dea out at Elevate in shock move

Last night, Elevate played their second match in ESL Challenger League Season 48 with a surprise change in their ranks as Deni "dea" Ediev was nowhere to be seen, with the team's AWPer replaced on the server by Tianyi "Fr3nk1e" He in a 2-0 win over Mythic. While the organization has yet to make an official announcement, Dust2.us has confirmed with IGL Wyatt "snav" Phillippi that dea is out of the lineup after seven months with the timbermen core.

dea originally joined the then-Badass roster in December 2023, replacing Kevin "consti" Yi as the team's AWPer. This change almost immediately began to bear fruit as the 20-year-old proved himself extremely capable on the big green gun, finishing ESL Challenger League Season 47 with an impressive 1.21 rating over 37 maps, the second-highest rating for an AWPer in ECL.

It is currently unknown what led Elevate to cut dea, with dea stating that he "can't say anything yet", while snav only said dea was out of the team failing to respond to a request for further context.

While snav confirmed the change, things are less clear-cut from an organizational standpoint. Elevate's CEO Justin Tan said he was unaware the team planned on cutting dea and is currently in the process of discussing the next steps with the team.

Elevate are now:

• Wyatt "snav" Phillippi

• Derek "dare" Brown

• Shane "shane" Dressler

• Jaxon "Peeping" Cornwell

Elevate will need to figure out their plans quickly as they are set to face Perseverance tonight at 09:00PM. It is currently unknown whether Fr3nk1e will step in again tonight.