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Substitutes & Six-Man Rosters in CSGO

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Like many esports out there, counter-strike teams consist of 5 players and a coach. As of recent exploits many teams have lost access to their coach, however I’m sure the majority of counter-strike fans are caught up with the spectator bug by now. However, much like in League of Legends, CSGO is going towards a path that allows for substitutes in its matches. During March 2020, Astralis wanted to test the waters with the idea of a six-man roster by signing Patrick “⁠es3tag⁠” Hansen. Not only did they want to try out an additional member, they later went on to sign Jakob “⁠JUGi⁠” Hansen before replacing him with Lucas “⁠Bubzkji⁠” Andersen. After a year of mixed results, Team Vitality have attempted something similar by adding Nabil “⁠Nivera⁠” Benrlitom. However, they have looked to take a different approach, using six-men as a way to use substitutes in different maps during a series. Something they demonstrated nicely by winning their group at the recent BLAST Premier Fall Series.

Source: Team Vitality

Who is Nivera? He’s one of the few players to reach the pro scene from Belgium. He’s spent his last year playing with Fabien “kioShiMa” Fiey on Heretics, what many consider to be a tier 2 French side. His move to Vitality was to help boost a stack of talent that forms around the scenes number one, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. The team faced the loss of their IGL in the early stages of 2020 and this left Dan “apEX” Madesclaire to take control. The new addition was first demonstrated in Vitality’s opening game at BLAST Premier Fall Series against Complexity. Although the map they used their substitute on ended in a loss, it showed promise that Nivera could compete against other tier 1 teams and players, boasting a 1.11 HLTV Rating. Maybe even more impressive was Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier being able to miss a game, only to come back with a solid performance on the maps final series.

Source: HLTV

Team Vitality went on to sweep the group going undefeated, playing BIG back-to-back after they battled it out in the lower bracket. The second match against BIG is where the idea of substitutes in CSGO was really allowed to shine. Nivera got two maps in this series from the three played. Overall he achieved a higher rating in the series than ZywOo, showing an impressive 1.39 HLTV Rating.

Source: HLTV

This shows promising things moving forward for the way organisations approach their teams in Counter-Strike. Astralis approached it with their teams well-being coming first. It allowed players to take breaks from being burnt out, something becoming increasingly common with the amount of tournaments currently being played with the pandemic taking thing online. Overall, it seems to be making Astralis money from making players like es3tag shine, and help teams like Vitality gain another level to their game.

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