Official: malbsMd out of M80

M80 have announced the departure of Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa from their ranks, marking the end of the Guatemalan's 340 day tenure with the top American organization. M80's announcement adds further fuel to the fire that the star rifler is headed to G2 and comes just a day after the German organization announced the benching of Nemanja "nexa" Isaković from their squad.

As has been previously expressed, malbsMd is one of the hottest prospects in the North American scene, with the Guatemalan developing into a rifling powerhouse in the North American scene while more recently having a breakout international performance at ESL Pro League Season 19. In Malta, malbsMd he led his team to a massive upset win over G2 while also topping the charts in a number of other close matches, including a second rematch against G2 that M80 ultimately lost 2-1.

The decision by G2 to scout and then buy a player from the North American region is a massive shift in the org's recruiting strategy as G2 has almost exclusively stayed in Europe when it comes to signing players. As such, G2's decision to go after malbsMd should be viewed as a truly unique situation for the 21-year-old player as he is reportedly set to be airlifted into one of the best teams in the world.

On the other side of the equation, the loss of malbsMd will be a striking blow for M80 just as the team had finally settled their roster with the addition of German IGL Elias "s1n" Stein. The organization will now have to fill a massive firepower hole that malbsMd has left in his wake. This task is made all the more difficult by the need for the player to not be European if M80 want to remain in the Americas region on the Valve Rankings for the upcoming Perfect World Major Shanghai 2024.

Without malbsMd, M80 are now:

• Michael "Swisher" Schmid

• Ethan "reck" Serrano

• Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich

• Elias "s1n" Stein

• Rory "dephh" Jackson (Coach)