Chicago Chimera Draft Report Card

I'm gonna mix things up a bit for the last Report Card. Instead of breaking down each pick individually or in smaller groups, we might as well tackle Chicago's whole draft at once since four of them were Source players. Instead of delineating each pick, we'll tackle them as a group.

But before that, let's talk about their new FIFA player, Yfran "Eafra" Garcia.

Chicago picked him up with the last pick in the fourth round, and he should fill in well for Andrew "Anomaly" Brock, and he comes with some red flags, despite winning the Combine. He's inexperienced under the bright CGS lights, and he managed to score all of one regulation goal during the Combine tournament. He beat Peekay and KreeganBG 5-4 on penalty kicks in his first two matches, scored his only goal in a 1-0 win against Stermy, then defeated KreeganBG again on PKs in the Finals, 8-7.

For anybody keeping track, that's a 1:1 ratio for goals-in-regulation to championship trophies. I can't decide if that's a good thing or not.

The scoring during the challenge matches was a little different, but it's unclear how much of that was due to the goalie's lower difficulty. The tournament organizers wanted to experiment to see if they could increase the scoring; Yfran went 2-1-1 in those matches, defeating WiZaKoR and Barmoa, tying Novusnaim, and losing to Juanqui.

All in all, I don't think he'll be a superstar - this year, anyway. He should hold his own, and if the Combine is any indication, by the end of the season he'll be the leading expert on the psychology of Penalty Kicks.

Grade: B

- Source Team

Just to make sure we're on the same page, Chicago drafted:

Round 1 (#6): Matt "Stevenson" Stevenson
Round 2 (#12): Erik "da_bears" Stromberg
Round 3 (#1: Pasha "Lari" Lari
Round 5 (#30): Albert "hahN" Hahn

I was on board with Stevenson. After that, dkt lost me.

In my opinion, this is the problem with the phrase "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"; people use it as a justification to be complacent. Something worked last time, so there's no reason to change.

This, of course, is silly. The only way to succeed in sports is to keep adapting as an individual, a team, or even on the franchise level. Players have to fix things that aren't broken because their opponents will break them in the very near future. One of the most important things in competition is staying one step ahead of your opponents, strategically or in terms of talent.

In other words, the phrase isn't a warning against change; it's a warning against unnecessary change.

Now we just have to figure out whether change was justified for Chicago.

In a word: yes.

Counter-Strike was their weakest game last season. They had a mediocre run during Region 1, followed by a poor showing during the World Finals. In terms of results, they simply haven't been on top, and they didn't show improvement in the time between the Season and World Finals like the rest of the Chimera members.

The bigger problem for Chicago is what everybody else has been up to. Look at the Source landscape. The Chimera finished behind Los Angeles and San Francisco during the CGS last season. Carolina beat them handily during the World Finals, despite Chicago having their five starters together. Dallas just came off a CEVO-P championship. That leaves 3D, a team that finished behind them by a couple rounds and almost certainly upgraded through the draft by adding the best AWPer available and a strong leader.

Basically, every single opponent was already better than them or improved significantly during the offseason.

I find myself asking myself this question: who is Chicago going to beat next season? I haven't come up with a solid answer. New York and Dallas? San Francisco, if they implode? Even when I'm feeling generous, I don't think the Chimera is clearly better than any of those teams.

That's not to say they don't have talent. Corey "tr1p" Dodd and Matt "Stevenson" Stevenson are a great start to any team. But I'm not sold on da_bears, Lari, and hahN as the best available players to pair with them. Let's break it down a little bit.

Of those, the pick I really don't understand is Lari. He might be under rated. He might be under appreciated. Unfortunately, he just wasn't the best AWPer available.

He's a good role-player, don't get me wrong, but n0it and Funshine are both more talented. Chicago would be more dangerous with either of those guys in the lineup in the same way that New England is more dangerous with Randy Moss instead of Troy Brown. Lari plays his role well and fits in. He'll even win you rounds or whole matches once in a while.

And I'd still draft n0it or Funshine over him ten times out of ten because they simply have another gear that he doesn't.

I would understand the pick from a chemistry standpoint if n0it or Funshine were disciples of NightFall's School of Social Interaction (Rule #1: Flame, Flame, Flame), but they're not. They're good guys. They're humble, low-key, team-oriented players. They wouldn't come in with an attitude and ruin Chicago's chemistry.

I'm a little higher on da_bears. He'll be replacing grt in basically every way: AWP, rifle, and call strats. In a response to his blog post, dkt explained d_b's addition by saying, "Dabears is a versatile CS player and a terrific in game leader. He brings positive energy and can switch up his game with either awp or rifle. He has an extremely high CS IQ and tbh, after watching him play all summer, I felt like he fit in extremely well with this line up."

That's a curious statement, considering he played with three of those guys last season during the CGS (Stevenson, Lari, tr1p) and didn't seem to fit in at all. He had a .528 FPR and a -38 K/D ratio. While eSports statistics aren't very trusty, I think we can all agree that he wasn't having a major impact.

That doesn't mean d_b is a bad player, because he's not. On other teams his stats are much better, and he's talented enough to deserve a spot on a CGS team. But based on what he did during Season 1, any claims about how he'll fit in with the team seem a little specious.

Moreover, despite being talented, I don't think you can win with d_b as your third-best player. I wouldn't make the same claim about grt, who is a better fragger, in my opinion.

d_b's true value is his versatility: he can rifle, AWP, call strats, and has good in-game awareness. The problem, to me, is that with all the talent in the league, he looks like a "jack of all trades, master of none" in a field where almost all his opponents are masters in at least one area. I think he'll be out-AWPed by the best AWPers and out-shot by the best riflers.

He was an attractive pick for Chicago because he can fill the three holes grt left, but I don't know if that was the best choice in that spot. Why not pick up Juan, a master of team organization and decent rifler (and which would have hurt New York, as well)? Or n0it, who we covered before? I'd be much more comfortable with this team if he was Chicago's fourth-best player, but they had to take him early because Dallas would have taken him to fill their fourth spot, and I think dkt reached to draft the guy he wanted.

Again, he's not a bad player, but I don't think it was a good value. He's an asset, but not enough of one to justify passing up players that would have a bigger impact on the team by specializing more in one area.

The one aspect that Lari and da_bears share is familiarity with tr1p and Stevenson. They've all played together and they're known quantities.

Viewed through that lens, hahN might have been the strangest pick of all. He has no pre-existing chemistry with those players. He's a complete unknown when you add him to those four guys.

The only sure thing is that hahN is a talented player. He's an impact rifler, but it's hard to say how he'll fit in until we see them in matches. I honestly don't have much more to say about the pick other than we just have to wait and see. For somebody that placed a high priority on taking players with existing chemistry with his first two picks, dkt's choice of hahN in the last round sure came from left-field. I'm not ready to call it a bad pick, but it was odd, to me.

Overall, I think dkt could have simply done better. He didn't pick up bad players. I just don't think he picked up the right ones.

(And, as always, I could be horribly, horribly wrong, and will admit as much if they do prove me wrong. Which I hope they do. I'd much rather fail as a predictor of success than be right about a team possibly going 4-8.)

LD's Draft Grade: C+

For me, the Chimera's draft comes down to two simple ideas.

The first thought is what we've just covered: I have no clue why dkt made the player choices he did in Source. I'm left with nothing but questions and guesses about what might happen.

When I look at their Source team on paper, I simply can't get excited about it. I think they're a mortal lock to finish in the bottom half of the division, if for no other reason than somebody has to lose the matches and the rest of the league seems more talented.

We can't hand out wins and losses based on paper-talent. 3D's proven that over the seasons, and Carolina definitely confirmed it with their Region 1 to World Finals turnaround. Sometimes things click and a team takes off, and sometimes they fail when they seemingly shouldn't.

That being said, I think they would have been better off drafting n0it, juan, Mustang, or Classified, to name a few. Even 3D's departed Jimmy "liN" Lin would have been an interesting fit. He has playing experience with Stevenson from their days in EG, and he would have filled the AWP/rifle/strat-caller role.

For the upcoming season, I think Source is Chicago's Achilles Heel.

Which leads to the second idea: it might not matter how good the Source team is, anyway.

Let's make a clear distinction: I'm not in love with their draft, but they still have a dominant team. They're strong in both DoA games, Forza, and they drafted a good FIFA player. Even if the Source team tanks and finishes 0-12 (which simply won't happen), they'll still be a force in the league as long as the Source team isn't losing those twelve matches by twelve rounds a piece.

In other words, look for Chicago to be in contention for a World Finals spot even if their Source team doesn't pan out. They're the returning champions for a reason.