shoxieJESUS tried to lead his team (his people) to great success (Salvation) and sacrificed (died for their sins) his individual skill (life) as a result. In spite of this, his team (the Jews) has removed (crucified) him in exchange for mixwell (Barabas).

In case that comparison escapes you, I decided to compare shox, who was once called shoxieJESUS, to the actual Jesus during this Lenten season. To Christians, Jesus was a reforming force within the Hebrew religion. He tried to do away with ritualistic foolishness of the Jews, such as not working on the Sabbath. Instead of following the Old ways of the Jews in avoiding sinners, Jesus made an apostle out of a tax collector and befriended prostitutes. He lived among lepers. He immersed himself among sinners. Whatever your thoughts may be on Jesus, it would be foolish to deny that he did great things, just as it is foolish to deny the good deeds of shox.

shox, one of the most moody players in Counter-Strike, manned up and shouldered the burdens of command by taking on the tough responsibilities of in-game leadership. Not only has shox proven himself to be a competent leader in-game after shoring up some of G2’s tactical weaknesses, though certainly not all, but shox has proven himself to be one of the best motivational speakers in esports at the Columbus Major. While shox is trying to make his team the five fingers of one hand, all that his teammates can respond with is the one finger in the middle.

While I believe it was not a good idea to kick Ex6TenZ from G2, the majority of the French players do not have as high of an opinion of him as I do. After the decision was made, someone needed to step up as the leader, and the person next in-line for command was shox. bodyy was a rookie, RpK is an entry-fragger/pawn of an IGL, ScreaM is less likely to lead than shox and who knows what SmithZz was doing in that team anyways. While there were some mixed reactions to shox being an in-game leader, the consensus was generally positive. Happy was used as an epitome of just how good a French fragging in-game leader and his team can be when the IGL calls around himself. Although this team did not have massive success, shox was a critical factor in their impressive win versus Luminosity in the finals of ESL Pro League Season 3.

One of the most troubling things about kicking shox is finding a replacement for him as in-game leader. NBK has stated his renewed desire to lead, and while he would seemingly be a perfect candidate for the job of IGL, he has attempted to do it before and left after a short while. NBK’s interest in becoming an in-game leader and shox’s refusal was said to be one of the contributing factors in shox’s dismissal. All we can do is judge someone based on what they’ve shown us before. If an alcoholic tries to quit ten times but always goes back to drinking, then it would be logical to assume that on the eleventh time, he will still fail. It is an unfortunate prospect to consider, but reality isn’t always fun. Perhaps a better example for this context is that of loaning a friend some money. You loan a friend money, but he never pays you back. After doing this numerous times, you must assume that he has no intention of paying you back. While it may be acceptable to go easy on your friend, the situation shox was in on G2 was not one of friendship, but of professionalism and business.

An in-game leader needs a certain level of dominance and self-respect. He cannot allow himself to be subject to the whims of the players. His job is to rein them in so that he can study their strengths, their weaknesses and determine the best way to win as a team. The in-game leader exists so that the other four players can focus on their game with little concern for the bigger picture - because someone has already taken care of that. The issue with G2 is that they have focused a bit too much on themselves as individuals and want changes to be made. shox, apparently unwilling to make the demanded changes, was then removed. A fragger takes one for the team and dedicates himself to a new trade, but is eventually kicked because they are not aware of his contributions and sacrifices. Such is life within the French CS:GO scene—a life that Ex6TenZ knows all too well and one shox has just begun to understand.

The frustration related to the replacement of shox in spite of a lack of strong IGL candidate on G2 is compounded by the person they chose to replace him—mixwell. G2 is already plagued by whimsical and capricious behavior; adding a player who hasn’t understood his strengths is only adding fuel to the fire. mixwell will frequently swap between AWPing and rifling. Even though he is a very competent AWPer, he could be so much better if he was able to dedicate himself to the role. What would people say if kennyS decided to use a rifle instead of an AWP?

That brings me to the second issue with mixwell being the chosen replacement. mixwell excels as an AWPer, and while he styles himself as a flexible hybrid, the AWP should be his main focus. With kennyS—the best AWPer in the world—on the team, mixwell should be given no time on the AWP other than in double AWP set-ups. G2 is hamstringing themselves by getting players with overlapping skill sets instead of getting players for the roles that they need, such as a dedicated in-game leader. Imagine the players on G2 are baking a cake. You need flour, eggs, milk, and so on. G2 wants to bake a bigger cake, become a larger success in CS:GO. What they need to do is get some more ingredients, but instead of scaling up the ingredients proportionally, G2 has just bought a bunch of flour, making what was once going to be a small cake, an inedible one.

When talking about cakes, the phrase “you can’t have your cake and eat it” is often used. In G2’s case, they haven’t even gotten past the phase of correctly baking a cake. shox did not deserve to be kicked, based on what can be observed openly, and the chosen replacement does not logically fit the team. They could’ve replaced shox with Ex6TenZ or a multitude of other players, but this is the way these things are. Not only was Jesus killed, but we often forget that he was killed in the most humiliating and painful way possible. This might not have been the nastiest of roster changes, but this was a terrible way for shox to go.

Image credit: Esports Only

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