Chris Harris · @BPandaa_CH
30th Sep 2016 from TwitLonger
Today marks my first day as a FA.
I am BPandaa. Former Team Owner of Phoenix eSports and I was the IGL for Eanix in Rainbow Six's pro league. Today I decided to leave Eanix. It was a rough decision and to be honest, I already knew I was on my way out.
Where to start...
I guess it starts with leadership. Something I've never been fond of having because of the tough and harsh decisions you have to make and for me personally, playing this game was all I ever wanted to do being a Captain and a Leader made it less fun and more-so depressing. I did it anyway though. I saw a group of really good players and I wanted to win, even if it wasn't winning everything. I just wanted to be a contender.
When Phoenix started. The roster was Myself, Solaries, Helbee, Snuper and Sel. You'll notice that the roster is vastly different now compared to 2 seasons ago. This change was really hard to make. For what its worth, Solaries was a great player and a great team mate, but we butted heads and it cost us games. It was my decision to remove him, It didn't go well. I regret how it happened. It needed to be done, and it needed to be done fast.
Donut, who is now on Eanix, was his replacement. Donut, even though he'll deny it and say other wise was a great breath of fresh air for the team. His experience and aim was much needed and because of his abilities we started to win scrims and we got really far in Go4's. Note that we never actually won a Go4, but Go4's don't mean anything as they don't influence Pro league relegation's or qualifiers. Later on we picked up LB. A Wicked shot and a great shot caller. Myself and him worked together as duo IGL and again, our team got stronger.
You'll notice how we now have 6 players on Phoenix. This was because for the life of me I could not decide what was best for the team. Do I remove Snuper? Do I keep LB and remove Sel? They all worked well with us and ultimately I think rotating players was a good idea. It added multiple play styles which some teams we scrimed/played against to be caught off guard. In the end though, Ultimately I chose to keep LB. Sel had other commitments and had to leave the team. Snuper is/was a great player who I believe if given the right team and motivation would be a threat to anyone he went up against. Due to problems within the games themselves I chose LB. I don't regret the decision, I just wish that I could have 6 Players on the field at once instead of 5.
This is the reason for my post. I ultimately think that the decision to remove/keep/change the roster of a team should be based on the owner itself. Team decisions take to long and sometimes can produce very bad results. For instance, a team that is comprised of all close friends are heavily biased towards one another and sometimes fail to see the faults in each other. I've seen enough of this is the Baseball, Hockey, Football, and Soccer that I've played in my life to know its a bad idea. Well it seemed to have happened on Eanix. Eanix isn't really to blame, I think somewhere in the catastrophe that was me blindingly picking up an ex-pro and allowing him to run rampant within the team. This is my biggest regret. We never needed a ex-pro for anything. LB was good enough. He's an amazing player and a wicked shot, he was enough. This isn't to take away from Frenchie. He deserved pro league imo, but not at the expense of benching another great player. After week one I watched the team I brought from nothing get taken over by him, and I wouldn't have minded if it weren't for the decisions that were made that costed us dearly.
From the beginning of Phoenix our practices were always 5-6 days a week scrims. That never bothered anyone. That practice schedule was cut down to 3 days a week, guess who's idea that was? Operator roles were swapped around to the point where it got so confusing people were picking the wrong operators all because one player didn't want to play his op anymore. this happened several times. Sounds a bit much right? Well it was. I was getting aggravated and tbh my patience and attitude towards what was happening wore thin. I was too wound up and I made myself a target to be wiped out, I became the very thing I removed from the team at the beginning. No one else really saw it though, being such good friends with each other I didn't stand much of a chance. Logic can't win against bias.
This was all my fault in the end. I formed a team and I wanted them to succeed and in doing so I not only became the enemy of my own team but a player without a team. I don't blame Frenchie, this is not what this is about. I allowed this team to become something that couldn't make the changes it needed to make and somewhere we lost the goal of being a pro team in a pro league sponsored by a brand that we had an obligation to. The team lost practice time, we cut corners and we slacked off. My frustration in that and my loss of power within the team is what lost me my team. I was offered a Manager/Strat position. Honestly, I laughed. Whats the point of making strats for a team that doesn't want to try as hard as you do.
So I am a free agent. I don't expect this post to bear any meaning to anyone. I needed a vent and this was it. My advice to any owner/captains who will read this is that well yes, sole decisions may lead to mistakes, but those mistakes do not amount to the ignored internal problems grown from a team where everyone has a say, especially if they are all good friends and especially if you are sponsored.
I want to thank my team mates for working hard to getting into pro league, even if the spot we took wasn't really ours. I believe we had it in us to succeed, I wish Eanix the best of luck.