One, there is a deadline after which all players become free agents. BEFORE that deadline, quite often organizations allow their talent to talk to other teams. This isn't a requirement, and not all orgs do it, and an org isn't better or worse for denying or allowing a talent to talk ahead of free agency period.

Two, any organization's responsibility is to put together the best roster they can as fast as they can. The earlier you can plan out your season, the better. More room allows for better prep time for content, brand growth, merchandise development, sales strategy, etc. Most importantly, it gives the fans the most time to connect with new players.

Three, every organization SHOULD look to attempt improvement year to year. Stagnation and risk averseness doesn't have a place in top competitive teams. This, of course, does not mean than an organization WILL improve year to year. No one can predict roster changes, coaching synergy, and growth well enough to make that claim. I, personally, will always respect organizations that risk more to attempt higher results than those that are happy with constant top 3-4 finishes WITHOUT attempting change to move up.

I am setting this up exclusive of anything Ignar has said or our situation because we should establish the fundamentals for off season and roster changes, to have a basis for discussion.

Now, I made a comment in the reddit thread about the past 4-5 months. I won't go into details, out of respect for player privacy. Discussions between Ignar and I, or any other coaching staff/player, will stay between us. I will say though, that it was made very clear to house management that Ignar was not happy in Europe. He was homesick, and had constant thoughts about leaving Misfits and Europe - from before we started performing all the way to Worlds. He's spent a year and a half in a foreign continent, and without a second Korean in the organization that he could relate to, it was understandably hard for him. We flew in his family and provided comfortable accommodations for the semi-finals, and flew in a close friend for finals, to try to help Ignar, and this helped a bit for playoffs.

I need the players I coach to be happy in the environment they're in, and due to multiple factors, I could not provide that for Ignar well enough - and definitely not for the length of a whole split.

I also knew that I likely wanted to make roster changes going into 2018 regardless of what happened at Worlds. I understand that this is one area where a lot of fans will disagree with me philosophically - and that's fine. Discussion about how your org is being coached is healthy. There are multiple reasons for wanting to change things, and not the point of this post, but the base of it is I want further improvements to our practice culture - both from player and staff end - and I wasn't confident I could implement efficiently what I wanted with the previous roster. I have a very specific style of coaching and there's a synergy between coach and players that needs to exist, and we (Misfits) have been improving on this since our first roster moves from challenger. Every off season, I consider the core values I want to carry over into the next season, and try to match players to those values. This means that at any given time any player can be on the chopping block despite being skilled enough at the game. I consider roster changes for EVERY position, as roster synergy is more important to me than star power.

There's been this assumption that I wouldn't make roster changes if given the option because of how well 2017 Worlds went for us. I'd like to say publicly, that's not true. I will ALWAYS consider roster changes if I think it means we can do more. I do not mind handling the pressure of reaching roster potential.

With a few of my thoughts about off season and roster down, lets circle back to the Ignar situation. Information we know:

- Unhappy for a lot of the split
- Considering leaving Misfits for a while
- Approaches us to let us know that he will be exploring other options for 2018

Our reaction:
- I was considering roster changes due to our 2017 (year long) results.
- I want my management to sign my team in a time-efficient manner to best prepare for 2018.
- We get a roster we're happy with as we explored our options, similarly to our former players exploring their options.

Everything that lead up to this off season was logical. It was based on information we had, with careful consideration to every step. I approached off season as my job requires me to - find the best way to improve on last year. Management did an excellent job putting the roster together (+ retaining coaching staff). I won't speak directly to the communication between management and Ignar in off season. Player signing, communication, and budgeting in off season is management's job and our GM Joe and owner Ben can speak on that if they wish. I will say, that I am going to be VERY surprised if exploring options was a surprise to anyone this off season, considering that everyone knew everyone was exploring options.

On a side note, this is also why I think the hate on POE is absolutely ridiculous on the argument of Misfits vs. NA. I won't speak for other teams, but if I coach Misfits in further years, don't go off on a player for exploring his options and choosing what he thinks is best. Sometimes changes are necessary if you want to go above greatness and become championship caliber. It doesn't speak less of any player's skill or values, it just speaks to us trying to do better. Judge the roster we put together, not the roster we didn't, and then tell us what you think of the end result.

On the roster we DID put together, I couldn't be happier with what I have to work with this year. I want to bring home a title for Misfits, and this is my attempt at it. Lets discuss the attempt.

I'm exhausted from 24+ hours of not sleeping while writing this post and I still have more to go before I can rest, so excuse any rambling/mistakes in the post. I'll answer questions in the comments assuming the Wifi allows me to. If it doesn't, I'll answer when I get home. Thanks for your time.