Who Won Transfer Season?

The first section of 2018 brought a large number of of changes towards the CS : GO scene. Crazy results and unexpected roster changes have abounded, but who came on top?

Transfer season is probably the most entertaining elements of the Counter-Strike calendar. The rumours, the hope, the broken hopes for fans : all of it adds as much as the post-season soap opera all of us adore.

Stewie2k

Rumours have abounded in recent months. Only a few the strategies turned out to become true, in fact, however the spiciest part of them all turned out to become perhaps one of the truest. I certainly had not expected Stewie’s transfer to SK Gaming coming, anyway. Maybe it’s just that I’m a bit more from the loop than I made use of to become but I almost laughed from the rumours at that time. It just seemed so unnatural somehow.
Still, the move made sense on some level. Stewie is really a defending Major Champion – a hot property, in theory. Cloud 9 have struggled to recapture their championship form, however. Similarly, SK has been around a small slump by their very own high standards. They haven’t reached one last since ESL Pro League in December. Actually, they haven’t really come near reaching one for some time.

With Taco leaving, SK’s hand was forced and Stewie was the very best available target. The move made some sense, however the new relationship experienced a rocky start in Marseille. SK won only one game before being eliminated inside the group stage by Mousesports. Inside a comfortable 2-0 win for Mouz, Stewie was ranked 9th from 10 players inside the server. It was eventually an identical tale inside the defeat to NiP earlier inside the tournament. Some teething troubles should be expected, in fact, but there‘s clearly lots of work still to carry out inside the SK camp.

On another side from the coin, We‘ve Astralis flying back into top form. The Danes are back on top around the globe following a hugely successful Dreamhack tournament. They made it happen the hard way, too, beating Faze, Fnatic and also a resurgent Team Liquid en route to some finals victory over Na’Vi.

Magisk

Unlike Stewie, Magisk seems to possess squeeze into his new team as a hand inside a glove. He hasn’t set the planet alight, but he is well known regarding his been a good role-player for any team that didn’t need another superstar. Astralis already includes a clutch master, whatever they needed was another solid player to follow Glaive’s instructions without needing to become carried, Magisk is simply the man for the work, once we saw in Marseille. He was solid all tournament, having only one map having a negative K / D ratio as well as managing to top frag against Space Soldiers.

I‘d been surprised when Kjaerbye left the team, but Magisk has already silenced any doubters by winning his first two events with Astralis.

Taco

Talking about resurgent Team Liquid, though, That They‘d a tough amount of in time Marseille. They started out with an enormous upset over Gambit on day one, only to become narrowly eliminated by them 2-1 a few days later. Inside the meantime they lost 2-1 to eventual champions, Astralis. A disappointing finish overall ought to be tempered by the undeniable fact that such a brand new roster was just narrowly defeated by 2 of the very best teams inside the world. It’s a bittersweet story, but one which bodes well for future years of Liquid.

Elige was the very best rated player of any team in the previous IEM event, but Taco has yet to get a huge impact. The lone Brazilian has trended in the direction of the bottom end of HLTV statistics in her early matches. Where Magisk hit the bottom running, both Stewie and Taco have experienced difficulty finding their feet.

His transfer is that the exact opposite of Stewie in additional ways compared to the obvious SK connection. While Stewie would be a player inside the spotlight joining a formerly great team, Taco was playing inside the shadow of better players, joining a team who were with an upward trajectory. Two teams heading in several directions have met in the center after transfers : SK (7th ) happens to be one place above Liquid (8th ) in HLTV’s rankings.

Xizt

All the previous transfers happen to be made by choice, but Faze showed us There‘s another kinds of transfer : the required evil. Olofmeister, formerly the very best player inside the world, took a sabbatical for the undisclosed time period. We don’t know why he’s gone, however we do understand that Xizt is, well… he’s not Olofmeister. It’s an enormous credit to the previous NiP star that Faze has done so well with him upon the team, but He‘s clearly not on a single level.


You are able to begin to see the difference in each and every game Faze plays without Olof. On the team crammed with individual superstars, Xizt struggles. Indeed, the undeniable fact that Faze has performed along with they‘ve in recent weeks is testament to how absurdly good leftover four players are. Still, I believe everyone will certainly be glad when Olofmeister makes his return.

Mixwell

Meanwhile, Mixwell’s trial with G2 had an inauspicious start. The Spaniard was the bottom rated player on the team which was a eliminated after just two matches. He, too, is potentially only a stand-in and when his debut performance is anything to reach by, he won’t be standing long. G2 went straight into the tournament with lots of changes behind the scenes, including NBK picking in the mantle of in-game leader. It showed. Elimination as a result of EnvyUs will happen to be particularly galling (or should I state Gauling? ) on home soil.

As with all the transfers mentioned here, It‘s early days for that version of G2, but That They‘d the rockiest start of any one of the teams mentioned. The manner of the defeats was the foremost telling, especially quitting six match points against Cloud 9 inside the opener. Losing the French derby in front of the home crowd was the cherry on top in an unpleasant cake.

S1mple?

Finally, we possess the transfers that never were. Na’vi, despite being upon the up and up in recent months, never cease to become section of transfer speculation. I suppose that is simply part and parcel from being home towards the world’s best player. Both S1mple and Flamie were rumoured to become joining SK in March, but Na’Vi somehow held on your duo. Perhaps it had something related to the exorbitant buyout fees that were bandied about, but however they made it happen, the Ukrainian organisation should be thanking its lucky stars. Holding onto S1mple in particular is really a huge boon to some team that appears to be upon the verge of winning a tournament any day now.

Second place in Marseille almost feels as a disappointment for any team which has finished inside the top four of each event but two thus far in 2012. Electronic started showing many of the promise he‘d in Flipside, but Zeus continues to struggle for frags. He showed up to the CIS derby with Gambit but which was a by far his best performance. Once again, fingers were pointed at many of the strategies utilized by the team, especially in situations where a rifle could happen to be dropped for S1mple by perhaps one of the less-skilled embers from the team.
Still, Na’Vi’s go back to prominence during the past six months can‘t be doubted and another tournament victory seems as a make a difference of your time.

With such a lot player movement inside the early section of 2018, Na’Vi decided the best way to succeed the transfer game was not to play. Whenever you already have S1mple in your team, you are able to realise why it may be with their interests to stay with what they‘ve.