Fnatic CSGO makes key roster moves in a bid to save their season

We have patiently waited to see which direction would Fnatic take with their CSGO roster. After a month of debates, we finally have our answer.

Every year there are roster shuffles in CSGO, and this year is no different. The online era brought a lot of success to certain teams and a lot of stagnation to others. In some cases, we have even seen household names fall off of a cliff in terms of performance and results. Now that LAN seems to be re-emerging, there have been some roster shake-ups across the scene.

Established powerhouses are really stepping up and making a bid for the second part of the 2021 Season. Fnatic stands out as the most notable mover in the mid-season, after finally going international with roster.

Departing legends leave big shoes to fill in Fnatic

Fnatic signs ALEX, mezii and keita

Amongst the biggest roster moves this summer, Fnatic have benched long-time players JW as well as Golden, and set out to find replacements. JW has been with the team through their biggest successes and their biggest failures. With Fnatic sitting at the number 61 spot in the world, they thought it time to bench one of the faces of their org. In truth, JW had been underperforming for quite some time now and this move is a long time coming. With not much information surrounding Golden’s situation, it is fair to assume he was simply benched due to his lackluster performances.

With two players being removed, they naturally must be replaced. We did look at potential replacements for the squad a few weeks back, but Fnatic chose a different path. Alex “ALEX” McMeekin and William “mezii” Merriman are the newest addition the Fnatic lineup.

There has been much controversy surrounding the two players who had played together on the tumultuous Cloud9 lineup. mezii was given his first chance in a tier 1 org at Cloud9 and did not waste it. He was the player who looked the most promising and had the most room for development. ALEX remains a controversial figure in the scene due to his time in Cloud9. He came under much scrutiny during his time there as the results were not what fans had hoped. It seemed to me that most of the blame lies elsewhere, as Woxic played on such a high ping it was hard for him to play and to stay motivated.

After he left, ALEX took on the AWP role for a while. Learning to AWP while in-game-leading is no easy task. One testament to him as an IGL is how Vitality has fallen apart recently. They had their meteoric rise when ALEX was in the team. It would have been him and their coach that developed the systems and the strategies that propelled them to success. For a time, they continued that way afterwards. But it did not last.

The final cog in the wheel for the new roster is former Chaos EC/Complexity coach Jamie “keita” Hall. He’s tasked with bringing unity and synergy to the new roster, which for the first time in a long while is not fully Swedish. Keita has had great success in bridging the gaps between players and team, and has a solid track record in a strategic coaching role. If he manages to make all the players peak by October, we might have a winter where Fanatic makes a serious bid for top10 once again.

The CSGO betting outlook for the team looks shaky for the following weeks. Do not have high hopes for Fnatic at ESL Pro League S14 or even the few events after. It will take some time for the shattered team to rebuild their momentum and make a real bid for top placements.

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