Wildcard sign ESL Challenger Atlanta stand-in to academy team

Wildcard have announced the second player for their European academy team, seeing Polish AWPer Sebastian "fr3nd" Kuśmierz join the lineup alongside the previously announced Leo "Wonder" Wänlund. fr3nd joins Wildcard after previously representing the main team at ESL Challenger League Atlanta last year, standing in for Love "phzy" Smidebrant after the Swede was hit with visa issues ahead of Wildcard's first LAN with their new international lineup.

During his stand-in stint with Wildcard, fr3nd posted a decent 1.09 rating over nine maps while helping Wildcard to a third-fourth place in Atlanta, falling to eventual champions FlyQuest in the playoffs.

Outside of his short time with Wildcard, fr3nd has played for a number of teams in the Polish subtop, having represented ENTERPRISE, ThunderFlash, PACT, and HONORIS during the past three years. On HONORIS, fr3nd notably played with legends Wiktor "TaZ" Wojta and Filip "NEO" Kubski in their final playing roles before they joined G2 and FaZe, respectively, as coaches.

Wildcard Academy now consists of:

• Leo "Wonder" Wänlund

• Sebastian "fr3nd" Kuśmierz

• Łukasz "splawik" Jahns (Coach)