Splyce cut Papasmurf, sign shrugger & syckness

Splyce have been undergoing a major rework of their roster for the past few weeks, beginning with the removal of CS:GO star steel along with flex and IGL flame. Those slots have now been filled by former TF2 players sycknesS and shrugger, but the team has also decided to remove its main tank Papasmurf in the last few days.

Splyce's original roster contained a range of FPS experience and talent. On paper the team looked to have all the pieces to perform at a top level, but deep runs or tournament titles have evaded them. The team has been looking to make improvements to its roster recently but any results are unlikely to manifest before the ESL or FACEIT qualifiers are over.

While the removal of steel and flame was reportedly for performance reasons, Papasmurf was removed from the team due to an inability to commit full-time to practice. The team intends to continue with Shaneisaghost, formerly of 20b, for the next few months until their tank situation is resolved.

Papasmurf spoke to us regarding his removal from the team:

Before the first Faceit Overwatch Open Qualifier I was given an ultimatum to quit my job or lose my spot on the team. I played out the first qualifier beating Sea Algae and losing to EnVyUs, but have decided not to quit my job. The team wanted to move to a fulltime schedule, but it was not in my best interests to quit my job for esports.

Moving forward, I’ll be taking some time off to reflect. I’ll ring for teams when needed, but I am not looking to commit to another team right away. I’d like to thank all my former teammates for the good times, and wish them best of luck in the future.

It speaks to the increasing seriousness of Overwatch as an esport that Papasmurf has been allegedly removed due to his inability or unwillingness to practice fulltime. With more teams and organisations moving to gaming houses and taking on Overwatch as their main preoccupation, it is beginning to push out those unable to commit fully.

Team captain PYYYOUR said in the official announcement:

Compared to other top teams we never made personnel changes, because we believed after some time that the pieces would find their place. After a considerable amount of time it became clear that we needed to find players who were a better fit for the team. In an established game this would be relatively easy, but when you are comparing skilled players who have played the game since beta to the new blood entering every day, it was hard for us to figure out what direction to go in. Steel, Flame, and Papasmurf were all great players and great teammates. For varying reasons we've decided to carry on without them. Some of them have already found new homes, which is great, but we welcome shrugger and sycknssS with open arms and look forward to making an impact in the North American Overwatch scene. Thank you for the support and take care.

The roster for Splyce is:

Bradford "PYYYOUR" Ross (Support)
Jan "cozen" Lasota (Support)
Ryan "sycknesS" Mitchell (Flex)
Matthew "clockwork" Dias (DPS)
Canaan "shrugger" Carman (DPS)
Bryan "Blackstar" Johnson (Coach)
Victor "Victor" Csirip (Analyst)

@demarini, I appreciate the post, so I'd like to give some color to the situation that might help out some other teams trying to get better at the game

We have no intention of scrimming more than we currently do. I follow your mindset that there is a sweet spot in terms of practice and play time. Play time meaning anything not related to competitive Overwatch. Its important not to get burned out and take a step away from the game to potentially come back and see it with fresh eyes. Any added time will go towards map callouts, general strategy, and watching vods.

The main issue this: It is hard to get scrims with a team who is "better" than you when you have a small window of availability. It is political in nature with teams often cancelling scrims due to tournaments and having other commitments, or finding a better scrim than you. We sadly are a culprit of this as well. So when envyus asks to scrim at 5 pm est three weeks in a row and we cant show up for it, but then we scrim for 3 hours at night rolling one of the teams, it puts us in a tough spot. The proverbial quad support worked vs team X, will it work against teams who we are actively trying to beat?

We are looking to keep pace with teams at our level and get closer to the teams that are clearly the better than us. Decisions had to be made, and we decided to field a roster with people who have their afternoons available without putting any strain on them. I already envision Papasmurf hammering us to pieces the next time we face him.