Revenge Nation swap one ahead of ECL debut

ESEA Advanced Season 48 champions Revenge Nation have swapped a player out of their roster ahead of their ESL Challenger League Season 48 debut, seeing Andrey "HorizoN" Charykov leave the squad while being replaced by fellow Russian émigré Dmitrii "NIGHT666LADE" Botirov. The change comes as Revenge Nation signed formal contracts with their roster on July 5th, having previously supported the team on an ad-hoc basis while they were in ESEA Advanced.

Nikita "TABEN" Holovachov told Dust2.us that the team decided to part ways with HorizoN as the Russian rifler is currently back in Russia to visit family and will not be returning until September, ruling him out for the majority of ECL S48. As such, the team decided to bring in NIGHT666LADE, a player who is very familiar to the squad as he previously served as a substitute for Revenge Nation and a starter for Datejust/ClayMakers in Seasons 46 through 48.

Revenge Nation have been out of the conversation for some time as the new schedule for teams advancing from ESEA Advanced to ESL Challenger League means Revenge Nation have been waiting to play in the league for more than four months. With this, Revenge Nation have had precious few events to play in the first half of the year, meaning the Russo-Ukrainian squad have been somewhat overlooked in the scene.

However, it is worth remembering that Nikita "TABEN" Holovachov's roster had previously been a dominant force in ESEA Advanced, finishing Seasons 46 and 47 in second place before winning Season 49 over Strife in a dominant fashion. With this, there are high expectations for the team as they are set to make their debut in ESL Challenger League Season 48 in short order with their new roster.

Revenge Nation are now:

• Maxwell "xam" Power

• Nikita "TABEN" Holovachov

• Andrey "S0ph3R" Afanasyev

• Elliot "MagiC" Iler

• Dmitrii "NIGHT666LADE" Botirov

• Kyrylo Soryan" Khliebchenko (Coach)