9INE announce new roster featuring mantuu, refrezh and misutaaa

9INE have gone international after sporting all-Polish rosters for the last two years.

9INE has announced their new roster featuring Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski, Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali, Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier, Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg and Alexandru "⁠s0und⁠" Ștefan.

With the international move the organization brings an end to their recent tradition of housing all-Polish squads. Their most successful team, headlined by Olek "⁠hades⁠" Miskiewicz, got 9INE on the Major map, but after ENCE swooped in to buy out the three of their players late last year, attempts at a rebuild around Polish players did not come to fruition.

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"We decided to adapt to today's meta by building an international roster, ensuring we don't limit our talent pool to a single nation," 9INE CGO Adam Videll said in a statement. "Following extensive discussions and a rigorous trial process, we are proud to present a lineup with immense potential, made possible by our competent coaching staff and team management.”

mantuu, refrezh and misutaaa are the most recognizable names that are a part of 9INE's rebuild, with all three sporting relatively recent tier one experience.

mantuu made his name with OG before spending most of the last year playing for BIG, but despite his solid 1.12 average rating during his time with the German organization, he was benched early this year as they returned to an all-German roster.

refrezh was part of the HEROIC lineup that rose to the top of the CS world under the leadership of Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, but his notable drop-off in performance on LAN eventually led the Danes to bench him. Since he has turned out for the likes of Sprout, with whom he made a surprise run to the Legends Stage of IEM Rio Major 2022, Evil Geniuses and Preasy.

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misutaaa broke onto the tier one scene with Vitality, winning several significant events like IEM Winter 2021 over his two-year tenure, but was benched as the team struggled to consistently take trophies. Relatively brief and largely fruitless stints with Falcons and Into the Breach followed, and he was benched by Into the Breach earlier this year after they failed to qualify for PGL Major Copenhagen.

raalz and s0und are both journeymen familiar to the tier two scene. raalz's career dates back to 2013 and he attended some of the earliest Majors, but in recent years he has mostly featured in tier two online events with the likes of Copenhagen Flames and Sprout. 21-year-old s0und took his first steps into competitive CS in 2020 and 2021 with Romanian squads on GameAgents and Nexus, and returned to Nexus mid-way through 2023 after short stints on international lineups.

9INE are:

Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski
Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali
Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier
Rasmus "⁠raalz⁠" Steensborg
Alexandru "⁠s0und⁠" Ștefan

Mikołaj "⁠miNirox⁠" Michałków (coach)