Breaking: M80 set to start 2025 with German stand-in due to broken leg

Dust2.us has confirmed with M80 that Ethan "reck" Serrano will miss the start of the 2025 season due to a broken leg, leaving the 21-year-old rifler unable to travel to Europe for the team's first commitments of the year. As a result of this injury, M80 have confirmed that they will be fielding former OG and BIG player Nils "k1to" Gruhne as a stand-in until reck is able to return to duty.

reck's injury comes at an unfortunate time for M80 as the team aim to start 2025 on a strong footing after missing out on the Perfect World Shanghai Major in November, ending 2024 in an underwhelming fashion. This is especially true with the scene exclusively operating on the Valve Ranking System (VRS) in 2025, which determines invites to events on a team's form and results in ranked events.

Therefore, a lackluster start to the year could see M80 struggle to garner invites down the road to key tier-one events that would provide the ranking points needed to earn a spot in the BLAST.tv Austin Major, NA's first Major in seven years.

The decision to pick up k1to will see the German return to action after being benched by OG in August 2024 before being released in free agency this week. While the 26-year-old rifler has been out of action for some time, he is a former teammate of M80's IGL, Elias "s1n" Stein, which should hopefully ease his transition back into the tier-one scene.

Based on the normal timeline for an injury like reck's leg fracture, he should hopefully return to action sometime next month, more than enough time for M80 to be ready for their first scheduled LAN, ESL Pro League Season 21 on March 1st.

M80 will start the year with the following lineup:

• Michael "Swisher" Schmid

• Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich

• Elias "s1n" Stein

• Mason "Lake" Sanderson

• Nils "k1to" Gruhne (Stand-in)

• Rory "dephh" Jackson (Coach)

• Ethan "reck" Serrano (Injured)

M80's first event of the year will be the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 Closed Qualifier, which is set to start on January 14th. The online event will see M80 face a number of top teams to fight for one of eight spots in the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025 in late January.