guerri and T.c to stand-in for FURIA and ATK in Dallas
FURIA have announced that they will be fielding their coach, Nicholas "guerri" Nogueira, in place of Rinaldo "ableJ" Moda Junior in their MDL Season 31 finals match against Singularity due to "personal reasons." A report by Jarek "DeKay" Lewis further indicates that the player may also be unable to attend the Global Challenge LAN that will play out shortly after due to visa issues. Dust2.us has also learned that ATK will be utilizing their coach, Tiaan "T.c" Coertzen, as their fifth player at the event this weekend.
The news comes as a surprise as FURIA had previously had no trouble attending DreamHack Masters Dallas, where they achieved a 3rd-4th place result to burst onto the international scene. Notably, the team had declined an invite to ESL Pro League Season 9 following the disbanding of Rogue, opting instead to attend DreamHack Open Rio in Brazil as they had already accepted the invite to the event. Now, FURIA's chances of earning a spot in ESL Pro League look dire - if they fall to Singularity in their opening matchup, they will be forced to take on the likes of Lazarus, INTZ, ATK, and Envy in EPL Relegation to fight for a spot in the league.
While the announcement of guerri stepping in is unexpected, T.c filling in for ATK is not. The South African team qualified for the event while fielding Tyson "TenZ" Ngo as a stand-in following the departure of Aran "Sonic" Grosbaek for Envy, but can no longer continue to utilize him as he will be in attendance at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles competing for Cloud9 on the same dates. The team are set to face off against the loser of the Europe MDL Season 31 Finals between Vitality and Sprout in their opening matchup.
With guerri in tow, FURIA will take on Singularity at 6 PM EDT tomorrow for a spot in ESL Pro League Season 10. The two days that follow will see the ESEA Global Challenge Season 31 play out, with the winner taking home the lion's share of the $75,000 prize pool.
