In a move that will come as a shock to many, Mousesports have announced that they have relieved the services of Martin “STYKO” Styk and Chris “chrisJ” de Jong from the active roster, along with coach Sergey “lmbt” Bezhanov.
The announcement comes on the back of a horrendous showing at the Europe Minor for the IEM Katowice Major where they missed out on a major spot by going out in the group stage. They had also had a 0-3 drubbing at the FACEIT Major last year, causing one of the biggest upsets in the tournament.
Announcing changes to our Counter-Strike: Global Offensive division.
Read more: https://t.co/z65USQgxA7 pic.twitter.com/BwHV1zid9Y
— MOUZ (@mousesports) February 4, 2019
“Parting ways after one and a half years and 19 offline tournaments is not easy, but sometimes a few steps back can be multiple steps forward. There are no hard feelings or any bad blood inside the team, we just drove ourselves into a situation we couldn’t get out of and something had to change,” suNny said in a statement for mousesports.
“It was the most successful run for all of us and I hope that this will change the careers of all of us for the better. Thank you guys for everything. Looking forward to a new and fresh chapter now, where we can be consistent contenders for titles again.”
The move may come as a shock for chrisJ, who was one of the more consistent players of the team, and has been in the organisation since 2013. As for Styko, he again saw himself at the end of the firing line after he had already been replaced and brought back late last year.
Related: Why you won’t see mousesports for the First time ever in a CSGO Major
The move also sees the departure of coach Imbt who had been in the organisation for the past 2 and a half years. The focus will now be on finding the new players and support staff to assist the core of suNny, oskar and ropz.
Under the leader of Chris, Mouz had rebuilt following the departure of star player niko and became a consistent top 5 team, winning the ESL One New York and StarLadder i-League Season 4 among numerous other top 4 standings. The move certainly reinforces the fact that nothing at all is permanent in CSGO.
