Let's take a look at the main focus of the team, the midlane. For as long as people can remember, Alexey 'Alex Ich' Ichetovkin has been a dominant player throughout his career, on par with the likes of Froggen and Xpeke. Ichetovkin's first replacement was Sebastian '760' Robak, also known as NiQ. Robak had huge shoes to fill, and didn't really deliver, ending on a score of 0/0/0 on Nidalee in his premier game. Gambit hardly picked up any wins until the superweek where they went four and zero. Unfortunately not making the playoffs, they did manage to secure themselves a spot in the 2015 LCS. This brings us to IEM Cologne, where each individual player stepped up, especially NiQ, averaging a 2.9 KDA and having the highest average cs and gold lead over his lane opponent and having the advantage more than 60% of the time. So what can we draw from this? NiQ is a very consistent player, gaining big advantages when ahead and having a small gap when behind. When he was still on the starting lineup, he was a very good agressive mid laner with the ability to be supportive to help execute ganks well and giving the jungler an upper hand. Robak was permanently replaced by Betsy in week 5 due to illness and the need to have a member who had been active in the roster more recently in the lead up to IEM Katowice. Edling is very similar to Robak, only with slightly higher aggression, which has benefited the team so far.
Taking a look at another one of M5's stars, Evgeny 'Darien' Mazaev, Gambit have seen to be able to find a suitable replacement for him as well. Originally benched during the 2014 summer, Darien unfortunately looks to never see professional play again, but the void the swag lord has left has been filled well by the likes of Jakub 'Kubon' Turewicz and subsequently Lucas 'Cabochard' Simon-Meslet. Kubon did not have many defining characteristics, instead just being able to integrate into the team as a supporting role towards the end of the 2014 summer. Cabochard, however has leaned more towards damage and engage focus champions such as Kennen, creating ridiculous teamfight opportunities when there shouldn't be. The addition of Cabochard to the roster cannot be described as flawless, but it has shown results. Despite all of this, Cabochard is no Darien, who would build stupid builds and make them work, lead a team around the entire map while Genja took Drake or would feed to win as we all so fondly remember, but all good things must come to an end, as Darien has passed his prime, and Cabochard is the next best thing.
Edward and Diamond need no introduction, but Eddy's lane partner does. Kristoffer has made a big entry into the LCS, filling long time veteran Evgeny 'Genja' Andryushin's shoes, and so far has done a good job of it, even having a technique named after him, with a maximum range Graves ultimate now being known as pulling a P1noy in higher levels of the game. With Genja stepping down from his position, Gambit were forced to find a replacement ADC. P1noy, at the time known as Krislund, stepped in and stepped up, earning his spot on the team. While nowhere near as innovative or legendary as the all powerful time lord, P1noy is a solid player with great skill and deserves his spot on the team.
So, after all of that, how does Gambit Gaming compare to the old Russian death squad? Truthfully, it doesn't. Gambit aren't a world class team like M5, and they don't have the reputation either. However, they are improving and if they continue to, then maybe one day they will surpass Moscow 5 and beat TPA.
