insane · @insaneck
31st Aug 2020 from TwitLonger
KoalaNoob & f1ukie
This is a lot of words so don't read if you don't care, TL;DR at the bottom.
I know this roster addition requires some explanation, as the two players we're deciding to play with are relatively unknown and quite inexperienced. They both got picked up to an Advanced team last season after previously only having league experience playing Open and IM. To be completely honest, when I saw them get picked up by an Advanced team last season, I was extremely doubtful of their ability to perform and be a part of a winning team. Although I think their team fell short last season, they made playoffs, and Koala and f1ukie did better than I expected overall.
Even now, I was hesitant to even try them out. I believe that experience at this level is hugely important, and since they hardly have experience in Advanced it would be hard to believe they could hold their own in MDL if given the chance. Despite my reservations, and due to our general lack of options for tryouts, we decided to try them out anyways. After playing with them for a few days, we were especially impressed by their comms, their attitudes, and their teamwork in addition to their obvious mechanical talent.
When viz left the team, we found ourselves having to replace someone I would consider to be irreplaceable. And with tconnors stepping down, we found ourselves with two open roster spots
that couldn't be filled by players that were as good or better than the people they were replacing. Having just had the best season of all our careers, we found ourselves having to rebuild while moving into a higher division.
As previously mentioned, we haven't had a lot of ideal options for tryouts, although most of the people we've tried out have been solid. Part of this is as a result of the current state of the NA scene, part of this is due to us starting tryouts late, and part of this is being in the position of an MDL moveup. Most experienced MDL players are only looking to play with other experienced MDL players and/or with their friends. And even in looking to the pool of Advanced players, we've had multiple tryouts and potential tryouts decide to stay with their current Advanced teams. There were other options for tryouts that we could have pursued, and some of our tryouts definitely deserved another day to prove themselves, but ultimately we ran out of time and wanted to finalize our roster after a month of uncertainty. I'm not saying that lack of options forced us into a decision we aren't happy with, but we had to manage our expectations and re-evaluate our plan for rebuilding the roster.
We came to the conclusion that this season of MDL would be a rough one no matter what, as we've lost a large piece of what made our team successful at a time when we need to be pushing ourselves to be even better than last season. Our decision comes as a result of thinking beyond just Season 35, and to the potential permanent future of our team. We're not thinking about the roster that would bring us the most immediate success, but the roster that could lead to the most sustained success in the long run. This way of thinking led us to pick up two young, hungry, unproven players that are committed to grinding, open to listening, and eager to learn and improve. They have a lot of time on their hands, a lot of years ahead of them, and a surprising amount of maturity between them.
We are confident that we'll be able to help them quickly learn and improve and find their places in the team, and we know that we will have a lot of room to grow with this lineup. Good or bad results aside, our main goal and our entire focus is on consistent improvement. No matter how slow our start is as a team, we're going to get to where we want to be eventually. We know we're taking a risk in getting unproven players, but we want to give them a chance to prove themselves, and you can trust that we will do everything we can to help them do it. We are making an investment in the future of not only our team, but the NA CS scene as a whole, and even if you have doubts about our decision, we hope this made it easier to understand.
TL;DR: With limited options and little time left, we decided we wanted to take a risk and see how far we can go with young, unproven talent who we also really enjoy playing with.
P.S. I guarantee there is at least 1 person reading this who feels they could/should be in Koala or f1ukie's spots, as I've been there before myself. Here's my sincere advice to you...
Worry about yourself, understand your goals and your commitment to achieving them, put your head down and work, and believe in yourself no matter your individual/team results. Be realistic about where you are, where you could be, and where you should be. IF you keep working hard and if you deserve it, you will eventually start getting opportunities and you will eventually succeed at those opportunities. Be positive with your interactions with others and don't needlessly burn bridges. Work HARD or honestly just give up. Complacency kills.