FORG1VEN steps down from Schalke 04 LEC roster

On February 13, Schalke 04 announced several roster changes. Erberk “Gilius” Demir was dropped in favor of Lukas “Lurox” Thoma, and Nihat “Innaxe” Aliev stepped in as the botlane player. Within minutes of the announcement, Konstantinos “FORG1VEN” Tzortziou made a post on Twitter explaining his decision in stepping down.

— FORG1VEN (@FORG1VENGRE) February 13, 2020

Schalke had plenty of problems in the first three weeks of the LEC and they entered Week 4 with no wins after six games.

FORG1VEN’s decision to step down

Forg1ven sees his team as not competitive. He wants to win, but apparently the Schalke roster is not a team that is able to do so. Going to the organization and requesting changes due to your beliefs, especially when a player has experience like FORG1VEN, isn’t unheard of. the team recently saw a TSM player and co-owner make changes coming into the 2020 season, so a partnership between player and management to change the team isn’t new. the team even see it happen in G2 to some extent too. Obviously, Schalke was unwilling to make the changes, leading FORG1VEN to put himself on the bench.

Will FORG1VEN step back up? Potentially. If he sees his team perform well, then you can understand him wanting to step back in. But will Schalke let him? If they’re performing better without him, why would they bring him back in? the team don’t know what ‘step down’ means. He could still be part of the team, helping as an analyst and working with Innaxe. Or he could have completely stepped away from the team.

For someone like FORG1VEN, who has always seemed to be quite an emotional player, this decision could not have been easy. The fact he is willing to bench himself rather than perform at a low level says a lot.

With FORG1VEN being so emotional, he more than likely takes out his frustrations on his team. This is something he has been accused of many times. If the team is already suffering from losses, which surely damages morale, then having someone on the team that flames them isn’t exactly going to help. Losing FORG1VEN may not help Schalke games, but it may help them outside of the game, helping to create a better team environment. Although he claims he was not toxic and didn’t create a bad atmosphere.

Will losing FORG1VEN help Schalke succeed?

FORG1VEN is a veteran, and a veteran is what a team like Schalke needs. Schalke showed a lack of direction in games, almost flopping over and losing the game. They have shown no proactivity, no attempt to play a game in their own style. The problems that face Schalke are not around FORG1VEN. His first week back in the LEC saw a scoreline of 7/6/9, they had lost both games but statistically, it can’t be put down to FORG1VEN. After six games, he has a KDA of 1.8, and a Damage Percentage of 22.8.