The former skipper, Nexa has been replaced by Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen for the duration of the Paris Major cycle
Citing personal reasons, OG captain Nemanja “nexa” Isaković has chosen to briefly withdraw from OG, missing out on the closed qualifier for the Regional Major Rankings of the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
The organization announced that this new lineup with niko is temporary, but will continue for as long as the team isn’t knocked out of the Major cycle.
The organization also stated that niko’s role will not be that of In-Game Leader. The OG squad has been training in Poland, and will have to make it to the Major and potentially play in it with the Danish talent in lieu of nexa for now.
OG are currently ranked 8th in the HLTV rankings, and have been punching well above their weight against some of the best teams in the world. In the last few months, they have taken out the likes of MOUZ, Fnatic, and Team Liquid. However, having to go through the Major qualifier without their talismanic leader will undoubtedly be a daunting task for the young team.
The team also faced a substitute crisis when star player Shahar “flameZ” Shushan got sick during the team’s crucial Lower Bracket match against Outsiders at Intel Extreme Masters Katowice. They were forced to play with coach Casper “ruggah” Due, and were humbled by the reigning Major champions.
OG are seeded in qualifier B of the Major circuit, which began on February 16 and will run till the 19th. They are joined by with the teams forZe, Aurora, Monte, GamerLegion, Apeks Falcons and HEET among others. In their first match, they have already beaten Finnish side JANO Esports in a close match that went to Overtime.
The Major cycle’s lineup of OG is as follows:
- Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar
- Maciej “F1KU” Miklas
- Shahar “flameZ” Shushan
- Abdul “degster” Gasanov
- Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen (stand-in)
- Casper “ruggah” Due (coach)
