Top Mexican talent returns on Nouns

Following the decision to cut Bobby "stamina" Eitrem on February 1st, Nouns have quickly moved to complete their roster with the addition of former Extra Salt player Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado. The move sees MarKE return to activity after being largely inactive following Complexity's acquisition of Extra Salt's core in early 2022.

MarKE's hiatus from CS:GO came as a massive surprise as the 24-year-old-Mexican player was a rising star in the NA scene during the online era, enjoying the most success of his career until Chaos and Extra Salt. Despite this, following Complexity's decision to choose Michael "Grim" Wince over him for their return to the NA scene, MarKE turned his focus to mixteams and FPL in 2022, never finding a permanent lineup to ply his trade.

MarKE was first linked to Nouns by Dust2.us after being spotted scrimming with the team in place of stamina. Additionally, MarKE played in the second ESEA Winter Cash Cup, albeit in place of Brendan "Bwills" Williams, due to the latter player experiencing personal issues. His addition to Nouns seems to be a part of a larger strategic realignment of the team, as David "cynic" Polster is seemingly set to resume his role as Nouns' IGL and AWPer with stamina out of the picture.

In announcing this move, Nouns' coach, Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen, offered the first public comment on stamina's removal, saying his removal "wasn't an easy decision" but noting it was ultimately in the team's "best interest" to find a spot for MarKE.

Update: Regarding his decision to return to competition and join Nouns, MarKE told Dust2.us:

Basically I was bored, every time I would play CS with friends I felt that fire to start grinding again and compete, I been out of the servers for a while so all I want right now is to grind and do some damage qualify for everything possible, win everything we can and lets see where life takes us.

Nouns are now:

• David "cynic" Polster

• Brendan "Bwills" Williams

• Carson "nosraC" O'Reilly

• Christopher "cJ" Jones

• Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado

• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen (Coach)

Nouns first event with MarKE as a starter will be the second IEM Brazil open qualifier on February 11th.