Pimp on Team Spirit: “The team should make a roster change. That said, I don’t think they’ll go for it.”

I don’t think Spirit was overrated, but they were only a temporary leader. Spirit was the best team for a short period while everyone else was trying to sort out their own issues. I didn’t see them playing well enough to believe in their long-term dominance. I never believed Spirit would become unbeatable or win many more tournaments this year. But during the period when they were winning, they truly were the best team and played the best in tournaments. Part of that was also due to the fact that the other teams were still trying to find their footing. MOUZ had a new roster, Natus Vincere was nowhere to be seen, Team Vitality was playing with a stand-in, and Team Falcons was just going about its usual business. So Spirit simply took advantage of the situation.

I believe this roster can be made even stronger. It’s hard for me to say this because Spirit could show up at a Major and win it thanks to a donk. But given the pool of players from the CIS and the talent in that region, I think the team should make a change. That said, I don’t believe they’ll go through with it. It seems to me that Spirit has achieved too much success to take such a step. They still believe in their players and their roster. The team has already seen that when they play well, they can win trophies. If they win two or three trophies this season and perform well at the Major, the question of roster changes will likely fall by the wayside. But personally, I wouldn’t mind if the roster changed. I think zont1x might be at risk of being replaced. The same goes for tN1R. That said, sh1ro should be untouchable, unless someone like m0NESY or molodoy joins the team. I’m primarily looking at zont1x, and to some extent at tN1R, even though both players have improved a bit—and tN1R even more so.

I still believe there are players we can rely on more heavily. These are more consistent performers who could bring out the best in donk and make the game easier for sh1ro. That said, they don’t necessarily have to surpass the current players in terms of individual skill. When one player is replaced by another, everyone starts saying that the new one isn’t better than the previous one. But if he has qualities that make it easier for the team to play around him—if he’s more reliable and consistent—then that will also help the team become stronger. If a player is smarter and makes fewer mistakes, that can make a big difference. Sometimes in matches, you can see tN1R playing too aggressively. There are moments when he plays incredibly well, but there are also times when you watch him and think, “What the hell are you doing right now?” It seems as if he’s completely lost track of the game and no longer understands what’s happening on the server. I believe Spirit has the potential to get stronger. So, to rephrase my point: Spirit probably won’t change its roster, but personally, I wouldn’t mind if they did.