Peter Jarguz · @peterjarguz
14th Oct 2015 from TwitLonger
What happened with Coast
What happened with Team Coast? It's a very long story so I'll do my best to include every detail.
Let's begin when I first joined the team. The lineup was draek, drawsoul, invert, and dum0re. At the time, draek was calling strats, and I let him continue doing so until I felt comfortable enough to takeover the role as IGL. I noticed there was very little structure and organized play within the team, as draek would just call many "defaults" and 4-1 splits. Once we started competing against top talent, it was obvious that this puggy style wasn't going to work and we spoke as a team that it might be better if I became the IGL.
Over the next few weeks, we really started establishing strats and developing our map pool, but not only did we still struggle with basic fundamentals (throwing proper smokes, trading kills efficiently, individual plays that cost the team), but it also became apparent that a certain individual (draek) wasn't performing the role in the way we needed him to. We tried everything that we could, ranging from putting him in an entry fragger role on t-side to then a lurker, and then him anchoring sites on CT-side to then a rotator. But it just wasn't working, whether that was from a lack of experience, or lack of initiative to improve, I am not completely sure, but my guess would be a mixture of both.
So after giving draek every opportunity to improve, the entire team had a discussion about replacing him. We didn't have many people in mind, so we had the though of using our coach (Scrunk) as a temporary 5th, to see how things would go. It needs to be said that draek at this moment was very understanding and said to us that he wants the team to succeed and if that means he needs to be replaced then he is completely in favor of that.* He went on further to say that he would give leader to anyone who wants it.
Moving on, we only had a few days to practice with our new lineup (drawsoul, invert, dum0re, scrunk, stanislaw). Scrunk took over as IGL and things were looking really good; everyone felt a lot better and were confident that we could start performing against top teams, which we almost did against cloud9 in an ESEA match (we lost 16-13). Things were looking pretty good, although we were still obviously making some individual mistakes but we felt that the major issue was gone.
It was after the Cloud9 game that we were contacted by Legija (ex mousesports/g2 Kinguin coach) and he expressed his desire to play with us. We didn't really have any major concerns with drawsoul, he still needed to improve and had a lack of experience but we felt like he was still a great teammate for us. However, when a player who has played in a major and who has the amount of experience that Legija has, we felt as a team that we couldn't pass up the opportunity to at least see what he has to offer. We NEVER wanted to cut ties with drawsoul, we just wanted to practice with Legija for a day or two. We felt the best way to go about his was to tell drawsoul directly, honestly. We told him that we have an offer to play with Legija and told him of his credentials, and made it clear that he was not being replaced, we were simply just playing with him to see a comparison and if there was even a point in discussing anything.
Although I understand drawsoul's reaction, I cannot believe what happened next. If it were me, I would be furious that I was potentially being replaced as well but we tried our best to make it clear that he wasn't be replaced we just wanted to play with Legija for a day or two and then see if it was worth it. Anyway, drawsoul took the decision extremely personal, and the next day I found that I was removed off of the ESEA roster by draek and a player called "Tvu" was added back on.
We contacted draek and asked him why he would removed me off of the roster and he pretty much said that I manipulated everyone and I'm taking over the roster. He felt like him and drawsoul didn't deserve to be replaced and that the roster is his. After battling with him for over a week, we tried everything in our power to get the roster back that we deserve. Just because it says Leader beside "draek's" name on the roster, it's unfair that the 3 people who put in more work than he has will become teamless because he refuses to accept that we wanted to make these changes. He would rather keep the roster for himself, and rebuild it with Drawsoul, and Tvu (who requested to be a backup because of his busy schedule before the season started) and 2 other members, instead of allowing dum0re, invert, myself and skrunk to continue to build on all the work we have been over the past month and a half.
We contacted ESEA about this but they can't interfere because their rule states that 70% of the roster must vote to a new leader, and we had 60%, although still the majority, they did not care because of their rule. The more I talk about this the more enraged I become, knowing that an draek is costing 3 of his ex teammates everything that they've worked for. He's getting away with this, but I'm confident someday he will get what he deserves.
It really pains me to say this but I'm truly sorry to my teammates Scrunk, dum0re and Invert who put in an incredible amount of time that ended up being all for nothing. Also thank you to Jeremy for being one of the greatest manager's I've ever had. Also to Coast, who was a fantastic organization to play under although it was only a short time, they really made us feel welcome and at home. I really felt like we had something good, but 1 bad apple had to ruin the whole batch.