DeKay Mailbag (Part 3): Predicting Wardell’s Future, Misfits Possible Return, and Team Expectations

Welcome to Part 3 of the DeKay Mailbag, a semi-regular feature in which Counter-Strike reporter and insider Jarek "DeKay" Lewis answers questions from readers on Twitter. Do you have a question you'd like to see in a future mailbag? Tweet @dekay.

With several months remaining until the next Major, plenty of change is still on the horizon with professional teams and the game itself. Some teams like Complexity have brand new rosters and just how good they are, is still a mystery. That leaves a ton of questions for fans of the game, which I do my best to answer in the third and final part of this DeKay Mailbag.

Had Astralis never existed, I think you see Liquid go on their run much earlier and for much longer. While they did lose finals to other teams, not having the Astralis road block would have helped their confidence tremendously. Prior to that, I’m not really sure. We had a number of teams who could have been the best in the world without Astralis around.

They are definitely in the mix right now and I believe their involvement would depend heavily on the introduction of the new league in the works. From what I heard, they were another organization that considered the core of ex-NiP players I’ve reported to possibly head to Dignitas. I expect them to return eventually.

From what I was told, there weren’t really any players that got heavily considered outside of GuardiaN. He was one of their first players they considered and was willing to join obviously.

The hate for the map from almost every professional player means it would have to have a ton of work done before they’d enjoy playing it. The thing is though, just because professional players don’t like a map doesn’t mean Valve won’t introduce it. No one asked for Vertigo, but that’s what we got. Therefore, it’s definitely possible it returns at some point. Predicting when is nearly impossible though.

I don’t think he will, but I think he’ll be a top 20 player. The current structure of FaZe (assuming it doesn’t change) puts a ton of pressure on coldzera to do the heavy hitting in my opinion. For him to end up as a top five player he would need someone like Taco creating space for him. Perhaps if broky becomes that player for him we might see it, but I just don’t think it’s likely.

You can’t time the market, but I will say I haven’t been any more bullish than I am right now about the industry. I haven’t found one reason myself to feel worried about any sort of collapse in the near to long-term future.

Best case scenario for them is making a Major and living around the 10-15th best team in the world in my opinion. Some of the guys like Friberg and f0rest have shown recently they can still hang just fine at the highest level of play. That paired with Hallzerk potentially being a star means they could be a relevant team. Like I said though, that is the best case scenario from my perspective.

Like I said in a previous answer, it’s hard to predict what Valve will do. Although, I think it’s safe to assume the map pool will stay the same size. If Cache comes back in, I think it would replace another map. I believe Mirage makes the most sense as the map getting replaced because it’s now one of the oldest in its current form and I don’t see them giving up on Vertigo yet.

I have a suspicion that he will link up with the core of guys still technically on Cloud9 that have been in talks with Gen.G. He is an AWPer and he is a free agent, both of which I think they could use. If that doesn’t happen, I’m not really sure where he goes.

I haven’t heard anything specifically but I believe they are confident yes. They know the talent and skill exists, it’s just a matter of getting everyone comfortable and communicating efficiently. It’s a really big change to communicate in a language you aren’t used to speaking. No matter who you are.

I think they are a top team as they sit, once they have enough LAN events under their belt. The one thing I am slightly worried about is that they’ll feel a ton of pressure due to all of the expectations that come from playing for Complexity. Now that they’ve shelled out a ton of money and made a huge commotion picking up players, it’s time to deliver. I’m optimistic they’ll come out strong and I see k0nfig sitting at the top of the leaderboard on plenty of occasions.

One would hope so. I think it is only a matter of time before someone like s0m gets picked up by a better team. He has a ton of potential and has signs of becoming a star in this game. I still think they should recruit someone like steel, who would help them qualify for more international events despite not being able to attend Majors. The team has had trouble qualifying for Majors as is, so adding him wouldn’t be much of a negative impact in that regard.

The kid looks good and it’s not his fault the only teams he faces aren’t the top teams in the world. He can only play whoever is in front of him and he has consistently been the best player on his time for a long time now. I think he is ready to take a step up, what more can he really prove where he is right now?

Oskar is definitely the better AWPer, so I don’t think so. More like he is the type of player they see fitting their system best and they have likely heard great things about him as a teammate.

Hardly anyone notable under contract is “cheap”, it really depends what you define as cheap. Wardell is probably the best free agent in the region but after that it’s pretty grim. I’m afraid I don’t have a great answer for you because my knowledge of up and coming talent is pretty limited in North America.

From everyone I spoke with, they preferred picking up the team they have now over the NBK/Aleksib team.

Nothing went wrong. At that time I had limited information and wanted to ensure that I would be able to report the move if I got everything confirmed in time. Sometimes you have to throw people off your scent.