A lot of things happened so that João “Felps” Vasconcellos ended up joining the best brazillian CS:GO team, SK Gaming. The departure of Lincoln “fnx” Lau; the desire for change by SK’s other players, choosing someone clearly as aggressive as Fer, sometimes more aggressive even; a younger player than the other options they had in Immortals; and, of course, his ability as a player.

Only 21 years old, having completed this last December, the player will have to play in the next Major, ELeague Boston 2018, for a team that he chose not to defend anymore. This choice came after eight months with the team, where he points to the emotional wear of having to live in the United States — where the players live and work — as well as physical, as they took part in 14 LAN events, from the US to Australia. He also says that the team wasn’t meshing well inside the server, and that his game suffered a lot, since he had to essentially learn how to play again, in a different system. Felps realised that it was best for him to leave the team and let them choose someone that would fit into the style they wanted. (In interview to the channel SporTV, published on their website in 02/11/2017)

In a retrospective video of his 2017 year, published on his YouTube channel in 04/01/2018, Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo confesses that the team tried to convince Felps to stay with them, but also praised the young player’s maturity in his choice.

Alongside SK Gaming, Felps won five titles out of six finals they played, losing only his very first, DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, to Virtus Pro.

DreamHack Summer 2017 (Picture from HLTV.org)

Between these forteen LAN events was his first Major, PGL Major Krakow 2017, where the team reached Top 8 and Legend status to come back in the next one. But a decline in his performance at the tournaments after the player break, coming back in August — DreamHack Masters Malmo 2017; ESG Mykonos; ELeague CS:GO Premier 2017; ESL One New York 2017 — motivated him to ask to leave the team.

Image and Statistics by @Distatistic

In these titles conquered, Felps’ influence can be felt in a key factor: Aggression. Not that that was the only thing he brought to the server, but his map control, rotations and the fact that the team won 75,1% of the rounds where he got the first kill (Data by HLTV.org) show how much he impacted the game.

Young and well aware that his team would rather be playing the Major with someone else (SK players have admitted they won’t even practice with him as not to lose rythm with Boltz), one can expect that Felps will put himself 100% at the service of his team and his capable captain, FalleN, and try to do his best to get the team that Top 8.

ESL Season 5 Finals (Picture from HLTV.org)

But of course that SK can do better than that. Felps is a luxury stand in. After al, they won, just from the end of May to the end of July, three out of five titles.

ESL Season 5 Finals (3–4th)

DreamHack Summer 2017 (won)

ECS Season 3 Finals (wom)

ESL One Cologne 2017 (won)

PGL Major Krakow (Legends)

At theses events, teams had a difficult time dealing with the duo of forward and striker Felps&Fer, who at all times where play making in most maps. Of notice: Ladder in de_train; one ladder other e-box at de_train; balloons de_overpass; conector de_overpass; banana de_inferno (didn’t brought good results as their Inferno was weak, and he admitted that the play against G2 was a bad call). Beyond that he could be aggressive by himself, like at de_cache B site both as T and as CT; window Mirage as T; A ramp on de_mirage as CT.

To understand this better, the canadian analyst and commentator Mohan “Launders” Govindasamy made a video for Yahoo Esports in Abril 2017 where he shows Fer’s and Felps’ progress as teammates, and how Felps’ takes control of Mid as T, on Mirage.

And that’s the type of game SK can bring to the stage. Theoretically “with nothing to lose”, feeling less pressured than FaZe, G2 and Astralis, who’re playing with their full rosters, FalleN could dust off his notebook “Tactics with Felps” and play aggressivily.

Watching recommendations are: SK vs FaZe IEM Sydney 2017, the last two maps, as well as SK vs FaZe at ECS Season 3 Finals. Also, SK vs Immortals at PGL Major Krakow, the last game of the Group Stage.

Inside SK Gaming a player like Felps, a play-maker — who always looked for contact in the game — had no place, because he had to sacrifice too much of his own game in favor of accomodating the more experienced and, being honest, better players. And while he is good and proved he can bring in numbers and results, the players who had to change the most in their game style were two of the best players in the world, Coldzera and FalleN — with the latter suffering the most, as seen from his performances in early 2017. I’m not saying theses players asked Felps to leave the team, but that they certainly benefited from Boltz’ arrival and the fact that now they can go looking for plays to make, as Boltz is a passive player. As such, in interview to @Melão13 in his series “Sem Dodge” #138, Coldzera explains that they’ll force Felps to play in positions that Boltz plays so the system can somewhat stay the same.

ECS Seaon 3 Finals (Photo by HLTV.org)

João “Felps” Vasconcellos’ future is still not public (I contacted the player, but until writing this article there was no response), and it’s understandable that he is focused in doing a good job at the Boston Major. This is the biggest opportunity he’ll have to showcase his work, but also for him, as a person, to feel like he can still do this job.

One thing is certain: such a young player with so much skill and capacity to change a game soon will find a team that can and wants to build around him and make him and his agression the stars, where he can finally show what he can do, this time with the mentality and experience of whom once was in the best team in the world.