Passion UA's new 'Earth Team' is genuinely exciting

Passion UA’s new Earth-based team is the talk of the town, but most of that is centred on them representing all five continents - but we’d like to talk about the fact that this team might genuinely be… well not elite, but somewhere a bit better than competent.

The headline news is obviously about this being the first ‘true global’ team, and indeed, were there to be an IEM on a distant planet, Passion UA would probably be the first invite, but that misses the point as to this being an actually exciting team with some remarkable upgrades.

The ‘Passion USA’ project was doomed to fail from the start, largely because it’s just Complexity with a bit of an upgrade, and Complexity were gigadoomed. This is different, though, because Passion UA have on paper made a pretty huge upgrade.

Admittedly, it’d be even bigger had the rumoured -nicx been the move instead of what now looks to be -Grim, but it’s still a big upswing. Senzu had a streak of seven big events in a row last year with a positive rating, and six of them being over 1.12, with just three poorer events - IEM Katowice, IEM Melbourne and ESL Pro League Season 22, which was just before his benching.

Grim, in fairness, was excellent in Melbourne, but only played five big events all year and was negative in two of them. That’s not entirely his fault, and putting up two decent and one superb event on this team is nothing to be sniffed at.

But Senzu is better. The MongolZ were a team who showcased that far more, for sure, but if Grim was as good as Senzu then Passion UA might have been at more events, gone further, and generally been a top tier team. Senzu’s ratings are dragged down by his stage fright - he’s a bit of a choker - but being worse on stage and signing for Passion UA is like being lactose intolerant at a vegan restaurant.

No worries mate. We’re miles away from that.

This is a serious coup for Passion UA, and apparently they had to outbid NAVI to get him. This was on nobody’s radar, as Senzu is, on paper, way too good to be going to a team with nicx on it.

Believing that PUA could sign Senzu six months ago was equivalent to holding the belief that the moon is made of cheese, and yet Senzu looks set to join against all odds. No closer on the moon/cheese theory just yet.

When you add in the move to bring in try for hallzerk, which in some ways is a less sexy move that sacrifices the highs of hallzerk for a more stable player in try, things do get interesting. try is probably undervalued by the market outside of South America, as he’s been on some pretty awful projects that have tanked his reputation, but he is in no way a poor player.

JT finally has the tools to try to refind that early-CS2-Complexity magic, so we’re expecting big things.

JT has been touted as a player who could potentially step up to a bigger team, and PUA have done the smart thing; rather than sell him, try and elevate themselves to become that top team.

The IGL has worked wonders with some pretty patched-up teams, and the one time he got his hands on a superstar he had Complexity in top fours and competing for trophies. That soon died off as everyone else adjusted, but it’s an insight as to what he can do with talent, and we already know what he can do with middling talent.

His teams have always had incredibly high flash assist numbers in the past, but as of late those haven’t been quite as high as JT has toned down his reliance on these aggro plays and become a bit more traditional, and adapted to the European style. They’re still pretty high at 0.25 per round, which suggests they’re still getting a lot out of their utility, just not the crazy numbers of yesteryear.

This isn’t a bad thing by any means; he’s adapted his style and largely been more successful since - and anyway, he was farming flash assist numbers against NA opposition who don’t know what a flashbang is.

Now he has got his hands on some serious talent, and nicx. Cheap shot, but he does stick out like a sore thumb on this team. try monstered Vitality that one time. Senzu has a top 20 appearance to his name. JT has won trophies. Kvem was… alright, we got nothing for Kvem, but he’s a really decent player.

This probably isn’t a team that is going to challenge for IEMs and Majors, but it’s a very good start. In JT and Senzu you have a AWP-Star duo that would be coveted by nearly anyone outside of the top five. That sounds mad on the face of it, but NAVI wanted Senzu and they might just be the best team outside of the top 5. FaZe would kill for JT and Senzu. G2 could use an IGL, and as a player JT isn’t awful either, so you wouldn’t lose in terms of firepower from huNter- nowadays. They’d all want at least one of them.

That’s a lovely start, but JT has to get a lot out of Kvem and try to really elevate this team.

Where exactly do they land? It’s hard to say, and it’s possible we’re getting overexcited because they’re one of the few teams who aren’t standing still and so we’re overegging them.

It does feel like a lot has to go right for this team to break into the top, say, 10, but 20 should be easily doable. For top 10, they’d need Kvem to level up with the team, which isn’t totally unlikely - he’s looked more than serviceable against decent opposition so far, but nicx to not be a bottleneck and try to be capable of standing toe-to-toe with the top tier AWPers regularly feels like more of a stretch.

try is pretty reliable and does have an extra gear at times, but he’d have to have a significant leap to be there consistently. nicx in fairness isn’t irredeemable or anything, and perhaps we’re being a bit harsh, but it does feel like against better opposition he’s very exploitable and when you see the level of ‘support’ players on some of the top teams, it’s quite obvious that PUA will always be at a firepower deficit.

For crying out loud, Vitality have mezii as their support player.

We think they’ll probably land around 15th in the world, and probably take 3DMAX’s spot at big events soon. We hope so too; this is an ambitious move at a time where it’s easier for teams to tread water and do nothing. PUA outbid NAVI for an in-demand player and we’d love to see their aspirational moves rewarded.

Finally, JT has his juggernaut - but it’s not on Complexity.

Time to deliver.