Billed as the team to test Astralis and their supremacy within the Danish scene when formed, saying that North have underperformed or not fulfilled the expectations would be an understatement. The fate of the two Danish powerhouses have changed so dramatically that they could have been plotted on the extreme opposites of the spectrum that is the Counter Strike Global Offensive scene.
Astralis are now the champions of the scene and have removed the ‘chokers’ tag from them with aplomb. North however, plummeted into a spiral of inconsistency they are still trying to dig their way out of. MSL tried to steer the ship in a positive direction. But, the IGL’s ways were deemed either too rigid or extremely risky at times; one could point towards their roster with mertz, wherein MSL devised a plan of leaving mertz alone at B in almost all the rounds on the CT side of Inferno while the other 4 players did not even try to push or gather information.
MSL was benched after perhaps the most damning evidence of the inconsistency under his leadership. Right after winning Dreamhack Masters Stockholm 2018 in fantastic fashion beating teams like mousesports and Navi and overcoming local rivals Astralis, North plummeted to a quick exit from the FACEIT Major 2018 Main Qualifiers, thus not even getting to the New Legends Stage.
cadian was brought in, seeing his success with Rogue. The IGL’s arrival has shown a bit of improvement in form in terms of the overall map record. But, the inconsistency has somehow remained.
After a top-four finish at the ECS Season 6 Finals, North were one of the first teams to bow out of the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals. But, there has been steady progress since. The roles seem to have finally been put into place and it seems to be suiting the players that are currently part of the roster.
While they failed to land a spot in the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals with losses against mousesports and Optic, North managed to win ECS Season 7 Week 2, which qualifies them for the ECS Season 7 Finals.
valde’s form has improved and cadian has performed better on the server compared to his predecessor MSL, which is perhaps the reason of North’s upturn in fortunes.
By no means are North not equipped to go toe-to-toe with the best of teams, if only for a bit more rigidity in terms of results.
Consistency is what the North lineup seems to be petering towards. But, after the tapering results, they have shown over the course of the last year or so, it is a long road before they are finally considered consistent enough to be labelled a threat to the other top teams in the CSGO ecosystem.
The North remembers. Now they must improve.
Photo courtesy of HLTV
