SAW bench arrozdoce, sign Ag1l

The Portuguese star rifler is on the lookout for a new team with less than three months left on his contract.

Update 22:06 : SAW confirm Ag1l addition

Just half an hour following their original announcement of Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing's benching, SAW confirmed the signing of a replacement in André "⁠Ag1l⁠" Gil, who has been submitted as their substitute for the Shanghai RMRs.

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SAW have decided to bench anchor/lurker arrozdoce, the Portuguese organization announced Wednesday. The decision comes as a huge shock as SAW are slated to compete at ESL Challenger Katowice in two weeks and at the all-important Europe RMR in Shanghai next month.

In a statement, the Portuguese organization explained that the player expressed an interest in leaving the team at the end of the year.

"After much consideration, and in order to protect the interests of the organization, we decided that the right thing to do would be to move to the bench with immediate effect so that the team has time to recover and evolve until the next important competitions that lie ahead and to prepare for the medium- to long-term future," SAW said.

arrozdoce made his final appearance for SAW at ESL Challenger Atlanta, where the Portuguese team was defeated in the semi-finals by BIG. In the group stage, the team had lost to FlyQuest and narrowly avoided being eliminated by BetBoom, defeating the Russians 2-1 after coming back from 5-11 down on the decider map.

arrozdoce joined SAW in April 2023, reuniting with his former FTW teammates Michel "⁠ewjerkz⁠" Pinto and João "⁠story⁠" Vieira. Earlier this year, the trio played a key role in helping SAW make history as the first Portuguese team to qualify for a Major.

In March, SAW also qualified for the BLAST Premier Spring Final via the Showdown (in which arrozdoce was voted the tournament's MVP). And in August, the Portuguese team broke into the top 10 in the world rankings following a surprising semi-final run at IEM Cologne, where they beat teams like G2, The MongolZ and FaZe.

HLTV knows that SAW have submitted Rhyno's Ag1l as their substitute for the Europe RMR, where he will be filling in for arrozdoce. It's unclear at this point if the 21-year-old will also be playing at ESL Challenger Katowice, scheduled for October 25-27.

Perhaps in anticipation of today's announcement, arrozdoce signed with talent agency ULTI Agency last week. The Portuguese player will now begin his search for a new team, but with many rosters locked until after the Major, there's a chance the 22-year-old rifler will only return in 2025.

SAW are now:

Christopher "⁠MUTiRiS⁠" Fernandes
Ricardo "⁠roman⁠" Oliveira
João "⁠story⁠" Vieira
Michel "⁠ewjerkz⁠" Pinto
André "⁠Ag1l⁠" Gil

Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger (coach)

Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing (bench)