‘Chiu on This’ is a short and regular opinion blast

Yesterday, MIBR were eliminated from IEM Chicago. They had a close series against NRG where they won the first map and pushed it to overtime on the second. However they were unable to close it out on the second map and NRG won the third.

This is yet another loss where MIBR were unable to get over the hump. Since tarik joined in July, the team have gone to six LANs. Among those six LANs their bo3 series wins include three wins at Zotac against low tier opposition, the Mouz with Snax lineup at DreamHack Stockholm, and compLexity at the Major. They’ve had close games against top teams like Astralis at BLAST and even this loss against NRG was close.

Outside of that, they haven’t had very many bo3 tournaments as three of their six LANs used bo1 formats: BLAST Istanbul, BLAST Copenhagen, and the Major (at least until the playoffs). They’ve played those LANs across four months.

In those four months, I am unable to think of what MIBR’s team color is. Team color is a concept that the Korean Overwatch teams use to describe the stylistic tendencies or specialities of a team. For instance, when you think of Na`Vi you think of s1mple and electronic. For Mouz with STYKO, you think of oskar’s crazy AWP, their double AWP setups, and their strength on Mirage.

With MIBR, I can’t find their specialty. When I watch the team, I don’t think they are bad, but they lack whatever it is that makes teams great. For instance, when I think of the LG/SK team colors across the three different iterations I think of them like this:

LG/SK lineup with fnx had incredible team synergy with the defining traits being FalleN’s AWP and Coldzera’s closing. They were also masters of the powerplay playing off of FalleN’s AWP. I consider their Overpass and Train to be their best maps.

The SK lineup with felps was defined by fer and Coldzera. Fer’s insane aggressive dueling on both sides and Coldzera being able to close at an even higher level. They were also heavily default oriented.

The final SK lineup with boltz was the highest level of clutch I’ve ever seen from a team. The previous lineups had this characteristic to it as well, but that boltz lineup took it to another level. It felt like the moment the pressure went on, SK went to another level.

In the modern roster, they don’t have any special traits. FalleN is better than he was, but not the superstar of 2016. Coldzera is a good player, but the team around him isn’t nearly as good at making him shine. Fer, Stewie2K and tarik are all inconsistent and none of them feel like they fit their current roles. In terms of map pool, I can’t think of any in the map pool that truly define the team. They aren’t masters of the powerplay situation like the LG/SK lineup. They don’t have the clutch/close out ability of any of them either. They’ve actually lost more of those close games than they’ve won.

Given my timeline for how long teams can improve, it’s technically possible for this team to improve, but it feels like they’ve hit a hard wall. With six LANs and four months, I’d usually be able to see a direction in which a lineup can improve, but with this MIBR I don’t know where else they can go from here. They still lack a team color or specialty and without that, they won’t be one of the top teams going forward.

Related Articles: