FACEIT announce Major roster lock for August 5th
FACEIT has announced the roster lock for the FACEIT Major, which is set to begin on September 5th. Teams will have until August 5th to submit their roster that is set to compete at the Major. Of the teams at the Major, the main three that are left without a full signed roster are Cloud9, Virtus.Pro, and North.
Cloud9 have been left in shambles following the departure of Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, who was then one of their strongest players and one of the team's leaders. The team's situation only compounded with the subsequent departure of Tarik "tarik" Celik, who was also one of Cloud9's strongest players, for MIBR.
For recent events, Cloud9 have fielded Martin "STYKO" Styk and Maikil "Golden" Selim, but only as stand-ins. With disappointing results in recent events, the team only have a week to finalize their roster for the Major. Cloud9's situation only worsens by the fact the team will be defending their Major title in London, after winning ELEAGUE Major in Boston earlier in January.
The two other teams left without a permanent fifth for the Major are Virtus.Pro and North. Virtus.Pro have been using Piotr "morelz" Taterka as their permanent fifth, however stated that they would only field the player until the end of MDL.
North are currently left without a permanent fifth after the team benched Daniel "mertz" Mertz. The team recently fielded Óscar "mixwell" Cañellas at DreamHack Valencia, however that avenue has closed with mixwell joining the Movistar Riders. With reports claiming that mertz will not return to the active roster, North's future is uncertain with the team still on the search for their fifth.
HLTV has also reported that Minor attendees are eligible to play in the Major if their team did not make it through to the Major, which was previously barred at earlier Majors. This allows teams with incomplete rosters who were invited from the previous Major to field players from teams such as Kinguin, NRG, and LeftOut.
All three teams will have until August 5th to finalize their roster for the Major. The roster lock does not apply to teams who qualified for the Major through the London Minor Championships, as their rosters were locked at the Minor.
