lmbt leaves forZe

The Ukrainian coach is looking for a new challenge after eight months with the team.

Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov has announced that he has stepped down from his role as FORZE's coach. The 33-year-old was added to the organisation's coaching staff in April and worked in tandem with Anatoliy "⁠liTTle⁠" Yashin, whose current role is unknown.

lmbt, who coached HellRaisers, mousesports and AVANGAR before joining FORZE, was unable to turn the team's fortunes around as they have been unable to return to the top 20 in the world rankings and lie in seventh place in the CIS Regional Major Ranking (RMR), two spots below the qualification zone.

"I joined the team at a hard time and it was interesting to experiment with two coaches," lmbt wrote in a Twitlonger post. "We tried different approaches, but it seems like it didn't work out. I wish the best to an organisation that was friendly to me, and a fast return to the top 20."

The news further adds to the uncertainty surrounding FORZE, who tested Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk and Igor "⁠Forester⁠" Bezotecheskiy in the European Development Championship earlier this week. Almaz "⁠almazer⁠" Asadullin and Dmitriy "⁠facecrack⁠" Alekseyev, who were rumoured to be on their way out of the team, returned to the starting lineup on Thursday in the 2-1 victory over Espada for DreamHack Open December.

Until he finds a new team, lmbt will be focusing on his role as an FPL Mentor and on his analyst duties for CIS broadcast company Maincast, the Ukrainian added.