What does the TACO trade mean for MiBR?

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After nine months or so of running their international roster, MIBR has finally decided to go all Brazilian once again. (Or so I would assume, they have yet to announce a fifth. I’ll get to that.) They have traded Stewie2k to Team Liquid in exchange for some old friends, coach Zews and their longtime teammate TACO.

Personally, I’ve been hoping for this change for a while. I was never a huge fan of their international roster, and I have been dreaming of an all-Brazilian, classic FalleN team. It seems as though that’s what’s coming, and they have already announced that there is another roster move in their immediate future, as they have made tarik available. The big question is, who is their fifth going to be? The way I see it, there is a pretty big choice that FalleN needs to make before they can decide on what kind of fifth they’re looking for.

Which FalleN are we going to see?

FalleN has been a fixture in tier one CSGO for three years now. His teams have consistently been contenders for tournaments since 2016, and he has been a consistent top 10 player with the MVPs to match. But he hasn’t always played the same style.

When FalleN was playing with fnx on Luminosity, not only was he the carry, he was one of the best players in the world. He was unmatched on the AWP, he was one of the best players on the team, and he did it all while he was IGLing. (If you don’t remember how unbelievable FalleN was, I highly recommend you go back and watch. It’s a beautiful sight)

After fnx was kicked, SK brought in felps. In this lineup FalleN took a much more passive role. His stats dipped, and he tried to let fer and cold and felps carry most of the burden for the team. This worked as well, as they went on to win quite a few tournaments with felps in the lineup.

Everyone else on MIBR has solidified roles. Coldzera, fer, and TACO are all going to be playing the same style that they always play, which is good. The only variable left is what FalleN is going to do. It appears he can succeed playing either role. The question now is, which would he rather be? And can he hit that 2016 level again?

Support FalleN

This would probably be the easiest solution if MIBR wants to get the team running at full capacity quickly (which I would imagine is the case, seeing as how the Major is in a month or so). FalleN had been ceding a lot of room to his teammates over 2018, trying to fully integrate two-star players they bought from Cloud9.

If FalleN decides he wants to play a supportive role, here are some realistic options.

KNG

As of right now, this seems to be the most likely scenario. He released an apology on Twitter a few days ago, and his name has been mentioned a lot by people in the scene.

This would be an interesting choice, I think, and would give MIBR some looks they’ve never had as a team. KNG would be their primary AWPer I would imagine, leaving FalleN to play as a hybrid.

While that’s something that this core has never tried, and KNG is a very good player, I’m not sure it’s worth the opportunity cost. Adding KNG to this roster would necessitate taking the AWP away from FalleN, which would likely cripple his effectiveness. Like I said, we’ve never really seen that before, so it’s hard to imagine how it would work out. I’d imagine FalleN could still be productive as a rifler, but it would certainly limit him.

HEN1

Same problem unfortunately. HEN1 is really just a less consistent KNG, so I don’t know why they’d do this.

Speaking of HEN1 though, it does bring up an interesting point. The Immortals team that got second place at the Major double AWPed pretty much full time, and it worked well. KNG and HEN1 both got more than 50% of their kills on the AWP, which hasn’t really happened since.

The economic disadvantages of running two full time AWPers are harsh, but it’s certainly doable. Especially because besides HEN1 and KNG, there aren’t a ton of players of the caliber MIBR would need to slot them in as one of the carries.

EliGE

Did you know that EliGE speaks Portuguese? All I’m saying is, it’s possible…

Carry FalleN

This one is a little bit harder. I’ve only heard one name floating around that would make me think MIBR is considering this, but here are a couple options I’d like to see.

steel

I like steel a lot. I liked him on Liquid, I liked him on Immortals, and I’d like him on MIBR. He’s a smart, calm rifler, who could do some calling and do his job. Honestly, +steel for MIBR is my dream. He could enable FalleN to frag like he used to, he could do some secondary calling on T side if they needed him to, I think he’s the perfect fit for this roster.

kscerato

I have never seen kscerato play. He plays for Furia eSports, a tier three Brazilian team, and has only been active in the pro scene for about a year and a half. Apparently, he plays a passive style, which is what MIBR should be looking for if they want to enable FalleN to return to his prime. He has crisp aim, and I can see why MIBR would want to take a chance on a young, unproven player. Fresh blood might be what they need if they want to go toe-to-toe with Astralis.

I would think that trying to bring FalleN back would be the best game plan for MIBR, as in his prime he is one of the best players to ever touch the game. If you’re a bettor, and I imagine you are if you’re reading this, look to see who MIBR adds. If they add a star, the new addition’s performance is going to be the biggest factor in their odds. If they add a support player, look to FalleN to see if he can hit his old level. I’m sure I’ll be back to update you once MIBR selects a fifth, so stay tuned.

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