Rogue confirm MSL addition
Rogue have announced the addition of Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen, confirming earlier reports of the player replacing Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend as the team's in-game leader.
The Danish in-game leader and HLTV MVP of DreamHack Masters Stockholm has been on North's bench ever since the team's run at the FACEIT Major in London came to an abrupt and early end by the hands of Vega Squadron in the New Challengers stage. Despite the team's 2-1 victory over Astralis and tournament run in Stockholm just prior to the Major, MSL found himself quickly replaced by Rogue's former captain Casper "cadiaN" Møller.
Exactly a month later, MSL finds himself filling cadiaN's old slot on Rogue, taking over for kRYSTAL who himself only joined the team at the start of October. Lackluster results in both ESL Pro League Season 8 and ECS Season 6 after a surprisingly strong performance at the Major likely caused Rogue to reconsider their options, eventually settling on another Danish import.
Rogue currently sit in relegation territory for EPL S8 in 10th place, with just two matchups against compLexity and INTZ remaining. The latter of the two will be the most important as the Brazilian squad sit just one place above Rogue in the standings, just outside of relegation territory. Their odds to remain in ECS for next season are slightly better as eight matches still remain, but their chances to make the LAN finals are slim as they have yet to face MIBR, Renegades, and compLexity.
kRYSTAL is once again left teamless after being cut from Rogue, making this his second short stint on a team after he spent just over a month playing for Ghost on-loan from Imperial. Although in-game leaders are desired by many teams in North America, it is currently unknown whether kRYSTAL will continue to ply his trade on this side of the water or if he intends to return to Europe to pursue other opportunities.
Rogue's roster now looks as follows:
Daniel "vice" Kim- Spencer "Hiko" Martin
- Hunter "SicK" Mims
Ricardo "Rickeh" Mulholland
Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen
It is expected that Rogue will debut with MSL in mere hours as they are slated to compete in the DreamHack Open Winter closed qualifier later today, with their quarterfinal matchup against oNe kicking off at 2 PM EDT. The team will also face MIBR in one of their final ECS matchups on Tuesday, October 30th in a double-header that should start around 8 PM EDT.
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