{"id":40466,"date":"2015-05-06T22:53:15","date_gmt":"2015-05-07T02:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=40466"},"modified":"2020-07-15T22:53:25","modified_gmt":"2020-07-16T02:53:25","slug":"screwing-players-is-where-esports-bridges-the-difference-gap-to-athletic-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=40466","title":{"rendered":"Screwing players is where eSports bridges the difference gap to athletic sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Impetus<\/a>: Former AD carry for European team Fnatic, \u201cRekkles\u201d rejoins Fnatic after being on a shitty team during 2015 spring split.\u00a0 Fnatic cuts \u201cSteelback,\u201d the AD carry that contributed to Fnatic winning the 2015 spring split outright.<\/span><\/p>\n

Normally, I try to remain neutral when it comes to the argument of \u201cshould eSports be classified as real sports,\u201d because there are multiple parts of all arguments that I agree and disagree with.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 This is a similar situation that I\u2019ve 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my understanding that Rekkles left Fnatic\u00a0kind of out of frustration<\/a>\u00a0prior to the start of the 2015 \u201cseason,\u201d and even left some money on the table in order to leave.\u00a0 He joined the team, Elements, which fast forward, ended up being really shitty throughout the 2015 spring split, and finished 7th<\/sup>\u00a0place (out of 10).<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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 \u201crookies.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

So much success, that Fnatic ended up placing first in the 2015 sprint split outright.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 This is where I feel the story becomes really quite shitty.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like \u201coh hey Steelback, thanks for helping us win the spring split, but we\u2019re going to replace you with a guy that last split hated being here and paid a buyout to leave.\u00a0 Good luck on your future endeavors brah!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is pretty much like when Philip Rivers replaced Drew Brees despite Brees carrying the Chargers into the playoffs.\u00a0 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\u2019s first-ever playoff appearance.\u00a0 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

Brees won a Super Bowl with the Saints while the Chargers have never made it to the Super Bowl.\u00a0 Rafael Soriano ended up being a massive bust for the team, while Drew Storen hasn\u2019t been the same guy, even though he\u2019s back to being the closer.\u00a0 And Shaq ended up winning a title for the Heat before the Lakers would get another championship.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m of the\u00a0Herb Brooks<\/a>\u00a0mentality that it\u2019s not so much the\u00a0best<\/em>\u00a0players that succeed as much as it\u2019s the\u00a0right<\/em>\u00a0players.\u00a0 Despite Daily Dot\u2019s 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 \u201cget Huni (top) fed,\u201d thus less prioritizing Steelback), there\u2019s no part of me that believes that Rekkles will be more right than Steelback was.<\/span><\/p>\n

I mean, the proof is in the pudding; Fnatic won with Steelback at ADC, and Elements was a garbage 7th<\/sup>\u00a0place team, even with their supposed all-worldly ADC in Rekkles.<\/span><\/p>\n

All this considered, I can predict that going into the summer split, I\u2019m 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.\u00a0 In fact, this is kind of what I\u2019m hoping for, because I don\u2019t ever like when a team screws a good player, because they get greedy and pick up a perceived better player, just because they\u2019re available.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to the\u00a0Mid-Season Invitational<\/a>\u00a0this weekend.\u00a0 This will be Steelback\u2019s last appearance for Fnatic.\u00a0 I wonder what motivation he actually has to give his best, already knowing that he\u2019s got no more future with the team?\u00a0 I kind of hope he feeds.<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides, Fnatic dropping off would mean that the\u00a0UNICORNS OF LOVE<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0could surpass them, and that would be awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Impetus: Former AD carry for European team Fnatic, \u201cRekkles\u201d rejoins Fnatic after being on a shitty team during 2015 spring split.\u00a0 Fnatic cuts \u201cSteelback,\u201d 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 \u201cshould eSports be classified as … Continue reading Screwing players is where eSports bridges the difference gap to athletic sports<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[79,160,15,49],"class_list":["post-40466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-cashmoney","tag-esports","tag-og","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40466"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40468,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40466\/revisions\/40468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}