Welcome to the second installment of the superteam series [feel free to check out the first one if you missed it.] Under the spotlight this week: Poland.

A region that is oh-so-close to many CS:GO fans’ hearts because of the legendary roster. Virtus.Pro and the squad that was known as the “Golden 5.” VP was one of my favorite teams when I first started watching professional CS, so it hurts a little to write this.

I’m gonna break up each individual role and make my picks at the end, so if you first want to see the team I have chosen, skip to the bottom.

In-game Leader

Okay, so I first thought about Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas and Filip “NEO” Kubski. But after considering them both, I realized that they aren’t good enough for this team. I’ll analyze my thought process below using the “Five Stages of Grief.”

Stage One, Denial: They can’t be that bad, right? NEO was the best player in 1.6 after all and TaZ has been leading and supporting for nigh on two decades. Both of them are Major winners too. With all of that experience, they must be more than capable of leading the Polish superteam.

They can’t be that bad, right? NEO was the best player in 1.6 after all and TaZ has been leading and supporting for nigh on two decades. Both of them are Major winners too. With all of that experience, they must be more than capable of leading the Polish superteam. Stage Two, Anger: VP still aren’t good even after they kicked TaZ so he can’t have been the problem and they made a stupid mistake. And just because NEO doesn’t frag so well anymore it’s not like he’s incapable, people just go over the top because they like to dump on good players when they slump.

VP still aren’t good even after they kicked TaZ so he can’t have been the problem and they made a stupid mistake. And just because NEO doesn’t frag so well anymore it’s not like he’s incapable, people just go over the top because they like to dump on good players when they slump. Stage Three, Depression: Just thinking of VP’s results in the past year would make anyone feel depressed.

Just thinking of VP’s results in the past year would make anyone feel depressed. Stage Four, Bargaining: Given the right players, TaZ or NEO have the experience to bring out the best in them and even though they wouldn’t do so great themselves, they could just sit back and act as a more hands-on leader. Yeah, that’d work.

Given the right players, TaZ or NEO have the experience to bring out the best in them and even though they wouldn’t do so great themselves, they could just sit back and act as a more hands-on leader. Yeah, that’d work. Stage Five, Acceptance: I think that the past year or so for each player has proven that neither of them is good enough anymore to be a tier-one IGL.

I think that because Poland isn’t the most talented country in CS:GO, this superteam is going to need an IGL who can also step up frag-wise if required. That’s why Mateusz “TOAO” Zawistowski is the perfect fit for this team. TOAO has been playing insanely well this year for an IGL and has even topped the scoreboard a few times, no easy task considering how skilled his teammates are. He does only have an HLTV Rating of 1.02 for the last six months but it’s an improvement compared to NEO’s 0.96 rating and TaZ’s abysmal, 0.92 rating.

Numbers aren’t everything though, is TOAO’s leading good enough? Well, in the last six months AGO, TOAO’s team, have a win rate of 62.4 percent, not bad at all. Meanwhile, VP has a 45.7 percent win rate, it’s easy to see that AGO is having far better results. It isn’t even like AGO are that far behind VP either, they’re both tier-two in my opinion and even though AGO isn’t as proven against tier-one, VP plays plenty of tier-two/three opponents and still get their behinds handed to them. I think it’s time for the old boys to step down, there’s a new IGL in town.

AWPer

Did someone say Papa? Is Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski – or PapaBiceps – really the best AWPer in Poland? Maybe not, but it’s closer than you’d think. He’s up there as one of the better AWPers in the country and even though he isn’t doing so great currently, he is an incredible player. The main thing holding pasha back is his consistency. Some games he will decimate the enemy team, flicking from body-to-body, others, he’ll just end up sitting quietly towards the bottom of the leaderboard. That being said, lately, he’s put in some great performances and save for a bit of a slump in the last few games, he seems to be on the rise again, he even went positive in a 2-0 victory against Faze Clan in the V4 Future Sports Festival.

Okay, so he’s doing alright, but why not go for a younger option like Michał “snatchie” Rudzki? Well, snatchie is statistically doing worse than pasha, not by much really, but the main reason for pasha being the AWPer is because, just like his nickname suggests, he really is one of the father-figures of the scene. He’s an awesome guy, he’s incredibly friendly and is always the first one to take the blame (as you may have seen from his recent Tweets). We could really use a guy like that on our team, just to take the edge of things if they get too tense and to help the guide the team with his extensive experience. Without pasha the CS:GO scene wouldn’t be where it is today and I think that alone earns him a spot on the team.

I had also considered Karol “rallen” Rodowicz but he terrifies me.

Entry Fragger

Now Paweł “byali” Bieliński wouldn’t be an awful choice. But, byali is looking to move into PUBG and his retirement is imminent, so he wouldn’t last too long on the team.

After digging a little deeper, byali is actually performing quite poorly stats-wise. He only has an impact of 0.91. I think that this is quite an important figure to take into account since an entry fragger needs to have high impact, being the player that opens up the defense and allows the team to execute their full play.

I have instead opted for Damian “Furlan” Kislowski to be the entry. Furlan is surprisingly good, he isn’t a name that gets thrown around much but I think that he’s one of the best riflers in Poland at the moment. I was originally going to compare him to byali, but then I decided to compare him to MiBR’s SK Gaming’s Fernando “fer” Alvarenga instead and I was quite impressed.

Red, lots of red. But, numbers are better than colors and as you can see, Furlan is rated nearly as highly as fer, he gets the same amount of kills per round, has nearly as much impact and even has the better aim (technically). Yes AGO is only tier-two and don’t go up against tier-one opponents all that often, and yes, SK is struggling at the moment so the numbers are a little skewed. However, that doesn’t take away from the fact that Furlan is clearly one of the best Polish players right now.

Rifler

There’s a lot of incredible riflers available in Poland, but I think the final choice comes down to two players. Paweł “innocent” Mocek and Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski. Okay, I’ll be honest they are the last two players on the team. Innocent is going to be the main rifler for this team, here are the two players compared to each other:

As you can see, innocent is playing far better than Snax right now. His impact is phenomenal. I also believe that he’s quite a consistent player and that’s definitely something that this team needs given the likes of Snax and Papa. He just seems like an all-around solid rifler and I’d go as far as to say he’d be one of the star players for this team.

Innocent was playing in tier-two, tier-three but you can see from his stats that he’s much better than most players in those tiers and teaming up with the legends could really bring out the best in him because I think he’ll only improve given the way he’s been playing this year. In fact, I want to point out that in Sprout’s (innocent’s ex-team) recent victory over Heroic, innocent was the second best player and had the most kills the entire game.

Support

Lastly, we have Snax. Once hailed as the smartest player in the game. Unfortunately, those days have long since passed and it seems like Snax’s playstyle didn’t adapt well as the game has evolved. Some people would even say he’s predictable and pros have just learned how to play against him. But, it’s not all bad, he is in a slump like the rest of his current teammates and it’s hard to come back once the team starts the fail and it all just feels stale (oh lookie, I made a rhyme). This is why I think he could thrive on a new team, with a new role.

Why would I put him as support though if I believe he’ll bounce back? Well, the main reason is that he’s an astoundingly versatile player. You probably know what I mean, but if you don’t just check out a highlight reel of his, he can AWP, he can rifle and he can even use the shottys (or shotguns to the common folk). Snax is the kind of player that can cover every base if a certain player is underperforming, he’s even smart enough to help to develop starts if need be, because some of Snax’s plays are next level, or at least they were until the fall of VP.

Snax would serve as less of a dedicated support and more of a backup rifler but I needed to fit Snax into this team because he’s my second favourite Polish player.

The Final Roster

Here’s the final roster:

Mateusz “TOAO” Zawistowski

Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski

Damian “Furlan” Kislowski

Paweł “innocent” Mocek

Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski

People don’t always recognize Poland for the talent is has and usually just like to rag on VP. But this is a country brimming with young talent and I think that a team like this could really bring Poland back to the forefront of professional CS:GO. It’s an unlikely roster since pasha will probably retire soon and live out his days as a streamer but I think that it’s currently the best team Poland has to offer.

Papa bless.