launders: "The MongolZ are on trend to break into the top five"
The first season of 2024 has been a rollercoaster. Great projects have failed, and many teams have gone through unexpected changes in their quest to rise to the top of the rankings.
With the season being so competitive as a result, plenty of those teams have still walked away from the first half of the year disappointed, and many are in flux with what looks set to be a busy rostermania ahead of us.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenWith that in mind and with big deals on the horizon, we sat down with launders at BLAST Prmier Spring Final presented by Revolut to discuss some of the biggest winners and losers in the first full season of CS2.
"[FaZe] missed the window where they were the strongest"
There’s a lot of talk about what went wrong internally with Liquid, do you have a take on where the problem might have been within the team in terms of not buying into cadiaN’s system?
Based on what I’ve read it didn’t seem like cadiaN was the end-all voice on the roster. He ran a unique system on HEROIC and when they appointed him as IGL I think they knew that.
Personally, I wonder if there is a difference in opinion between him and the players or Zews, but I really don’t have much insight.
Culturally and player-wise, cadiaN going to Liquid was a drastic move so I’m not surprised it's taken some time to work, or rather, not work.
What are your current thoughts on Complexity? What can they do to become consistent?
I don’t have much belief that Complexity have the right lineup to win a big event, especially with some of the other lineups like MOUZ, FaZe and Spirit becoming so strong this year.
If the answer is a roster move, is the fact they need to maintain an NA core for their brand value going to be a big sticking point?
You know me [laughs].
With device becoming an IGL and putting up numbers and NiKo IGLing G2 to a victory in Dallas combined with the fact there aren’t actually that many upcoming IGLs, do you think there’s a world in which we approach a meta where star IGLs are common?
Especially those that have played for 8+ years like device, NiKo and apEX. I believe there will naturally be more players who have been around a long time at the top who go on to do what apEX did successfully with Vitality.
What do you think of this G2 malbsMd rumour? We know that nexa has been benched for him, but do you think this is the right move over HooXi?
From the perspective of roles, cost and the Balkan dream, I don’t really understand what the logic was besides malbsMd being a very strong player who played well against them at pro league.
If he upgrades HooXi it makes more sense because nexa is their anchor and HooXi is not.
MOUZ are the best team in the world according to rankings, but do you really see them that way?
For me, FaZe are the best team in the world until MOUZ beat them.
Historically there have been number-one teams like Liquid who could not beat their biggest rivals Astralis in 2019, but because Astralis were a bit weaker, it was clear Liquid were number one.
In today’s case, FaZe are in grand finals more often and have regularly beaten MOUZ in playoffs.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenDo you think FaZe have slipped up recently because of their results or would you say those results were eventually to be expected due to the teams they lost to and therefore nothing to worry about?
After seven finals in a row, you could say they missed a window where they were strongest but I still view them as number one. Time will tell.
Vitality seems to lack the composure that they once had, why do you think that is?
They aren’t as stable between mezii, flameZ and Spinx as they were with Spinx, Magisk and dupreeh. Their ceiling has arguably gotten higher but their floor has visibly gotten lower.
The MongolZ are a team that have been rapidly improving but the win at YaLLa Compass is somewhat overplayed as an S-tier victory, where do you actually place them?
I think the Valve rankings are pretty accurate, closer than HLTV’s for me currently. The MongolZ are proveably stronger than everyone below them besides NAVI but obviously, NAVI are beatable atm.
There’s nothing for The MongolZ to do except keep playing because they’re on trend to break into the top five in the next six months.