From deciding at the airport not to go through with a move to situations extremely out of a team's control affecting their future, Counter-Strike has a whole host of 'What if?' situations with teams that could have made the landscape look very different today.
At BLAST Premier Fall Groups, we spoke to Pimp to discuss some of the biggest 'What ifs?' teams in Counter-Strike history.
Pimp's reason for selecting NAVI's iconic 2021-2022 roster was the "external circumstances splitting up their focus and team" - and it's easy to see why.
Utterly dominant in 2021, the squad won the first Major back after COVID, the PGL Major Stockholm, but conceded their dominance to FaZe in the first half of 2022.
The breakout of war between Russia and Ukraine was a huge factor in this, with Boombl4 leaving the team and s1mple repeatedly speaking about how the war and the difficult situation was affecting him.
NAVI were never quite the same with sdy (later npl) and electroNic IGLing, so it's very easy to wonder whether FaZe would have enjoyed the success they did if things had been even slightly different.
"NAVI 2021 was dominating, unfortunately, the focus was used elsewhere which is totally understandable. Curious about how long they could’ve kept on going.
A team that had it all with a peak s1mple, b1t playing out of his mind and the entryfragging of electroNic.
It was a ridiculously well-playing team and perhaps the best we’ve seen since the Astralis era. One can only imagine what it could’ve been if they were allowed to continue" - Pimp
Sticking with NAVI to some degree, there was also a time when they almost lost their greatest-ever player to MIBR.
A strange transfer to consider even now, the thought of s1mple and flamie playing alongside FalleN and coldzera in MIBR is just... bizarre.
However, perhaps it was so bizarre that it just may have worked. After all, the MIBR core had been the best team in the world for the two years prior, what would they have become had the greatest of all time joined their ranks?
"A massive what if considering s1mple was about to enter his prime. FalleN and coldzera were still at the time two players you could count on, and with the financial backing of MIBR it would’ve been super interesting to see unfold. Would it have been a world #1 team?
Not sure to be fair but the shared power of the names would have made it fun to follow." - Pimp
Who knows if there was ever really a possibility of this given the massive financial boost NAVI knew they could get from selling m0NESY to the highest bidder, but it's a concept that's hard not to salivate over.
The greatest of all time on the same team as the man best equipped to take his crown? It would have been incredible, and given their respective talents, it wouldn't have mattered too much which one had AWPed and which one had been left with a rifle.
The firepower would have been next to unstoppable, probably something close to Spirit when they're firing on all cylinders in the current era. The question is: who could have stopped them?
"Instead of selling m0NESY, integrate him into the main team, let s1mple rifle? I feel like it could’ve been super interesting to see if that could’ve worked out. If there’s anyone I believe in integrating m0NESY together with s1mple it would be coach B1ad3.
Now perhaps never a realistic outcome given s1mple still wanted to AWP, but today we know s1mple has been open to rifling, so what could’ve been…" - Pimp
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