2015 in Baguettes

If there’s a trait that would define EnVyUs more than any other throughout 2015, it’s definitely “consistency”. Out of 21 premier LAN tournaments they participated in, Happy’s men would place top four in sixteen of them! Among these include first and second place at majors, and a few other notable titles. But even with consistency at the top, there have been a few kinks, and EnVy’s journey has not always looked that good.

The first few months saw the team rack up wins at MLG Aspen, Gfinity Masters Spring 2, and Starladder XII, notably dominating NiP during that period with a combined 11-2 record in finals against them in the first half of the year, leaving the Ninjas with their wins in the semifinals of ESL One Katowice as their sole consolation.

They then hit a wall. Multiple times. The other facet of the Swedish coin. The team that would end up establishing one of the most dominant legacies ever on CS:GO. The Swedes of Fnatic. Though they failed to show up in Aspen, especially Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, they got back on track afterward and overcame EnVyUs in most of their encounters. In the few months that led to the summer, Fnatic gave nV most of their tournament exits, when the two teams would face off. For the Frenchies to grab a tournament win, Fnatic would have to be absent of a tournament, like the Gfinity Masters Summer 1. The aggressive shenanigans of EnVyUs couldn’t crack the Fnatic armour, nor surprise Markus "pronax" Wallsten, who seemed to understand very well how not to fall to EnVy’s little surprises, especially on the CT side. Despite that, EnVy piled up top four after top four, and if only they could find the key to breaking Fnatic, then trophies would suddenly become easier to reach.

But this didn’t happen. Instead, the team ran into what has been its darkest period during the whole year in the summer. During that time, EnVy notably and shockingly fell multiple times to Cloud9. EnVy became the punching bag for the American team. After both EEPL 1 and ESWC Montréal, Cloud9 had scored 5 maps to 0 against nV in LAN. It became clear that there was some dysfunction within EnVyUs, and rumours popped around then that a French shuffle was underway, especially as the team skipped FaceIT Stage 2 in Valencia, citing “internal issues”. It broke out not long after, and EnVy would grab kennyS and apEX from Titan, releasing Richard “shox” Papillon and Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux
in the process, apparently due to alleged dissension with regards to the vision about the lead between shox and Happy.

Going into the second half of the year, there were a lot of questions around the new lineup. Most concerning were apEX and kennyS. Both were really inconsistent when it came to results at that time. apEX especially just had a completely black and white June, with disappointing plays at the beginning of the month, and domination after a few weeks. Nevertheless, they started strong at IEM Gamescom, taking first without even breaking a sweat and going 4-0 against TSM in the process. Coming into Cologne though, they still had a lot to prove. TSM had been a team that Happy understood well and that EnVy matched well against, and the maps were in their favor. Proving themselves they did, reaching the finals with only a single map dropped to TSM. But this new lineup faced and crashed against the same wall the previous EnVy crashed against, Fnatic. In a heartbreaking loss for any fan of the team, where they got a big round lead on Dust 2 only to let Fnatic comeback and win it in overtime, and with kennyS completely absent on Cobblestone, the Frenchmen were denied the title on their first try by their nemesis. In a handful of months, they showed the world that the new lineup would be even scarier than the first one. At that time, it could also be noted how the EnVyUs environment has been beneficial to the players’ individual performance, exemplified by apEX who went big for EnVy after months of inconsistency under Titan. Even though it’s still not perfect, his highs are way more frequent and impactful than before.

The potential EnVyUs would hint at during August would end up being realized in the following month, where they snatched successively DreamHack London, Gfinity Champion of Champions, and their crowning achievement, the major in Cluj. ESL One Cologne was not a fluke, and moreover, they finally took down Fnatic, with multiple wins against them. At the beginning of November, EnVyUs stood at the top of the scene. As shaky as the top was at that time, with Fnatic’s throne somehow vacant during these months, EnVy still got the closest to that status.

The boys in blue would end the year in an indecisive fashion, with an early and disappointing exit at FaceIT Stage 3 Finals at DreamHack Winter at the hands of NiP and Luminosity Gaming and a top four finish at ESL ESEA Pro League Season 2. As the Swedish powerhouse seemed back on track after the departure of pronax and the signing of Dennis "dennis" Edman, this win was all the more meaningful to compensate for the underwhelming performance at the previous LAN.

Still, Happy mentioned that there were internal issues in the team, again. At ESL One Cologne, Happy mentioned that every team has to somehow go through different kind of periods, in some sort of cycle. The beginnings are kind of like a honeymoon, where everyone is in a very positive mindset. Then, issues will inexplicably arise, and the team has to find a way to fix them. In July, that proved impossible, and the result was a player trade. The biggest question going into 2016 will be if EnVy can get over their internal issues again, and if it needs decisions as radical as this summer’s.

Titan’s ride throughout 2015 has been quite a bumpy one. It started off well, right after the return of RpK, in the months leading to Katowice. Though he was a bit rusty coming out of his retirement, he proved himself to be solid enough, and notably helped Titan get two second place finishes at Assembly Winter 2015, and IOS Pantamera. At the latter, they topped the round robin with wins against Fnatic, EnVyUs, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. They would drop in the finals to Fnatic, but it already looked promising for the French-Belgian lineup. They then managed to qualify for ESL One Katowice with a shaky run, where they struggled more than they should have against PiTER and CLG. At the actual major, they would start well by bringing their game versus EnVyUs to a full 30 rounds, but unable to close out. They would then get mowed down by PENTA eSports, thus going out 0-2 in the first major of the year, and of this new lineup.

The team would bounce back and find its way to multiple top finishes in the next month. Able to sometimes beat the likes of Na’Vi or TSM, Titan set the tone and looked like they would be a threat in every tournament they would enter. But in a fashion quite similar to EnVy’s, their summer started with a string of results that didn’t quite match those of March, with losses to teams like Hellraisers, SK Gaming, Na’Vi or Luminosity Gaming — the latter two not yet in their current good form. At that point, something was wrong with Titan, considering the lineup and the placements they managed to get earlier in the year. The dynamic of the team was often pointed at, with the fact that there was that huge pressure on kennyS to open things up for his teammates, that would lead to a team relying too much on their ace to hard carry them to victory. Would their opponents counter kennyS too harshly, the team would have a hard time finding an answer to win through other means. Concerns arose around Maniac, who was considered the weak link that dragged Titan down.

That leads us to the July shuffle. Titan lost apEX and kennyS to EnVyUs, and got back shox and Smithzz. Technically, the change was impulsed by EnVyUs and would mean Titan would get the players EnVy did not want anymore. On paper though, and as Maniac said in an interview, this change could’ve been really beneficial to Titan, as it would push the team to step it up now that their hyper carry was gone. And so each player would feel the need to perform better than before and not to be “carried”. Ex6tenz recognized himself that Titan had been lacking solutions in the months leading to the change, and that it could benefit the team greatly. Moreover, with Maniac announcing that he would switch to CS:GO full time after finishing his studies, the team was set for a brand new and promising start.

Thus a rebuilding Titan took part in the ESL One Cologne Qualifier, in which they qualified easily despite eBettle (now Vexed Gaming) beating them in the upper bracket. But the major was another story. There, Titan crashed again 0-2 in the group stage, continuing a trend that was unfortunately becoming too familiar. Interestingly, they forced Na’Vi to overtime, but then lost to Renegades, and notably an on-fire Aaron “azr” Ward that simply ran over Titan with pristine entries and amazing aim. Even though you may argue that this was merely a month or so after the changes, this felt bitter considering EnVyUs made the finals of the major with the same period to adapt.

It still could be argued that Titan needed more time, and indeed it looked better after the major, as the team was able to string a couple performances afterwards, which, although not landing them amazing placements, showed that they still had some firepower to sometimes gun down teams like Na’Vi or Luminosity — now in a way better shape — especially after swapping Maniac for ScreaM late September. They managed also to qualify again for the major at DreamHack Cluj.

The same fate would repeat in Cluj, and for the third time, with a third lineup, the team would fail to go past the group stage, beating NiP in their first match, but sent packing by Virtus.pro in the winners’ match and by NiP in the decider.

And so, at the end of the year, you can’t help but think about Titan as a team that didn’t get the result that their brand power would suggest. Don’t get me wrong, Titan is still amongst the fifteen best teams in the world, and they have grabbed a few decent placements here and there. They just seem to have missed that one click throughout the year and the lineups. The one that would have pushed the team at least past the groups at the Majors. That would have put Titan at the same level as the Gamers2, the Luminosity, maybe even the NiP. To put it simply, to really crack into that top ten.

A few reasons can explain this. First, and maybe not the most obvious given his aura, Ex6tenz. He had a rough year, both as a leader and as a rifler. A few things hint towards the fact that playing under his lead, if not in the whole Titan environment, may not have been the best for the players. apEX and kennyS are prime examples of that. You have to consider the fact that nearly every player that went through Titan during the year have experienced success recently in other lineups, with other leaders, with the exception of RpK. They all had reached the playoffs of a major with other teams in 2014-2015. Yes, even Maniac with LDLC landed a top four and a top eight at majors in 2014. There has to be something if the common factor is Ex6tenz. And he recognized it himself when he said he was exhausted after leading for so long and trying to push Titan upward constantly.

Secondly, during the first half of the year, the team had a somewhat unhealthy mindset and would rely too much on kennyS to perform. As a result, the team would sometimes have to revolve around kennyS getting entries, or winning rounds alone through his skill, clutching nearly unwinnable rounds all by himself, which ended up boosting the results of the team singlehandedly.

Lastly, I mentioned the names, and what kind of result people would expect when seeing a lineup with such resumes. It can actually play a role on the mental state of the players, as they could have played with the mindset of a top tier team, while in fact they should have built that team first, and create a reliable basis on which they could stand. Titan’s play lacked a solid backbone, one that would keep them safe from losing to lower tiered EU teams. Being able to beat, on a good day, teams like Na’Vi, LG, or even NiP, to lose against the likes of Hellraisers or Vexed is not a sign of consistency. I would go as far as to say that, against Titan, lesser teams may have a small boost going for them because of that. The fact Titan feel they should comfortably win against them. And thus it puts additional pressure on the team to perform.

But there are good reasons to have hopes into the new Titan blend going into 2016. As you may recall, the reason shox and EnVy parted ways was actually a difference of views on how the lead should be approached. shox and Happy apparently disagreed on that, and some may even remember that before that, shox actually led EnVyUs for a short period. When Ex6tenz mentioned how tired he was after leading for so long, it was during the announcement that shox would actually take over the in-game leader role for Titan. That may very well be exactly what Titan needs, the click that could very well help the team to insert themselves into that top ten. With one of the most powerful lineup they’ve had so far in the year, the beginning of 2016 will be the moment of truth for for Titan. They have to make it work. Mindset seems to have been the defining factor in the team not achieving what they aimed for. If they fail again too much, that issue will be really hard to fix, and we may see another extended period where Titan will still wander just below the top. Still a threat, never great.

Writer: Ragnarork
Editor: Nagisama, Amazingxkcd
Graphics: Pandah
CSS: FO-nTTaX, Amazingxkcd
Photos: KennyS, Titan