Polish organisations x-kom Team and AGO Esports recently announced a merger between their two CS:GO sides, with players now competing under the banner of x-kom AGO.
Along with the organisational merger, the team has built a seven-player roster that features all five x-kom Team players. They are joined by former AGO members Damian “Furlan” Kislowski and Dominik “GruBy” Swiderski. The merger and roster announcement comes after AGO Esports announced on Thursday that three of their players, Tomasz “phr” Wójcik, Grzegorz “SZPERO” Dziamałek and Kacper “kaper” Słoma were dropped from the team after a string of bad results. The lineup is, however, not set in stone. In a follow-up tweet to the announcement, x-kom AGO Head of Esports Maciej Opielski commented that the team will also be screening about a dozen candidates before moving forward with a final roster.
W budowie nowej Drużyny nie będziemy ograniczać się do zawodników x-kom AGO.
Plan zakłada testy kilkunastu osób.
— Maciej Opielski ? (@maCOPcs) June 28, 2019
The merger will reportedly also see an overhaul of the back end of the organisations and the further development of performance support for players, in part thanks to the resources available to Polish electronics retailer x-kom. Channelling the success of his sponsored, hometown football side, President of x-kom, Michał Świerczewsk had this to say, “We want to set new directions and now we know how to do it. Our store, from a small salon in Częstochowa, has grown to gigantic proportions over a dozen or so years. In football, we have returned to Ekstraklasa with [Częstochowa] Rakow within five years. Now we will try to do something similar in esports.”
Jakub Szumielewicz, President of AGO Esports was similarly excited about what the future holds following the merger, “This project has enormous potential, if only because of the research that is about to begin soon. This research will allow us to build real competences in the field of assessing the players’ potential, monitoring their current form and the risks of injuries, as well as help to develop a training workshop. x-kom, in turn, brings great technological support and contacts with potential sponsors from the endemic area. Thus, we become a company with virtually unlimited possibilities.”
Esports Insider says: The merger between the two organisations could potentially see a boost to their collective performance. For AGO Esports this is a massive win, not only in terms of new players but the infrastructure and support that an electronics retailer can provide.
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