Heroic's international gamble is paying off
Following the fallout of cadiaN's benching and the stavn and jabbi debacle, Heroic was forced to rebuild their roster at the end of 2023.
There were subsequent reports that they would sign a trio of players from ENCE, but as Falcons and former ENCE IGL Snappi swooped in to deny them those plans, Heroic had to look elsewhere to form their new team with only one of those players, NertZ, being able to join.
Whilst those prospective transfers mean that an international roster was already on the cards, the one that would have been acquired would have been far less of a gamble than the one they ended up with.
Photo: Michal KonkolSo, with that said, how has their gamble fared within its first couple of months?
We spoke to Bubzkji to get his thoughts ahead of BLAST Premier Spring Showdown 2024.
NertZ and nicoodoz: the stars shining brightly
Despite his struggles on fnatic following his breakout with Copenhagen Flames, Bubzkji says that nicoodoz "deserves a second chance in tier one after his stint in Preasy."
And it's hard to argue with him.
During his time with Preasy nicoodoz had a 1.24 HLTV rating, a 1.32 impact rating, and 82.4 ADR, all good enough numbers to suggest he was playing below his pay grade.
Although he's an AWPer, he developed a style where he is just as proficient with a rifle, sometimes opting to use one over an AWP, and that is something that has helped him to a greater level of consistency now that he is back in tier one.
For me, nicoodoz is equally as talented when it comes to the individual level. cadiaN obviously is more clutch and smarter. But raw firepower wise, I think nicoodoz has the upper hand," bubzkji told BLAST.tv.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenBubzkji says that the new Heroic is "all about that nicoodoz and NertZ duo" and it's easy to see why, so let's also take a look at the second star of the team.
So far, he has recorded a 1.17 HLTV rating in 2024, but he pulled that up to 1.23 with some stellar performances in the PGL Copenhagen Major RMR to help his new team book their spot at the first CS2 Major.
No longer in his rookie year, these are the performances expected from NertZ given how well he did for ENCE in 2023, but this is exactly the type of "cold" gameplay that Bubzkji highlighted when comparing NertZ to stavn.
Rookie of the Year says a lot, considering the great amount of talent we saw coming out of the scene last year. He's better than most of their former riflers, but he and stavn are pretty equal in my opinion," Bubzkji said.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenThat being said, NertZ also has had a penchant for going missing in some big games.
He underperformed overall as ENCE made it to the grand final of IEM Cologne 2023, but his 0.89 HLTV rating in that final and 0.83 HLTV rating in the semi-final versus Vitality did raise concerns as to how he may handle pressure.
That being said, Bubzkji has hopes that those days will be behind the Israeli:
"Hopefully it's a first-season thing, he doesn't have a lot of experience compared to the rest of the teams he was up against. I wouldn't be surprised to see him continuing on the positive uptrends in 2024. I also rate sAw highly, so for me, it's important to watch the relation between those two," Bubzkji told BLAST.tv.
And, given how he has performed thus far in 2024 at IEM Katowice and in the RMR, we're willing to say those days are already behind him.
The unsung heroes tying it all together
In a previous interview, Bubzkji told us "TeSeS for me is strange, sometimes he has incredible aim and on his worst days he looks a bit lost."
It could be down to roles, but who are we to really argue with Bubzkji, so instead, we'll add that the former player did say that he "would love to see TeSeS develop even further with an international roster" - and boy has he.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenAn aggressive support player in the previous iterations of Heroic, TeSeS has been required to step up in the new lineup, and he hasn't yet let anyone down.
TeSeS had a 1.07 HLTV rating in 2023, which has since shot up to 1.12 in 2024. More importantly, his impact rating has climbed from 1.04 all the way to 1.17, a difference that has established the Dane as a solid third star for this team.
All of this is facilitated by kyxsan. Potentially overlooked in the wake of the BLAST.tv Paris Major as siuhy made it all the way to the grand final, kyxsan kept Apeks competitive despite losing jL, and what he is doing now with Heroic is a testament to his abilities to his abilities as a caller.
Not just that, but his 1.02 HLTV rating also stacks up favourably against other IGLs too. He's not a star, but he's no slouch, and he's currently offering a lot more than players like Snappi at 0.85, karrigan at 0.91, and even apEX with his 1.00 HLTV rating.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenFinally, there's sjuush, about whom Bubzkji had this to say: "sjuush was a must keep, his anchor roles and calmness would bring a lot to many teams."
Who are we to argue with that?
The only way is up
Although it may have been because this team was formed after missing out on Maden and SunPayus, this team did receive some criticism when it was formed.
However, so far, those critics have been proved wrong, and NertZ told HLTV that it's only "a matter of time before we are one of the best teams in the world."
The results so far are good and the players clearly think they can get better, so who are anyone of us to doubt them?