This day in history: Major underdogs “The Peeps” wins Dreamhack Montreal

I can't believe it's already been a year since I was sitting at the edge of my computer seat watching one of the most unlikely underdog stories in Rocket League history. I'm talking about Dreamhack Montreal

Dreamhack Montreal was a three day, $100,000 event which hosted the top 32 teams from around the globe. 1 of 32 invited was a relatively unknown yet rising bubble team consisting of Jirair "Gyro" Papazian, Slater "Retals" Thomas, and Nick "mist" Costello

Gyro, Retals, and Mist were on a roll coming into Dreamhack, pulling away from their competition in the RLCS 7: Rocket League Rival Series. Not only did the team finish 2nd in the season for $10,000 - The Peeps also secured the golden ticket to RLCS 8

Despite the upward trajectory, the trio didn't have support from an organization yet... so they simply went under "The Peeps" alias for tournament play leading up to and during Dreamhack Montreal. They even had a little slogan to go along with it: Don't Sleep On The Peeps

Upsetting well established professional team after team, the dream became a reality after The Peeps took G2 to game 7 and secured the crown. Here's a clip from the final moments when everyone knew The Peeps did the unimaginable

Don't be fooled by the conclusion; The Peeps had their ups and downs in this tournament. After losing 3-2 to Dignitas, the dream was one series loss away from over on day 1

Day 2 started similarly slow for The Peeps, with a loss against G2 putting them in the losers bracket. The Peeps would have to win every single series to avoid elimination from this point forward

... And that's exactly what they did. Here's the order in which The Peeps picked apart each and every team: Ghost (3-2) -> TSM (3-1) -> Mousesports (3-2) -> Renault Vitality (4-2) [Previous season's RLCS champion btw] -> G2 (4-3)

The Peeps attributed much of their success to an aggressive demolition approach that threw the established players off their guard. Rewatch the final series against G2 and you'll see what I am talking about

When asked about The Peeps’ future goals in a post-game interview, “Winning RLCS” was Retals’ knee jerk response. With momentum accumulated from qualifying into RLCS for the first time and scooping $50,000 in a major event, the prospect of winning RLCS didn't seem far-fetched at all

The team would later join the Pittsburgh Knights and, after a shaky start, begin to post consistent results ahead of the pack in both RLCS and minor events

Where are they now?

The landscape of Esports is constantly evolving and teams change rapidly. You can blink and miss at least 3 team transfers. The original Peeps roster was completely dissolved after Mist was traded to Envy and Retals left to SSG a season later

Gyr0 is now back to repping The Peeps banner alongside Ayyjayy and Allushin; both players were swapped out from Rogue and Ghost respectively. While The Peeps' roster is only a shadow of the team we rooted for in 2019, could there be just enough in the tank for round 2? Who knows - maybe I'll be writing another "This day in history" in a few short years