One of the keys to the success of any region in Esports is the abilities of the teams to acquire talent. There exists a multitude of ways that the teams can go about in order to acquire said talent, ranging from poaching established talent to importing from other regions, but the simplest way is to pick up homegrown talent.

This piece is an attempt to take a look at the current players present within the North American talent pool and pinpoint the ones who can potentially look to be providing some of the star power within the region a year or two from now.

Sick

Sick has been touted as one of the hottest rising rookies in the North American scene for quite a while. Initially he was touted as one half of a dynamic duo alongside his ex partner Twistzz. From then on, Twistzz managed to find his break into the top of the scene by partnering up alongside Team Liquid, while Sick seemingly still awaits his shot at the top.

However, despite not being called up to the big leagues for a permanent role yet, Sick has still managed to shine in the limited opportunities he has had at the top of the scene. At ECS 2016 Sick showed the potential that his skillset actually possesses, bursting onto the international stage with a world class level of entry fragging. Since then Sick has not managed to showcase that same peak, but one would still be remiss to count him out. Sick still remains one of the most valuable rising pieces in the North American region, and it would come as no shock to the observer to see him leading North America in the immediate future.

Nahte

When CLG initially picked up Nahte the move was met with a large amount of rightful backlash from the community. After all, Nahte was brought in as a replacement to star rifler Tarik, and for quite a while he seemed like a huge downgrade. One could hardly have blamed him for underperforming early on either, as he was brought into pro league while having very little amounts of competitive experience under his belt.

However, as Nahte adjusted to the demands of the competitive scene, he has managed to shore up on the flaws that he brought with him initially. While he can not yet be called a star within the context of the North American region, he is undoubtedly one of the major driving forces behind the recent placings of this new look Counter Logic Gaming lineup. In a year or two it would not be surprising to see Nahte leading the North American region as one of the most explosive rifle players within it.

Koosta

Nahte is not the only bright spot within this current iteration of CLG; in the eyes of some, Koosta has outperformed him. The odd part about finding Koosta on this list is that all the reasons that could be listed for making him a potential star also existed a year and a half ago. Sadly, ever since then, Koosta found himself encountering certain setbacks which threatened to completely railroad his career.

When Koosta was initially tapped to join Team Liquid, people hoped that he would realize his star level talent within the roster. Unfortunately, due to team chemistry issues, Koosta was never able to live up to the heights that his admirers hoped he would. Now on CLG, Koosta seems to be reclaiming the form that made him one of North America's most exciting rising talents in the past. If Koosta can maintain the AWPing form that he has reclaimed on this new look lineup, then eventually the North American community could see a new player claiming the title of North America’s best AWPER.

Brehze

When formulating the idea for this list, the name that jumped immediately into my head was Brehze. Brehze is without a doubt the most exciting rising rifle talent present within the North American talent pool. When Ryu from Selfless initially reviewed Brehze’s demos versus his team, he made the bold claim that either Brehze was the next Swag or he was a cheater. At that time he clearly harbored the belief that Brehze was a cheater, but over time it has become clear that the other part of the statement is the one that harbors the truth.

Brehze is not the next Swag in the sense that he harbors the exact same skillset. Brehze is not as versatile a player as Brax was when he played competitively; however, the one area that Brehze and Swag show marked similarities in is the level of talent present within them. Brehze is without a doubt a player who possesses a considerable amount of mechanical talent. One only needs to point to his performance at Northern Arena 2016 in order to back this statement up, all that remains is finding a way to harness it in an intelligent manner.

If one were to assign odds to all the players listed so far as to who manages to successfully become a star player within North America, and perhaps beyond, Brehze would be the one that would come to be the safe bet.