If you wanted more proof that North's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team was in need of change, PGL Krakow provided it.

In a rematch of the ELEAGUE quarterfinal, North underperformed and made another quarterfinal exit, again at the hands of Virtus.pro.

Considering North's bracket, Virtus.pro might've been the team's greatest challenge. If the North was ever going to contend with this roster, after around six months with this group, it would've been at PGL. They failed, and for me, that confirms the sentiment I've had since the beginning: this roster doesn't work.

HLTV reported that Emil "Magisk" Reif would be benched, and two days later, Slingshot Esports reported his replacement will be Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså. Though valde is a rising star in the Danish scene, North's addition of Philip "aizy" Aistrup in February suggests that firepower alone is not what North needs.

So what does North need, and can valde fix its problems?

In the spring, North's self-admitted problem was CT sides. The team was average on the defense and suffered from complete breakdowns at times. Quite a few times, North surrendered lopsided halves in the range of 13-2 losses. North has improved on that front, especially on Mirage and Cobblestone, two of its best maps.

Unfortunately, that improvement seems to have cost North its methodical and effective terrorist side, once considered world-class. On Mirage, for example, it's lost ground in many games because of bad terrorist-side play. Against Team Liquid, North barely won in overtime after going 4-11 on T-side. Against Virtus.pro, North won 16-14 after a dominant CT half to make up for its 9-6 half on T-side.

North's Cobblestone T-side play has suffered the most; it was the team's best map for a long time, but North's gone 2-5 on it in the last five months. The cause: shoddy T-side execution. 4-11 against Virtus Pro in Krakow. 2-13 against Optic at Cologne. 2-13 against G2 at EPL. 3-8 against Liquid at EPL. 5-10 against SK at Sydney.

In the last three months, North's best CT side on Cobblestone was an average 7-8 against mousesports.

For my money, the biggest factor in North's struggle on T-side is its entry-fragging woes. Most often, site entries are performed by the terrifying duo of Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen and aizy, who look like their 2015 selves. You'd think it would be a one-two punch: MSL distracting enemies while aizy goes to town, just like the good old days. But MSL's opening kill ratio -- opening kills/opening deaths -- is 0.83, and aizy's is 0.98.

Before aizy's addition, Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke was the primary entry-fragger on the team. And while he continues to perform that role with aizy in five-man site attacks, he spends the majority of Terrorist rounds lurking. He's damn good at it, consistently finding picks, and often getting multi-kills, but k0nfig getting two kills on B site doesn't matter if North can't break into A site in a 4-on-3 situation.

Though he's a skilled lurker, k0nfig is best used as an entry-fragger. His first-bullet aim and his unabashed aggression are so very complementary to the role. It's almost criminal that North can't entry-frag despite having one of the best in world at it on the team. But, so long as aizy is on the team, MSL seems committed to the MSL-aizy duo, and North's T-sides have suffered for it.

The good news for North is that valde has spent a lot of time as a lurker. In fact, it's where he's most comfortable. He's aggressive and can provide his team with quite a few picks, but he's less willing to make risky plays than k0nfig, especially because his aim isn't as precise.

Valde provides a more temperate aggression, but aggression nonetheless. The assertive play of k0nfig could then be slotted into the entry-fragging role North so desperately needs. In this way, valde fits North perfectly. Remove aizy, add Valde, and boom: North's terrorist woes are solved.

But North isn't benching aizy. It's benching Magisk. Why? Let's compare their performances.

Though T-side has been its biggest problem recently, the problem that's nagged North for the entire existence of this roster is firepower. Though it's stacked with big names, the team form is not meeting expectations.

Aizy was a superstar in 2015 and a good player for most of 2016. His HLTV Rating went from 1.15 in 2015 (Rating 1.0) to 1.05 in 2016 (Rating 2.0) to his present 1.02 (Rating 2.0). Despite the changes to Rating measurements, the steady decline of aizy is clear. It isn't a question of space; aizy just isn't what he used to be.

Magisk was one of the breakout stars of 2016 and finished fall of that year ranked by many as a top-five player in the world. His HLTV Rating at the time was 1.17 and would have been even higher if it counted just the second half of the year. But so far in 2017, he's got a humble 1.03.

Although aizy isn't thriving in his role, it would seem that North isn't high on Magisk either. Valde and Magisk play similar CT positions on certain maps; Short/Terrace on the B site of Cobblestone comes to mind. But even if valde is an upgrade over Magisk on CT-side, what about T-side?

This gets complicated, but North can make it work. First, k0nfig replaces aizy as entry-fragger. Valde becomes primarily a lurker. Aizy steps into Magisk's role on T-side, which is in large part a third-onto-site, mid-round plays kind of deal.

The gamble here is clear: Can aizy really take over for Magisk? At his peak, aizy was a second-entry player, as he is presently. Why would he do better than Magisk in this role? Even now, Magisk is in better form than aizy. But if the team truly feels that Magisk is more of a problem than aizy, then so be it.

Alternatively, you could assign Magisk's mid-round role to valde and leave the entry duo of MSL-aizy as is. That would be stubborn of MSL, as we've seen that this duo is quite ineffective, but both Magisk and valde have the discipline to play safe, a useful trait for any mid-round player.

My worry for valde is that mid-round players, as well as lurkers, end up in many clutch situations. And the Dane has, even against Tier 2 competition, failed to show any prowess in the clutching department. Still, his prowess with grenades, as well as his game sense, could make him develop into a Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth kind of clucher, relying on his wits rather than his aim -- not on the same level, surely, but an improvement in clutches could work wonders for North.

I think that the final project for North would be to turn valde into Xyp9x. Good aim, but not great. Good game sense, and great grenade use. The biggest advantage that Xyp9x has over valde right now is his mentality. Xyp9x gave up any ego long ago for the sake of his team; valde's proven to be a bit like Magisk in that he cares about how he does statistically. If valde can stop looking at stats, I think he'd fit in well in the North squad, no matter his role on the team. That's a big ask of any player.

Above all, it's unrealistic to expect valde to reach the heights Magisk did last fall. He'll improve the team, yes, but he won't bring it back to its former glory, and the team still has problems with its map pool and, as a result, the map veto process. To get back to being a team that can always contend, North will need aizy to put up some solid performances -- or make another roster move, and replace him with someone who can.