netflix hiring you to make a documentary on online gaming for them?

anyone else find it hard to watch the kassadin miss all the farm under tower?

first gbay video i watched in 3 years.

How could you miss the most important contribution of M5. They were the pioneers of proper in game comms. There was a tournament where they first started showing the fans the in game comms, specially during fights. It was always the expectation that teams were shouting at each other. But in one instance of a messy teamfight, Gosu pepper was commandeering Darien to TP bot and their chat was mostly silent apart from 1 person making calls.

Sad that M5 never got to face SKT.

Imagine not being able to see/make those kind of amazing videos when Article 13 comes through.

I love you dude, I was so pissed that you were gonna leave out Katowice 2013 until the end. My favorite moment in gaming altogether

Gbay, these documentaries are brilliant. I just wish they were more often than every 4 months. Keep up the fantastic work.

That awkward moment when you wonder if an opposing team had a Dad in the FBI...

Welcome back, prodigal son. And what a high note to come back on! M5 was the most exciting team in League history and will forever be my favourite team ever. I'm always happy when they get remembered with the love and respect they deserve.

Gbay I haven't even played League in so long but your videos are just so interesting anyway. You just explain stuff very well. This is the first time someone explained to me what lane priority is. Unless Dunkey starts making League videos again you're the only league youtuber I still follow since you're just so positive. While you'd think League makes any man cynical you find a way to keep on top!

Jesus you just made me sit through a 37min vid, pretty good format, i loved the narration and the edit style, keep it up, subscribed.

I had played League at that time (seasons 1 and 2) and it was so amazing! Crazy strategies, strange picks/bans, map control... I was really amazed by how Darien had played Top lane. Starting that moment I played just solo lanes. Thank you for video! It was really cool and have brought a lot of old nice memories:)

when the kassadin missed like all cs under tower ^^

I love how qtpie is just about always in the back ground in these clips.... in game clips and even irl clips

Can't believe Ive just watched this whole video at 5 in morning

35:15 The most Eastern European thing ever lol

Forget these esport comebacks Gbay’s comeback to RU-vid is where the hype is really at. Also hope nothing was wrong because this doc took quite along time. It might be writers block or something and I hope you are doing well. Keep up the good work.

This is truly a well edited video! Ups and downs, wins and losses. Doesnt matter since its so well proposed and composed! Well done, and thanks for the walk through memory lane!

M5 was my first ever supported team. they were bold and super fun to watch. Alex ich will forever stay in my heart as one of the best league player of that time.

Awesome documentary! So much lost and finally recovered memories of m5 and me watching them being in 10th grade. Feels like im 15 again

Your video formats are Amazing the way you make seemingly basic information interesting and engaging with clips, music, and formatting is astounding. Good Job.

Man I wanted to hear your voice so much yesterday I rewatched like 4 or 5 of your old videos lol. Great job keep it up

Best documentary story I've ever watched.. They are the real Legends and you've told their story as great as they were.. 👍 👏👏👏 😄

This video was actually so well done that it could've been taken STRAIGHT out of theScore esports "the story of" series they have on their channel! Well done. I got to admit, I was one of the CLG.EU fans back in the days, and it's prolly what got me into playing league as much as I do. And in that regard I kind of "hated" m5/gambit, because they were the only teams that could challenge them except for azubu teams in korea. But holy fuck, after renegades and in the time of renegades, I got to admit, I kind of started to feel sorry for the guys. Like the interviews Alex did, he seemed like freaking so wholesome, and same goes with Edwards streams. These guys were prolly just 5 dudes that LOVED playing League and just wanted to have fucking fun, and at the same time they were SO freaking ahead of their time as far as strategies goes! I still remember when I saw m5/gambit got Shyvana, and saw their strategy in action, I thought like "how the fuck do you actually beat this shit, it's GENIOUS!" man..I miss those 5 dudes and their team. And it's sad it ended up like it did. But from the little I see from Alex Ich at least, he has a good job now and is more than providing for his family. So it's good to see his renegades thing wasn't for nothing.

I don't even play league of legends but this video (documentary?) is very well made! You had me hooked enough to watch the whole 36 minutes