Hawks join Curse

Finnish Hawks have joined the North American Curse organization as their European Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad.

Hawks had been without an organization since WinFakt closed its doors roughly a month ago, just weeks prior to DreamHack Winter 2012. SteelSeries sponsored the Finns' trip to Jönköping, where they placed 9-12th after a close loss against VeryGames.

Hawks showed promise at DreamHack despite a bad finish 

Since then Hawks have shown promise online as they've scored convincing wins over the likes of CPLAY, Copenhagen Wolves, RuSh3D and Natus Vincere, and qualified for Thor Open.

They have now managed to secure a sponsorship deal with Curse, who most recently sent their American CS:GO team to DreamHack Winter, where they failed to impress, going out with a 0-1-2 record.

"We are happy to announce that Hawks have finally landed a new home in Curse. This will give us the opportunity to truely show what we're capable of as they have shown great support right away with funding us over to THOR Open on such a short notice. This partnership gives our team the necessary support on our way up the ranks of CSGO internationally, team captain Joona "natu" Leppänen told HLTV.org.

"We hope that everyone that has been supporting us as Hawks will continue to do so in the future under the Curse-flag. You can expect a lot of streaming and other content from the players through various social media and on Curse websites.

"I would especially like to thank Ben and Mike of Curse for believing in us!"

When asked about reasons for picking up the Finns, Ben Robinson from Curse told HLTV.org the following:

"The Hawks are a team we are very fond of. They embody all of the values we covet in our Curse teams. When we learned of their availability we couldn't have been more excited as they were the ideal team for us if we were to expand to Europe. We anticipate a long term partnership that will hopefully allow the team to compete with the very best the world has to offer."

The former Hawks roster will of course join Curse as a whole without any changes, so the five players representing Curse's European CS:GO squad are:

Curse:

Aleksi "allu" Jalli
Niko "naSu" Kovanen
Joona "natu" Leppänen
Timo "reflex" Rintala
Jonas "ScurK" Finnilä

Hawks will debut under the Curse flag at Thor Open in Stockholm, Sweden this weekend. HLTV.org will travel on-site to provide you with full coverage of the 130,000 SEK (~$19,700) tournament.