An analysis of team chemistry and how important it is to ‘gel’.

The rostermania this time is a real whirlwind of changes. Many players with an established position in the scene are looking for greener pastures and that has resulted in some of the most interesting rosters being formed in a long time. And there are a couple of them that have caught the community’s eyes, as the question of team chemistry becomes ever so important.

The New ‘Geniuses’ in Town

If you have been perusing your timeline on Twitter or have been on the subreddit in the past few hours, you would have come across the announcement from several of the new members of the Evil Geniuses roster. If you have not, the roster, now officially, consists of Patrick ‘Aches’ Price, Ian ‘Enable’ Wyatt, Anthony ‘Nameless’ Wheeler and last but not the least , Bryan ‘Apathy’ Zhelyazkov. That is an extremely stacked roster, no one can deny that but there is an issue that people have pointed out which I feel might serve as a potential factor in the squad not being as good as they can be.

Experience is something that this roster is definitely not lacking. With almost 25 years of competing at the top level amongst the roster and an absurd number of tournament wins, they know what it takes to win. But, let us take a pause and look at what they each bring to the team apart from pure skill. Aches and Enable are outward leaders. In their past squads, they were looked at when it came to leadership. In Cloud9, Aches was not responsible for putting up great slaying numbers but his veteran status and ability to guide a team were his main assets. And on FaZe, Enable was the in game leader, even though if it was judged in between rounds, it seemed like that job belonged to Clayster. So two is definitely better than one right? Well, not really. In any team sport, or in any team dynamic whatsoever, multiple leaders pose an issue. A clash of views and commands could be apparent and detrimental to the team.

Now, of course due to the years, these players have matured. They have won multiple championships on different top rosters, and have played with some of the best players to ever play this game. But it will be an interesting process of deciding a final leader of the squad. Who will step up and who will promptly step down will be a crucial decision in this roster’s life cycle. I would love to see Enable take charge. He has definitely shown that he can lead a team despite his conflict with Clay on FaZe. He is their main AR and would be a good pick as to me he seems a better fit, a more stable leader. But if that is true, Aches has the more difficult job. For someone to take a step back from leadership, something that they have been doing for a long time will be a strenuous transition.