I feel like that has never really worked out ever though and they obviously did think they could get through it or they wouldnt have signed him I would assume. I guess I am taking focus on the why now narrative when it spells itself out but I think NRG has this common issue every year it seems now and they never learn sadly.

fair, I kinda just took so many things and put them together, there is just so many rumors and I was tryna hit the all.
There are also so many posts that are like novels so lol didnt think it was that egregious

My speculation on the whole NRG situation is similar to the general population, Verno is a great addition and im confused on why now? Why drop him now? Well they obviously didnt have the kick off results they were hoping for and I would assume that behind the scenes while the whole team is working harder, Verno is just chillin. I had the fear he would underperform before the year even started. Yes they do good in off season, but all teams were still working things out and as of now it just feels like NRG hit there peak early. I think that Verno and Bonkar being benched is due to the fact that Bonkar is defending Vernos work ethic maybe?? and the rest of the team doesnt agree. Now im calling out Vernos work ethic bc in his intro video for NRG it seems like he just vibes and doesnt really care for much (thouhght it was satire but the more time goes on it just feels more real). I also want to bring up that FNS has stated on stream multiple times before he was even back on a roster that Verno is a player he wanted to work with, so maybe FNS was blind to his own plans that he was stuck on? I have 0 info tho and these are all speculations and dots im trying to connect but it feels like the most likely outcome from the general public POV.

Back to the main question though: Why now? I mean surely NRG would have seen this during the off season? Maybe Bonkar hyper advocated and they couldnt say no at the time? Regardless of all the speculation, the situation really does suck for these people in the org and the player/coach being affected.

idk what the point of letting Split be the decider was, looking at bans and picks, I don't understand why NRG didn't ban it on the second ban phase?? were they really THAT scared of Lotus/ didn't prep well enough for it?? Even on split, it didn't look like anything anti-SEN or anything crazy different that SEN hasn't seen. It's arguably SEN's best map and they let it be the decider??? I think the match was lost at that moment tbh.

(maybe they assumed SEN was gonna pick it first so they wanted to at least take bind away for sure?)