FNS set to leave CLG, academy team being dropped
Pujan "FNS" Mehta, the in-game leader of CLG since re-joining the organization in January, is on his way out of the team, according to a report from Jarek "DeKay" Lewis earlier today. The reason for the change is being attributed to a "disagreement" between FNS and other members of the organization, though it is also the case that he has statistically been the team's worst player of the past three months.
CLG's roster sans FNS would be the following:
Stephen "reltuC" Cutler- Kenneth "koosta" Suen
- Ethan "nahtE" Arnold
Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland- Steve "Ryu" Rattacasa (Coach)
Earlier in the year, CLG looked to be poised to become international contenders, peaking at #16 on the HLTV rankings for two weeks in April and May. However, failing to secure a top two finish at the PGL Krakow Americas Minor, followed shortly after by the departure of coach Chet "ImAPet" Singh, seemingly stymied their process.
The team has since brought in Steve "Ryu" Rattacasa to fill the coaching void, though results have remained lackluster, and the team recently again failed to progress from the Americas Minor, as well as missing berths at both the EPL and ECS finals events.
Though at one point it was thought that Ricky "Rickeh" Mulholland would be benching himself from the team, a recent tweet from the player has seemingly put that to bed.
Dust2.us knows that CLG has been trying out several different players in different permutations, a hallmark of Ryu. Among the players that were looked at were CLG Academy players Alex "aproto" Protopapas and Zack "XotiC" Elshani, and former Ghost player Ronnie "ryx" Bylicki. As far as Dust2.us is aware, the two youngsters are not frontrunners for spots on the EPL squad.
Dust2.us have also learned that CLG intends to drop their academy team, in light of the squad finishing a dismal 21st in ESEA MDL Season 26, with a 5-11 record. Due to the unfortunate placing, the team is almost certainly facing demotion to ESEA Main — where CLG Red already reside. The organization is not able to have two rosters in the same ESEA division, leading to the parting of ways with the Academy side.
CLG Academy's roster was the following:
Jonathan "djay" Dallal- Tyler "Char" Wallace
- Alex "aproto" Protopapas
- Gage "infinite" Green
- Zack "XotiC" Elshani
- Corey "ruin" Hartog (Coach)
According to multiple sources, djay and ruin have already linked up with Adaptation and Swole Patrol for next season, respectively.
