Winstrike complete roster with NickelBack

Having played with the team since the begining of the month, Aleksei "⁠NickelBack⁠" Trofimov has completed his trial and officially joined the ranks of Winstrike.

NickelBack previously represented pro100 for over a year, from April 2019 to June 2020, and comes in Winstrike as a replacement for Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov who left in July. The 23-year-old Russian, who has taken on the in-game leader role, has played 18 maps for his new team so far and averaged an impressive 1.11 rating, but Winstrike only managed to convert that form into a handful of wins.

"Over the past few years, NickelBack has done a good job and has grown as a player and as a person. That's why I have no doubt that he will perfectly suit our team and lead the team to victories", the team's coach Dmitry "⁠hooch⁠" Bogdanov said in the announcement. The two are well acquainted, as they played alongside one another in teams such as EPG and RuSh3D dating back to 2016.

NickelBack is the new leader of Winstrike

Currently ranked #43 in the world, Winstrike have fallen hard from their peak at #24 in May, which came as a result of a second-place finish in ESL One: Road to Rio - CIS. hooch's team was unable to find the same success in the WePlay! Clutch Island, after which HObbit's departure took place, costing them additional RMR points and leaving the team in eight place of their regional standing - behind the likes of Espada and Gambit Youngsters.

"At the moment, we train six days a week and are doing our best to catch the chance to get to the Major. No matter that we lost a significant number of points when the player left. If there is a chance, it is worth trying", the team's coach added.

Winstrike are now:

Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk
Viktor "⁠Lack1⁠" Boldyrev
Aidyn "⁠KrizzeN⁠" Turlybekov
Aleksei "⁠El1an⁠" Gusev
Aleksei "⁠NickelBack⁠" Trofimov

Dmitry "⁠hooch⁠" Bogdanov (coach)