Sean Gares is widely regarded as North America’s greatest In Game Leader, an accolade attained due to a collection of impressive performances at the helm of his Cloud9 and compLexity squads, his stock peaking during C9’s 2015 summer run. In leading Misfit’s to a top four placing at Pro League Finals, Sean has demonstrated his aptitude remains unblemished. Experiences of captaining post Cloud9 have likely proved invaluable in developing aspects outside of the tactics themselves, moulding Sean into a more complete leader. With an multitude of versatile talent amassing within the current Cloud9 and Liquid rosters, they’d provide Sean the instruments to better exert his talents, and potentially lead North America to an elite level ranking.

Photo Credit: HLTV

Earning his stripes

In the late summer of 2013 Quantic Gaming’s North American lineup would break ties with the organisation, leaving in favour of compLexity. Under a fresh banner Sean’s side would see strong form over the next six months, surpassing the group stages of CS:GO’s first two majors; DH Winter 2013 and EMS One Katowice 2014. Shortly after returning from Poland, Swag — arguably NA’s best player — would exit compLexity moving over to DaZeD’s iBuyPower squad. Following a short stint with Anger, the team would gamble on the skilled yet inexperienced shroud as their fifth member.

With another organisation change over to Cloud9, the Americans kicked off exhibiting impressive play at the Cologne major taking NiP to the absolute limit in their quarterfinal. Entering the latter stages of 2014 it became known that SEMPHIS had taken over as Cloud9’s In Game Leader. Believing his efforts towards preparation and developing structure were not translating into the server, Sean had become despondent about his teammates inability to execute his desired approach and in recognising his frustrations it was decided that SEMPHIS should take the reins.

Cloud9 would round out the year with an extended boot-camp in Europe, hoping that improved practice conditions would see the team ascending to a higher level. Unfortunately, C9's performances were much worse than anticipated, failing to exceed the group stage of three events on the trot. Coming into the third; DH Winter, Sean returned to calling at his teammates request, however it appeared to make slim difference.

Their string of poor placings would result in Hiko vacating the team, and following his departure Clould9 remained in dismal form, including an embarrassing performance at ESEA Season 17, being eliminated in last place by a very unproven Nihilum squad. Unsurprisingly, Cloud9 would soon make further changes in removing ShahZaM and long time member SEMPHIS. Upon reflection, Sean admitted deficiencies in asserting authority and keeping his players in total confidence of his decisions. Being a capable leader himself SEMPHIS was allowed elbow room to short circuit Sean’s vision, having detrimental implications on Sean’s ease to identify areas for improvement.

In an attempt to remedy results, Cloud9 would make the high profile signing of ex-iBP player Skadoodle, alongside the perplexing addition of freakazoid, who’d taken a sizeable hiatus from competitive Counter-Strike. The team’s opening couple of tournaments would see them underwhelm, gaining only a consolation map win over EnVyUs. In an astonishing reversal, Cloud9 would soon be on their fabled summer run reaching three consecutive finals, most impressively triumphing over Fnatic 2–0 at DreamHack Valencia. Many would credit Sean as an integral component of their victories. At EEPL Finals the event’s controversial decision to broadcast streams featuring in game communication would display how Sean’s preparation influenced his calls.

Sean attributes their success to a body of work put in prior to their trio of finals. Favouring a style of cautiously defaulting into employing a variety of simple executes, Sean’s prowess was in selecting the opportune time to apply each tactic. Cloud9 caught teams off guard with innovative strategies, sometimes utilising specific plays to exploit a single player. Both shroud and Skadoodle would have their career peaks during this period, suggesting Sean’s direction had maximised their abilities. Whilst freakazoid would never be a world beater individually, he remained pivotal in a team with inherently passive stars that had pitfalls taking intuitive. Freak would unquestionably adopt Sean’s system, setting the standard for his fellow teammates.

Following their peak in the summer Cloud9 sharply declined, ending the year with a slew of disappointing performances. Sean felt a contributor to his squad’s decay was in a drop in motivation, sensing his players effort was not akin to that of a few months prior.

A short lived retirement

In November 2015 it was announced that Sean would be stepping down from the Cloud9’s active roster. Although he’d previously considered moving into a coaching role, Sean would be deterred as events went on and the failure of C9 to secure GeT_RiGhT proved the final nail in the coffin. At the time of his retirement Sean postulated becoming a full-time streamer, however upon receiving a stream of offers his inactivity would be brief, soon returning at the helm of Echo Fox.

Being granted heightened control over the team’s lineup he’d be able to select players with a consideration of how they’d fit into his system. Sean had wondered if he could achieve similar success with other teammates, seeking vindication that he was indeed a talented captain, and this opportunity would allow Sean to test his leadership. Unfortunately, Echo Fox would have terrible showings across 2016, culminating in a series defeat to Swedish team Crowns at ESEA S22 GC getting absolutely destroyed by Jayzwalkingz. I sense that Sean’s time in Echo Fox — attending far fewer offline events — saw him take a step back from intensive preparation, with 2016 being a hiatus from the leader he was a year earlier.

Photo credit: ELEAGUE

Following a short yet controversial period with TSM, Sean and his team would enter 2017 under organisation; Misfits. In April they’d lose Twistzz to Liquid, and would questionably recruit the French duo of AmaNek and devoduvek. A little under a month later they’d have a surprising performance at DH Tours, beating out Na’Vi and valde’s Heroic in series, the former being at team where they were at a huge firepower deficit, and their victory in this match-up being a hallmark trait of good leadership.

More recently Misfits scored a series win over Liquid at the Americas minor, and in attendance of EPL S6 Finals they’d have a particularly strong showing, taking maps from NiP and North in the group stage, alongside beating out HellRaisers in the quarterfinals. Coming into the event Sean would’ve had plenty of time to prepare, and this preparation proved key to the team’s performance.

Misfits play dynamic and coordinated CT sides, by employing a range of setups alongside throwing in rehearsed aggression, Sean keeps his opponents on edge. ShahZaM constantly varies his CT position, being given support he seeks out information and entries. A Misfits Terrorist default tends to be fairly passive, choosing to execute as a full team later in the round. At Pro League Finals Sean frequently deviated away from defaulting, showing a propensity to call fast tactics he aimed to catch CT players off guard. In the future should Sean receive an upgrade of teammates, I feel he’d find heightened success by placing more emphasis on map control and pressure, considering his time aboard Cloud9 you’d suspect he’s capable, but it remains a concern.

Leadership inadequacy within NA’s top flight

Team Liquid would come off their role changes following PGL Krakow in fantastic form placing second in Mykonos and New York, including series wins over Astralis and felps’ SK. The Americans would receive some very unfavourable group draws in their next few events, which overplayed the severity of the team’s decline. Regardless, Liquid has steadily fallen off, failing to pass the group stage of an international event since looking so great three months prior in the big apple, and are subsequently scrapping for even a top ten ranking.

Stanislaw would exit the team shortly after they’d won the North American Minor, citing that clashing intellectually and conceptually with zews had caused frictions between them. Liquid has retained direction in the form of zews, and it seems he has a rigid philosophy on how the game should be played likely gleamed from his days behind FalleN on Luminosity/SK. nitr0 had assumed the team’s IGL position following Krakow and although he’d began by impressing, Liquid has been disappointing over the last two months despite having two of NA’s best performing players in EliGE and Twistzz. With Stanislaw no longer around to aid nitr0 mid round, the team is without an experienced voice to make on the fly decisions.

Taking victory in Denver and a top four in Oakland, Cloud9 is certainly a decent squad, but I can’t help thinking an equipped IGL could get more out of the team’s pieces. Cloud9 has lacked someone regarded as an dedicated IGL since Slemmy’s departure back in the summer of 2016. Stewie at times appeared adept in the role, but akin to shox on 2016’s G2, I believe his approach places an over reliance on his own individual performance. Not to mention that Stewie has stated that he doesn’t enjoy leading, and believes the relief of zed burden has improved his play.

Tarik has been captaining Cloud9 since his addition, and although he’s been better than expected alongside a motivation to improve, I don’t expect him to blossom into a world class caller. I feel the team lacks clear direction, their roles seem confused with some players crowbarred into unfamiliar scenarios.

A window following Boston

With Misfits’ contracts — reportedly — set to expire during the now extended major, it’s a real possibility that Sean could move to Cloud9 or Liquid. Misfits has improved significantly, but foreseeably the team simply doesn’t contain the firepower to contend for the top spot in NA, let alone a high ranking in the world. The team’s overall performance at EPL would display this, having showed promise in the group stage Misfits would be completely dismantled by SK Gaming, finding only seven rounds across two maps, it being abundantly clear that Sean’s teammates as a collective are not of world class calibre.

A trait that is regularly seen throughout Sean’s career is his emphasis on preparation, and perhaps more importantly he has a knowledge of how apply his findings. Although his individual level has improved Sean remains a liability with respect to his fragging, however I believe the structure and preparation he provides can outweigh these issues, which is certainly the case on Misfits. I sense Sean’s time since C9 has given him perspective, having more control over his EF/MSF’s lineups he’s shown he can identify issues in players and looks to make changes, a contrast to his philosophy on C9/coL in 2014. An underrated aspect in Sean’s favour is that he already garnishes the respect of players and coaches, a problem child for fellow NA tactitions.

I admire players such as Tarik, Stewie, and nitr0 for taking responsibility in becoming In Game Leaders for their respective teams, but at this level of competition players transitioning into this role to great success is rare. The majority of top teams house captains that have mastered the ropes through lower levels, or in most cases were actually brought in to directly address leadership issues. In the fast evolving world of Counter-Strike, you’re jeopardising too much in attempting to train up an IGL and with Sean you have a seasoned captain, who’s already led teams to world class placings.

During his dismal lows with Echo Fox I’d written off seangares, suspecting his tenure in Cloud9 had proved overly taxing. Taking victories at an skill shortage in recent months, it appears Sean’s drive has returned. Now having led a multitude of players and lineups I believe he’s become a more capable captain both inside and out of the game. With Liquid and Cloud9’s lineups both possessing leadership deficiencies, its time they gave Sean a second chance.