After the news that support player Martin ‘STYKO’ Styk has been moved to the bench by mousesports broke yesterday, rumours began to fly regarding other possible moves. The addition of Jordan ‘n0thing’ Glibert was assumed to be their next step, but as the day unfolded the story did too, and by the end of play mousesports were being linked with a player that has the potential to be the best in their team, and maybe the best in the world.
Twitter users noticed that Virtus.pro star Janusz ‘Snax’ Pogorzelski had been removed from the Virtus.pro roster on the ESEA website, before dbltap reporter Dekay publicly stated he had multiple sources confirming mous’s interest in the player. There are a number of reasons to doubt the move, and Snax did 'deny' it to an extent, but even with recent failures Dekay’s record is as impressive as any in esports for breaking moves, and there is no doubt noise around a potential move.
The first, and most obvious problem with this move, is that Virtus.pro are among the highest-paid players in CSGO, if not all of esports, with a monthly salary reported to be in the region of $25k per player. While mousesports are a successful org that have reached a number of major finals recently, it is unlikely any of their players earn close to that amount, meaning the Pole would have to take a pay cut in order to make the move work, or mous would have to completely destroy their wage structure.
In terms of doing the latter, while Snax is accepted as one of the most talented players in the game, his production levels in the last twelve months have not made him stand out on a VP team that has been abjectly terrible to begin with. Given that, it seems more likely he will take a pay cut in order to try and reinvigorate his own career than the alternative, where mous break the bank for a guy who looked like a top five talent a year or more ago.
A study in apathy
There is confusion as to how many moves the organisation wants to make as well, with the assumption that n0thing would replace STYKO being torpedoed by the news that mous may not have completed the paperwork in order for that to happen pre-ESL Cologne. Bringing in Snax for n0thing/STYKO makes little sense, with the former more a replacement for the team’s tempestuous and notoriously antisocial AWPer Tomáš ‘oskar’ Šťastný, who was absent during the team’s run to the ESL Belo Horizonte finals.
If a team can get Snax from VP and activate his talent, they will have a real prize on their hands, but his last year in that team has been a study in apathy and underachievement. At his best, he is a s1mple-level talent, capable of winning games with AWP or a rifle, and turning any round in his favour with a stroke of genius, or at least he was.
As it becomes increasingly apparent that VP are never going to plough again, it also becomes increasingly unlikely that Snax will perform in their jersey too, and the history of the game is littered with players that looked like gods for a while, only to fade away. A move to mous, or even the far less likely move to FaZe, could be what Snax needs to rescue his CSGO career, but it’s a huge risk for the buying org at this point.
Images: VP, wikipedia
