Fnatic picks up NiP AWPer draken, replaces Golden

Fnatic has signed a new deal with ex-NiP backup player draken. It has now been confirmed that draken will take Golden’s spot on the team. This announcement comes shortly after the recent arrival of Xizt.

Xizt will now be given full freedom to play as an IGL, whilst draken will play as a secondary AWPer for Fnatic. JW recently mentioned that he doesn’t want to AWP all of the time, so draken’s arrival will relieve some of the pressure JW recently had to contend with.

The AWPer’s role is an integral part in gaining map control in CS:GO, especially on the CT side. With draken on Fnatic’s side, Fnatic may finally have more stopping power when it comes to holding important areas.

Despite Fnatic’s recent return to form, their map pool isn’t the greatest. Fnatic will need to work to improve their chances on Nuke, Cache, and Inferno. With a strong secondary AWPer, this may finally be a challenge Fnatic will be able to overcome. Whilst draken is relatively new to top tier counter strike, he’s 22 years of age and has had plenty of experience playing competitively. draken player for NiP for the majority of 2017 and for the first half of 2018.

Before that, draken played for Epsilon. draken has also had a long history playing for less notable teams. In all of those years of experience, draken has had plenty of time to grow very accustomed with the AWP.

He might not be the best AWPer in the world, but he has quickly shown he has the potential to compete alongside the best. Hopefully this roster change will bring good things to the Fnatic organisation. We’ve seen how beneficial having two strong AWPers can be for a team.

We also know that JW has a lot of potential as a rifler, too. If things go well for draken, we may even see JW step down from being the main AWPer entirely.

Golden will also take a back seat on Fnatic’s roster for now. Golden will be a backup player, and will most likely wait for a buyout from another organization.

The new Fnatic roster is shown below:

• Robin “flusha” Rönnquist
• Jesper “JW” Wecksell
• Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
• Richard “Xizt” Landström
• William “draken” Sundin
• Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson (coach)
• Maikil “Golden” Selim (backup)

The next big event for Fnatic will be ESL One Cologne, which will take place on July 3rd. This means Fnatic has just two weeks to practice together alongside draken before they have to fight for their chance at the lion’s share of $300,000.

With such little time between now and ESL One Cologne, we’re not expecting Fnatic to pull out a grand final win, but their performance during the event should give us some clues as to how this new roster will perform in the future. Fnatic will have to go up against the likes of FaZe, Astralis, Mousesports and Liquid, so they’ve got a lot on their plate.

What are your thoughts on this roster change? Do you think it’s wise for Fnatic to pick up yet another primary AWPer?

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