The captain and In-Game Leader of Team Vitality, NBK, sent a strong message to his former team, G2 Esports, after clinching the title at cs_summit 4. He said that this victory means that other teams shouldn’t bench guys from Team Vitality. Let’s see what he really meant.
Who is Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt?
NBK started his Counter-Strike career back in 2009 when he joined DREAM.RAR. However, his career in CS: Source started going uphill in 2010 when he became a part of VeryGames. During his time with VeryGames, he played with good players like RpK (who’s a current teammate), and one of the best Belgian players, Ex6TenZ. NBK has won many trophies and LAN events with VeryGames in Counter-Strike: Source.
Afterward, when CS:GO became the main CS game, NBK kept playing for VeryGames and had decent success with them. He won many titles up to 2013 with this team. The year after, he played for Titan and Team LDLC. As part of Team LDLC, NBK won the first out of two Major titles he clinched, at DreamHack Masters Winter 2014.
NBK spent the next two years playing for Team EnVy, where he won his second Major title (DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015) and many other events. Finally, in 2017, he started playing for G2 Esports where things started to decline. In June last year, G2 Esports benched NBK and his present teammate, apEX. One of the worst things a player can facein esports is getting benched and having no playing time. Essentially it’s saying that the player doesn’t have the necessary skills to compete at the highest levels.
After that, both NBK and apEX left GS 2 Esports and joined the new French team – Team Vitality, who happened to win CS_summit 4. During an interview after their win, NBK was asked a question regarding G2 Esports. This was his response.
What does NBK’s message mean?
When we look at Team Vitality’s squad, it’s made of one young prospect and four players who were benched or released by their previous organizations. As mentioned, G2 Esports benched NBK and apEX. Consequently, NBK sent a strong message to G2 Esports when he said: “Don’t f**ing bench us“. However, he probably sent this message to other teams as well.
In June last year, Team Envy released its entire CS:GO roster including RpK who now plays for Team Vitality. Additionally, in December last year, Team LDLC decided to release ALEX, who now plays the role of entry fragger and lurker on Team Vitality. Therefore, the only player who wasn’t benched or released by his previous team is a young talent, ZywOo.
It’s also interesting how things can easily turn around. All these teams, including G2 Esports, are now struggling while Team Vitality is winning trophies. Everyone in the CS:GO community agrees that they are the best upcoming team. This can be a very good lesson for all teams to think twice before easily benching and releasing their players.
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