Lithuanian CSGO Pro, Aurimas ‘Bymas’ Pipiras tested positive for Covid-19 just 2 days before the start of IEM Katowice 2022. This renders him ineligible and he will have to sit out the whole tournament, after contracting the Virus so close to the start of the competition.
MOUZ will replace their young rifler with Jon ‘JDC’ de Castro from their academy team, MOUZ NXT. The 21-year-old has been with MOUZ NXT since the inception of the roster and won 2 back to back WePlay Academy Leagues with them. MOUZ’s remaining roster will be playing in Poland, as they did not test positive for COVID-19.
IEM Katowice would be the debut tournament for the current iteration of MOUZ, after they added NBK- and torszi in place of ropz and acoR back in January 2022 once the 2021 CSGO season had ended for them. NBK- would be returning to CS after a short stint in Valorant while torszi has been promoted from the academy roster to take over as AWPer.
JDC will play in yet another Grand Final of the WePlay Academy League on Sunday, before he travels to Poland to play with MOUZ’s main team. “Auri (Bymas) really deserved to play this tournament. The situation is unfortunate. The team has made tremendous progress daily, and this is a true bummer. JDC is a great stand-in though, so let’s go!” said MOUZ coach Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen
This isn’t the first case of a player having to sit out of IEM Katowice, as earlier FaZe Clan’s star ropz contracted Covid-19 too and would be out of action for the early stages of IEM Katowice 2022. FaZe Clan CSGO called upon former Complexity player Justin ‘jks’ Savage to take ropz’s place. Should FaZe advance, ropz would be back in the team by February 19 after he completes his permanent quarantine period and tests negative again.
MOUZ’s CSGO roster for IEM Katowice will be:
- David “frozen” Čerňanský
- Christopher “dexter” Nong
- Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt
- Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás
- Jon “JDC” de Castro (stand-in)
- Dennis “sycrone” Nielsen (coach)
