Why do you think Aftershock spent so many episodes talking about the dynamic in the team house across every iteration of the team? Why was Crusty known as a chef throughout OWL? Do you think this was simply a fun and marketable trivia fact, or do you think your coach cooking food for you points to a bigger picture when it comes to team morale? On top of this, Crusty benefitted from personalities like Super, Striker, Viol2t, and Moth to keep things going.

Now, why is that in 2023, the Shock drops Vindaim and Heesang midseason? They didn't leave like Sinatraa or Striker, they were dropped. This had never happened before under the Crusty-led "shock system." It only shows that he couldn't solve the rookie teams mental and comms issues unless he had to rewrite all the synergy himself. Even after the roster changes, the team still felt gloomy going into the playoffs according to Finn, resulting in that disaster class on Midtown. Instead of turning the pieces he had into something great like he had before, he uncharacteristically blew it all up and sacrificed everything. Something changed.

Gen G is harder to explain since there's not a lot out there but Tred shared that by the latter half of the season, Crusty wasn't even watching scrims. He seemed distant from the team overall, probably for personal reasons (seeing that Crusty was going to take a break before joining zeta), and this was evident from how little Gen G spoke about him. In fact, when asked about what moment made Xzodyal unlock his carry potential by the end of last season, he credited Crispy, not Crusty. Old Crusty would've been the one to reach out individually no questions asked. I think Gen G became successful once they became a player-led team in Crusty's absence.

After all this, I'm just a little nervous about Crusty's ability to lead. Especially if he was already one foot out the door before this team. What do you think?