Wildcard announce new roster featuring Forsaken core

The North American organization pulled the plug on its previous team shortly after the players' return from Europe.

Wildcard have unveiled their new Counter-Strike team, featuring the Forsaken player trio of Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz, Gage "⁠Infinite⁠" Green and Josh "⁠JBa⁠" Barutt, as well as coach Matt "⁠Warden⁠" Dickens.

Keller "⁠SLIGHT⁠" Nilan is the only player who transitions from the previous Wildcard roster, which was let go shortly after returning from a bootcamp in Europe. The move came as a surprise to the remaining players, who were informed about the organization’s plans only after Wednesday’s match against Eros, according to Dust2.us.

Rounding out the roster is former Cloud9 and Extra Salt member Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek. The South African player returned to activity in May and stood in for Complexity at IEM Dallas and the BLAST Premier Spring Final before joining Bad News Bears. He averaged a 1.14 rating while playing for Joshua "⁠steel⁠" Nissan’s team to prove himself as one of the best players available on the market.

“I’m joining Wildcard on a short-term contract as I still have obligations for school,” Sonic told HLTV. “I’m hoping to aid the team in reaching their next level.

“Ultimately, when the team gets to a point where they have to be in Europe for the majority of their time I will no longer be able to compete for them. I hope to inspire and assist the young up and coming players to achieve the goals they have set out for themselves.”

Meanwhile, Wildcard have announced that they are retaining coach João "⁠horvy⁠" Horvath, who will guide the team alongside Warden.

The new Wildcard roster looks as follows:

United States Keller "⁠SLIGHT⁠" Nilan
Canada Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz
United States Gage "⁠Infinite⁠" Green
United States Josh "⁠JBa⁠" Barutt
South Africa Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek

United States Matt "⁠Warden⁠" Dickens (coach)
Brazil João "⁠horvy⁠" Horvath (coach)

United States Josh 'JBa' Barutt
Josh 'JBa' Barutt
Age:
19
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.07
Maps played:
193
KPR:
0.72
DPR:
0.65
South Africa Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Age:
24
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.09
Maps played:
1023
KPR:
0.74
DPR:
0.64
United States Matt 'Warden' Dickens
Matt 'Warden' Dickens
Age:
38
Team:
No team
Rating 1.0:
0.78
Maps played:
56
KPR:
0.54
DPR:
0.72
Canada Joshua 'steel' Nissan
Joshua 'steel' Nissan
Age:
33
Rating 1.0:
1.01
Maps played:
663
KPR:
0.70
DPR:
0.69
United States Keller 'SLIGHT' Nilan
Keller 'SLIGHT' Nilan
Age:
21
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.04
Maps played:
496
KPR:
0.70
DPR:
0.64
United States Gage 'Infinite' Green
Gage 'Infinite' Green
Age:
25
Team:
Rating 1.0:
1.09
Maps played:
1037
KPR:
0.74
DPR:
0.66
Canada Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Age:
29
Team:
Rating 1.0:
0.96
Maps played:
1476
KPR:
0.64
DPR:
0.66
kek
2023-11-11 00:32
0
9 replies
sadge for wiz... awper on EG to getting left behind after your indy team finds an org. thats a ROUGH career trajectory
2023-11-11 01:00
0
8 replies
xddd
2023-11-11 01:00
0
He will probably just replace slight on the ex-wildcard roster
2023-11-11 01:13
0
1 reply
Glass half full kinda guy. I like it!
2023-11-11 01:33
0
Honestly skill issue. He could just left to play in tier 3 EU, but choose to stay in this dumpster fire of region to collect paychecks. Good riddance Wiz
2023-11-11 02:54
0
d4rty INSTEAD of bot awper SLIGHT and Sonic to awp like he did all this last months...
2023-11-11 03:03
0
#53
JDC | 
Germany SeBook
How? It was so expected. Look at his stats, 1.08 over his Forsaken playingtime as an awper, there were literally 3 riflers having better ratings than him, two being above 1.10
2023-11-11 03:20
0
Insane that they instead take sonic on short term where he’s inevitably gonna be leaving when they go to Europe.. it’s like his one stint in EG ruined any chance of him making it back to t1, much less stable t2, what a tragedy
2023-11-11 06:09
0
1 reply
Wiz on EG was a meme. Bar none the worst t1 awper ive ever seen. I remember him battle awping 5 glocks up close in Overpass bathrooms, losing, and then his team getting full ecod. Ever since then, I knew he was either 322 or very very bad
2023-11-11 15:09
0
#2
 | 
Kazakhstan Ozymandius
wtf word.exe is back??
2023-11-11 00:32
0
5 replies
#33
 | 
North America soduk_db
Was this supposed to be funny?
2023-11-11 01:21
0
2 replies
#36
B1ad3 | 
Finland n3iki
Yes, I lol'd
2023-11-11 01:34
0
#46
 | 
Kazakhstan Ozymandius
Is your flair?
2023-11-11 02:24
0
i thought that as well xaxaxa
2023-11-11 03:36
0
Hahahaha good one! I miss Optic India and God Forsaken.
2023-11-11 04:05
0
Already better than EG
2023-11-11 00:33
0
#4
 | 
Portugal psychooo112
great team to compete with nouns
2023-11-11 00:36
0
better than EG, also an upgrade to be frank. still a shame NRG missed out on JBA tho.
2023-11-11 00:36
0
1 reply
#47
Faceit level 9  | 
 | 
United States OrganHarvester
nah NRG can now fill JBA spot with some random eu talent
2023-11-11 02:28
0
#7
 | 
Germany hltvfinest
F0rsaken the legend unbanned 3 days ago, already slaying
2023-11-11 00:39
0
#8
BzOo | 
France JBzOo
Decent team. 2 young talent 3 experienced players. Good balance Good igl probably the most talented in NA after tarik
2023-11-11 00:40
0
#9
 | 
Hungary StraYzie
For a second I thought they signed forsaken himself
2023-11-11 00:42
0
#10
 | 
United States jaank
godislaw is back
2023-11-11 00:42
0
#11
 | 
Norway biggamer69
rip old wildcard roster :( save d4rty and cryptic
2023-11-11 00:43
0
Got exposed so hard (not really) in eu the org dipped. Damn
2023-11-11 00:44
0
#16
 | 
United States KhanQu3st
RIP cxzi. Bro hard entries like a god, and gets left behind.
2023-11-11 00:49
0
2 replies
was going to say this. NRG +cxzi maybe ?
2023-11-11 00:55
0
1 reply
doubtful
2023-11-11 01:57
0
#17
 | 
Ireland Fl0werz
sonic cant decide whether or not to retire, good to see him on a team tho
2023-11-11 00:52
0
Low key got me :)
2023-11-11 01:00
0
#24
 | 
Canada _penguins
No Danny no wins
2023-11-11 01:03
0
Word.exe is back pog
2023-11-11 01:10
0
honestly a promising roster
2023-11-11 01:12
0
i legit thought indian forsaken is back
2023-11-11 01:15
0
big day for NA
2023-11-11 01:23
0
#37
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
 | 
United States TacticalSanta
sonic and slight? Whos awping?
2023-11-11 01:36
0
1 reply
#38
Faceit level 9  | 
 | 
United States Twitch_FishTheHusky
prob slight
2023-11-11 01:38
0
#39
 | 
Canada AyyyJayyy
No Indian Forsaken, No Major. Word.exe > all teams.
2023-11-11 01:42
0
#40
Dosia | 
Brazil lewd
finally a good NA team !
2023-11-11 01:45
0
#43
 | 
United States MrNorwood
I'm sorry to see Wildcard get broken up so abruptly, but I think this roster has potential.
2023-11-11 02:04
0
kinda natty ngl
2023-11-11 02:09
0
#45
 | 
Portugal MufT4r
i'd have a spot in this team kek
2023-11-11 02:14
0
fr read this thinking THEE forsaken was picked up to play with stan
2023-11-11 02:31
0
.exe yyy
2023-11-11 02:48
0
Pls don't fuck this up again infinite. gl to forsaken, I like them.
2023-11-11 03:16
0
#56
 | 
Portugal Joaoman73
they were 8-0 in ECL and just got some European experience, i doubt forsaken is better in the long run
2023-11-11 03:52
0
Awesome, another tier 2 NA team that will get crushed in any non-NA tournament.
2023-11-11 04:07
0
Good roster but only for tier 5 in America xd
2023-11-11 04:41
0
#forsakendidnothingwrong
2023-11-11 06:13
0
#62
 | 
Belarus Azy_421
>Sonic MASSIVE W
2023-11-11 06:29
0
Forsaken from India my boy
2023-11-11 06:55
0
#65
Faceit level 10  | 
 | 
Poland SebL
I wish they found some more aggresive rifler rather than JBa/Sonic, but overall, the roster looks pretty decent I must say, looking forward to this, GL boys.
2023-11-11 09:44
0
#66
Old school: User been here for more than 10 years  | 
 | 
Finland Jardeet
nice, infinite the racist kid who shouts N bombs in pugs and thinks its funny
2023-11-11 10:14
0
#67
Faceit level 8  | 
 | 
United States sziasztok
Drop d4rty for this? Wildcard has only lost 1 map in 8 Challenger matches and just had a good placing in a European event, I dont see the logic being this move.
2023-11-11 10:41
0
1 reply
probably for the long term since they seem to be valuing stan's years of experience. And JBa's currently NA's best prospect right now so that was kind of a no-brainer. And stan's crew of misfits have been consistently beating Wildcard's old roster to begin with.
2023-11-11 15:12
0
#68
 | 
Luxembourg Maurizi0
Mira again with tier6 nobodies team article.
2023-11-11 10:56
0
Someone told me sonic retired, what I tell u when he was back playing FPL ;)
2023-11-11 11:31
0
1 reply
2023-11-11 12:57
0
shilo na myilo
2023-11-11 11:37
0
#75
 | 
United States 2046
Is Slight even an upgrade over wiz? Sonic over Cxzi is nice though, sadly this is probably the second best NA team
2023-11-11 18:59
0
why sonic and slight is both awpers
2023-11-11 23:19
0
sonic is back??
2023-11-13 10:38
0
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