I've been seeing people talk about how t3xture, Less, zekken, etc. are the best players in the world, but holy fuck most of you have been sleeping on f0rsaken. It actually baffles me how much people claim that f0rsaken is below the top 5, let alone top 3 or even #1 in the world. Keep in mind, he has been with PRX's core since 2021 (hasn't team hopped) and became the player he is today in APAC/Pacific, a region that isn't nearly as competitive as NA, Brazil, or EMEA.
CONTEXT:
For those of you who didn't know, with the inclusion of something in the roster in 2023 (around Region Week 3), f0rsaken was pushed off of Duelist and became a heavy flex player. PRX got knocked out Round 1 at LOCK//IN, so this change was necessary. He had to pick up agents he had barely played before like KJ, Harbor, Cypher, Skye, Fade, and Neon, meaning he had to play literally every role, sometimes all 4 roles in 1 series. Most pros can't play more than 1 role, yet he adapted to the necessary changes MID-SEASON and OVERPERFORMED.
Then in Tokyo, he had to play his flex roles AND pick up something's Jett due to his visa issues. They Got 3rd with a PUBG streamer sub and beat DRX, EDG, and NRG, bringing the future Champs winners to 5 maps.
In Champs, he performed well in most of the series, but he didn't have to do insanely well because he had something and Jinggg together. PRX got 2nd with their roster at full firepower. People can say that something/Jinggg were the difference makers in 2023, but without f0rsaken's role changes, something would have never fit onto the team.
Did I mention that he was confirmed primary IGLing for the entirety of the 2023 season (after Benkai's departure)?
Now in 2024 with the loss of Jinggg and the inclusion of Monyet, well, we all knew Monyet wasn't going to live up to Jinggg's legacy. But, Monyet replaced Jinggg's Raze and f0rsaken stayed on flex, playing every role in the 3 series they played in the regional kick-off. Despite Monyet's performance on Raze (5/18 FK/FD against GenG...), they qualified to Madrid.
HE'S THE GOAT:
With that context now out of the way, I wanna focus on TH vs. PRX. With their backs on the line at 1-1 and going into Split, a map that EDG just dismantled them on, what does PRX elect to do? They put f0rsaken on Raze for the first time SINCE JINGGG JOINED PRX with less than a day's notice. Any average player would 100% get LAN jitters, but not f0rsaken. 22/12. 322 ACS. 5/4 FK/FD. 3 2Ks, 1 3K, and 2 4Ks. All this against TH, a SPANISH ORG WITH A HEAVY CROWD BUFF. Absolute fucking masterclass on Raze, and I truly believe that anyone else in his shoes would have crumbled under pressure. There's a reason he's the highest stat flex player at Madrid, despite playing 5 different agents in 6 maps.
Sure, he hasn't won a Masters or Champs, but I challenge people here to name another player who can possibly be considered better than f0rsaken GIVEN HIS HISTORY. He moved from CS:GO in 2021, dealt with the hell that was APAC open qualifiers (IYKYK) and finally qualified for an international after 6 months of failure, brought Yoru to international play in 2022 and literally changed the game, adapted to the Chamber meta and brought peak FPX to Map 5 at Copenhagen, adapted away from the Chamber meta and kept his relevance and performance into a necessary flex/IGL role, scoring another 3rd at Tokyo and 2nd at Champs by doing so, and has now stepped up to play an agent he hasn't played in 3 years in an elimination map against Madrid's crowd favorite. And he's done all this with a smile.
f0rsaken is the goat. end of story.
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