Xfire was abuzz tonight as the most poorly kept secret in the competitive gaming scene broke wide open when some of the most skilled players to ever grace CoD eSports altered their Xfire profile to add a simple "L" to their tag. 

< L > Nabore
< L > Prank`
< L > rob-wiz
< L > MichaelD
< L > Deny

And a new CoD4 team was born: Legends

By adding the "< L >" to their names, these giants of eSport may have helped re-open the CoD4 competitive gaming flood gates -- gates that were nearly closed shut after CoD:WW and MW2 dealt CoD eSports a mortal wound.

With no challenger to CoD4's competitive suitability on the horizon, many players are returning to this game, already polished by years of being meticulous honing by the community. Playing within the environment of Promod Live v2, CoD4 is tailor made for competition and has numerous shoutcaster features that allow the game to be streamed to a growing audience.

Surely this resurgence in CoD4 popularity (witness: NERV3, NZXT, CIC7) led to these five brilliant players, from our CoD competitive past, to get together and form up.

Nabore and Prank` are part of CoD competitive lore, rising to become world class players with the old Pandemic squad.

Rob-wiz and Deny, teammates on Team EG, bring equal levels of talent.

And of course, there's MichaelD, one of the best smg's to ever play the game, having come over with Team HOT from BF and moving into Team Nexus and Pure in CoD.

The name "Legends" is an apt descriptor for these players, but one cannot help see the double-edge meaning in the word. Truly these guys are legends, but the term also has a connotation of the past and these players are cognizant that perhaps their best may still be back there. Nevertheless, the warrior spirit remains strong with them and it appears that they will be strapping on their AK's for what may be one last time.

By the mere act of forming, Legends can arguably be already considered CoD4's second or third best team in North America...all without a single round being played. Such is the respect that these players bring to the game.

Legends does have one glaring achilles heel: Time. All Legend's  members are very busy in RL and those pressures can only get worse, threatening to tear up the team. However, for at least the next few months, the stars may very well be aligned for these legends.

Update: Feb. 24 '10

Nabore will be coming on our live BASH webcast this weekend to answer many of our questions surrounding the new team. In the interim, he had this to say to his fans:

"I've been around the game awhile and have accomplished some things I am proud of, however one thing me and my teammates have missed as of late is winning championships.  It's one of those things in life that never gets old and we all feel the urge to get back to top form and compete on the big stage again.  We are all excited about playing with such a deep lineup.  I think it's important that each player can look to the left and right and find equally talented individuals next to them, and that builds trust.

Our goal is to start off building team chemistry and working our way up the ranks in the American scene.  The overall goal is to compete at the highest level and to represent the american scene like it was over a year ago." - Nabore

*Legends is actively seeking sponsorship and are hoping to find backing that will help them attend upcoming European LANs. Sponsors can email me ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and I will forward any queries to the team's management.