Opinion: Why NBK- was doomed from the start

Even when he joined MOUZ, Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt was likely facing an uphill battle to stay on the roster.

Well that was swift, wasn't it? In a move that is just as surprising as his initial signing, MOUZ have benched French legend NBK- after just over two months with the squad, during which time they played a grand total of 25 maps, with only 12 of these played with their full five-man lineup. The initial reaction of much the community, along with NBK- himself, has been something along the lines of "wtf?", but if we dig a little bit deeper, just how surprising is this roster change? Considering the performance of the team so far, the individual performance of NBK-, and the context surrounding his addition, did he ever really stand a chance?

When the signing of the veteran 27-year-old was announced by MOUZ, it came as a shock. NBK- had been out of the game for some time, having announced his retirement from CS:GO in order to chase a career in VALORANT a mere seven months prior. Not only was his return from retirement a shock, but the circumstances in which he returned were somewhat peculiar; he wasn't brought into the team to IGL, something you might assume giving his advancing years and diminishing stats when he left the game, and he wasn't joining a French lineup, rather an international one. He also came into a team that had taken a significant hit in terms of firepower, with franchise player Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool having just left for FaZe, and seemed a strange replacement in that sense as well.

There was some logic to the move though, which was specifically referenced by MOUZ CEO Stefan Wendt upon the signing of NBK-:

"When reviewing our 2021 season, our major issues were leadership and experience. We always had enough firepower and high skilled players but we needed more structure and a cool head in high intensity situations. When planning 2022, we knew replacing ropz skill-wise would be an impossible task, so we looked for a player that can lead our younger players and we think Nathan is the perfect candidate for it."

ropz himself also highlighted the leadership struggles the team faced in 2021 in his HLTV Top 20 interview:

"He [dexter] has a little less of this leader type personality in him than karrigan, who is always vocal, pushing and motivating the players. I think that definitely affected us negatively. With such a young and inexperienced roster the team needs an extremely strong leader type."

So, in some way, the NBK- move made perfect sense. The team needed more experience and leadership, and here was a player who has a total of 22 LAN trophies to his name in CS:GO, has experience leading teams, and has been involved in professional Counter-Strike since the Source days.

Life began fairly modestly for MOUZ with NBK- on the roster, but on balance and considering circumstance, things seemed promising. The squad had to tackle IEM Katowice, one of the most brutally stacked events in the calendar, without their full roster, as COVID struck down Aurimas "⁠Bymas⁠" Pipiras before the event began. It was a blow to a team that had just undergone a major rebuild, and they had to fly replacement Jon "⁠JDC⁠" de Castro out to the event immediately after he finished competing in the WePlay Academy League with MOUZ NXT. With disrupted practice and preparation, the team entered the Play-in portion of the event with tempered expectations. As such, it seems fair to say the team blew these expectations out of the water; they defeated GODSENT and impressively Entropiq to make the main event, even running FaZe incredibly close in their upper-bracket matchup. The main event came around, and again MOUZ were competitive, beating an OG side that began the year on a hot streak, and suffering a narrow defeat to Vitality before being dumped out of the competition by Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Not only was the Katowice performance a valiant and promising one as a team, but it was a solid start to life in red for NBK-; the Frenchman was performing solidly in an aggressive role, posting a 1.13 opening rating during the Katowice main event, the best in his team, and also sporting a healthy 1.11 impact rating. It is also worth noting that he outperformed stand-in JDC in pretty much every metric once the main event came around.

When NBK- and MOUZ did finally get a shot with their full roster, they were once again competitive, even if they ultimately fell short. ESL Pro League saw the team eliminated with a 2-3 record after they picked up wins over Looking For Org and G2 and suffered defeats to Ninjas in Pyjamas, Entropiq and fnatic; in all three losses the squad were very much in the running. The loss against fnatic was probably the most disappointing, considering the revolving door that is currently the fnatic roster; the boys in black and orange played with three new additions, two of which had zero experience at the top level.

The context surrounding MOUZ' performances up to this point is incredibly important to consider. Not only did the team have to deal with utilising a stand-in at one of the two events played, but there were a plethora of other factors tempering expectations; Bymas was transitioning to a very different role within the team, Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás was and still is adjusting to tier-one CS, and the team as a whole was recovering from the loss of star player ropz. With all of this in mind, it seems fair to say that MOUZ and more specifically NBK- at the very least had acquitted themselves well, and on performance alone they deserved more time to prove themselves. So, was there really no compelling reason at all to remove the Frenchman?

Whilst it may not be a reason in of itself, it is most certainly relevant to consider the timing of the additions of both NBK- and Dennis "⁠sycrone⁠" Nielsen. Both entered the team at the same time, and whilst it would be reasonable to assume that discussions with sycrone would have been happening for some time, it would also be reasonable to assume that he did not have much input on the signing of NBK-. It simply cannot be a coincidence that, with some time to assert himself in his new role, the new head coach has overseen the addition of another one of his academy stars to the main MOUZ roster.

Another aspect worth mentioning is the sheer success of that academy project. The MOUZ NXT roster, under the tutelage of sycrone and with the assistance of JDC and torzsi, has been the most successful academy project by a country mile. Firstly, they won all three seasons of the WePlay Academy League, which included the two LAN finals hosted for the first two seasons. Secondly, they even achieved some modest success in well-attended tier-two online competitions, placing top-four in two Malta Vibes events and top-four in Pinnacle Fall Series 2. And likely most importantly, torzsi has found immediate success transitioning into the main team. With a blueprint for success apparent with sycrone at the helm, the history of success that JDC and torzsi have had in the academy scene, and the promising transition of the young Hungarian AWPer to tier-one play, it is not surprising that MOUZ are quick to look to their academy roster for ways to improve the main team.

From a gameplay perspective, it is going to be hard to argue that NBK- could outperform JDC over any reasonable period of time. Yes, it would be fair to point to the Katowice performance and the fact that former was better at that event overall, but over the course of three, six, or twelve months, you would be hard-pressed to convince many that he would maintain his position ahead of the young German. This is particularly relevant to the type of role that NBK- was fulfilling; he wasn't given a lurk role, where he could use his veteran smarts and years of experience to elevate his play, but he was given a hard entry role on T side. If it does end up being a straight swap role-wise, JDC should be able to serve as a mechanical / firepower upgrade over the French legend. The Katowice Play-in served as a proof of concept that he could be a firepower upgrade, particularly in the series against Entropiq. Over the Play-in, the young German rifler posted a 1.14 rating and 0.76 KPR to his French counterpart's 0.98 and 0.60, suggesting that at his peak, JDC can significantly out-frag NBK-. The series against Entropiq served to highlight his carry potential, as he sported a 1.37 rating and +20 KD-diff, far outstripping any single series performance NBK- produced in his short time on MOUZ.

Finally, it is worth considering the context of some of the other kickings that NBK- suffered towards the back end of his career. For both his exit from Vitality and his exit from OG, it was stated that the reasoning was not so much based on in-game performance as it was out-of-game issues. Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam said of his removal from Vitality that "something happened at the Major and ALL of the players didn't want to play with Nathan anymore, not one or two, all of them." When you look into the OG situation, reports released at the time suggested that "differences in in-game vision between NBK- and the rest of the team" were the reason for his kicking. Nothing explicitly negative has been said about the removal of NBK- from MOUZ, in fact it has been painted in such a way to suggest it is more about the addition of JDC being so positive, however it is tough to ignore NBK-'s history, particularly considering how much his out-of-game impact was referenced as a reason for his signing. To end this point, it is worth thinking very carefully about how JDC's addition was framed by sycrone: "We decided that JDC's attitude, positivity and communications will be vital for the team going forward."

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NBK-: "Never been so confused about such an unfair and rushed decision"

On balance, it is probably harsh to remove NBK-. MOUZ seemed to be heading in the right direction overall as a team, the French veteran was fulfilling his role about as well as could be expected, and the team only played a single event with their main roster before the Frenchman got the boot. If nothing else, it feels unfair that the team did not get more time with NBK- to see where the ceiling was, to see if the balance within the team was maybe best with an experienced head within the ranks.

The general consensus, outside of the aforementioned "wtf?" was that if this was going to happen all along, then why not add JDC from the very start? I think this is the key point to consider. Did NBK- ever really have a chance in the roster long term, considering the success of the academy project, the fact the academy team's coach joined alongside him, and the fact torzsi's promotion was a success? I would argue that NBK- was likely doomed from the start, and would have needed to either absolutely smash it statistically, or have the team go deep at Katowice or in ESL Pro League, both of which are absolutely unrealistic and unfair expectations.

Who knows if this decision by the MOUZ management will be the right one. The fact that this move was made before the previous lineup's true ceiling was known means we will likely never be able to definitively say if cutting NBK- was the right decision. What seems certain is that the whole situation has been a bit of poor management by MOUZ; either he should never have been signed in the first place, or the roster with him involved should have been given more time to flourish. Either way, I hope that NBK- is able to land on his feet and find himself a new home, as I was starting to get excited about what the veteran French legend could bring to the scene upon his return. The CS:GO scene is a richer and more vibrant place with the Kingmaker among our ranks.