The former Counter-Strike professional questions whether this really is the end for the storied Belgian leader and tactician
Ex6Tenz is the storied Belgian leader and tactician who had been in charge of running what was the best French team up until the fall of 2014.
Since then, despite occasional triumphs, his career has failed to live up to the admittedly-high expectations.
And now, he no longer plays for a top-two side in France.
After duelling NiP for the first two years that CS:GO was played competitively in 2012-2014, the Belgian’s career was severely hurt by one of his teammates KQLY getting banned for cheating in November of that year.
Titan had to skip DreamHack Winter 2014 and could not find a suitable pick up to replace his team’s second option.
Since adding RpK in early 2015, Titan’s run was much like a rollercoaster ride.
The team got a second place to NiP at ASUS ROG Winter 2015 and shocked most by finishing as runners-up to fnatic at Pantamera Challenge, where they defeated EnVyUs, NiP and fnatic in the group stage.
The squad qualified for ESL One Katowice, barely. They beat Russian PiTER – with wayLander making his debut on the big stage – in overtime and then lost to CLG before finally making it through from the lower bracket.
But they failed to make it out of the group stage in Poland, losing the deciding game against a much weaker PENTA squad.
Yet at the next two events, ESL Pro League Winter 2014/2015 Finals and ESEA Invite Season 18 Global Finals, the team again overcame astralis – who were playing without superstar device, under the TSM flag – fnatic, en route to two top-three finishes.
Looking back at this, it is important to note it is when kennyS was at the peak of his powers and widely considered the best player in the world.
In addition, Maniac played perhaps the best Counter-Strike of his career during the spring and was the team’s best player in their series win over fnatic in Dallas.
At DreamHack Open, Tours Titan were knocked out by HellRaisers after beating them in an earlier round.
At Gfinity Spring Masters 2, the team had a good run in beating Virtus.pro and playing fnatic close, and at DreamHack Summer they made the semi-finals before losing to Na`Vi – but without any notable victories.
In the summer, Titan went out in groups at Gfinity Summer Masters 1 – with two losses to dignitas, both in best-of-three series – and at ESWC 2015, where BERRY’s SK team handily defeated them on cobblestone in the decider.
The summer saw EnVyUs’ issues shake the French scene, with Titan ultimately losing kennyS and apEX – their two star players – to their rivals.
In return, NBK’s team shipped out the inseparable duo of shox and SmithZz.
Ex6TenZ’s team qualified for ESL One Cologne in the new team’s debut, but still found a way to lose to Polish eBettle in the process.
And, for the fourth straight major for Ex6TenZ – excluding DreamHack Winter 2014, which he could not attend – the team bowed out in the group stage, losing to Australian Renegades.
The French side had a solid showing at Gaming Paradise, beating mousesports and Virtus.pro in the process, but given how badly the event was organised, those results should be largely ignored.
Soon after, Titan was eliminated from ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational by fnatic, but only after a best-of-one upset over Na`Vi.
Titan then made it through to the next major, DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, without issues – in what was ScreaM’s debut after re-joining the team to replace by-then ailing Maniac.
But at the major itself their ghosts continued to haunt them, as they lost a 13-6 lead versus NiP and were blown away on map two, seeing themselves once more eliminated before the playoffs.
CEVO Professional Season 8 Finals in the U.S. saw Titan once more upset the sleeping Na`Vi team and trade punches with still-not-great Luminosity before getting eliminated by Virtus.pro.
That closed out the year for the Belgian-French squad, as they could not qualify for the remaining events.
In 2016, I for one, expected ex-Titan – who quickly lost their organisation in January – to do better than before.
And for a brief stint, it seemed as if they were once again improving, heading towards that type of form that we saw in early 2015 when kennyS was willing his team to unlikely victories.
To begin the year, ex-Titan beat Cloud9 twice, but lost to CLG, at Game Show Global eSports Cup. At ESL Barcelona Invitational they took down Team ? – who soon after re-branded themselves as astralis – on a map and lost an overtime game in the odd king-of-the-hill type group stage format.
G2 then topped their group at MLG Columbus qualifiers with narrow wins over Tempo Storm and FlipSid3, setting the stage for the largest ever tournament in CS:GO history – the kind that could define careers and did for many players. Maybe even Ex6TenZ.
The Belgian tactician’s team were roasted 1-16 by Virtus.pro, did the same to Cloud9 on dust2 with a 16-3 score, but ultimately failed to make the playoffs – for the sixth major in a row for Ex6TenZ – as they lost the final group stage series to Virtus.pro, with a 1-2 score.
The original French shuffle in September 2014 did not end up working out for Ex6TenZ, through no fault of his own as he could not know KQLY would get banned for cheating in the future.
And from the outside it is hard to know how he was to play with, but there are some hints.
NBK said in a [POD]Cast episode that Ex6TenZ was being overrated and the fact most stars chose to play in EnVyUs instead tells a story.
Ex6TenZ is a brilliant tactician, but it does not seem he is easy to play with. Or, rather. for.
If this is the end of his story and he never has another meaningful offline finish, it will be a sad ending.
The Belgian was the rock upon which the initial VeryGames roster was built, with his style dominant in the team. And they had plenty of success – even in the later years under the flag of Titan.
But they never delivered when it matters the most and, ultimately, that is likely going to be how Ex6TenZ will be remembered.
Will he be able to bounce back with secondary talent, or this is the end of perhaps our game’s most storied leader?
READ: lurppis: How the threat of injuries has become a very real danger in Counter-Strike
