MSL benched as North sign cadiaN; gade returns

North have confirmed the signing of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, who will take over as AWP'er and in-game leader from Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen, who as of now resides on the bench. As a part of the shuffle, Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade will return to the team after being loaned out to OpTic.

The decision to bench MSL comes after the 23-year-old has led the squad since it was picked up by Danish football club FC Copenhagen and production company Nordisk Film under the North moniker in early 2017.

The oft-criticised in-game leader recently took up the AWP after the benching of Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz, and led his team to a relieving victory at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, where he was also crowned the HLTV.org and Betway MVP for his impactful sniper play. The triumph in the Swedish capital came after a long period of inconsistency, but the rush of victory wouldn't last long, as North failed to get past the New Challengers Stage at the FACEIT Major only a few days later.

cadiaN will return to Denmark to lead North

MSL himself had the following to say about his departure from North:

A four year long journey has ended. It started out with aizy leaving for FaZe and me and Kjaerbye building a new team of talents which surprisingly got in top-6 in the world. Since then, it has been a very interesting journey with a lot of ups and downs[...] Looking back, I’m very proud of what I have accomplished, being top-5 in average in 2017. Over the 4 years I have won two big titles and four small ones and I’m very happy that I could finish my time in North by giving the fans that stuck with us a very big title. I want to thank all the teammates I have had through the time and thank North for the time. I will come back stronger!

Coming in to replace MSL will be cadiaN, who spent the last year in the US, leading Rogue to climb the rankings and eventually come in second at the Americas Minor to qualify for the FACEIT Major, where the team did well in spite of being eliminated in the New Challengers Stage.

The 23-year-old captain impressed fans and analysts with his aggressive individual plays as well as his apparent preparations before Rogue's matches against better-ranked opponents such as Astralis and North, a combination of talents that also impressed the Copenhagen-based team, who have been on the lookout for a dedicated AWPer since the departure of mertz:

I am glad to welcome cadiaN to the team today. We evaluated the team composition after the Major and decided that we needed a new leadership. With Casper, we get a leader with a different approach to the game and meta. I expect that the duo of cadiaN and ave [North coach] will be able to develop our game even further, says Jonas "⁠whimp⁠" Svendsen, Director of Esports at North.

gade’s loan spell in OpTic is now over

North have further announced the return of gade, whom they loaned out to OpTic after the 23-year-old rifler's tenure in the now-defunct North Academy squad. gade will replace the team's most recent acquisition, the stand-in Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen, who was brought in on a swap loan deal with HEROIC for the aforementioned mertz.

According to a press release from North, niko will return to his old team, but the 20-year-old has apparently been cut from HEROIC's ESEA roster.

North's first showing with cadiaN and gade will be tonight, as the team plays its opening match in the ECS Season 6 Challenger Cup against Epsilon. The new lineup for the Copenhagen-based team looks as follows:

Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye
Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup
Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade
Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller