In this post we talk about the recent NA shuffle and what it means for each team involved as well as how we think they’ll do in the future.

Cloud9 Recruit Stewie2k After Sean Gares Retirement

shroud, n0thing, FREAKAZOiD, Skadoodle, Stewie2k

Picking up Stewie2k is a good move for the future, but I think for results now it might be a little ambitious. What the pick up of Stewie2k means for C9 is that they’re really lacking in the strategic department. Sean Gares was Cloud9s biggest asset and he was what made them a top 16 team. Now Sean Gares is gone n0thing will be calling. If you listen to the ingame communications from ESL One Major you can see the degree in which Sean was calling and that n0thing, dubbed scatterbrain by some, couldn’t remember the strats most of the time with Sean having to repeat them or explain them in freeze time. I wouldn’t trust n0thing to be a highly strategical caller but he could prove to be a good caller in the style of someone like Happy. What C9 need to do is pick up a coach to be the caller, maybe Sean could come back as a coach or they bring an EU player like gob b to be their coach/IGL.

CoL Change Lineup and Include UK Player dephh

sancz, roca, fRoD, shinobi, dephh

This is one of the more interesting moves, CoL have picked up UK player dephh. In the UK scene dephh has really only come to light in the past year or two playing with vexstaR with notable iseries finishes and accusations of cheating even at LAN. He is clean and has played at many UK LANs but because he improved so drastically noone really knew what to make of him. Now he’s a little more known he’s joined CoL and is set to become one of the best UK players right now.

I think this lineup could work for CoL, I’d like to see them contest the top three powerhouses of the US. We won’t see that for a while, the team needs to get used to each other, set up some strategies, learn how to gel together and then look at improving their ranking in the US. They’ll have some stiff competition with teams like NME, ex-Method and Splyce coming through.

NME Swap Anomaly For Lucky

koosta, Lucky, Uber, MAiNLiNE, Relyks

NME are an up and coming NA team with a decent lineup, they’re not incredible but they’re good. With the change of Anomaly for Lucky I don’t think this will change much in the team. It’s pretty much a one man team, koosta. Koosta is insane with the AWP and in my opinion carries this team a little. I expect this team to improve over time as they have been doing, but I don’t expect to see them in the top 4 any time soon.

Liquid Replace FugLy With s1mple

Hiko, adreN, s1mple, EliGE, nitr0

Bringing in s1mple is a great choice by Liquid, Hiko has played with him before and he’s an insane up and coming talent from Europe. There’s two issues I have with this swap, the first is that they cut FugLy and not adreN and the second is that s1mple can be volatile playing with people who aren’t as skilled as he is. S1mple has said that he is willing to change and Liquid have also said that they will be bringing in a support system to help s1mple learn English and work on his volatile ways, #NewS1mple.

The fact that Liquid cut FugLy and not adreN is a puzzling one for me, I guess adreN has some personal ties with the organisation to keep him in the team. What I would have done is moved adreN to coach and brought s1mple in and have adreN call ingame. The move for adreN means that he won’t be AWPing anymore and he is now a fragger but still IGL. FugLy was a better fragger than adreN by far. If Liquid had moved adreN to coach he could call in game and moved over for s1mple to come in as the AWPer and they wouldn’t have had to cut FugLy. I still think this team will be able to stay top 3 in NA, it would be good to see how they matchup against C9 and CLG, if s1mple is on form Liquid could well be the next best NA team.

ex-Method Add gob b and LEGIJA

SileNt3m, just9n, ptr, gob b, LEGIJA

This ex-Method team is set to bring in gob b and LEGIJA. If this move goes ahead this could be a really great roster. I think they may have to swap ptr out for a fragger but that’s for the future. SileNt3m and just9n aren’t the best of NA players either but with a bit of guidance and tactical genius by gob b and LEGJIA they could become a top 4 NA team. What this teams biggest issue will be is the language barrier for gob b and LEGIJA, so don’t expect this team to fly off the mark, expect a steady increase of skill over time.

Splyce Team Shows Promise

arya, jasonR, abE, Professor_Chaos, DAVEY

The Splyce team is a team built of up and coming US teams, they show promise but I really don’t think they’ll be at the top of the NA scene. The lineup is a good one with JasonR and Professor_Chaos being ones to watch, when they played as DOGMEN in the FACEIT Road to Vegas Qualifiers they were impressive. Expect top 10 results in NA only tournaments but nothing more.

TSM Pick Up Semphis, FNS, autimatic, SicK, vice

Semphis, FNS, autimatic, SicK, vice

In one of the most horrific roster changes and possibly one of the worst decisions made by an eSports organisation, TSM lost what is now Astralis and has picked up this lineup. Much like the other NA teams they’re nothing to shout about. TSM have picked up good players, but they’ve never stood out for me. The lineup could make some decent top 5 finishes in the US but I don’t think they’ll be a top 3 US team any time soon. They possibly could do well in the future but right now, I’d expect them to be a mid tier team in the US.

CLG add pita as coach and fugly

tarik, FugLy, Cutler, hazed, jdm64

Now when you say CLG have lost FNS and brought in FugLy I automatically think that that’s not really much of a change, they’re just swapping one decent player for another and not improving much. What is interesting in this shake up is that pita, old NiP coach, in coming in to coach CLG. Pita is old news and went inactive after accusations of stealing charity money, read more about that here and here. I think this is a good move for CLG but I would have been happier if C9 did something like this. What this shuffle might do is relight that fire in some of CLGs players’ bellies as they’ve gone a bit stale over the past few months, maybe due to playing a little too much. Overall, a good move for CLG and I expect to see them as a top 2 NA team in the coming months.