Is Casper too friendly of a ghost for Team Nightmare?

Bonus points if you understood that reference.

After just 7 months with the squad, Team Liquid has decided to remove their leader.

Casper “cadiaN” Møller has been benched “for the purpose of exploring a transfer”, a confusing decision, to say the least. He should be given more time to fully implement his system. However, working effectively can be challenging when the team isn't on the same page.

Now, the real discussion should be about YEKINDAR. Honestly, how’s he still around?

Liquid’s management has been trying to make it work with the Latvian for some time, but they can’t seem to get it right. When’s the time to just move on? His performance has been lacking for a while now. Ever since the YEKI IGL period he has never been the same.

There’s a rumor going around that Twistzz will be leading the charge from now on. We feel like he is too young and talented to be taking on the IGL role. If it happens, let’s just hope he doesn’t end up a YEKINDAR 2.0.

So, which team could use cadiaN? We’re glad you asked. Virtually any team, to be honest. He’s that good of an IGL. Let’s not forget, he successfully led a young Heroic roster to the top of competitive CS. Here’s a wild guess: fnatic. blameF and cadiaN playing side by side? Sign us up.

With Liquid starting to shake things up, it’s unlikely they’ll stop at cadiaN.

Skullz also seems to be on his way out, as FURIA is reportedly in advanced talks to acquire the Brazilian talent. This move was somewhat expected, given he hasn’t quite lived up to the potential he showed at paiN. From one train wreck to another. Poor kid.

Thank you, nexta

Surprise, the move no one believed would work… didn’t work.

Along with every other armchair analyst in the space, we jumped at the opportunity to talk about how kicking jks for nexa would never work. Now, that could be because you doubted if G2 had the playoff fraggers without jks, who was the biggest playoff riser in the world on G2. Or that could be because the vibes were off.

Point is, most people didn’t think it was gonna work.

So, when he joined and G2 was mid… no one was really surprised. So much so that, it became kind of accepted. Roses are red, the sky is blue and G2 bombed out in groups. (or quarters, but that didn’t rhyme.) Despite a trophy win with a stand-in, it was time for change. But who do you replace nexa with?

Well, that’s where malbsMd comes into play.

We already covered his potential move, but there have been updates. On the 18th, M80 announced malbs would be leaving the team, even if the video they used seemed more like they were announcing his passing. Don’t just take it from us, take it from one of the unsuspecting victims.

Anyway, with malbs out of M80, and nexa out of G2 it seems like this deal is all but done. Now we have to find out if this is all for G2, or if any more changes are on the horizon. Just signing malbs is fun, but it almost feels like the first piece of a whole new project.

Time will tell us if we’re wrong or if G2 is cooking something bigger. Maybe a meal fit for even snax.

Who the hell is m0NESY?

Speaking of G2…

Stewie2k didn’t even seem to know m0NESY was good before Dallas. Or donk.

That’s barely an exaggeration, either. He admitted it. In a tell-all interview with Mauisnake (or more accurately, a podcast), he went into great detail about IEM Dallas and everything that happened - and the miracle of G2 winning.

That’s not us being anti-Stewie. He called it that.

He apparently expected some flak, and was pleasantly surprised to see people recognise what he did for the team - but was quick to lump praise on HooXi, too, suggesting that people didn’t realise how difficult his job leading this team really was.

Some of that comes down to an atmosphere he described as not fun and constricting. When he tried to joke around, he was met with blank stares. He did mention that m0NESY seemed to learn not to take everything so seriously by the end, though.

Great. That’s what we needed. m0NESY to be more ‘NA’.

To be fair to Stewie, he’s often come across as a bit arrogant, but he recognised himself he was only at about 20% of his peak level, and would need an extended period of time before he was good again. He does think he was better than people expected, which isn’t entirely unfair.

He is, unsurprisingly, looking for a new team, though he might need to learn Anubis first. He admitted he learned it on the fly, which we all did in Premier, to be fair.

Not at IEM Dallas, but it’s the same stakes for us.

There are loads we can barely scratch the surface of here, but it’s super interesting throughout. If you want a more detailed write-up, check out this thread or watch the whole video.

Just try not to raise your eyebrows when he says he thought donk was a streamer.

😯 Stewie stirs the pot

🥲 How this game has grown

✨ Shiny and new

This TL;DR was written by aizyesque, shoko, Horizzon and napz.
Welshy coded the email and Crash_ copy edited.

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