In a season of questionable roster moves, the LA Guerrillas have made some of the more perplexing moves. Prior to Stage 3, the team decided to bench their best player, Reece “Vivid” Drost and promote Martin “Cheen” Chino. The decision left fans and players alike scratching their heads, seeing as the other members of the Guerrillas were performing worse than Vivid.
Fast forward to today, and the team has decided to make yet another change. Again though, the trio of Adam “Assault” Garcia, Brian “Apathy” Zhelyazkov and Justin “Silly” Fargo remain safe. It’s Cheen who moved to the bench in exchange for former Academy player Billy “MentaL” Putnam. The move takes effect immediately, meaning MentaL will be on the starting roster for Stage 5 of the Call of Duty League.
LA Guerrillas make a shocking move before Stage 5
Stage V roster update: pic.twitter.com/bvEZ09RX3V
— Los Angeles Guerrillas (@LAGuerrillas) June 21, 2021
This is the second time in as many roster moves that LA has decided to bench their best-performing player. At the Stage 4 Major, Cheen finished with a 0.93 Kill/Death ratio, the highest on the team. For reference, Silly finished with a 0.78 KD and the rest of the squad finished with near or above 0.90.
Of course, stats don’t usually tell the whole story in or out of the game. There’s a variety of factors that go into making a roster change. Although, Cheen seems to think that the team isn’t acknowledging the true issue that has plagued them the entire year.
“Just sucks another year I’m put in to fix a broken team but they refuse to see the real issue,” Cheen said in a tweet.
Just sucks another year I’m put in to fix a broken team but they refuse to see the real issue
— Cheen (@MJCheen) June 21, 2021
It’s unclear what Cheen is referring to but he seems to imply that the trio of Assault, Apathy and Silly are the “real issue.” The trio has played together since the beginning of the season and statistically performed worse than both Vivid and Cheen. However, LA has twice now benched the better-performing player to keep the trio intact.
Regardless, MentaL, a former Gears of War professional, is now thrust into the spotlight after spending the entire year playing for the LAG Academy team. He’ll move into a flex role, which likely means every other player will keep their previous role. Stage 5 is the last stage before Champs and currently, LAG sits 70 points out of making the bracket. This will likely be their last roster move of the year.
