After finding himself let go from from the Heroic CSGO roster in August, Danish in-game leader Niels Christian ‘NaToSaphiX’ Sillassen is still looking for a team to call home in 2020, even after an impressive performance standing with mousesports at the recent cs_summit 5.
Despite mousesports’ recent victory at the ESL Pro League finals, they still didn’t arrive at the BeyondTheSummit house in Los Angeles as favorites. For the cs_summit 5 event, mous would be competing with a stand-in, as their young star AWPer in Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker was unable to attend due to visa issues.
For his replacement, they brought in NaToSaphiX, who is typically an in-game leader but also a very capable AWPer. The tremendously talented Danish player had been waiting in free agency despite being made available in August.
Just realized I was playing actively in a team for 4 months of this whole year
And motivation still stays high
Hope 2020 is an employed one 😆
— NaToSaphiX (@NaToSaphiX) December 26, 2019
Despite a lack of preparation, NaTo came out firing alongside mousesports, as the team finished second after the three days of round-robin play. Their only stumbles came in the form of back-to-back landslide losses to G2 Esports on the second day.
In the semifinals against OG, NaToSaphiX came alive in the three map series, especially on the third and final map on Dust2. He picked up 21 kills against only 11 deaths, and was vital to mous spoiling the OG debut.
In the grand finals, mous faced an even greater challenge against a G2 team that had already thrashed them, with coach Allan ‘Rejin’ Petersenforced to step in and replace leader Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen who had to leave for the airport.
"It's time to shine for @RejinCS."
With the unfortunate departure of @karriganCSGO the @mousesports coach Rejin steps up as their 5th!#cs_summit
📺: https://t.co/Y3v6zx2irq pic.twitter.com/ipw97qKEnZ
— BTS CS:GO (@BTScsgo) December 16, 2019
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Mous had narrowly won the first game, while G2 rolled them over on Vertigo to force a deciding, pivotal third map on train. Despite trailing 12-6, NaTo took over the leadership reigns and helped propel mousesports to win 10 of the next 12 rounds, and stun G2 to win the trophy. The stand-in leader got to lift his first big event trophy ever.
CHAMPIONS OF CS_SUMMIT 5
mousesports gave me a unique opportunity to help them out in LA for CS_Summit 5
Our IGL (tactician) had to catch a plane after the first map, so for 2/3rds of the match we were playing with… https://t.co/FRSwbupPBE
— NaToSaphiX (@NaToSaphiX) December 16, 2019
However, as we move into 2020, NaToSaphiX still remains without a team. He expressed on Twitter that he still has high motivation and expectations for the coming year, even if he only spent most of 2019 without a team. And he doesn’t lack in confidence either.
Felt I played pretty good at cs_summit all things considered
I am convinced that any team who is willing to take a chance on me won’t regret it
Give me some time to find my footing in team CS again and I’ll show how far my talent really stretches 💪
— NaToSaphiX (@NaToSaphiX) December 17, 2019
For many, the reasons why NaTo remains teamless are still shrouded in mystery because there hasn’t been much LAN experience to judge him on. And the experience that is there is a mixed bag; individually he was good at IEM Chicago and the ESL Pro League S9 finals, but struggled at ESL One Cologne. And Heroic didn’t even reach the semifinals in any of those.
But regardless of all that, there’s too much talent to be wasted sitting on the sidelines, even if there isn’t a place for NaTo on a tier-one team. Any in-game leader who is capable of using the AWP and can help a team win a top tier event with virtually no preparation might be worth taking a flyer on.
