Thorin calls GuardiaN a "Liability on Na'Vi"

Cover Image Courtesy: ESL One | BLAST Pro Series - Stephanie Lindgren | Thumbnail Image Courtesy: ESL One

Duncan “Thorin” Shields in his recent video under the 'Thorin’s Thoughts' series has spoken out about Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs being a ”liability on Na’Vi who is inadvertently pulling them down.”

He was forthright with his thoughts and said, “If I could trade Guardian from Na’Vi for another player, particularly one from the CIS region, I would do it in an instant.”

The 36-year-old esports veteran had some pretty strong opinions against Na’Vi’s current primary AWPer even stating that “It might be the time for him to go.”

“Guardian right now is f**king terrible in CS:GO. He is a liability on Na’Vi and is inadvertently pulling them down. He is the anchor around their neck that is preventing them from winning tournaments, making big finals and potentially being the number one team in the world. He is really the biggest and most obvious reason why they aren’t winning tournaments.”

Following up on the statement he went to present some stats, referring to Na’Vi’s performances in tournaments since signing GuardiaN.

Referring to these finishes attained by Na’Vi, Thorin asked this particular question “The rest of the team, what blame do they take for some of these jokes?”

He does mention that he understands that CS:GO players do make mistakes and have an off game every now and then where occasionally a wrong play is executed, or sometimes the opposition just reacts well. However, he opined that this is not the case when it comes to GuardiaN.

“But one player is f**king letting the team down, in what’s been enough tournaments. GuardiaN hasn’t just been playing badly, he hasn’t just had a bad run of form, he has been playing God-awful.”

Thorin praises Na’Vi as being a really good team, while singling out GuradiaN for being the player who is holding them back.

“Overall this team actually looks fantastic, aside from GuardiaN from the Zeus-Edward era, that I really feel like could already be a championship squad.”

He goes on to appreciate every player of Na’Vi for doing their jobs well, S1mple - electronic for being one of the best two-man squad in CS:GO at the moment, flamie for supporting the team pretty well while complementing s1mple and electronics fragging potential, Boombl4 for being a solid player who knows the maps well and just being a good IGL. But when it comes to GuardiaN, Thorin backs his claims with statistics.

“In 35 maps played offline, only in five of them did Guardian ever hit 20 frags or more. This is Guardian we are talking about, even in FaZe Clan he would go off for a map and completely dominate on Train or something.”

He focused on how even after taking the AWP away from s1mple and putting their faith behind GuardiaN by making him the primary AWPer, the Slovak has been ineffective at having an impact.

“In 15 maps he has had less than 15 frags. He is the primary AWPer and that’s the purpose of him being in the team. It is the most expensive gun in the game in the context of frequent use.

He takes the primary AWP away from s1mple and that is f**king obscene because s1mple with the AWP is the best player ever, specifically with that gun he is so good. You can drop him a glass canon AWP and he can win you the round and take over.”

Thorin did acknowledge the fact that Guardian in his prime was a better AWPer than s1mple, but goes on to define the difference between the two players by saying that “He was a better AWPer than s1mple but he is not better at fragging people with AWP, there’s the key distinction.”

He recalled how GuardiaN had faced the exact same situation back in 2018, “The irony is such that GuardiaN was in simple’s shoes back in 2018 and now it is him who is doing that to someone else. Costing that guy a chance to win Majors and the chance to win tournaments.”

The full video includes significantly more, including an attempt to reason whether or not GuardiaN is burned out, recommendations for Na'Vi and much more.

While resting his case on 'GuardiaN has Got to Go' Thorin concludes by saying that,

“It is unfair that this guy gets to keep playing and f**king up like this. This is not just some bad play and that he hasn’t got his confidence, and just needs a pat on the back. He knows he is playing bad and feels bad because he is doing something fucked up, literally ruining the game. It is sad to see this happening with him, but it happens to the legends at the end when they hang on for too long.”