UCLA CS:GO Hopes to Continue Dynasty in 2018 with Roster Change
- Kimber King and Sunny Yen
- Jan 24, 2018
- 3 min read
As one of last year’s semi-finalist teams, UCLA is coming into CS:GO’s Collegiate Starleague season ranked as the sixth highest in the nation after their win against Virginia Commonwealth University. The team returns 4 of the 5 members from its 2017 top-4 championship run.
The team is facing the loss of star player Brad "raxa" Jiang, who has decided to step down from competitive Collegiate CS:GO until further notice. Jiang said that he does not enjoy CS:GO anymore. He added that he enjoyed playing the game with friends, but CS:GO is simply no longer fun for him.
Replacing Jiang on the roster is freshman flex player Christian "crazypancake" De Caro, who has struggled to adjust to the mechanically intensive style that the Bruins have used efficiently the last 2 years. Through both Fall preseason and Winter season, UCLA has a 3-2 record with him on the team. In those games, De Caro holds a 0.63 kill-death-assist-ratio (KDA), and 47.85 average damage-per-round (ADR), falling slightly below the averages of his teammates.
"It's certainly never easy to come into a team full of old friends and immediately adjust to them," said President of Esports @UCLA Sunny Yen. He added that as a freshman De Caro is matched up with players who have experience in collegiate CG:GO and even professional experience.
Detractors will say that De Caro is a considerable downgrade over Jiang, but Jiang is confident the team will maintain its high level of play.
"Just having [the veterans] Devin ["oni1chan" Fung], Ash ["gimp^ Khalpari], and Michael ["SCOTT_STERLING" Ashby] should be more than enough to guarantee playoffs. Those three are pretty damn good."
"Getting [Fung] back [from his hiatus in school in 2016] has brought a lot of knowledge and experience to the team," added captain and manager Connor "cjen" Jennison, "so having him back [will be] great." He actually took a break to try to go profressional and his team almost made it all the way, so that speaks volumes about his skill level and knowledge."
Khalpari is another returning addition to the 2018 roster and plays as a semi-pro player along with UCLA teammate Fung in the Esports Entertainment Association League-Main (ESEA-Main). Khalpari currently boasts a 9.42 KDA in ten matches. With both Khalpari and Fung on the main UCLA roster, this lineup is looking ahead to 2018 with CSL LAN aspirations.
To prepare for this season, the team has made two different ESEA (Main and Open) teams that practice against each other. Jennsion said this practice method, “is beneficial because it's more practice than we’ve done last year and should help us play better together.” Jennison also added the team does not usually scrim against other schools, instead favoring practicing through ESEA.
Jennsion also reflected on the CS:GO’s performance last year. Though UCLA ranked in the top four teams, Jennsion felt the team could have done better. “We probably could have played more together last year before the LAN,” Jennison said.
The team is not making the same mistake again: “this year most of [the team is] playing in ESEA teams together so we are able to build a bit more chemistry” he said.
The expectations for this year’s team is high as they are planning to finish towards the top of their group and make it into playoffs. After the playoff, the team hopes to make LAN again but winning will not be easy, as the team will face many tough powerhouse schools this year.
The Bruin’s next match is against the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities on Jan. 20th.
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