Untitled Spreadsheet find two new talents

Untitled Spreadsheet, the current dominant team in Australia, have made a significant change to their roster by cutting two of their team and replacing them with unknown talents from ranked matchmaking. DPS player raz and support rqt were both removed from the team yesterday, as the team scouted ConRoar and LUSH to fill in gaps in the roster.

Untitled Spreadsheet overtook Chiefs as the clear best team in Australia over a month ago. Since then the team has dominated the scene with their intelligent and skilled play, paired with a dedication to keep improving and not rest on their laurels. Chiefs recently made a large overhaul to their roster in an attempt to close the distance; Untitled Spreadsheet have replied with their own, switching former flex player Gnb onto dps to make space for ConRoar and slotting LUSH into the vacant support slot.

The prompt for this change was not Chief’s shuffle however, but was a slowly developing issue within Untitled Spreadsheet that required attention after the recent patch. The team was apparently concerned by raz and rqt’s relatively shallow hero pool and questioned their eagerness to improve, issues which were exasperated when the players were forced onto new heroes post-patch. As with the Chiefs change, a large roster change in a top team seems risky from the outside, but Untitled Spreadsheet are confident they can polish their diamonds in the rough.

I spoke to captain yuki, and asked him why the best team in Australia would change a third of their roster:

I mean we were winning but we felt there were definite parts in our game that needed strengthening, and felt we couldn't do with the 2 players that we replaced. Just because you're winning doesn't mean every cog that's part of the machine is oiled and in working order. We didn't have too many options from other teams or free agents that were on other teams so we turned to the next best place to search for players - ranked matchmaking. To elaborate on each player: I saw ConRoar in ranked a few weeks ago and remembered he just played a crapload of Zarya. He played it quite well, in terms of ability usage, aim and general awareness of the hero. I suggested we give him a shot and he played pretty well - with Gnb swapping from flex to DPS it was a pretty easy transition as Gnb has very good aim and awareness. LUSH we've had our eye on for a while. Originally we were going to try him as a dps player, so gave him some attempts on dps, but with Gnb and Conroar in the mix on DPS and flex, LUSH had a natural transition to Zenyatta and he played some great games and had fun playing it so that was that. They both seem super eager to learn and are quite skilled players - so they left a good impression playing with us.

What kind of challenges do you anticipate picking up new players to the top level?

Strategy and communication for sure. These players are mostly used to playing by themselves and just doing their own thing. Despite that, someone like ConRoar who has been playing a lot of Zarya just does a lot of work with some good shields and ult usage, while LUSH actually had a short stint on another team playing Zenyatta. We saw a vod of LUSH playing with his team and he seemed to be doing pretty well. Main things to work on are to just get them to call their ability usage, and when someone like me calls - "I'm going in here" I expect a response of either support or for them to tell me that they can't help me out, so I can make the decision whether to go in or wait a bit. We also have to get them up to speed on stuff to do in certain situations, but they both seem to be pretty quick learners which helps a lot.

How do you see this impacting your team’s performance both in the short and long term?

It's hard to say for certain. Gnb has been our main caller in the past, and with him on flex it was normal for him to call a lot of engages especially since he was on a lot of high impact "tanks" (winston, Zarya, roadhog and dva to a lesser extent). However, with myself and Refz (Lucio main) helping call a lot of the shots it has definietly shifted the burden. Both new recruits in their own right are solid players so I don't think the transition will be too hard, however it obviously won't be without some growing pains. We'll push through it and look to secure our claim as #1 in Australia, and carry that momentum into the future.

As the Australian shuffle contines, raz and rqt are added to the mix. With two more experienced and talented players as free agents in the Australian scene, it may prompt other teams to shuffle their own rosters to improve. Untitled Spreadsheet must now quickly develop their new players and stop the gap closing to hold onto their number one spot.

The roster for Untitled Spreadsheet is now: