New Inner Circle squad debuts with 3DMAX win

In their first match sporting the Inner Circle jersey, the Ukrainian side took advantage of a 3DMAX squad playing without AWPer Maka.

Inner Circle's new roster, formerly TNL, have enjoyed a winning start to life under their recently-adopted tag, taking down 3DMAX to kick off their ESL Pro League Season 22 Stage 1 campaign.

The result bears significance as not only was it a first win for the new Inner Circle lineup, it was also the first significant LAN match for the entire roster, who recently made waves impressing in the lower tiers of the online circuit as TNL.

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The Ukrainian squad were aided in their endeavours by the fact 3DMAX were fielding a weakened lineup, their best player Bryan "⁠Maka⁠" Canda missing the match as he is attending his brother's wedding. Nabil "⁠Nivera⁠" Benrlitom, who previously featured for teams like Vitality and more recently Mousquetaires, took to the server in Maka's stead.

Nivera gave a good account of himself on the opening map of Ancient, producing some excellent play on CT side to help his team inch to an overtime win to open the series, whilst Filip "⁠Graviti⁠" Brankovic did the heavy lifting on T side.

The Belgian fell off, however, and bottomed out the scoreboards on the next two maps as Inner Circle brushed 3DMAX aside on Nuke and Train.

Alexandre "⁠bodyy⁠" Pianaro lamented his team's efforts in a post on X after the match, stating his team "were horrible" in the game and saying Nivera "deserved better than this," presumably referring to the Beglian's strong showing on the first map.