It is no secret that Fnatic’s achievements in CSGO for the past year or so have been mediocre at best. Being a team of such calibre, they are expected to deliver results. Now, in order for the team to reset and bring better results moving forward, they have decided to bench Richard “Xizt” Landström and Simon “twist” Eliasson.
Disappointing placements
The team’s achievements are indeed disappointing, especially when one takes into account the mark that they have left on the CSGO scene. With such names as Jesper “JW” Wecksell or Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, everyone always had and still has high expectations. The three-time Major winners have, however, recently collapsed in their efforts to be a serious threat at tournaments. Failing to put up a victory at any LAN throughout 2019, the team did reach two finals: IEM Sydney and StarSeries i-League Season 7. Even there, though, they lost the former to Natus Vincere and the latter to Team Liquid.
In falling short of the Berlin Major, we lost the moniker as the only team to have attended every single CS:GO Major.
We set goals and we failed.
Today, we announce initial changes to our CS:GO setup as @twist and @Xizt move to our bench.
STATEMENT 📰 https://t.co/HT8VvYaVGm pic.twitter.com/coi114TxBm
— FNATIC (@FNATIC) August 21, 2019
A serious blow, however, came at the Europe Minor. There, for the very first time, Fnatic will not be present at a Major event. Moreover, the StarLadder Major in Berlin will be the very first Major event that JW will miss in his CSGO career. This has led to major disappointment from JW’s side as well as the organization’s.
Moving forward
According to an official statement issued by Fnatic, a major overhaul of their CSGO organization is in the works. Not only will the player roster be altered, the staff behind the scenes will also be reworked to make the organization a well oiled CSGO machine once again.
“After our recent performances, we will now be working doubly hard to realign and regain our rightful spot at the pinnacle of professional gameplay. We will move into a new phase, and will look at all aspects of our Counter-Strike team.”
Andreas “Samuelsson” Samuelsson, the CSGO Team Director of Fnatic, also commented on the situation. Samuelsson agreed that, given the circumstances, a major change is necessary. It is now time to start on the right foot.
“Given the magnitude of failing to qualify for a Major for the first time in Fnatic’s history, a change was indeed necessary. Now, sadly without Simon and Richard, we must build a strong, consistent line-up for the future and bring Fnatic back to the very top.”
It is currently unknown who will replace Xizt and twist. With DreamHack Malmo being Fnatic’s next LAN, we will surely find out soon enough who will replace the two benched players.
What do you think of Fnatic’s decision to bench Xizt and twist? Let us know down in the comments below. And as always, follow us at Daily Esports for all your latest news in CSGO as well as other major esports.
