Earlier this week, North parted ways with Casper “cadiaN” Møller, the team’s IGL after eight months in the position. Valdemar “valde” Bjørn, the team’s superstar, is the one to take over the captain position left by cadiaN.
Putting the best player on the team as captain seems like a fairly common move in CSGO these days. But is that worth it? Here are 5 typical examples of failure of the above decision:
Snax (Virtus Pro)
Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski was once one of the best players in the world when he was on the legendary Virtus.pro roster. After the team’s poor performance at StarSeries Season 3 in April 2017, Snax replaced Filip “NEO” Kubski as captain, so that NEO could focus on individual skill.
This change did not bear fruit at all, except for the journey to the semi-finals at the PGL Krakow Major in July 2017. The Polish team played well at home, but after that event the old problems continued. Virtus.pro lost power from Snax, while the rest of the players didn’t seem to like his play plan – somewhat more liberal than NEO’s.
Snax stepped down from the IGL role after ESL One New York in September 2017 and Virtus.pro couldn’t pick up the slack that made up the Virtus.pro brand. The team ended up with Snax being sold to mousesports in 2018, but since then he hasn’t been able to return to his old form. Snax was brought to Virtus.pro in December 2018, but the team was constantly struggling even in its Polish region.
AdreN (Gambit)
Winning a Major at PGL Krakow in July 2017 seemed like a dream for Gambit players. But in the weeks following the event, the team chased Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, the most famous IGL in the CIS region. Zeus then returned to Natus Vincere, the team he considered home.
Gambit signed Bektiyar “fitch” Bahytov, the rising Kazakh star who resembles Abay “Hobbit” Khaseenov, one of the team’s stars. The standout player at PGL Krakow and the MVP of the tournament was Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev. He assumed the role of IGL left by Zeus.
AdreN decided to cede his positions in the game to fitch so that the new players could play comfortably. This move turned out to be disastrous and Gambit quickly fell under the leadership of AdreN. He was no longer one of the more reliable players in the game and started to underperform in many tournaments. Gambit’s best result when AdreN was IGL was reaching the semi-finals of DreamHack Masters Malmo in September 2017.
AdreN ceded the IGL position in January 2018 to Mikhail “Dosia” Stolyarov, but he could not find his old form. Gambit released AdreN’s contract in December 2018 and AdreN joined FaZe Clan later in January 2019.
Coldzera (SK Gaming)
Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo is one of the most famous CSGO players in Brazil. He helps the CSGO community in the region grow and has been a great IGL over the years. SK Gaming won 8 titles in 2017, but the team started 2018 with some bad results. Things took a turn for the worse after WESG 2017 in March 2018, when Epitacio “TACO” de Melo decided to leave the team.
SK Gaming immediately brought in North American star Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, but the team struggled due to the language barrier. After the defeat at IEM Sydney in May 2018, Marcelo “coldzera” David, the best player in the world in 2016 and 2017, decided to become IGL, so that FalleN could focus on his individual skills in the game. .
This change only lasted a month, as SK Gaming failed to improve under coldzera’s leadership. Despite winning an Adrenaline Cyber League title in May 2018, the team performed poorly at major tournaments. FalleN returned to the captaincy position after StarSeries i-League Season 5 in June 2018.
Shox (G2)
The CSGO scene stirred up when G2 announced the “superstar” lineup in February 2017. The squad owned 4 big names of the French CSGO scene at that time: Richard “shox” Papillon, Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt, and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire. Along with these 4 members is the rising talent Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro. Shox becomes the team’s in-game leader.
With such a large investment, the team is expected to reap continued success. But G2 only got themselves two titles with this lineup: ESL Pro League season 5 Finals in June 2017 and DreamHack Masters Malmö in September 2018. In addition, they have only reached the semi-finals and quarterfinals a few times.
The last tournament with this G2 roster was IEM Katowice February 2018. Shox had to undergo wrist surgery in March 2018 and was placed on the bench. G2 tested the Spaniard, Oscar “mixwell” Cañellas, while NBK took the IGL position. Then, shox said he wanted to kick apEX and NBK because they don’t have the same idea of how to run the squad.
CSGO: Shox returns to lead G2; NBK-, apEX was eliminated from the team
This move finally happened in June 2018 and G2 subbed NBK and apEX to bring in Kévin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans and Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux. The new lineup didn’t last long either. The remaining members of the “superstar” team are only kennyS and shox, still trying to bring G2 to success.
Niko (mousesports/FaZe)
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač was one of the best players in the world back in 2016 when he represented mousesports. But the team didn’t achieve titles or good records, especially at the Majors. FaZe has owned NiKo since February 2017, the team expects them to achieve miraculous results because he will be playing with one of the most famous CSGO captains, Finn “karrigan” Andersen.
FaZe’s new team was quickly up and running, and NiKo was finally reaching its full potential. FaZe got their first title at StarSeries i-League Season 3 in April 2017 and the team is even stronger thanks to the addition of two other great players: Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer and Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács. FaZe pocketed three more major titles and two runner-ups before 2017 ended.
Things took a turn for the worse when FaZe lost the ELEAGUE Major in January 2018 to Cloud9 – something no one expected. In the next event, FaZe lost the final at IEM Katowice in March 2018 to Fnatic – a team that was also not performing well at that time.
Olofmeister requested a break and FaZe won two major tournaments later using stand-ins: First Richard “xizt” Landström at IEM Sydney in May 2018 and then Jorgen “cromen” Robertsen at ESL One Belo Horizonte June 2018. Olofmeister then returned, but FaZe could not get good results and decided to change IGL from karrigan to NiKo in September 2018.
Under the leadership of NiKo, FaZe won EPICENTER Moscow in October 2018, but could not achieve consistently good results. The organization then removed the karrigan in December 2018 and used Dauren “AdreN” Kystaubayev. Apart from the Blast Pro Series title in April 2019, the team has not successfully competed with NiKo and is looking for a new IGL so he can focus on his individual skills.
CSGO: The Danger of the Captain Role, the Fall of Snax and the Hobbit
Tutorial: Different Roles of IGL in CSGO
According to Dot Esports
Source link: CSGO: 5 stars failed in IGL position
– https://emergenceingames.com/