EYEBALLERS bench SHiNE, flusha to stand in

The Swedish team is evaluating its next steps after failing to qualify for three offline events in a row.

EYEBALLERS have moved in-game leader Casper "⁠SHiNE⁠" Wennerberg to the bench and announced the return of co-owner Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist as a stand-in while they "figure out [their] next step as a team."

The 21-year-old captain has been a part of the Swedish roster's core since February 2022, when the team initially formed as Hellslayers before Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell and flusha revived the historic EYEBALLERS tag four months later.

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The team started well under their new banner with a trophy lift at Svenska Elitserien Spring 2022 Finals, a local Swedish LAN where they beat Young Ninjas in the finals, but otherwise struggled to make deep runs in online competitions and qualifiers over the following year.

Early exits in everything from CCT events to LAN event qualifiers meant the team got little offline international experience, and though they continued to contend for titles at local Swedish LANs, change was needed, and it came in the form of flusha's retirement from competition in August 2023.

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The addition of Ludvig "⁠HEAP⁠" Alonso on a full-time basis hasn't fully turned that trajectory around, however, and EYEBALLERS woes have continued in 2024. The team started strong by qualifying for the PGL Major Copenhagen EU RMR closed qualifier, but couldn't tally a win and exited their Swiss group with an 0-3 record.

Their attempt to qualify for BLAST Spring Showdown was then halted by fellow Swedish side Metizport, who EYEBALLERS got revenge over in the Swedish ESL Challenger Jönköping qualifier, but a loss to Alliance in the all-important qualifying match meant the team around JW missed out on earning a spot at their home event.

"Tough decisions has to be made sometimes, [the] team didn't move forward in the way we all wanted to so we have to back off a bit and re-evaluate how we want to go forward," JW said about the move in a post on X.

flusha stepped in for EYEBALLERS as an "extra coach" in February to help the team prepare for the Jönköping qualifier, but now returns to the server as a player nearly seven months after his retirement. His arrival as a stand-in comes at a time when EYEBALLERS have little lined up, with their only ongoing competition being ESL Challenger League Season 47 Europe.

EYEBALLERS are now:

Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell
Anton "⁠Sapec⁠" Palmgren
Peppe "⁠Peppzor⁠" Borak
Ludvig "⁠HEAP⁠" Alonso
Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist (stand-in)

Fredrik "⁠slap⁠" Junbrant (coach)

Casper "⁠SHiNE⁠" Wennerberg (benched)