A brand-new team has emerged in the European Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene, and it contains many familiar faces.
Former Fnatic AWPer William “draken” Sundin announced today that he will be teaming up with many stars from the European continent, including French in-game leader Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans, French one-tapper Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom, Swedish prospect Hampus Poser, and Estonian rifler Kevin “HS” Tarn.
They will also be joined by Christian “Chrille” Lindberg, who previously coached the Swedish Red Reserve lineup. He has experience coaching under the Epsilon Esports banner, when they were actually a formidable force a few years ago.
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“I am determined to get back on top and I’m happy to announce that, starting today, the road there will be together with ScreaM, Ex6tenz, HS and hampus,” Draken said in a statement to HLTV. “We are all free agents and open to offers. Everyone is eager to start playing together and build something great. We are confident that, with our experience from the very top of Counter-Strike, individual stars and great leadership, we will establish ourselves among the top teams in the world very quickly.”
All of the stars on this team have been out of commission for quite some time as well. Draken and ScreaM had short stints with Fnatic in 2018, before the Swedes revamped its lineup to include young and fresh talent. Luckily for Red Reserve, Draken and hampus soon found a temporary home alongside names like Fredrik “freddieb” Buo and Joakim “disco doplan” Gidetun.
It was the same for Ex6TenZ, too, and he was benched by G2 Esports for lackluster results as an IGL. Even when paired with long-time best friends Richard “shox” Papillon and Eduouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux on the active lineup, the French still struggled at international tournaments.
HS is coming into this lineup after a small period with Tempo Storm, which had a roster that never really got off of the ground because of the rigorous online qualifiers for events. The young Estonian is known for his role as an entry fragger for past international teams like OpTic Gaming’s 2017 lineup, PENTA Sports of 2018, and most recently Tempo Storm.
TSM could be a potential organization that might field this lineup, since it’s reportedly looking for a team in CS:GO, according to Dexerto. The North American organization, however, has been absent from Counter-Strike since it went its separate ways with its 2017 NA lineup, which consisted of Sean Gares, Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Shahzeb “ShahZaM” Khan, Hunter “SicK” Mims, and Skyler “Relyks” Weaver.
The quintet will likely be evaluating their offers from organizations in the coming weeks, unless plans change for some of the players on the lineup.
