Another Major tournament in Counter-Strike 2, IEM Dallas 2024, has concluded, and Monte was among the participating teams. Following their success in 2023, they became regulars at S-tier events, but the situation has been deteriorating. In this article, we will explore several options for the development of Monte's CS2 roster to prevent the club from sinking to the bottom of the pro scene.

Background

Monte's story began in July 2022. Success didn't come immediately. It took the team some time to form a competitive roster. The ascent began in 2023 when Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev and Serhij "lmbt" Bezhanov joined the team. Monte's fortunes improved significantly within a month of their transfer.

The team started farming CCT series tournaments and participated in every event they were invited to. Additionally, the players were constantly grinding FPL, which resulted in excellent individual form for each member. Subsequently, Monte successfully qualified for the last Major in CS history, where they reached the playoffs. After that, the team began receiving regular invites to S-tier championships.

At the end of 2023, it was announced that sdy did not renew his contract with Monte and would leave the club. Additionally, Alexander "br0" Bro transferred to Astralis. This marked the beginning of a decline in results. Attempts to bring in academy players were unsuccessful, and recent transfers of experienced players also do not seem promising. So, what should Monte do next?

Full Disband

One option is a complete disband of the roster and an attempt to earn money. The club could sell Serghij "DemQQ" Demchenko and Szymon "kRaSnaL" Mrozek to ensure financial stability for a while. For both esports athletes, this step might be the right one at this stage.

Then, Volodymyr "Woro2k" Veletnjuk, along with lmbt, would start forming a new roster ready to start from scratch and once again earn a place among the tier-1 teams. Monte would need to focus on finding a stable lineup with good synergy. The club should also be prepared to miss the upcoming Major in China. After that, things should start improving, just like in 2023…

Grind, Grind, and More Grind

Another option is to return to the roots. Perfect World announced that there would be no open qualifiers for the Major in China for the European region, and all invites to the closed qualifiers would be based on Valve's ranking. Since a team's ranking heavily depends on the prize money earned, it would be reasonable to grind tournaments like CCT to secure the coveted invite.

Monte's roster could remain unchanged and return to farming A-tier events, playing 50 official matches a month. If the players are ready, why not? With a bit of luck, the team could likely receive an invite to the closed qualifiers for the Major, leaving just the final step to overcome.

It's also worth noting that since 2023, the tier-2 scene has become more competitive. Therefore, repeating their previous feat will be very challenging. Moreover, the atmosphere within the current team does not seem ideal.

Signing Tier-1 Players

The final option for Monte is to seek and sign tier-1 players who are on the bench of their clubs or listed for transfer. However, as seen during the previous shuffle, Monte simply does not have the funds for this. If they didn't make such a move when they had many invites to S-tier championships, it is even less likely now.

Conclusion

No matter how you look at it, Monte's situation is extremely difficult. The club will struggle to survive any of the possible developments, primarily economically. It seems that failing to qualify for the Major in Shanghai could spell the end for the organization. We can only wait and see what fateful decisions Monte's management will make.