AZR departs Sprout after 45 days

It was a short and fruitless partnership between the European squad and Australian caller.

Sprout have announced the departure of Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward from the team, with the in-game leader lasting barely a month on the roster. The announcement comes just over a week after the squad failed to make it through the BLAST Paris Major Europe RMR A.

Sprout have stated that they will trial new IGLs both in officials and practice games, going on to say that "this may result in weekly changing players taking part."

AZR came into Sprout after a period of instability for the European squad as they searched for an adequate replacement for Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali, who had stepped down from his leadership duties.

First the team tried Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath in place of Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss, then chose to return Zyphon to the main roster and bench refrezh instead, and their coach Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger had to represent them at CCT Central Europe Malta Finals.

The Australian IGL AZR led the team to a 6-10 match record in his time with them, their only win over a top 50 side coming against Apeks in early March. They flopped horribly in the events they participated in during this period, failing to qualify for ESL Challenger Melbourne, IEM Dallas and BLAST Spring Showdown, ending joint-last in BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic, and failing to make it through the BLAST Paris Major RMR.

"It was clear early on that it just wasn't a good fit with roles clashing and not having the same vision for the IGL to take and create space for the team," AZR said of his stint on the team in a TwitLonger post.

Sprout’s CS:GO manager, Daniel Paulus, said in a statement "in the fast-paced world of esports making the right call for player and roster changes can be challenging. With little to no time, one will never know for sure if a decision is fitting until further."

Also included in the announcement was mention that Sprout are planning to create an academy team in the summer. "I am thrilled to be involved in our upcoming CS:GO academy team project. I see this team not as a separate entity but as a second team that will bring great value to our organization," opined BERRY in a statement regarding the future academy team.

Sprout are now:

Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr
Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea
Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss
Adrian "⁠XELLOW⁠" Guță

Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger (coach)