The clock is ticking for BC.Game's new roster

mzinho has rounded out the BC.Game roster, and while I like that move in particular, I think this roster is an extremely expensive gamble with the clock ticking.

And yet… I still kinda love it.

The latest signing is about the only one who doesn’t have a big question mark hanging over them, and not in a ‘about to give you a quest in an RPG’ kind of way. Couple that with the core of the team being on the wrong side of 25 but commanding big wages, and there’s a massive time pressure to answer all of these questions.

There’s a world where this BC.Game team is top 10. There really is. Senzu, mzinho and s1mple is on paper a truly elite core. Well, alright, a top 10 core. Prime s1mple and that changes. Which is kind of the point here.

This team was not built to be anything other than a contender. You don’t spend this amount of money on salaries to be scrambling around for VRS points, let me tell you. s1mple isn’t getting any younger, electroNic and Magisk neither, and so the clock is ticking. They don’t have six, twelve months to bed in here - BCG are paying way too much.

This team has to win NOW. But there are so many question marks.

Current s1mple and prime s1mple are too completely separate entities. The s1mple we knew and loved is gone, and he’s replaced by a worse player skinwalking as s1mple. That’s not a criticism, by the way - in my opinion, there has only ever been one player as good as peak s1mple, so that ‘new s1mple’ isn’t as good as him is to be expected.

BCG are gambling that new s1mple is at least, say, 80% of his prime version. You know how on old FIFA Ultimate Team, the icons had three versions; Prime, Mid, and the so-called ‘Baby’ version? We’re getting Baby s1mple here. It’s a pretty big assumption that he’ll be good enough to be on a team that can compete.

Now look; BCG have been dysfunctional, and making sweeping conclusions from the last few months isn’t entirely fair. But s1mple hasn’t really stood out at all in the data.

Remarkably, he has been excellent on the T side and weak on the CT side, which is very unusual for an AWPer and does give us some belief he can come back. AWPIng on the CT side is easy to get back into the rhythm of - and can definitely be argued that a big part of the issue was having to compensate for weaker members of the team causing structural weaknesses, which is less likely when you’re baiting them on the T side.

Still, you’re assuming that you’re getting the best, or something approaching the best, of s1mple, and you’re hoping for the same of electronic.

mzinho has more overlap with the outgoing krazy in terms of roles, so it’s likely electroNic will stay as the second star, which means there’s a lot riding on his shoulders. So far, to be fair, electroNic has been great in the role, but whether or not he’s still the old electroNic against top tier opposition remains to be seen.

Weirdly, though, he’s kinda the one we’re most sure on.

He might need to be a bit sharper on the T side in his lurking roles, especially as he is prioritised quite a bit in terms of resources, but his CT sides have been excellent.

Senzu is the de facto star here, and while in theory that’s a lock, I have one question. And maybe a follow-up.

If he’s so good, why did The MongolZ part ways with him so quickly and easily? And if the answer is nothing to do with his gameplay, isn’t that more concerning?

You want to put a guy with out-of-server issues with s1mple?

Personally, I’m not sure I entirely buy that theory. If he was a nightmare to play with, why would mzinho join this team to play with him again? It might have been a clash with upper management or one of the individual players, but that mzinho is willing to join suggests that Senzu isn’t a terrible teammate.

He hasn’t been incredible so far since joining this team, and he was always a bit of a choker in playoffs, so I have a few worries early on. Also that MongolZ made cobrazera look good in his (old, now changed) roles at first did scare me - maybe ‘Senzu’ is just an idea, not a player.

He’s probably great. I just don’t know if he’s truly elite, top 20 like he was on The MongolZ, outside of that structure.

Magisk as an IGL is an interesting one, because I don’t really remember him being a particularly impressive caller. Player, absolutely. He’ll command respect from the big egos on this team, and I’m sure he’s not a terrible caller, but I personally might have gone for more of a traditional leader. This team doesn’t need more firepower, though it’s never a negative, and having Magisk as your fifth man… hoo, boy, that’s some stopping power.

Which leads me into why I - and a few others at rdy.gg - are quite bullish on BCG’s prospects.

Yeah, there’s a lot that needs to go right here, but even if, let’s say, electronic falls off or Senzu isn’t quite elite, they’ve still got so much firepower, experience, and intelligence. Maybe the top-end talent, the ceiling, might be a bit shorter than it was in s1mple’s peak, or Senzu’s time on The MongolZ, but the floor is Magisk.

Do you know how insane that is? Your fifth best player was the third best player on one of the best teams ever.

Just man for man, this team can’t be worse than around 15th in the world, surely? Compare them to Astralis, or B8, in 16/17 in the Valve rankings. You’re telling me a team with Senzu/s1mple/mzinho is going to be WORSE than them? With Magisk calling?

Whether I think Magisk is ‘all that’ as an IGL or not, he only has to get the sum of the parts out of this team. He doesn’t need to get more than that to break top 15, and any more is a bonus. You’d expect this team to at least be better than The MongolZ now, too, which is another team they can displace in the top 15.

Role wise, this team makes a remarkable amount of sense for one built seemingly by picking the biggest name they could find. mzinho played a second star/support hybrid role, and fits many of the roles krazy had, leaving electronic to do what he does best. Magisk will have to become more of a real hard support, but given his style and temperament, one imagines this will come easily to him.

There’s just too much quality for this team to ever really be bad. The only way it can be bad is if all of the question marks we have fall on the negative answer, and things get toxic. Which is a distinct possibility, sure, but we’d like to believe we can all be mature here. s1mple has a new perspective on things, and he’s going to respect these teammates more than his previous ones.

Right?

In conclusion, I think this team will be around about the 10th best team in the world, with likely more chance to move up than down; my concern, however, is that they’ve spent a lot of money on wages and fees on a team that doesn’t have anywhere to go if things go wrong.

The clock is ticking because of the outlay, the expectations and the age of the players - it’s not like FUT, where you can give them room to grow, or built on a budget like Astralis. This team absolutely has to win and it has to win now, and I just don’t think they’re nice like that.

They’ll be decent, though.