Impetus: Former AD carry for European team Fnatic, “Rekkles” rejoins Fnatic after being on a shitty team during 2015 spring split. Fnatic cuts “Steelback,” the AD carry that contributed to Fnatic winning the 2015 spring split outright.
Normally, I try to remain neutral when it comes to the argument of “should eSports be classified as real sports,” because there are multiple parts of all arguments that I agree and disagree with. But this is a story that upon reading it, makes me realize that eSports are very much capable of acting like athletic sports, when it comes to asset management; assets being the players themselves.
Personally, I think this is a really shitty scenario, in which ultimately, a good player is screwed and cut, on account of a supposed better player being available, and being immediately scooped up to replace him. This is a similar situation that I’ve seen in all major athletic sports, be it baseball, basketball and football, and makes me feel the irony in that screwing players, is where eSports really can bridge the gap between themselves and athletic sports.
It’s my understanding that Rekkles left Fnatic kind of out of frustration prior to the start of the 2015 “season,” and even left some money on the table in order to leave. He joined the team, Elements, which fast forward, ended up being really shitty throughout the 2015 spring split, and finished 7th place (out of 10).
Meanwhile, Fnatic revamped four-fifths of their lineup, bringing in two Korean players, a Dutch mid-laner, and filled the AD carry position vacated by Rekkles with an unknown French player, Steelback. They jelled immediately and exhibited great team chemistry from the onset and enjoyed success straight out of the gate, in spite of fielding a team of 4/5 “rookies.”
So much success, that Fnatic ended up placing first in the 2015 sprint split outright.
Yet, in spite of the success of the winning roster, Fnatic and Rekkles have apparently come to agreement which brings Rekkles back, which means that Steelback is suddenly without a job. This is where I feel the story becomes really quite shitty.
It’s like “oh hey Steelback, thanks for helping us win the spring split, but we’re going to replace you with a guy that last split hated being here and paid a buyout to leave. Good luck on your future endeavors brah!”
This is pretty much like when Philip Rivers replaced Drew Brees despite Brees carrying the Chargers into the playoffs. This is pretty much like when Drew Storen was pushed back into the less heralded set-up role when the Nationals went out and got Rafael Soriano to close, despite having over 40 saves and contributing to the team’s first-ever playoff appearance. This is pretty much like when the Lakers traded Shaq to the Heat, for a slew of nobodies, because they thought he was in decline.
Brees won a Super Bowl with the Saints while the Chargers have never made it to the Super Bowl. Rafael Soriano ended up being a massive bust for the team, while Drew Storen hasn’t been the same guy, even though he’s back to being the closer. And Shaq ended up winning a title for the Heat before the Lakers would get another championship.
I’m of the Herb Brooks mentality that it’s not so much the best players that succeed as much as it’s the right players. Despite Daily Dot’s attempts to justify bringing back Rekkles over keeping Steelback, by citing statistics and KDA (ignoring the fact that stats are often times a product of overall team plan, which for Fnatic had been “get Huni (top) fed,” thus less prioritizing Steelback), there’s no part of me that believes that Rekkles will be more right than Steelback was.
I mean, the proof is in the pudding; Fnatic won with Steelback at ADC, and Elements was a garbage 7th place team, even with their supposed all-worldly ADC in Rekkles.
All this considered, I can predict that going into the summer split, I’m going to predict that Fnatic will not do as well with Rekkles at ADC as they might have been able to do had they retained Steelback. In fact, this is kind of what I’m hoping for, because I don’t ever like when a team screws a good player, because they get greedy and pick up a perceived better player, just because they’re available.
I’m going to the Mid-Season Invitational this weekend. This will be Steelback’s last appearance for Fnatic. I wonder what motivation he actually has to give his best, already knowing that he’s got no more future with the team? I kind of hope he feeds.
Besides, Fnatic dropping off would mean that the UNICORNS OF LOVE could surpass them, and that would be awesome.
But for the point of this post, the fact that Fnatic has basically screwed a perfectly good player for the sake of picking up someone they simply think is better, suddenly makes an eSports team sure seem a lot more similar to a professional athletic team than any instance previously noted.
