Lycan 🇺🇸 · @Lycan
14th Mar 2021 from TwitLonger
Moving forward
With the most recent news, I think it is important to explain how everything came to light because people will develop their own stories if the details are not shared.
In August, Troy expressed to me a developing loss of interest in the game. At that time, I did inform SSG that we may need to find a new IGL and support player. Following a practice, Troy requested to have team meeting and shared with the rest of the guys how he was feeling and why. The team took that opportunity to rally behind Troy and it seemed to help propel his confidence and passion for the team and game. At the time we were also concerned for the Siege comp scene, so we told each other “If the game is going to die, we want to go out on top for this SI” (SI 2021). I think this also fueled Troy’s fire. I would like to say that while in the moment I was not 100% sure when Troy would decide to retire but watching him practice and observing his demeaner I had a feeling it could potentially be after SI. When SI2021 was postponed I made sure to have a meeting and had the entire team reconfirm their commitment to the year ahead, and they all did. Following the meeting we had two others where the subject of commitment was brought up each time, and everyone promised to remain committed, so I believed the concern had passed.
Everyone knows how crazy and passionate Troy is during matches, it is an infectious vibe and major pick me up. Scrims have never been like that for Troy, but on match day you can always count on him to bring the energy and the competitiveness to kick in. The last week of scrims leading up to the DZ x NSG tournament, to be honest, were not the best. The energy was very low, and attacks struggled leaving the team feeling frustrated. I attributed this to a lot of different reason, but I also thought to myself that Troy’s energy was not enough. I hoped that with a match he would be bring the same crazy energy we all love, and it would kick start his excitement for the game again. After the first set of matches on Thursday I noticed that was not the case and I wanted to have a 1 on 1 with him and where his head was at with the team and the game. It was through this discussion Troy decided he was done and could no longer bring the same passion and commitment to the game.
This all happened 2 days ago, and 4 days after the transfer window ended.
It was at this time we began to scramble to even figure out what the rules are for roster moves because as I had previously tweeted, we had not planned on making a move. As long as I have been in siege, the ‘roster lock’ meant you could no longer deal with any other team (roster to roster moves) BUT you could make 1-2 moves with free agents. This apparently is no longer the case with ‘Global Ubisoft’ and Face it and we are being told that because we are past the roster lock deadline we can’t even pick up free agents. This honestly doesn’t make sense to me, we did not plan for this to happen this way and now we have no options. We are now forced to play with coaches for 2 months instead of giving a free agent a chance, which is crazy to me! It’s a good thing we have Luke and he’s actually good at the game, but this shouldn’t be how it works. I would have liked the chance to deal with a team for a replacement but we are past that deadline. I do believe we should at least be able to pick up a free agent and give someone not on a team a chance in the comp scene.
ALL THAT BEING SAID. None of us are mad or upset with Troy and we all respect his decision to retire, and support him in whatever he chooses to do next. We don’t want him to play if he’s forcing it and we know he doesn’t want us to play with someone who just isn’t 100% committed. The situation sucks and the roster rules make it even worse.
Moving forward we will play with Luke. We have no other choice but me and I am a coach, NOT a player. That being said, Luke is NASTY! He’s easily the best analyst at playing the game, hands down. He’s got a lot work to do but he’s excited to get to it and I’ll be helping him the whole way. Luke is a temporary stand in and I know he will make us proud!
I also hate that this is a side note, but our Assistant Coach (Sov) got a big boy job (yay!) so he has lowered his time commitment to the team.
This means we lost our IGL, hard support and Analyst.
As of this moment SSG is looking to pick up a Temp Analyst for NAL Split 1 and SI2021 (DMs are open).
Also, we are now actively searching for a replacement on the permanent roster (rosters unlock May 24th). This will be open to many roles. Bosco has hinted at being okay with moving to hard breach to accommodate someone that makes sense to us. Imports are also welcomed if we can make the visa situation work 😊.