Akimbo make last-minute roster change during ESEA Advanced playoffs

In a surprise move, Joey "hyza" Cornelius announced last night that he had been cut from Akimbo, with Dust2.us confirming the Canadian rifler has been sidelined in favor of Yizhi "kralz" Zhou on the roster. The change is highly unexpected as Akimbo have experienced strong results in recent months with hyza while the team are also in the midst of their ESEA Advanced Season 50 playoffs campaign.

In fact, the addition is only possible in ESEA Advanced because the Chinese player was still present on the team's roster from his time with the Mongolian trio on G3 and OMiT.

According to hyza, the move came a complete surprise just hours before their opening ESEA Advanced playoffs match against regain — although the team ended up using Taggert "taggy" Baker as a sub in place of kralz. Kamron "kmrn" Manii told Dust2.us that the decision was primarily spearheaded by the Mongolian core, who wanted to bring kralz back into the fold to add more firepower and a playmaker as the team aims to qualify for ESL Challenger League.

Akimbo finished the ESEA Advanced Season 50 regular season with a 10-4 record. They also performed admirably at the Perfect World Shanghai Major Americas RMR NA Closed Qualifier, playing close matches against NRG and Elevate while also besting Limitless despite having to field Marco "Pol0" Hernandez as a stand-in.

Akimbo are now:

• Bishrel "N20AmZ" Tamir

• Ochirbileg "obi" Shinebaatar

• Andrey "Laxiee" Maks

• Kamron "kmrn" Manii

• Yizhi "kralz" Zhou

Akimbo are in attendance at this weekend's Fragicago event where kralz is set to make his LAN debut with the team.