The Best Roster Moves of 2023
There was a lot that happened in 2023, with Liquid blowing up their Major Quarterfinals roster, Complexity making a late run as one of the best teams in the world, and Evil Geniuses coming to a sad end like a 10-car pileup that you can't look away from. In reflecting on such a year, it's important to note what some teams and players did right, and what they did wrong. In this article, we're going to look at some of the best roster moves from this year and why we think they deserve special mention.
5: M80 change AWPers
It would have been incredibly easy to say that M80 entering the North American scene at all was one of the best roster moves of the year, however it was their recent move that makes the top of this list. M80 said their goodbyes to Adam "WolfY" Andersson on November 12th, and they announced the new arrival of Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich to the team. Since then, the squad dropped only three maps in domestic competition capping off a fantastic season. They went on to win the ESL Challenger 2023 Atlanta qualifiers, finished out a perfect ESL Challenger League season, which included a flawless playoff performance, and being named winners of the Mythic Cup Winter 2023.
While on M80, WolfY constantly showed potential but had issues with consistency as his 1.04 HLTV Rating over four months on the squad showed highs in the beginning of the team, but stretches of underperformance. With slaxz-, the squad was able to pick up one of the more underrated European AWPers who was already showing moments of brilliance in a game where AWPing became significantly harder. While on aTTaX in CS2, he put up a 1.14 HLTV Rating and a 1.15 Impact Rating. Despite only a few months on M80, he's already continued that strong performances and even improved by putting up a 1.23 HLTV Rating and a 1.22 Impact Rating.
4: EG Black bring in junior
2023 was a revolutionary year for Paytyn "junior" Johnson, who has come back into the fold as one of North America's top AWPers. A man that struggled to find his best form on FURIA and Complexity was giving the chance to shine on EG Black and then later up to the main roster when the switch happened later that year. junior was able to shake off his misfortune of the past as he was able to show the true potential that he had exemplified during his Bad News Bears days.
Throughout all of 2023, junior only had one event with a below 1.00 HLTV Rating; ESL Pro League Season 18. Beyond that, in 2023 against all opponents, he posted a 1.21 HLTV Rating for the year, a 1.13 Impact rating for the year, and a 0.54 DPR Rating for the year, all positive showings for an AWPer that was discounted by many following his benching on Complexity. Unfortunately, as a whole, Evil Geniuses struggled as an organization for a multitude of reasons that impacted everyone from the top-down.
The squad all had solid pieces that are now moving on to different teams, showing the level of interest in those individuals. Additionally, the organization and the players were under immense scrutiny for things happening outside of the server. For junior, his signing was one of the few transfer decisions coming out of the organization that ended up, on the whole, pretty positively. While he hasn't fully come back into the top AWPer that many are hoping for him, he continues to show positive signs that the curly-haired sniper was once again a shrewd signing that will only continue to improve in 2024 as part of Nouns.
3: Liquid come back to NA with a superteam
This was a tough inclusion considering this team has not even appeared on the server. How can we genuinely say that a team who has not played a single game is deserving of being even included into this list? It's entirely possible that all of the hype immediately comes undone if they fail to qualify out of the 2024 PGL Copenhagen Major Americas RMR North American Open Qualifiers. The team doesn't have enough points to skip the open qualifiers, which are always tricky. Remember, Evil Geniuses didn't even make it out the first time as they lost to Strife 16-14.
So why are they here as one of the best roster moves of the year when they haven't even played a match while M80's AWP switch bumped out NRG's comeback? Well, NRG didn't sign two Top 20 players of the year in Casper "cadiaN" Møller and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken while also retaining their marquee pieces of Keith "NAF" Markovic and Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis. Other organizations could have tried to wipe the slate clean, but Liquid are sticking around and trying to make it work. Much remains to be seen out of Wilton "zews" Prado returning to a head coaching role at a top team while Felipe "skullz" Medeiros has to step up to the bigger stage.
Liquid have a lot of expectations on their shoulders considering the international stardom that the squad has. cadiaN, Twistzz, NAF, and YEKINDAR are all world-class players in their positions making this Liquid team automatically one of the most feared in the world. The big question is if this configuration is what finally clicks for an organization searching for a repeat of their 2019 success. So for now, this move appears as #3 on our board due to the potential alone.
2: Nouns find MarKE
A lot happened this year, but one of the more incredible things that has been overlooked is the comeback of Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado. Since leaving Extra Salt after the core shipped off to Complexity, MarKE was the odd-man-out and suddenly didn't have a team to join. With an entire North American scene left in flux, it is almost surprising that the 25-year-old Mexican player never went into VALORANT. At the time, there were rumors that the player had given up playing Counter-Strike and was just playing DOTA2. Whatever MarKE did in 2022, it seems not to have affected his ability to perform among the very best in North America in 2023.
Upon filling in for Nouns during a Cash Cup as Bobby "stamina" Eitrem was finding himself on the outs, MarKE was suddenly thrust into one of the best teams domestically in North America and immediately responded with some showstopping performances. In his first six online events, his lowest HLTV Rating was a 1.06 during the ESL Challenger Season 44. In the entirety of 2023 he only had eight out of 31 events with a rating below 1.00 as he pushed Nouns to success and helped them become one of the best domestically. He was a star in the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR Closed Qualifier, posting a 1.35 HLTV Rating and a 1.61 Impact Rating as he helped his team take down squads like ATK, Strife, and Take Flyte en-route to qualification.
Nouns, as a whole, had an up-and-down year plagued with back-and-forth roster moves which seemed to hurt the team more in finding consistency rather than hurting their ability to perform. The team was dominant in their Cash Cup pursuits, even taking home the crown in the North American finals of the 2023 ESEA Cash Cup Circuit which is significantly better than what they accomplished in all of 2022. With MarKE joining the team, the roster has gone from a middling NA squad and trying to find its footing to a team on the cusp of breaking through to the next level.
1: Complexity sign EliGE
It's almost too easy to make this choice. Genuinely. I don't think anyone should have a problem with the idea that Complexity signing America's best rifler was the best roster move of the year in North America. Liquid's move to a European roster saw Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski on the market and almost headed for Evil Geniuses before Complexity swooped in at the last second.
The move for Complexity saw Justin "FaNg" Coakley hit the bench where he would stay until NRG signed him as part of their Canadian squad that is looking to make waves in 2024. The upgrade in EliGE over FaNg is two-fold in both the tangibles and intangibles. The wealth of experience that a player like EliGE has brought to Complexity, a traditionally young team, has been immeasurable as the squad has gone from 23rd at the time of the change to now 8th in the world, peaking at 4th overall.
EliGE has already been a difference maker and continues to justify why he is recognized as one of the best players from North America. Since joining Complexity, he has lead the team with a 1.20 HLTV Rating which is 0.11 greater than the next-highest player, Ricky "floppy" Kemery, in the same time period. His 1.26 Impact rating is also 0.20 points greater than Mike "Grim" Wince who is the next best on the squad.
Against Top 20 opponents and during his time on Complexity, EliGE's ADR of 84.0 is the best in the world, his impact rating of 1.23 is also the best in the world, his KPR of 0.74 is 2nd in the world, and his HLTV Rating of 1.15 is 4th in the world. He is also in the top five for assists per round, 1+ kill rounds, and opening kills per round. In short, Complexity got one of the best players in the world and have become a significantly better team. They proved it with miracle runs at IEM Sydney and the BLAST Fall Final, but their inconsistency has killed them after floundering performances in Elisa Masters Espoo 2023 and ESL Challenger Atlanta. Despite those last two events, EliGE still turned out 1.27 and 1.19 HLTV Ratings, respectively.
