Damonte (gamer)

Tanner Damonte, better known mononymously as Damonte (/dəˈmɒnteɪ/ ⓘ), is an American professional League of Legends player who is a positional coach for NRG Esports. In 2019, he was one of the few domestic mid laners to compete in North America's LCS, alongside other players like Goldenglue and Pobelter.[2][3] He is particularly known for his mastery of the champion Qiyana.[4][5]

Damonte
Damonte in 2018
Current team
TeamCounter Logic Gaming
RoleMid
GameLeague of Legends
LeagueLCS
Personal information
NameTanner Damonte
Born1997 or 1998 (age 25–26)[1]
NationalityAmerican
Career information
Playing career2015–present
Coaching career2021–present
Team history
As player:
2016–2018Echo Fox
2018–2019Clutch Gaming
2019Dignitas
2019–2020Dignitas Academy
2020Golden Guardians
2020–2021100 Thieves
2021100 Thieves Academy
2021Counter Logic Gaming
As coach:
2021–2023Counter Logic Gaming
2023–presentNRG Esports

Career

Echo Fox (2016–2018)

Damonte began playing League of Legends competitively in January 2015, competing in amateur leagues under the names "Mini" and "Mini Me". In February 2016 he joined his first major professional team, Echo Fox, as a substitute player.[6] From July 2016 to June 2017, he played as the mid laner for Delta Fox, Echo Fox's academy team competing in the Challenger Series.

Damonte made his LCS debut in May 2017, after he was promoted to a starting position in Echo Fox's main roster.[6] However, he was moved back to the academy roster in December 2017, before once again being promoted to the main roster in July 2018[7] following a brief suspension for poor behaviour in online ranked matches.[8][9][10]

Clutch Gaming (2019)

In November 2018 it was announced that Clutch Gaming had signed Damonte to a two-year contract to complete its starting roster for the 2019 spring split.[11][12][13] Initially seeing disappointing results with a ninth-place finish in the 2019 LCS Spring regular season, Damonte and his teammates made a comeback in the summer split after replacing Piglet with Cody Sun in the bot lane. The team first secured a spot in the summer playoffs after defeating the Golden Guardians in a determining match,[14] then they defeated TSM in the quarterfinals,[15][16] before losing to Team Liquid in the semifinals.[17] Due to being reverse swept by CLG in the third-place decider match,[18] Clutch Gaming was forced to begin in the first round of the regional qualifier for the 2019 World Championship. After defeating FlyQuest,[19] CLG[20] and TSM[21] in the first, second and third rounds respectively, Damonte qualified for his first World Championship, alongside his teammates.

At the 2019 World Championship, Clutch Gaming began in the play-in stage as North America's third seed, only qualifying for the main event after defeating Turkish team Royal Youth in the second round of the play-in stage.[22] Because of group draw rules for the main event, Clutch Gaming was forced into Group C, which was nicknamed the "group of death" due to it having three regional superteams: South Korea's SK Telecom T1, China's Royal Never Give Up, and Europe's Fnatic.[23] Clutch Gaming finished last in their group and were eliminated without picking up a single win in the main event.[24]

In the off-season, Clutch Gaming was merged with Dignitas and Damonte was transferred to Dignitas' new League of Legends roster.[25] However, in November 2019 Damonte announced that Dignitas had decided not to exercise the second year option stipulated under his original contract with Clutch Gaming (which Dignitas had acquired), and that he had been released from the team.[5][6][26]

Dignitas Academy (2020)

Dignitas announced on December 16, 2019, that it had signed Damonte to its academy team for the 2020 spring split.[27][28][29] Dignitas Academy had a strong start to the spring split, maintaining first place throughout the first half of the regular season. However, the team was overtaken by Cloud9 Academy in the second half and finished second, earning them a bye to the semifinals, where they lost to Evil Geniuses Academy.[30]

Golden Guardians (2020)

On May 5, 2020, Damonte left Dignitas Academy to join Golden Guardians.[30][31]

100 Thieves (2021)

100 Thieves announced on November 19, 2020, that it had acquired Damonte and Huhi from the Golden Guardians.[32]

Counter Logic Gaming (2021)

Damonte joined Counter Logic Gaming as their starting mid laner on July 13, 2021.[33] He transitioned to the role of positional coach at the end of the year.[34]

Personal life

In April 2020, Damonte partnered with professional baseball player Hunter Pence as part of Verizon's "Pay It Forward Live" campaign to raise money for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[35][36] The pair played a friendly match together on April 14.

References
  1. Esguerra, Tyler (August 13, 2020). "Damonte: "I just hope everyone hops on the Golden Guardians hype train"". Dot Esports. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
  2. O'Brien, Joe (November 27, 2019). "100 Thieves GM PapaSmithy explains surprising choice of LCS mid-laner". Dexerto. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  3. Ousley, Parkes (November 28, 2019). "League of Legends: NA talent check-in: What's going on with the imports?". Inven Global. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  4. Geracie, Nick; Lunardi, Lara (July 19, 2019). "League of Legends: CG Damonte on Qiyana: "If you get ahead on this champion, the amount of threat... is pretty absurd."". Inven Global. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  5. Moncav, Melany (November 15, 2019). "Damonte to become free agent as Dignitas declines contract extension". WIN Esports. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  6. Neuro (November 16, 2019). "Tanner "Damonte" Damonte Becomes Free Agent; Dignitas Declining to Use the Rest of His Contract". GINX Esports TV. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  7. Li, Xing (July 24, 2018). "FeniX cut by Echo Fox, Damonte solidifies his starting role". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  8. Fusco, Nathan (June 1, 2018). "Riot Games Suspends Damonte for Five NA LCS and NA LACS Games". DBLTAP. Archived from the original on December 10, 2019. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  9. Boatman, Brandon (June 2, 2018). "Damonte of Echo Fox Suspended". Hardcore Gamer. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  10. Lunn, Steven (June 6, 2018). "Echo Fox's Damonte Banned for Five Games". EKGAMING. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  11. Jang, David (November 27, 2019). "League of Legends: [Official] Huni Joins Clutch Gaming with Damonte". Inven Global. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  12. Wolf, Jacob (November 24, 2018). "Sources: Clutch Gaming to sign Damonte". ESPN. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  13. Binkowski, Justin (November 24, 2018). "Clutch Gaming reportedly signs Damonte to complete its 2019 NA LCS roster". Dot Esports. Retrieved January 12, 2019.
  14. Li, Xing (August 4, 2019). "Huni's Rumble helps Clutch beat Golden Guardians, secure an LCS playoff seed". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  15. Esguerra, Tyler (August 11, 2019). "Clutch Gaming take down TSM to qualify for the 2019 LCS Summer Split semifinals". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  16. Kolev, Radoslav (August 11, 2019). "Cody Sun, Clutch Gaming trample TSM in LCS quarterfinals". VPEsports. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  17. Abbas, Malcolm (August 19, 2019). "Team Liquid qualify for Worlds after semifinal win over Clutch Gaming". Dot Esports. Retrieved August 20, 2019.
  18. Li, Xing (August 25, 2019). "CLG reverse sweep Clutch in the LCS third place match". Dot Esports. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  19. Abbas, Malcolm (September 6, 2019). "Clutch Gaming begin Worlds qualifer [sic] gauntlet run with win over FlyQuest". Dot Esports. Retrieved September 7, 2019.
  20. Samples, Rachel (September 7, 2019). "Clutch keep their gauntlet run alive after taking down CLG". Dot Esports. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
  21. Endres, Elena (September 8, 2019). "Clutch reverse sweep TSM to secure a spot at Worlds". Dot Esports. Retrieved September 8, 2019.
  22. Endres, Elena (October 7, 2019). "Clutch Gaming advance to the main stage at Worlds 2019". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  23. Esuguerra, Tyler (October 14, 2019). "What can Clutch Gaming do to change their winless start to Worlds 2019?". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  24. Esuguerra, Tyler (October 19, 2019). "Clutch Gaming eliminated from Worlds 2019 after a horrible backdoor attempt against Fnatic". Dot Esports. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
  25. Yim, Miles (November 18, 2019). "People are investing millions into League of Legends franchises. Will the bet pay off?". Washington Post. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
  26. Byers, Preston (November 16, 2019). "Damonte to become free agent after Dignitas declines 2020 option". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 10, 2019.
  27. Lunardi, Lara (December 17, 2019). "League of Legends: [Official] Damonte joins Team Dignitas Academy for the 2020 season of the LCS". InvenGlobal. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  28. Esguerra, Tyler (December 16, 2019). "Dignitas signs Damonte as 2020 Academy mid laner". Dot Esports. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  29. Lunardi, Lara (December 16, 2019). "League of Legends: [Official] Damonte joins Team Dignitas Academy for the 2020 season of the LCS". www.invenglobal.com. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  30. Rand, Emily (June 5, 2020). "Golden Guardians sign mid laner Damonte". ESPN.
  31. "Golden Guardians finalize LCS, Academy rosters for 2020 Summer Split". NBC Sports Bay Area via Yahoo Sports. June 5, 2020. Archived from the original on June 6, 2020. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  32. Kelly, Michael (November 19, 2020). "100 Thieves acquires Damonte, Huhi ahead of 2021 LCS season". Dot Esports. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  33. Geracie, Nick (July 13, 2021). "[LCS Summer Split] Counter Logic Gaming signs Damonte as new starting LCS mid laner". InvenGlobal. Retrieved July 14, 2021.
  34. @clgaming (December 16, 2021). "Welcome your CLG LCS Staff" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  35. "Watch MLB player Hunter Pence and Dignitas esports athlete Damonte play 'League of Legends' in Verizon's weekly series 'Pay It Forward Live'". Yahoo Entertainment. April 13, 2020. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
  36. Geracie, Nick (April 14, 2020). "League of Legends: Verizon's 'Pay It Forward LIVE' will feature DIG Academy's Damonte & MLB star Hunter Pence". InvenGlobal. Retrieved May 4, 2020.
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