shade
shade
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, , , , , , , , , , / , , Dante "shade" Funari is a competitive TF2 player who played Medic for various invite TF2 Teams. Shade has been widely regarded as one of the best medics in the history of Team Fortress 2, and has been mostly playing with b4nny for all of his TF2 career. Shade's most notable performances as Medic were for teams such as High Rollers Gaming and froyotech, which hardly ever lost a season of ESEA-I. His ability to 'milk' ubers and shoot crossbows with stunning accuracy and consistency vastly changed his team's performance overall.
Contents
Team History
Beybladers
Shade's known TF2 career started on an ancient team that competed in ESEA-O The Beyblayders. Shade played Roaming Soldier for the team and brought great success to their first season of ESEA-O. The team ended the regular season (12-4-0), and placed 2nd in playoffs. The team outplayed other names such as xensity, Vector Gaming, and High Rollers Gaming (not to be confused with the ESEA-I and i49 competitors of the same name).
Don't Trip; The “tyrone” Teams
Shade took a short break from competing in ESEA, and was later picked up as Medic by upcoming ESEA-I (Invite) team Don’t Trip, or most commonly known as Leviathan Gaming. Shade played the first match for Don’t Trip in the second week, and scored 4-0 against Mighty Ducks, a team consisting of both invite legends seanbud and Decimate. By the end of the season, Don’t Trip placed first in ESEA-I (Invite) playoffs, and finished the regular season (12-4-0). The team’s tight cohesion in the combo of b4nny, tyrone, and shade, became a key factor in their success, and one of the most powerful combos of their time. In Insomnia46, both Classic Mixup and Leviathan Gaming asserted their dominance against the European teams. The team took on many different sponsorships, such as Quantic Gaming, Leviathan Gaming, and iT. The team also went through numerous flank classes, from blaze on Scout to Dave_AC on Soldier.
High Rollers Gaming; The “b4nny” Teams
After ESEA Season 12, b4nny, shade, and cyzer left the team, forming bp, signed by their sponsor, High Rollers Gaming. They cherry-picked the best talent they could find, picking up Tagg from The Chess Club and Shrugger from Pinball Wizards, as well as lansky from GOIN HEAVY. The team went 16-0 in the regular season before being noticed by High Rollers Gaming and getting sponsored by them for LAN. The team was completely dominant, except in i49. The team lost against the only European teams, broder and Epsilon E-Sports. Shortly after iT took up sponsorship for this team, Shade was unable to commit to a team and left. After various roster changes, iT went undefeated in the regular season, however they took second in one of the closest ESEA finals against Classic Mixup.
froyotech
With the return of shade, b4nny created a new team under the name of froyotech. The team picked up invite legends including clockwork and Ruwin on Scout, blaze on Soldier, and dummy on Demoman. The team later decided to cut Ruwin, put b4nny on Scout and bring in former pocket of High Rollers Gaming, lansky. The team asserted their raw dominance from season 16 to 19, winning every ESEA Invite final within this period. He also went with the team to the largest international tournaments of TF2, Insomnia55, taking first place in a rather dominant style. In Season 20 playoffs, froyotech experienced issues with their teammates during gameplay and was eliminated when they lost in a best of three against Ascent and Team Solo Uber. Shortly after this, the team decided to part ways and disband. b4nny and clockwork currently remain along with what remains of Strawberry Mangoes. Although shade’s place has been taken by ninjanick, he has made it clear that he had intention of rejoining the team, through various tweets from his twitter account and he has rang for the team on various occasions, the most shocking during ESEA-I Season 21 in a match against Street Hoops eSports, when shade replaced b4nny temporarily on Soldier because of a DDoS attack on froyotech's players.
FROYO BLACK
In hope of taking first place, shade formed a team full of high experience, FROYO BLACK. The team was based off the core of froyotech and High Rollers Gaming, bringing in clockwork, taggerung, and cyzer. Although rumors had hinted on the possibility of a pickup of lansky and duwatna, the team decided to pick up bl4nk and Hassassin, two high level invite players to complete their roster. The team is going to compete in ESEA-I Season 22, and shade has said that the team is aiming for no less than first place.
Trivia
- Shade currently streams TF2 frequently. Check out his stream at twitch.tv/shade
- Shade has achieved first place in every ESEA-I (Invite) Lan he has participated in since ESEA-I Season 13.
- Shade is one of the few competitive players who still use the default hud, including its renounced red damage markers
- Street Hoops eSports' star Scout, alec, describes shade's Soldier play as "crisp", and comparable to b4nny's.
