The death of the Four Kings holds much more significance than just losing one of the best teams that Warcraft III has ever seen. They have always been the only European team that maintained dominance consistently, as was proven by winning WC3L several seasons in a row.

The secret to this success can be attributed to two things—or rather, two Kings—and to state the obvious, it was the unbeatable tandem of Yoan “ToD” Merlo and Manuel “Grubby” Schenkhuizen. They were the two pillars that held up the “king”-dom. No other duo can claim to be superior. Fighting against all odds, both of them managed to get first place despite lacking a player in the 8th season of the WC3L.

Their 2v2 team was as solid as their solo games. Before the arrival of Moon in MYM, there was no other team that even came close to beating them. For a [long] time, Grubby and ToD’s solo and 2v2 games were so solid that a loss was considered a fluke. They seldom had “off-days”, which was a crucial factor in their success.

When they started to revert back to being mortals by losing some matches here and there, the team had Olav “Creolophus” Undheim to back the team up. Creolophus began as a lackluster addition to the team, especially compared Grubby and ToD. But just a few months after he joined 4K, Creolophus blossomed under pressure and became equal, if not better, than his superstar teammates.

The Four Kings had the reputation of turning mortals into winners; a puppy mill that produces bonafide champions. Every European would jump at the chance of joining the team; most dream of gluing the 4K tag into their names—it’s close to being the equivalent of marrying into the royal family.

But right after the departure of Creolophus coupled with the downturn of Grubby and ToD’s performances it was apparent that team was in trouble. For the first time in Warcraft III history, the champion team was not only out of the WC3L Final Four, but they were rubbing elbows with the playdown commoners.

The slump had tongues wagging regarding the future of the Four Kings. Bashings were thrown about freely by non-supporters, along with a liberal amount of rude jeers and name-calling.

ToD decided to jump ship and join Mousesports in December. He never mentioned the exact reason why he left the team, but with recent events we can extrapolate that Four Kings was not (or will not) be able to financially support ToD’s career any longer.

Without ToD, the limping Four Kings was left crippled—leaving Grubby to balance the team with only one leg. Despite a multitude of European or American players who would give up everything to join the team (even at their weakened state), there was no one good enough to fill the big shoes that ToD left behind. Creolophus honed his skills while both ToD and Grubby were still holding up the team—a replacement would have no time to improve. He had to be able to win games to keep the team running.

But as Grubby stated in his interviews, along with the official statement of the 4K management—it was apparent that the team had no infrastructure to support an international team due to their focus on the UK market. They had no resources to try and poach top players from other teams; much the less those coveted Koreans. A couple of thousand quid doesn’t come as easy for the Four Kings compared to mega-clans such as Meet Your Makers and SK Gaming.

Like most other players, it appears that Grubby would rather focus on winning his games than worry about how to get his team back on track. In the beginning, rumors of Grubby switching to a Chinese team such as WE and wNv were floating about. But in the end, the very team that reported the rumors—MYM—signed the Dutch player to their roster. He decided on a team that can secure him great compensation and allowed him to stop worrying about trivial matters. Being in a well-established team allows him to focus on his game, rather than playing captain to his teammates.

Now that the two best European players found themselves on separate clans, we effectively lost the only clan that could go head-to-head against star-studded Asian teams. We’re left with a multitude of South Koreans and Chinese players proliferating the Warcraft III scene. Last season, we had a predominantly Asian WC3L finals with SK Gaming, World Elite, Beijing E-sports Team and Meet Your Makers.

But despite the proliferation of strong Asian teams, this season has more European teams than last season, with the additions of Serious Gaming, Alternate aTTaX, hoorai and mTw.

During the early days of the WC3L, most of the teams were primarily European—Koreans were novel additions.