Monte sign STYKO, add hAdji as stand-in*

Monte now only need one more player to bring their roster back up to full strength.

STYKO departed Apeks after the team struggled for some time to kick on and match their BLAST Paris Major exploits

Update 20:00 : Monte has announced that Ali "⁠hAdji⁠" Haïnouss will stand in for the team for their upcoming online tournaments and IEM Dallas.

Monte has announced the signing of Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk, marking the end of a short period of free agency for the Slovakian.

STYKO departed Apeks and entered free agency at the start of May as they sought to rebuild their squad, saying he felt "relieved" to be departing what felt like "a sinking ship."

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STYKO enters free agency

He joins a Monte squad that were first left needing to fill two roster spots at the end of February, as Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev left the team by mutual consent and Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro departed to sign for Astralis. Initially two players were promoted from Monte Gen, Jack "⁠Gizmy⁠" von Spreckelsen and Gytis "⁠ryu⁠" Glušauskas, but both were sent back to the academy squad after a period of mixed results.

The team struggled in online competition but performed surprisingly well at the recently-concluded ESL Pro League, making a run to the playoffs after two wins over FORZE and one over FURIA, and they also took a map off FaZe before being knocked out.

STYKO joins Monte after a largely fruitless period with Apeks. He was part of the team that made a shock run to the semi-finals of BLAST Paris Major early in 2023, but after the departure of Justinas "⁠jL⁠" Lekavicius, the team struggled to kick on and replicate the form that took them to the top four of a Major. In an attempt to correct their trajectory, Apeks benched STYKO in October in favour of academy player Ådne "⁠sense⁠" Fredriksen.

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STYKO returns to Apeks on short-term deal

Damjan "⁠kyxsan⁠" Stoilkovski then left a still struggling Apeks in December of last year, resulting in STYKO being brought back on a short-term deal. The goal of his return was to reach the first CS2 Major, PGL Major Copenhagen, which the team achieved, but beyond that they found little success.

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STYKO: "I came to the RMR to do one job, and that job is done"

In a drastic move Apeks recently transfer-listed their entire roster, shortly after which STYKO entered free agency.

Monte have little time to fill their other vacant roster spot as they have an appearance at IEM Dallas on the horizon, starting May 27, but rumours suggest that hAdji is already lined up as their final signing.

Monte is now:

Volodymyr "⁠Woro2k⁠" Veletniuk
Sergiy "⁠DemQQ⁠" Demchenko
Szymon "⁠kRaSnaL⁠" Mrozek
Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk

Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov (coach)