Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz is one of North America’s most experienced in-game leaders and led Evil Geniuses to the summit of the HLTV world rankings as recently as September last year. Known for his strong fragging abilities for an IGL and close-knit relationship with his core group of players, he has played for a whole host of the region’s best orgs over the years.
However, the online era has proved to be seriously taxing to most NA CS:GO sides, with the majority of teams being locked in their home region playing far smaller online events and being denied the practice against the best teams playing in Europe.
CS:GO has lost a host of big players and orgs from the region throughout the online era, thanks to a mixture of fatigue and financial strain, and has come very close to losing another one with stanislaw’s recent hiatus away from competitive Counter-Strike…
Taking time out
The online era not only halted Evil Geniuses long spell at the very top table of competitive Counter-Strike but helped go further and send the entire org into freefall. Two coaching changes, star players becoming distracted by other titles, and being stuck in the stale NA region all helped to contribute to in-game leader Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz taking an indefinite break from the game.
With the side traveling to Europe, Evil Geniuses were forced into fielding their new head coach Damian “daps” Steele, who hadn’t played competitive Counter-Strike for over a year.
Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte would also announce that he would be spending some time away from the game following ESL Pro League Season 14, with Evil Geniuses bowing out of both events bottom-placed and without a single series win to their name.
For a side that had been struggling to break back into the top tier level of the game, the recent trip to Europe was as bad an experience as possible.
Raising awareness
Mental fatigue is a topic that is being discussed more and more within the world of CS:GO, with the likes of Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth, Dan “apEX” Madesclaire, and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson all announcing indefinite breaks from the game throughout 2020.
Mental wellbeing is undoubtedly the most important consideration for any professional player, and choosing to take a step away from the game should never be held against them. Hopefully, one of NA’s most experienced in-game leaders deciding to step away from the game will raise the awareness needed to consider players’ welfare even more in the future when organizing events and schedules.
Time to reverse fortunes?
Stanislaw only had about two weeks of preparation ahead of the IEM Fall: NA RMR event, and whilst EG have had a taste of practice in EU, the Canadian has only been able to practice against NA opponents, which certainly doesn’t bring the same level of competitiveness. The IGL himself has even confessed as much recently, saying:
“They [the rest of the team] have had a lot of practice in Europe, which is good. I’ve been trying to play as much as I can here, but as we all know practice in NA is not anywhere near what it is in Europe.”
EG badly need a strong run of solid consistency, and the return of their mentally refreshed and invigorated in-game leader is sure to be a huge factor behind the team first qualifying for the upcoming PGL Stockholm Major, and then mounting a challenge to get back to where they belong.
