Just three months into life with their new fifth, BLVKHVND look set to pull the trigger on one of the most talked about roster moves in the UK scene. After replacing Rhys “Rhys” Stumbles in May, Tim “TIMMO” Musters will now find himself on the bench before the new season fully kicks off, according to our sources.
TIMMO joined BLVKHVND after his promising Lucent Esports roster finished third at EPIC35 and not only qualified for ESL Premiership spring but managed a respectable finish of 7th-8th. This stint with Lucent came after a short spell in 2021 with one of the UK’s top teams, Coalesce – with whom TIMMO attended and won EPIC34 and, after being released, stood in for the team in their title-winning run at the SiGMA Esports Technologies Cup.
After initially posting positive results on the BLVKHVND team, reaching ESEA Main playoffs and falling just shy of promotion, the team headed to EPIC36 as one of, if not the favourites. The team struggled to find top form at EPIC36, being forced into a lower bracket run that ended up in a second-place finish after losing to Emps kids in the grand final. The result was no doubt a disappointment for the team, who are attempting to join Into The Breach and 1PIN in bridging the gap from domestic success to international competition.
TIMMO’s fragging ability has been a point of playful banter and genuine criticism throughout his time with both Coalesce and BLVKHVND. Consistently being the lowest rated player on his team, over the course of his career so far he has posted a 0.87 HLTV rating, with the next lowest rated player on his current team being Jack “DeXter” Hepple at 0.96.
As always when looking at ratings context is hugely important, and there are two things of note when it comes to looking at TIMMO’s statistics. One is that HLTV is running off a small sample size of just 53 maps. Although, if we look at the stats compiled (by @Mischief_CSGO using his own formula*) for EPIC36 TIMMO once again posted a negative rating and was the lowest on his team.
The second, arguably more important note, is that TIMMO is not there to be a star fragger. As team captain and IGL Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom said in a UKCSGO interview after picking TIMMO up “he might be a little lower fragging power than Rhys but his general game sense and utility usage is a lot higher”. Therefore, it feels harsh to judge TIMMO solely off his stats and begs the question as to whether it is a need for more firepower on the BLVKHVND side, or if there are other reasons for the team to make the switch up after less than a full season together.
The timing of the change will no doubt sting, with BLVKHVND having just recently announced that they would be visiting our noisy neighbours in the USA for Fragadelphia 17 and having been announced as an invited team to the UKIC Beyond NRG summer cup. BLVKHVND kicked off their ESEA Main season with a close loss to Russian side R0ses. We understand TIMMO will continue to compete in ESEA games with the squad until BLVKHVND have settled on his replacement.
BLVKHVND, who currently sit at number three on the HLTV UK rankings, will hope that this change enables them to close the gap on the teams above them in the domestic scene; Into The Breach and 1PIN as number one and two respectively.
UKCSGO reached out to BLVKHVND for a comment but at the time of writing, no official response has been given.
With this change BLVKHVND would be:
Jack “DeXter” Hepple
Josh “JAUSTERE” Philpott
Fraser “Frazehh” Sollom
Richard “Zulu” Wood
Cedric “Tome” Pas (Coach)
*Link to the EPIC36 stats put together by Mischief https://twitter.com/Mischief_CSGO/status/1546913693975330817
