maNkz to miss IEM Katowice, Americas RMR

28-1-2024 16:14

The Dane will miss two consecutive offline events due to personal reasons.

maNkz was also absent at ESL Challenger Atlanta

M80 will be without their Danish in-game leader, Marcus "⁠maNkz⁠" Kjeldsen, at IEM Katowice and the PGL Copenhagen Major's RMR, the American organization has announced.

Head coach Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson will step back into the server to fill the gap again after maNkz also missed out on attending ESL Challenger Atlanta due to visa issues. This time visa issues have not played a part in the player missing events and personal reasons have been cited instead.

The news comes mere days before the team's opening match at the IEM Katowice Play-in stage, where they are set to face GamerLegion in a best-of-one on January 31.

maNkz's absence comes as a blow for M80, who have impressed domestically in North America and established themselves as a top team in the region alongside Wildcard, Nouns, Complexity, and Liquid.

The maNkz-led team recently earned spots at the PGL Major Copenhagen Americas RMR and IEM Chengdu, beating Liquid in both qualifiers and recording additional wins over Nouns and Wildcard.

This iteration of the M80 roster has yet to play together on LAN, as maNkz missed ESL Challenger Atlanta and the team still had Adam "⁠WolfY⁠" Andersson in their ranks at ESL Pro League Season 18.

M80 exited ESL Challenger Atlanta in last place without their captain, losing to Virtus.pro and BESTIA as coach-turned-stand-in dephh averaged a 0.70 rating over three maps in his first return to the server in over four years.

"Sometime this week, maNkz informed the team he felt he needed to leave the team for personal reasons," dephh told Dust2.us.

"As much as it came as a shock to all the players, we must respect his decision. I will be filling in for the two upcoming tournaments due to roster lock restrictions and look forward to competing at both Katowice and the RMR."

M80's roster for the two events will be:

Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano
Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid
Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa
Fritz "⁠slaxz-⁠" Dietrich
Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson (stand-in)

Oh no GLHF

2024-01-28 16:15

1 reply

whyyyyyyyyyy mannnnn

2024-01-28 17:06

rough

Imagine deph just makes them better

3 replies

No way, last time they played with him they lost to Bestia who had 2 stanidns as well.

2024-01-28 16:33

did u watch them in atlanta?

2024-01-28 16:35

theres just no way lmao

2024-01-28 17:17

liquid still losing

2024-01-28 16:16

disappointing they can’t show up to lan as 5.

mankZ back to Ecstatic PLSSSSSSS team was good in t2 europe.. better than t2 NA

2024-01-28 17:32

rip M80

GG For M80

Hard times for the Boys, still wishing the best

Sad to miss out these important events.

2024-01-28 16:17

WTF NOOOOOOOOO

lmao, proper lan dodger.

2024-01-28 16:20

Sucks for M80. They were just starting to look promising.

6 replies

we can probably scratch them off making it to Copenhagen now. FeelsBad

2024-01-28 16:22

5 replies

Idk why cant they ask anyone other than dephh? Literally everyone from NA is free at the time and would 100% agree

2024-01-28 20:46

4 replies

roster locks.

2024-01-28 20:47

Oh yeah lmao i forgor

2 replies

he forgor💀

2024-01-30 12:59

I forgor 💀

2024-01-30 15:13

nice lan dodger

2024-01-28 16:21

Unlucky

man this m80 is so promising sad to see them never in full action

so true

2024-01-28 16:25

Wow maybe Liquid can qualify for the major now

2024-01-28 16:23

FeelsBadMan :(

2024-01-28 16:24

Just kick mankz alredy

2024-01-28 16:26

11 replies

then get who? Fucking trash like Walco?

2024-01-28 16:28

10 replies

At least Walco would show up to a LAN.

What's the point of showing up to a LAN if you aren't going to win a single map?

2024-01-28 16:46

They're doing that already.

2024-01-28 16:47

They played 2 like LANs. In one of them they had to play with a standin and the other they had fucking Wolfy can't blame them

2024-01-28 17:00

About to be 3 LANs with no IGL, two by choice.

I agree at least he would show up. I love how these Hltv posters constantly trash players because of the org they played for. Why would he be a bad choice, I thought the “eg black” team did fairly decently in the limited time they played in top tier events, especially with the opponents they faced. It’s not like the org actually helped them with eu bootcamps to improve. They just threw them to the wolves knowing they were getting out of cs and didn’t care.

2024-01-28 20:49

2024-01-29 06:30

Old stew?

2024-01-28 16:37

Oh sure, if we want another EG incident and from someone who can’t IGL.

2024-01-28 16:38

Idk that could be funny to see M80 fail and Stew to just go apeshit after going 8 and 15 blaming Mal

2024-01-28 22:12

Welp. No Major for M80 then.

Damn that really sucks, I wonder whats happened?

2024-01-28 16:30

typical LAN dodging

2024-01-28 23:16

When will mankz actually play for M80?

Some team is buying him for sure. I dont want to believe he is so rich he can afford to throw his best chance to qual for a major for “personal reasons”

2024-01-28 16:32

7 replies

thf, some irl stuff that suddenly happen can last that long before returning. Until proven otherwise, it’s probably something serious.

yeah must be that but holy fk what a wasted opportunity, they were looking as one of the strongest NA team

2024-01-28 19:29

considering its still stated that maNkz is on the team still, maNkz probably lost a very close family member recently and needed to chill out due to emotional breakdown. It's really the only logical explanation for someone needing to be benched for who knows how long without roster transfers.

2024-01-28 19:34

Ok hear me out. He misses Atlanta, Katowice and the rmr. The closed qualifiers happens between Atlanta and Katowice. If he is feeling so bad that he is missing out on all three LAN events, why would he participate in the closed qualifiers? The only thing that justifies that is if he lost a relative right before Atlanta, and he lost another relative right before Katowice, but the chances of that happening is absurd. Way too suspicious of LAN dodging/contract scum. I’m not trying to set a standard here and I do recognize how people have different mentalities, but most players when losing a relative just moved on and kept on playing, so I feel it is somewhat irresponsible and unfair for his teammates he fought with. In fact, some players were even motivated and inspired to win a title such as dupreeh, hooxi, ropz etc. after a loss of a close one. It doesn’t seem to make any sense for me anyways, when you’re team are constantly defeating prominent teams in NA like liquid and nrg, and you decide to pull out when your team needs you the most.

2024-01-29 06:26

He missed Atlanta due to a visa delay, that was not his choice.

2024-01-29 16:28

Alr mb

2024-01-30 12:01

If he wanted to contract scum he would just intentionally play so bad that the org is forced to bench him.

2024-01-28 19:12

maybe now liquid will be able to beat em

Nooo :(

Was so hyped to see them :(

2024-01-28 16:36

What is the point of qualifying for LAN and not showing up?

Well you know life happens. As it is said in article: personal reasons.

2024-01-28 16:41

Okay. Imagine when your team qualifies to RMR and suddenly your grandpa died. What will u do? You have 2 choices: Play PC game or go back to your country and go his funeral. You will choose 2nd right?

2024-01-28 16:59

i dont think the funeral lasts for 2 months until RMR in March

2024-01-29 05:50

It was just example.

2024-01-29 10:24

ask jOELZ

2024-01-28 18:06

Has he appeared at any LAN?

EPL

2024-01-28 17:29

EPL with M80, 2 ESL Challengers in 2023 and an RMR in 2022 with ECSTATIC. He attend a few smaller LANs before that.

2024-01-29 16:38

Nah man this team deserver there sticker.

2024-01-28 16:43

Birdfromsky taught this guy how to dodge LANs perfectly. Impressive.

2024-01-28 16:51

Must be something serious if he throws his teams chance for sticker money for it

2024-01-28 16:52

wtf tsm, m80, bleed all flopped hard

2024-01-28 16:53

I hope mankz will be OK. I had to set another team for Fantasy as I had two of their players.

2024-01-28 16:56

Very sad. I would have liked to see them on LAN in EI

2024-01-28 17:02

Dephh will carry

2024-01-28 17:10

It sucks for M80, but honestly it doesn't matter much. MalbsMd is fucking garbage on LAN.

Well that’s a shame. They felt like one of the favorites but with dephh… Makes the rmr even more open though, we’ll see

2024-01-28 17:12

sad

2024-01-28 17:13

Man NA can't catch a break this week.

2024-01-28 17:15

Visa issues? That's the worst excuse i've ever seen, I get it if he was russian or from other god forsaken country, but he's from a EU country, getting a visa for us is the easiest thing ever.

"This time visa issues have not played a part in the player missing events and personal reasons have been cited instead." Please read that again.

2024-01-29 16:18

hltv.org delete the comment i replied to, but yeah didnt read that part. Dudes skipping tournaments and letting his entire team down like device did, pretty typical for Danes i guess.

2024-01-29 16:19

ughhhhhhhhhhh - I was actually stoked to see this team on LAN

copenhagen is gonna be really tough, but my NA hopium is still stronger than ever

2024-01-28 17:16

Take someone else than dephh, give yourself a damn chance

2024-01-28 17:18

Read

2024-01-28 17:25

What's the personal reason?

2024-01-28 17:36

probably a relative of his that he was close to passing away suddenly/recently and took a massive toll on him.

2024-01-28 17:38

is there any info about someone close to him passing away or you're just guessing?

2024-01-28 17:49

its just a guess. There's no other real explanation for why he'll be gone for essentially an entire month. And it's commented that he's still on the team so he isn't transferring somewhere else.

2024-01-28 18:01

"Sometime this week, maNkz informed the team he felt he needed to leave the team for personal reasons. As much as it came as a shock to all the players, we must respect his decision. I will be filling in for the two upcoming tournaments due to roster lock restrictions and look forward to competing at both Katowice and the RMR." from d2.us

2024-01-28 18:43

m80 were heavy favourites to qualify, now i doubt it

no mankz no major. RIP swisher stickers

2024-01-28 17:48

unlucko

2024-01-28 17:51

lucky M80 30yo coach is better than danish bot

2024-01-28 17:52

I have no idea what is happening in his life so it's hard to judge, but again he is leaving them right before their real chance to make some headways. Like really, I was super excited to watch them play, I thought they had real big chances to make some upsets happen, and with a coach... It's not impossible, but it will be so much harder. So sad for M80 really. GL anyway, but it sucks so much.

2024-01-28 18:00

Get well maNkz and gl M80!

that sucks man, they where looking so promising for some upsets.

naaaah :/ I don't think M80 will manage to get to the major now

2024-01-28 18:02

I would kick him from team permanently

2024-01-28 18:03

Sucks, they had a chance at making the major

2024-01-28 18:11

3 LANs dodged

2024-01-28 18:35

They have 1 month until the RMR. Why play with the coach, just get oBo or something.

2024-01-28 19:47

u want the entire team to end up in rehab before april?

2024-01-28 20:42

lmfao

2024-01-30 12:58

Roster lock - read the article

2024-01-28 20:52

Just kick him honestly

2024-01-28 21:20

bro is landodger

2024-01-28 21:36

opportunity of a lifetime for everyone in the team, and suddenly personal reasons come up to take precedence. unreal

2024-01-28 21:41

M80 gotta be one of the unluckiest teams going into 2024

2024-01-28 21:43

2024-01-28 23:00

Still remember this bot lose silver clutch vs kaze on epl Just kick him

2024-01-28 22:13

Mankz Lan Dodger

2024-01-28 22:38

Sad to see. Gg to their chances at Copenhagen, can’t imagine what it was to be bad enough to throw away his biggest opportunity in his and his team’s career. Really wanted to see M80 stickers rip

2024-01-28 22:50