1337 to Cologne qualifier as mix

The future of the former Property team had been up in the air after they secured a spot at the offline qualifier for ESL One Cologne with three stand-ins as Andreas "⁠znajder⁠" Lindberg and Mathias "⁠pauf⁠" Köhler were on holiday and Jonatan "⁠Devilwalk⁠" Lundberg was in Slovenia providing commentary on the Gaming Paradise qualifier.

Since tournament rules stipulate that a team needs to have at least 3/5 of the lineup they qualified with to be able to attend the offline event, 1337 would always have to leave at least one of their core members behind.

This morning, znajder revealed via Twitter that he had been removed from 1337 together with pauf and Devilwalk as the team prefers to attend the qualifier with the exact same lineup that secured a spot at the event - featuring Miran "⁠dumz⁠" Matković, Benjamin "⁠BENDJI⁠" Söderena and Gustav "⁠KAB0M⁠" Runemalm as substitutes.

Contacted by HLTV.org, Erik "⁠zende⁠" Sundeqvist explained that making two of the stand-ins relinquish their places "was not really fair", even though it means the team will attend the qualifier as a mix.

He also opened the door to the original 1337 team making a full comeback after the event if all the players so wish.

"The qualifiers for ESL One Cologne were announced relatively late so our teammates had booked vacations for those days, which left me and twist alone to play them," Sundeqvist told HLTV.org.

"We decided to bring in three players and play it as a mix, which worked out well as we managed to qualify.

"After the qualifier we sat down and talked, and we realized we didn't want to kick any of Dumas, bendji or KAB0M since they had all helped us qualify - it wasn't really fair.

"So, after some talks, our decision was to play this qualifier as a mix, for fun, and see where it takes us. Of course, it sucks telling our old teammates that they won't be going with us to the qualifier but we thought it was the fairest thing to do.

"We haven't explicitly said "hey, you and you are kicked", we have just told them that we will be going to this qualifier as a mix.

"I love playing with schneider, pauf and Devilwalk and hopefully we will in some way play together in the future, but for this qualifier we will play with our good friends bendji, dumas and KAB0M as a mix team."

1337 are currently looking for travel support for the ESL One Cologne qualifier and can be contacted by organisations at [email protected]. The team will attend the event with:

Simon "⁠twist⁠" Eliasson
 Erik "⁠zende⁠" Sundeqvist
 Miran "⁠dumz⁠" Matković
 Benjamin "⁠BENDJI⁠" Söderena
 Gustav "⁠KAB0M⁠" Runemalm