The difference between good and great teams.
If you keep up with any FPS eSports you know that the great teams of all time have stuck it out together. Rarely do we see teams completely overhaul a top 6 team and improve. These constant switches after one bad tournament don’t allow for chemistry to build, which is the main component for a championship team.
Let’s look at some Halo teams that were close to greatness but shuffled players to try bypassing fixing their current mistakes. Optic Halo during Halo infinite is a great example.
Optic Gaming – Halo
Starting the season fielding Hall of Fame players APG and Pistola, upcoming all-star Trippy, and a heavy favorite for player of the year, Lucid. These guys won the first 2 online Major tournaments and were considered favorites to win the first LAN tournament at HCS Raleigh. They fell short of expectations.
In the winners’ bracket, Optic lost to eventual champions, Cloud 9; followed by a loss in the loser’s bracket losing 2-3 to SEN fielding Formal as a sub. Fast forward to HCS Anaheim, they made it to the finals and lost to Cloud 9 in the Winners Final and Tournament Final.
6th to 2nd place is an improvement, right?
After improving, Optic Halo decided to get rid of Pistola and replaced him with Formal (who is no doubt one of the best FPS competitors of all time). With their new roster, they placed 3rd at HCS Kansas city.
Hoping to finally get past Cloud 9 this tournament, they lost in winners to eventual champions Sentinels and were outclassed by Cloud 9 once again 0-3.
With their worst loss to C9 and trending downwards after the roster switch, you can argue dropping Pistola wasn’t the right move. While Optic did win the NA online super last week we still have not seen this team play to their potential during LAN Majors. We’ll have to wait and see how they do at HCS Orlando.
eUnited – Halo
Starting Infinite with one of the greats Ryanoob, KingNick, Rayne, and MVP contender Spartan. eU had an amazing start to Halo Infinite, knocking out household names but eventually falling to the unstoppable C9 Roster.
At HCS Anaheim they looked even better knocking out SEN. However, they were stopped at 3rd place by an Optic team who was finally playing like themselves. The last LAN tournament at HCS KC was their worst showing. They placed 4th, losing to Optic and C9 again. Contending for a finals spot in your worst tournament to date must mean that on your best day you can win a final, right?
eUnited management and Ryanoob did not feel that way.
Going behind team captain (and best player) Spartan to make changes was their solution. Spartan woke up at 3 AM to a text from KingNick asking why he was being dropped. This was a surprise to Spartan who assumed they had the team they wanted. The fallout was Spartan benching himself, KingNick being traded for KCP’s Manny, and eUnited going from a top 4 team to not having a full Halo roster with HCS Orlando 2 months away!
eU picked up Suspector to fill the last spot on their roster. At the NA online super, they placed top 6. It’s not surprising they are trending downwards after replacing half their team. There are plenty of other teams like Complexity, XSET, G1, and KCP making changes to become top-tier teams but it just isn’t working.
Cloud 9 – Halo
The core of C9 since 2018 has been Stellur, Eco, and Renegade. They won the last Halo 5 world championship in 2018; stayed together until the release of Halo Infinite and brought in Pznguin to replace Shottzy who went over to the CDL.
Starting Halo Infinite they lost the first 2 online Major tournaments. At HCS Raleigh this squad let everyone know they are still the best Halo team in the world by knocking out eUnited in the finals. They went on to repeat in HCS Anaheim seeming unstoppable. They were finally dethroned by the Sentinels squad who is the longest-tenured team in Halo eSports.
After 4 years of winning you typically keep the squad together to run it back right? I mean, 2nd place is nothing to sneeze at.
Well, Renegade decides he wants out after they lose their first LAN tourney in years. C9 traded Renegade for FaZe’s Bound. During the NA Online Super last week they played solid but placed 3rd. In my opinion, letting Renegade go was a bad idea but we’ll have to wait for HCS Orlando to determine how bad it really was.
Sentinels – Halo
Let’s talk more about Sentinels (who finally knocked out C9).
The Longest tenured team and in my opinion the best Halo team of all time. No disrespect to Final Boss, the Ogre twins will be the best duo of all-time.
Lethul, Frosty, Snakebite, Royal 2, and coach Royal 1 have all been through 4 orgs! Even when they lost these guys have worked through the kinks and improved. These guys dominated most of Halo 5 and have the world championships to back it up.
Fast forward to Halo Infinite and they had a disappointing start. 4th at HCS Raleigh and Anaheim. We’ve seen top contenders make switches with better placements. What did SEN do? They stuck together, worked on their mistakes, and in HCS KC reclaimed their throne as the top dogs in Halo.
That’s what makes them the best Halo team of all time.
Chasing the Shanghai Dragons?
Why do teams not stick together? SEN is a perfect example of why you would want to do that. However, teams don’t and I think it’s because everyone wants to replicate the Shanghai Dragons.
Shanghai Dragons are an OWL team that went 0-40 in their first season! They did a complete overhaul of their team. From a new roster to new management. A Cinderella story of a team, they came back next season and won the OWL World Championship.
You can’t rush greatness.
At the end of the day, Rostermania downgrades teams more often than improves them.
Could it be uninformed management getting impatient? Maybe these teams that are close to greatness don’t get along behind the scenes? Maybe winning isn’t the only thing? These players ultimately have to respect and like each other to build true chemistry.
One thing is clear: For every Shanghai Dragons story, there are hundreds of failed reorgs and roster switches. To build a competitive, winning team – everyone should try to replicate SEN, fix the underlying issues causing the team to fail, and not allow Rostermania to cloud their judgment.
