Five outside-of-the-box moves that our Roster Move tool loves

We launched our newest set of tools in the Stats Lab this week, and we’re pretty happy with where they’ve landed - and we’re even more excited by the fun stuff we get to cook up.

Today we’re looking at five moves the tool likes that you probably weren’t even considering - and maybe we’ve cooked a little bit too hard.

Danger danger, high voltage

NIP have been something of a perennial let down since about 2017, and this team was meant to be the one that changed that. Just like the one before, and the one before that, and the one…

While Snappi’s faith in xKacpersky has largely been rewarded, he’s not had much success with his second star cairne, who came with high hopes that he’s failed to consistently deliver on. Of the players in our data, he is quite literally the lowest rated second star out of any of them, narrowly beating off competition from dex and tN1R, which isn’t a great look for Spirit either.

Fortunately, unlike support players and IGLs, second stars can be a bit easier to put into your team and see a massive uptick in frags and firepower. Unfortunately, the roles in NIP are a little unusual, so many second stars would require a bit of a rejig to fit perfectly into these roles. That tends to happen a lot, so it’s not a massive concern, but it is worth considering.

We’re putting forwards volt as an answer to NIP’s woes. He’s been a part of a very dangerous FOKUS team who’ve taken tier two by storm recently, and he’s got previous for massive overachievement that NIP really need right now.

On the T side, he’s a pretty close fit to the roles cairne fulfills.

The CT side is a bit trickier, but the two maps where he doesn’t currently have the same roles as cairne, he plays Snappi’s role on Overpass and sjuush’s role on Ancient. Either NIP can give up these spots (if volt really likes them), or give him the more impactful spot (we don’t know any player who would rather have Short on Overpass than Toilets).

Obviously volt would have to learn to play Anubis with Snappi, but A Anchor is a spot that can be learnt easily and isn’t too dissimilar to some of his other roles.

It’s not a one-to-one switch, but there are not many that are, and volt has proven himself versatile and a very solid player at the level NIP are currently playing. He just might need to be a bit more aggressive, and not throw quite as much utility (though some of that is because of his spots).

Simple.

All of this comes with a potentially massive upswing in dueling ability (+161.9 duel swing, to put into perspective, is +40 more than swapping npl for donk) and a fresh start for a team that desperately needs a change.

X factor

xertioN is having a rough 2026.

You might have noticed MOUZ’ drop off this year, but it’s not been quite as obvious how poor xertioN has been until you dig a little deeper. He was often the driving force behind MOUZ, and now he’s gone off the boil, MOUZ are struggling.

You can bank on him getting back to his old ways with an IGL switch, or you can try something a little… X rated.

Sorry.

We’re not sure we’ve ever seen a more perfect role fit than this. xfl0ud plays literally all of the same spots as xertioN in a pretty similar way, with a very very similar role on the T side. In terms of plug-and-play signings, they don’t get better than this.

In terms of how they’ve played this year, both in the data and to the eye test, it’s just a strict upgrade. The issue with the move would simply be that xertioN has proved his ceiling can be extremely high, and we’re not sure yet that xfl0ud’s is there, especially as MOUZ are reportedly looking at an IGL change and they might get xertioN back to his best.

Otherwise… we’re all in.

Outside the box thinking

Look. broky is a weird player. He’s easy to replace in that he’s kinda just bad, but stylistically there’s not that many AWPers who actually play like him. He’s extremely passive, trades more than most AWPers, is heavily involved in the pack and never really goes for entries.

We believe we’ve found a player who is very similar, with a +91.9 duel swing, who would be a massive upgrade.

There’s just one thing. The data loves it. Personally, we love it. But we’re not sure it passes the vibe test. Can you imagine karrigan IGLing HEN1?

HEN1 is a known prospect, except in many ways he’s completely unknown. You’re not always sure what you’re going to get from him outside of the server, and he can be a bit quicksilver inside of it too. He’s a little inconsistent (so is broky, but more on the bad side), and he’s not the youngest, but… he’s kinda FaZe-y, no?

He’s got fast hands, he plays like broky except much better, and he’s probably not that expensive. FaZe aren’t going to convince sh1ro any time soon, so they might have to put up with budget sh1ro.

He’s better than broky, anyway.

Anyone got some spare cash?

FUT are really, really close to being good. Like, one roster move away from being one of the best teams in the world. If they could just find a world class AWPer from somewhere…

We’re not going to lie, this one is a bit fantastical, a bit obvious, and a bit expensive. But just imagine. Finally, s1mple has some teammates, and finally, FUT have a real AWPer. It just makes too much sense.

He’s on a fair wedge at BC.Game (rumours vary, but s1mple suggests it’s at least under 60k a month), he’s unlikely to be a small buyout, and you always run the risk of upsetting the mood a little bit.

But the upside… the upside if it lands is huge. You add a genuine superstar, get a massive upgrade on your weakest piece, and maybe push the needle over the line enough to really be one of the best teams in the world.

Go on, tell us you don’t like it. We dare you.

Not another American experiment…

The last time FURIA tried out an American it really, really didn’t go well. But this time, we know it would be different. We just know.

FURIA have some problems at the moment, but nothing that isn’t fixable. We wouldn’t be surprised if they just want to ride it out and stick with a five that they know can win things when everyone is on form. That’s fine. Honestly, we get it.

But just for a minute, walk with us.

yuurih had a brief resurgence last year but has generally otherwise been underwhelming since his debut year in CS. He’s now in much more supportive roles and it honestly doesn’t suit him that well, and this year he’s had quite a poor year. There’s a lot of room for improvement.

We might need to convince you guys on this one, but we kind of like the idea of JBa.

On the T side it’s a pretty like-for-like fit in terms of style, and they share four roles on the CT side, albeit JBa plays a little more aggressively in our sample size. He’d need to throw a lot more utility and probably take more straight up duels than trades, but it’s clear he can win duels, as that duel swing is amazing.

He’d need to learn Nuke, and probably change spot on Overpass (his current Anchor spot is FalleN’s, so while FalleN might switch to make it more comfortable for him, it might mess up his rhythm), but these are not impossibilities, merely small challenges.

JBa is someone who the data loves, albeit in a small sample size, and ranks as one of the best support players around this year. He was a hyped player before the move to M80, and if he keeps playing like this, our idea might be a bit less insane in a few months time.