If FalleN retiring at the end of the year doesn’t break FURIA’s spirits, Spirit just might.

That is, if this rumour from Pedro Brauner on the Win Condition podcast is to be believed, anyway.

The rumour, which suggests Spirit could replace sh1ro with molodoy when FalleN calls it a day, has come from nowhere, even if it is slightly reinforced by what deko said at the start of the year.

And although we can’t help but be slightly excited by the prospect of it, we do feel a need to question whether or not it would actually work out.

Thanks to the luxury of donk, as well as tN1R, who also thrives when allowed to play to his strengths, Spirit are by nature an aggressive team. On the surface, that suggests molodoy, an aggressive AWPer, may thrive in this system, but that’s not how these kinds of things work out.

Counter-Strike teams just don’t work if everyone likes to play at the same tempo. It makes them one note, and it’s the reason why there are passive stars like ropz, and “glue” players like mezii.

For Spirit, sh1ro is the passive star. Now, we’d argue that he is often too passive and doesn’t have the impact he could on games, but his passivity is necessary within their system and provides them with a stable base to rely on in clutches.

Adding molodoy will simply upset that balance, and we know some of you will be thinking that molodoy could just adapt his game, but why would you take away what makes him molodoy?

The fact is, if you want a little more out of your AWPer, while still retaining the solid base sh1ro provides, it will be far easier to get that from sh1ro, and not really worth even risking with molodoy given the potential for how badly it could go.

But, given that this is now the second rumour to come out about molodoy potentially leaving FURIA, it’s starting to feel to us like his name might be being circled for moves at the end of the year.

We can’t blame him, really. FURIA will lose a lot when FalleN retires, and their necessity to keep a Brazilian core does raise concerns about what team they may end up with. Major final aside, it’s already clear this team had their time in the sun at the end of last year, so who can really blame him for looking to win elsewhere?

It’ll be a shame; FURIA joining the elite has been good fun, but it’s also the natural course of things, so let’s just hope they go the way of G2 and successfully rebuild, rather than NIP and fnatic, who are still the punchline to an endless amount of jokes.