In every craft or competition, there are the true outliers.
Usually, these outliers will have separated themselves from the pack due to their own greatness and transcendent skill that forces them into the isolated part of the bell curve; however, skill and greatness are not the only factors that can force a team or player into a realm of their own. Sometimes, outliers are defined not by their ability to succeed, but simply by their totally unique in and out-of-game characteristics that make it impossible to categorise them with the rest of the crowd.
Flipsid3 Tactics are a team who neatly fall into this ‘impossible to categorise’ category, for their narrative is one that defies all manners of definition. Even through line-up changes, meta shifts, gameplay updates, map pool readjustments, and the actual form of the team itself, they somehow manage to maintain a consistently docile playstyle that periodically explodes at the same times every year – the Majors and Major Qualifiers. They are a team who has mastered the forgotten art of ‘peaking’ at the right times, and regularly upsets and crush the dreams of opposition far greater in these peaks of form.
They are Flipsid3 Tactics, and they are the most enigmatic narrative outlier in the history of CS:GO.
Ever since Flipsid3 started down the path of fielding a CIS side – starting February of 2015 – the net take on all the different iterations of their rosters can be summed up as expectantly underwhelming to surprisingly above-average. To date, the most refined and skilled roster to play under the Flipsid3 banner was coincidentally their first. The line-up consisted of Blad3, bondik, WorldEdit, Markeloff, and s1mple – with Davcoast originally standing in for s1mple at ESL events due to his ban.
This first iteration of the Eastern European Flipsid3 roster might not have had a flawlessly well-rounded roster, but they had the vital components of markeloff and s1mple, who had recently left the fledging Hellraisers (formerly Astana Dragons). S1mple, who had rightfully earned the title of ‘Ukrainian Prodigy’ looked to be the hybrid superstar of the team and the main force driving in getting the neon green logo out of group stages.
Although WorldEdit could provide a strong AWPing presence and match S1mple’s aggression, this was hardly without the same level of carefree dominance. The same went for all members of the Flipsid3 roster, bondik and markeloff filled supportive rifle roles whilst Blad3 occupied the bottom of the scoreboard, devoting his time to the team’s tactics rather than his individual game. As such, the majority of Flipsid3’s ability to win games revolved around s1mple’s brash, aggressive confidence in looking for duels and then working strategies off his bold picks.
When looking at s1mple’s statistics during his time of Flipsid3 their various upset wins and deep tournament runs can be explained. A win over EnVyUs at StarLadder XII and at the height of their powers with shox? S1mple has a 1.46 rating and the most frags in the game. A close overtime loss to Titan at Dreamhack Summer? S1mple drops a 40 bomb with his closest teammate only having 24 kills. Although with this system that is subservient to the performance of their star they never will peak past 10th-9th in the world, at least the system made sense. Where the enigmatic nature of their roster comes in, is what happens when s1mple is not there.
With s1mple’s ESL ban, DavCost had to stand-in for him at the ESL One Katowice 2015 LAN Qualifier, and then once the young Ukranian left the side, DavCost also had to stand-in at the ESL One Cologne 2015 and Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca LAN Qualifiers as well. The logical extension of removing s1mple from a system that relies on his carry potential would be that the system fails all together – however, this was not the case.
The removal of s1mple from the Flipsid3 system also removed his infamous ego and an abrasive personality that struggled to mesh with the rest of the team. As such, a greater emphasis was put on teamwork, trading frags and utilising the rifling power of bondik/markeloff to bolster the skill ceiling. On top of these factors was the ever-present, underlying pulse of Blad3’s tactics, constantly faking, executing, and leaving teams outside the top ten confused. When all of these unique characteristics are working together on the right day and combined with a deep map pool, Flipsid3 could greatly elevate their level of play far beyond simply the sum of their parts.
With this non-s1mple system, they managed to qualify for all three Majors in 2015 – something that teams like Dignitas, Team Liquid, Copenhagen Wolves, and Hellraisers (with s1mple) couldn’t even manage. This consistency was the most surprising part, considering that Flipsid3 didn’t play a single LAN outside of the Major/Major Qualifier after s1mple left the team. Even in spite of their lack of LAN activity, they still didn’t have large boot camps in the lead-up to these qualifiers either, rather, it seems just an uncanny ability to play at a high level under pressure.
Roster changes and a change of year seemed to only calcify and cement the idea of Flipsid3 as Major Qualifying, dream-crushing machines. With Shara joining the main roster the full focus of their star power now went onto the shoulders of their primary AWPer WorldEdit – who now no longer had to share AWPing duties with DavCost. At the MLG Columbus Qualifier, WorldEdit proved that his shoulders were more than capable of carrying this weight – having a 130+ ADR game against the blazingly hot and in-form Tempo Storm that helped them win 2:0.
At the Major itself, they had one of the most ridiculous single-map games of the year against Mousesports with the game going into multiple overtimes and finishing at 31:28 to Mousesports.
This is the mystifyingly pleasing pattern of Flipsid3 – anything to do with the Major, they play at a high-level that sees every single part to their machine work together in relative harmony, while outside the Major period, they become a tier 4 European side capable of doing almost nothing.
Their post-MLG Columbus run saw them convincingly lose to teams like Lounge Gaming and Penta eSports in Bo3’s, then lose their main rifling star – bondik – to Hellraisers. They were then forced to pick-up Waylander to make up numbers for the Cologne Qualifier, an unfortunate situation for a team that already looked to be in a downhill slump. But, in an expectantly unexpected fashion, they beat two favourites to make it to Cologne – Hellraisers with blisteringly hot AWPer Oskar in the mix, and Immortals who had come off a tournament run that had them placed as a top six team in the world.
No other team can roster change, play out of a slump and beat two of the most in-form teams of the tournament like that, and in all fairness most of the time neither can Flipsid3. It just seems that in an environment where both teams feel pressure on LAN, Blad3’s tactical system that – without stars like s1mple or bondik – must have all the parts working perfectly, will do just that. This was never more evident than at the actual ESL One Cologne 2016 Major itself, and saw Flipsid3 beat the third best team in the world – NiP – in one of the biggest Major upset series ever.
It took all the players on the Flipsid3 roster playing at, or close to the height of their skill ceilings, and mistakes from NiP, but they did it. Through that series win they made it out of the group stage and secured their spots as ‘legends’ and guaranteed their spot in the next Major, avoiding crushing the dreams of more teams in the qualifier that precedes it.
This series between NiP and Flipsid3 really encapsulates their story and is a good spot to end, as not only is it the sides biggest series win to date, but also due to the mythology of both teams. NiP, commonly known for their Swedish ‘NiP Magic’ at the Majors, lost to a team that somehow embodied this ‘magic ability’ and turned it into a candid sorcery. Flipsid3 have harnessed this power since the teams inception, and because of it remain the greatest narrative outlier in the history of CS:GO, a team incapable of not making it to the Majors, and not destroying the narratives of other teams along the way.
Written by Max Melit – who can be found on Twitter @max_melit or for more business-y stuff at maxmelit@outlook.com
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