Nivera benched from Vitality as they move to 5

Team Vitality has announced the end of its 6-man roster run. The organization feels that the six-man roster’s validity is no longer viable and is dropping Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom from the starting roster.

Team Vitality is one of the teams that gave the six-man roster a real shot. The organization brought on Nivera back in October, looking for any compatible Frenchmen to join the side.  Nivera came to terms with Vitality, who was then on Heretics. He then went on to help the roster achieve two trophy lifts by the end of 2020.

The organization used several flexy rosters, swapping in players like Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier, Richard “shox” Papillon and more depending on various factors.  Team Vitality’s idea behind the six-man roster was to swap people out based on performance, maintaining focus for long days, and other micro and macro factors that affect player performance.

However, the organization now finds that the weaknesses outweigh the positives. The recent Valve RMR update suggests that players can be swapped in and out of official matches, meaning that the six-man roster naturally occurs penalties, putting them at a disadvantage.

Vitality says that they still believe the six-man roster is still a great way to grow CSGO, but for now, it simply isn’t practical. If Vitality finds an opportunity to welcome Nivera back, the door is still open for him. But for now, the book closes on a sad chapter.

The remaining five players will compete in the ESL Pro League Season 13. They are in Group B, which kicks off on March 13. It will be interesting to see how Vitality performs after having the flexibility of a six-man roster work in their favour for several months. Vitality has looked since the 2020 Christmas player break.  Dan “apEX” Madesclaire was supposed to drop from the roster for some time before IEM Katowice, but still turned up to work anyway. The roster will need to restore confidence in their fans since the roster comes across as highly turbulent in recent weeks.