Gambit release statement regarding recent performance; Darien and Diamond under question

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Given the disappointing performance of the team during the Spring split - their lowest ever finish in the LCS, and the continuation into the Summer half of the LCS, the Gambit management released a statement, detailing the events happening within the team. Mostly focusing on an apology to the community and fans for the poor play, Gambit does not shy away from admitting their mistakes and pointing the lackluster factors within the line-up.

Finally, a heavy line ends the statement - as both Darien and Diamond did not do enough to step-up and ensure a better performance, it is stated that the management is considering moving them into the substitute position and replacing them with better players. This scenario should occur, however, only if suitable candidates are found. You can find the full statement below.

In this entry we would like to remove misconceptions one might have about our team and to provide our own insight on what’s going on. Before we begin, we would like to issue an apology to our fans for our recent results and performance, as they are way below what you would expect of us. We would like to thank you for supporting us while we are trying to find a solution to improve our play.

Many of you attribute the downfall in our performance to Alex Ich leaving our team, but the true nature of our struggles is less apparent. Arguably, our performance started to deteriorate back in March after IEM Katowice. We can even support this evidence with facts: our score before IEM Katowice at LCS EU Spring was 12-8 and 4-9 (includes playoffs) after this event. We were one of the top teams before attending IEM Katowice, but fell down to 5th place by the end of the split and had barely secured our spot in playoffs.

Our team has been together for more than two and a half years now, and we feel like we are in a dire need of a fresh blood. We have always believed that success lies in a stability of a roster and we still think this way, but right now we believe that an influx of new players is necessary. Previously we used substitutes only when our players were not able to attend official games to due health and visa issues, but now we would like to try out new players to step our game up.

We understand that making mid-season changes is a very risky move, especially during the season that precedes Season 4 World Championship, but it is a risk we are not only willing, but have to take. In order for us to qualify for Summer Split playoffs, we have to secure 4 more victories than Roccat in the remaining 10 games.

Our biggest problem right now is an underwhelming team synergy that stems from poor shot calling and lack of coordination between lanes and our jungler during the laning phase. In the current meta game, where lane swaps and smooth rotations are of a paramount importance, individual performance alone cannot secure you victories.

Over the course of this split, our bot lane and mid lane were our biggest strengths. Our success in the few games that we won can be attributed to these three players stepping up. Even though niQ has a limited experience at the professional scene, he proved his worth against his more experienced opponents. The same can be said about our bot lane duo, as they have shown an ability to win over most of the bot lanes in EU LCS. Nevertheless, as have we have mentioned before, their ability to carry games off an individual performance is severely limited by team shot calling and communication with our jungler.

Darien and Diamond are currently struggling to have an impact on our performance. Due to the fact that they didn’t step up their play over the course of the past seven weeks, we are currently considering moving both of them to a substitute position and replacing them with new players. We cannot say for certain right now, whether we will undertake this endeavour, since it comes down to finding eligible replacements. Both of these players have proven their ability to face the toughest competition over the course of two years, therefore we feel that they need to take a break from the competitive scene to figure out the way they should play and possibly come up with innovations.

Gambit Gaming are currently 7th in the EU LCS with a 5-13 record