fnatic release academy roster, extend keita and Samuelsson contracts

The fnatic Rising core that won WePlay Academy League Season 5 will be available as free agents.

fnatic announced on Friday their intention to put their academy project on hold 18 months after its revival, citing a desire to better evaluate the organization's place in the junior circuit.

The decision means that Sebastian "⁠volt⁠" Maloș, Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath, Matias "⁠Banjo⁠" Kivistö, and Adam "⁠WolfY⁠" Andersson will not longer represent the black-and-orange and will leave the organization free to explore their options in the market.

The London-based organization also announced contract extensions for coach Jamie "⁠keita⁠" Hall and team director Andreas "⁠Samuelsson⁠" Samuelsson, which will keep the duo tied down to fnatic for another year.

fnatic Rising attended WePlay Academy League's inaugural season in 2021, when several organizations decided to revive the Counter-Strike academy circuit, and competed in all six editions of the tournament. They played an important role in bringing down the four-time reigning champions MOUZ NXT and won the fifth season. In the last edition played to date, the young squad was unable to repeat the feat and failed to reach the playoffs.

The most recent development came in early December when fnatic Rising and Peppe "⁠Peppzor⁠" Borak decided to part ways. The Swedish rifler was the last original member of the academy team and often featured in the senior roster as a stand-in or substitute as was the case during Elisa Masters Espoo 2022. After playing for fnatic's main team and winning a lesser title with them, Peppzor had ambitions above the academy circuit's level and decided to join the EYEBALLERS project headlined by ex-fnatic players Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist and Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell.

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"We’ll be putting a pause on the Fnatic Rising squad as these players graduate and other contracts expire," read fnatic's statement on their website. "Putting the roster on pause may come as a surprise, but we want to take the time to best strategise about our place in the CSGO academy leagues to best benefit both the players who enter the programme and also Fnatic’s overarching strategy."

keita and Samuelsson extending their contract means that they will remain with the organization until the end of 2023. The Swede became fnatic's team director in 2021, taking the step up into management after almost two years as the main roster's coach, in which he oversaw fnatic's short resurgence at the end of 2019 and a victory at DreamHack Masters Malmö before the team's fall during the online era and the move to a European roster.

keita took over the coaching position from Samuelsson as one the of last steps in fnatic's transition from a Swedish-majority roster to a European project in 2021.

The players entering free agency are:

Matias "⁠Banjo⁠" Kivistö
Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath
Sebastian "⁠volt⁠" Maloș
Adam "⁠WolfY⁠" Andersson