SK: a group of Brazilian players that have innovated the way in which the game is played. They have come all the way from Brazil and had to put up with poor conditions on Luminosity. All of this in order to win and put Brazil’s mark on the Counter-Strike scene, a country that has been absent from top-tier competition for more than five years before Luminosity broke out on the scene. Yet despite all of this, I feel underwhelmed by what Luminosity/SK could have been.

Luminosity began pretty much the same as Keyd Stars: FalleN, boltz, zqk, steel, and fer, but instead of zqk, the Luminosity lineup had included coldzera. coldzera came from a precursor to the Games Academy lineup that became Tempo Storm and then Immortals called Dexterity Team. At this point, the West was familiar with the former Keyd Stars players because they had played at a number of big Western LANs in 2015. flusha and others famously contributed to the costs of travel so that KaBuM.TD could attend MLG X Games Aspen. By the time the team joined Luminosity, KaBuM, Keyd, and the players on those teams were becoming recognizable names to the greater Counter-Strike scene.

What Keyd Stars was known for was substantially different than the team that achieved international acclaim. fer was the unusual talent that everyone marveled at. boltz was the problematic AWPer. steel was a cog in the wheel, a fairly underwhelming support player. zqk was considered to be another underwhelming support player, and if the community knew more about the Brazilian scene at the time, they would’ve been advocating for his removal as they have done with similar players, such as SmithZz.

FalleN wasn’t star AWPer that he is known to be currently. FalleN was known as the tactical mastermind and was recognized as having created the structural basis around the team. coldzera was a complete unknown and had not played outside of Brazil. An important fact when considering coldzera’s debut on Luminosity and zqk’s exit from Brazil’s number one team is that the lineup had changed during the transition over to Luminosity. zqk hadn’t played on Luminosity, and cold hadn’t played in Keyd. More important is how FalleN was unsure of cold’s ability when recruiting him, which indicates how bad zqk was for the Keyd Stars team similar to the fnx firing.

In the beginning of this team’s time under Luminosity, fer remained a star player though he wasn’t as impactful statistically as he was on Keyd Stars. The other players, besides steel, had a jump in performance from their time before Luminosity. This roster change was considered to be the only reason why they were able to make it to the playoffs of ESL One Cologne, a Major, and secure Legends status. Perhaps, they would have been able to go further if they hadn’t encountered Fnatic, a team that only lost a single map the entire tournament. Luminosity’s system had pretty much solidified from that point on. The players all improved and they were performing well consistently, but they weren’t a threat to the best teams in any sense of the word. FalleN must have believed the team to be stagnant and in need of a roster change, so he brought in TACO and fnx from his Game’s Academy.

This was the move that brought Luminosity from just another top 10, quarterfinalist, team to a team contesting for tournament victories against Na’Vi and Fnatic in the finals. That is a fact that many leave out. Luminosity had never won a tournament before their Major title. They were contenders for the tournament, but most analysts put Fnatic and Na’Vi ahead of them since both had actually won tournaments. Luminosity had rightfully earned all of the success that they had garnered, but there is always that looming asterisk next to the MLG Major as both of the hardcarry star players of Na’Vi and Fnatic injured their wrists in the tournament and fell off massively. When reflecting on the first part of the line-up’s success, it is important to remember that success didn’t come instantly and their current status came after a lengthy amount of time spent trying to prove that they weren’t just victors of circumstance.

This change went over much more smoothly than the latest one, and speaking of the most recent roster change for this Brazilian line-up, the TACO/fnx change had the reverse effect of what we now see occurring in SK. As fnx and TACO joined the team, priority and resources were shifted from fer to FalleN and cold. fer fell silently and adeptly into the support role. This role shift is also where my disappointment with SK comes into play. As the move happened, I had marveled about how much this move could improve the team. Luminosity could finally be a triple threat team. Depending on the map or how people were feeling, priority could have shifted between fer and FalleN and cold. At this time, I had also marveled over how far Brazil had come. A backwater CS country into one on the forefront, and as time went on, I realized I was expecting too much from the team, even if it were theoretically possible, as the Brazilian CS miracle was still miracle.

SK’s era was fairly different compared to the other eras. They didn’t dominate nearly as much as Fnatic and NiP. The end of their era led into one of the strangest of CS:GO’s history: the parity era and then the uncertainty era (if you are talking to me at least). SK only won three tournaments in 2016, yet they are arguably the best team in CS:GO history. Keeping in mind the injuries of olofmeister and GuardiaN, there is another reason to expect more from SK in the way of dominance. Everything was going their way, yet their era had the most parity in it. Getting back to the development of SK’s talent, this becomes more understandable issue when you take into account what happened after fnx was removed. fnx’s removal prompted a downwards spiral in SK where the team could not figure out map picks as well as roles of player’s. They had two star players playing supportive roles: fer and fnx. FalleN was no longer just the guy with the good system but also the guy with a sick AWP. coldzera was just some beast. And TACO was the only real support player. The triple threat, ultra-dominant, team, which would also have to show it on a long-term basis given that it would alternate depending on the map, was simply not feasible because SK was already stretched thin as it was. They didn’t even know what they were doing it seems.

This is probably why it took so long for SK to recover. FalleN must have been out of touch with the structure of the team, unlike in past iterations where his understanding of his team’s structure and strengths and that of other team was one of the primary reasons as to why they could perform well. zews had shed light on this in interviews after leaving the team as he said things like how in-game leadership was no longer solely in the hands of FalleN and was more on a committee basis or how responsible he was in setting up the line-up for success.

After fnx departed from SK Gaming, the team picked-up fox as a long-term substitute through the Major, and afterwards, they would get felps. In other words, fox was just seen as a temporary addition to the team, so there wouldn’t be any need to drastically change the team. The change that did occur in the team was a shift in role between fox and FalleN. FalleN gave the AWP to fox to focus more on teamplay and in-game leading. As a result of this, fer had shown some improvement. The map pool didn’t change with this player and role change.

When felps joined however, all hell broke loose. With SK being able to make it to the semi-finals at the ELEAGUE Major with He Who Drops Glocks, one would think that incorporating felps would be as simple as slotting him in with only a few changes to the team. No one would be harmed, and the additional firepower would benefit the team. In reality, the roles weren’t defined and no one was really facilitated to succeed properly. FalleN remained in his more supportive role, which was quite alarming to the community. TACO remained the supportive player he always was. fer somehow shone through the chaos. And the other two players were playing at a diminished level since no one on the team figured out the correct system for them to play in.

With some time to recover and adjust, SK arrives at the point which which they are at presently. SK is developing into the multi-threat team that they promised to be a year and a half ago. cold is their ever consistent star. fer is continuing in his resurgence in form. FalleN is improving at a rate to scare SK’s opposition. TACO and felps are becoming more consistent in regards to their occasional glimmers of brilliance. SK is gearing up to be a world number one team again, and that’s saying a lot about the players themselves and SK as a team if you look at their opposition in FaZe, Astralis, and G2.

SK has proven time and time again that they can be a championship level team. Over the course of many lineups and changes to the meta, SK has proven adaptable. In the beginning, they were a one-star show with a great system. They then developed into a team with a solid system and a bunch of fraggers to go along with it. In that way, SK is taking what made Fnatic great to a whole ‘nother level.

Continuing with the Fnatic analogy, SK has also made roster moves to fit with player personalities and the ever changing meta. Even though they haven’t won every single event they have attended, it’s not like Fnatic could truly say the same either, SK is in contention for being one of the best Counter-Strike teams ever, and the rigorous development of not only their structure but also the individuals themselves shows just how far they have come.

Image credit: Dreamhack Flickr - Adela Sznajder, Puloduplo

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