This is a self study trying to emulate Freddie DeBoers’ writing style and steal all the aspects I like to apply to my own writing. If this is any good it might show up on a post.
DeBoers’ original piece is linked here: https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/if-michael-jordan-played-in-todays
Drip is a contentious player. From his early controversies to his villain ‘act’ and overall confrontational attitude he’s a player that you hate loving or love to hate. His approach to social media follows the mantra of ‘all publicity is good publicity’ to a T, though where that gets him as far as professional teams goes…
However the most controversial statement he’s ever made in my eyes was made in May, where he discounted the G2 dynasty because the quality of opponents was substandard by todays metrics. This was in a thread where Drip was putting his 2 cents in regarding Pengu’s stance regarding 2020-21 NiP being a team of standout individuals rather than individuals working as a standout team. Supr was also in the fray, stating that anything NiP did was more impressive than what G2 had accomplished, so let’s just add a +1 to Drip’s corner as far as pro support goes.
Looking at this comparison with any sensibility and it falls apart rather quickly. If the argument that 2020-21 NiP is a better team than peak G2, it’s probably true. G2 was a dominant force from May of 2017 to August of 2019, where Empire took over as top dog. NiP has about 1-2 years of time since then for the game to develop, so of course they’re going to have a stronger understanding of the game. Now whether that makes NiP’s accomplishment’s more impressive than G2’s is a different topic in the same vein as comparing CSGO greats. Is Team Liquid’s summer run in 2019 more impressive than NiP’s 87-0 streak? Ironically enough, this comparison has NiP on the other side of the discussion.
However, that improved understanding comes from the backs of the very giant’s they’re being compared to. G2 ran the game, single handedly defined Consulate’s meta, and won everything for 2 straight years. Everyone since has benefitted from this dynasty just as G2 benefitted from Yunktis’ breakthrough strategic approach in Y1S2. NiP being a stronger team is true, they’d wash 2018 G2, EG, and the rest of the world. But if you put 2021 NiP against the top team from 2024 they’ll get blown out the server the same way. As time progresses the game develops and all teams get better at the fundamentals. This conversation also disregards the immense changes that new operators and metas bring to the game that presents a rabbit hole so deep I’m not even going to try going into it.
Time moves forward and the game develops. It’s the nature of the beast. If your only metric of a team’s skill is their level without regards to the time they played and what they did for the game, you leave out important context. If SSG’s SI20 run and their developments to Clubhouse’s meta aren’t important because everyone has a roam strat for Armory/Church nowadays, you’ve lost the plot.
On top of the inherent increased understanding of the game that 2020 NiP has, they also have better tech. To put it in perspective, in 2017 the most popular mouse brand was Zowie. Wireless mice were gimmicks. And Aimlabs was barely 20% complete and barely heard of. (I know because I was using it) Add in how much Siege the game has changed from both a bug and QoL perspective and the game NiP played isn’t the same as what G2 did. You used to only be able to have one drone active at a time, throwing your second drone out destroyed the first one. This is notoriously the reason Necrox flanked Playing Ducks in the final round of the Y1S3 finals. Elemzje had to drone site and his drone was watching the one flank route Necrox chose.
Regarding the fact that G2 only beat “janitors,” that’s not really something they could control. Siege is a young esport still, and only developed into a scene that could support full time players recently. G2 could only beat who was in front of them, and save for organizations like G2, EG, Fnatic, and Rogue, there weren’t a lot of full time players. Playing under a team like FlipSid3 Tactics only got you free Gfuel and a jersey. Of course you need a job outside of that.
A more interesting question would be how dynasty G2 would have performed if the players had peaked in 2020 against a NiP. How would Joonas have benefitted from a more refined game? What about Pengu? He was still a good player in 2020, but were he to be at his best what kind of impact would he have had? This is a more interesting debate than arguing that NiP is better because they beat full time players and G2’s dynasty is trash because players like Mint had to work jobs while competing.
I don’t mind comparisons of great teams. It’s a fun hypothetical. But coming out and trying to invalidate accomplishments because a team came up in a radically different looking scene is inane. Supr should know as much, seeing as how Mr. 1.6 competed in both eras.