Everything you gotta know from CS:GO without wasting time on news sites, reddit or twitter.
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ELiGE’s first game away from Liquid in eons went swimmingly, while EG’s fortunes continued to wither away. The roster perpetual merry-go-round shan’t ever stop, too.
Silly season hasn’t quite finished, it seems.
There’s still teams finalising rosters, although they should really be done about 24 hours ago when the roster lock happened - albeit, they haven’t all been announced.
Perhaps the biggest one would be at FaZe, but don’t get too excited. RobbaN is retiring from coaching (boasting one of the most outrageous coaching trophy cabinets of all time, might we add) with the replacement not yet named.
We’ve got a little inkling it might be a big name, though. Just a hunch.
Imperial replaced FalleN and chelo by going back to 2017 and signing HEN1 and felps, making it official: HEN1 has now played for every single organisation that has ever had a Brazilian team. Probably. We haven’t checked.
Into The Breach completed their new-look roster having lost both volt and CYPHER having left for pastures new. They are - perhaps sadly for the UK lot - moving away from an English core, and signing… NEOFRAG and Bymas. That’s a weird one.
Finally for today, BIG have announced their roster for Cologne. While that’s not a roster move, it’s interesting seeing S3NSEY being brought into the main team for this event.
Illustration by ANDYJ. Source: MOUZ (Jimpphat), Bernard Gagnon (background)
A year and a half ago, torzsi became the first MOUZ NXT player to make the main team, kicking off the conveyer belt of talent at MOUZ. No factories have a 0% defect rate though, and so we see JDC being the first to go from the main team to the bench. In his place comes the NXT successor. It's the star MOUZ have been pumping their R&D budget on. A name you’ll have heard mentioned in future star lists across socials, Jimpphat. Insert dramatic music here.
So what’s the hype all about?
If you know anything about Jimpphat, odds are it’s the fact he’s sergej’s brother. The fact the two are related is almost inescapable when you read about Jimpphat. We’re talking about it, right now. But there’s more to him than that.
During his stay at MOUZ NXT, he and now-Endpoint sl3nd reignited MOUZ’s dominance of the academy scene. Jimpphat’s rating was in the green every event once the EU NXT roster had settled, with his lowest performance being 1.07. These were, without a doubt, stellar performances from the young Finn. Then again, JDC did the same thing during his time at NXT.
To be fair, the events Jimpphat participated in were more recent. They had more general competition as well as a larger event sample size. The point is, though, that MOUZ produces some good talent in their academy team but using said talent is another case entirely. Jimpphat definitely has a really high ceiling… but if he’s used like JDC and given the same roles, he’ll be wasted. This is the problem with a factory so well-tuned that it produces star after star; you can’t fit them all into one team. Even if you could, not everyone will be ready for a straight jump.
The real talent is being able to hold on to your performance after making the jump up to the elite tier. Only time will tell if Jimpphat can do that. If anyone can get it out of him, siuhy should be able to do it, a player who’s gone out and proved himself.
If Jimpphat can’t make it, well, MOUZ’ll just have to produce another star to give a go. ****Is siuhy MOUZ’s willy wonka?
Mouz’s completed roster is:
Illustration by Fuffy. Source: PGL / Joao Ferreira
Tune in to this week's episode of Overtime on Inferno where your favorite hosts aizyesque and Logan Ramhap go deep on the biggest news in CS:GO:
Liquid’s move to EU is the end of an era. Letting EliGE, the organisation’s greatest ever player, leave is a surefire sign of that.
And so off he went. Offers came from EU, but he “wasn’t interested.” EG were the first NA suitors but opted to promote their academy team instead.
So, Complexity was the answer — the only viable NA team EliGE could go to.
But we’ll be honest; they’re a hell of a lot more viable now that they have EliGE on board.
In his debut at BLAST Fall Groups, EliGE slapped the now hampus-led NIP around for three maps, ending on a 1.35 average rating.
It’s the type of game Complexity often lose, down 12-9 on the T Side the deciding map. EliGE has been signed to change that — and change that he did. The comeback was on, and NIP just couldn’t get going on the CT side of what should be a CT-sided map.
In the other game on day one, Vitality destroyed EG (obviously), with flameZ having a solid debut.
More action starts soon, with the far more interesting Group B that hosts the new NAVI, Astralis, and BIG with Heroic as the final boss to test the mettle of the hatchling squads.
NAVI-Astralis headline affairs, beginning at 15:00 CEST today. So what should you expect?
Well, fewer kills from blameF — who has given several of his spots to Staehr. On the now-international NAVI side, well, some teething issues, as the team only has a short bootcamp with their transition to English full-time.
BLAST Fall Groups is rarely an event worth setting an alarm for, but it is a good chance to see some new rosters in action. EliGE and flameZ found it pretty easy on debut, but will Staehr and iM have the same experience?
We’ll see you on Monday with the answer.
📖 Heavier reading:
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