KENSI joins Aurora

The 21-year-old has found a new team after spending the last two months on FORZE's bench.

Aleksandr "⁠KENSI⁠" Gurkin has completed a transfer to Aurora and departed FORZE, ending a two-month stint sitting on the sidelines and reuniting with former teammate Evgeny "⁠Norwi⁠" Ermolin ahead of the 2023 season.

KENSI was benched from FORZE in October alongside Norwi following the team's failure to qualify for the IEM Rio Major, ending his 20-month tenure as a part of the active roster.

During that time, he averaged a 1.06 rating and competed in a number of notable events, managing wins in a handful of online competitions but failing to make a mark in larger international appearances. Following his benching, KENSI revealed that the team had been suffering from a number of internal issues, stating that "a lot of annoying factors and conflicts" had escalated and not been fixed since PGL Major Antwerp.

KENSI added that there was no bad blood between him and the players on the team, saying he was happy to play with every team member since he joined, something that was further evidenced as he temporarily stepped in for one map in December in FORZE's CCT Central Europe Series 4 bid.

Aurora will hope that KENSI's addition can bring them better results heading into 2023. The team had managed to upset Astralis en route to qualifying for the IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR, but were ultimately unsuccessful in their own campaign to qualify for the IEM Rio Major and exited the RMR in last place. managing few other notable results as the year drew to an end.

Aurora's RMR exit was soon followed by the benching of Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin, the team's highest-rated player, leaving them to reconfigure their roster as the start of the new year approaches.

Aurora now have:

Evgeny "⁠delus1onn⁠" Plottsov
Viktor "⁠Lack1⁠" Boldyrev
Evgeny "⁠Norwi⁠" Ermolin
Aleksandr "⁠KENSI⁠" Gurkin

Sergey "⁠starix⁠" Ischuk (coach)

Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin (transfer listed)