After missing out on the Berlin Major, BDS have just changed their first player in two years, replacing Adrien "RaFaLe" Rutik with Théo "LikEfac" Mariano.
After LikEfac’s debut EUL game against Team Secret, here’s a breakdown of how exactly BDS used their new addition.
Note: This article’s not judging LikEfac’s performance, but rather his roles and position. Whether perceived as good or bad, this is still just the opening game for LikEfac.
RaFaLe’s role
On attack, RaFaLe played a flex-support role. His primary operators were Nomad in Stage 2 and Maverick in Stage 1 and the Charlotte Major where he was the team’s secondary hard breach.
On the defence, meanwhile, across all these tournaments, he was on Jager as one of the most consistent elements of BDS’ defences.
He looked much better on his Stage 2 roles, but this was in a worsening team. Not only did they fail to qualify for the Berlin Major, the team’s main entry player, Elemzje, went 8-18 on entry in wagt was the second-worst record in the league.
LikEfac’s history
LikEfac is a fragger. He was the 6 French League’s best-performing player and earnt a 2.05 kill-death ratio in the tournament to get his team into this year’s Challenger League.
This made him an obvious target for Europe’s most aggressive French team, but one that doesn’t fit nicely into RaFaLe’s now-empty box.
However, this gives BDS a good opportunity to give Shaiiko some extra support. Too often, the statistics see him carrying the team alone on the entry and kill figures.
LikEfac’s role on Attack
Border, against Team Secret, was the setting of LikEfac’s debut:
- During round one, he went onto Sledge and got the opening kill onto Wamai. His death during the execution was immediately traded by Elemzje.
- Sledge again on round two, he survived and spent most of the round on the soft destruction role.
- He then earnt a triple kill on Flores in a 1v4 but ran out of time to earn the clutch.
- On Thatcher, LikEfac died to Gruby in an almost-flawless defeat
- During round five, he traded out Shaiiko and covered the plant as he got a triple kill on Sledge
- On Sledge, he then saved a downed Shaiiko as he killed Kendrew, who tried to finish off the kill. SlebbeN then killed him.
By the end of the half LikEfac had eight kills to three deaths, the most of anyone in the game and double the kill-death ratio of Shaiiko.
He also did this on a completely flexible lineup of operators. Four rounds on Sledge taking a particularly strong use of the grenades as well as one each on Thatcher and Flores showed he didn’t need Ash, Iana or Finka to cause chaos.
He looks to be the fragging partner that Shaiiko has needed for quite some years.
LikEfac’s role on the Defense
Moving to the defense now:
- LikEfac played Wamai on the East stairs and took out SlebbeN. Gruby then took him out.
- On Wamai he then was quickly traded out after killing SlebbeN again as part of a Secret rush.
- An entry triple kill on Mute by LikEfac was finished off with a Gruby team-kill and a headshot by BriD.
- Oryx was picked on round 10, as he played on the West stairs, ready to jump up into CCTV.
- Finally, on Wamai, he got an opening kill 30 seconds into the round on the East stairs again.
On the defence, he went 6-3, which meant he had double the frags of Shaiiko across the map.
Playing Wamai allows LikEfac to cover a similar ground as RaFaLe’s Jager pick, but he was a lot more aggressive with it and was clearly a force whenever put in a corner.
All together, LikEfac is as close to a one-to-one replacement as BDS could’ve realistically found -- he’s just doing wonders in this position. Given time, he and Shaiiko could be a terror to deal with to the degree of nesk and Paluh.
