New OpTic Gaming roster announced for CS:GO following mixwell departure

Esports heavyweights OpTic Gaming have announced their Counter-Strike roster after suffering a number of losses in what has been a turbulent week for the team.

In what was an unexpected announcement, OpTic took to social media platform Twitter to confirm their new line-up.

Peter ‘stanislaw’ Jarguz and Shahzeb ‘ShahZaM’ Khan, two original OpTic members, will be returning this season to soften the blow of OpTic’s big departures.

Stanislaw returns from a stint with Team Liquid, during which he helped them to victory at the Americas Minor Championship, which earned them New Challenge Status at the ELEAGUE Major in Boston last month.

ShahZaM was with OpTic for three months back in 2016, helping the team to place first in the ELEAGUE Road to Vegas tournament. He has since spent time with Echo Fox, Team SoloMId and Misfits.

They will be joined by three of CS:GO’s best talents from Denmark.

Kristian ‘K0nfig’ Wienecke and René ‘cajunb’ Borg will be joining following their release from North following the ELEAGUE Major Boston.

Nicklas ‘gade’ Gade, previously part of the North Academy, will make up the five man team. While unproven at the highest level, gade comes with plenty of potential and will be well supported by his fellow Danes.

OpTic Gaming’s lost two

The future of OpTic’s CS:GO team has been up in the air following the departure of fan favourite Oscar “mixwell” Canellas.

The Spanish star was released by OpTic earlier this month. However, the organisation insists that it wasn’t their decision.

Speaking via Reddit, Infinite Esports & Entertainment (OpTic’s parent company) Vice President of Esports Jacob ‘Maelk’ Toft-Andersen said:

“If I could have kept Oscar, I would have, but Oscar has other aspirations that we didn’t want to stand in the way of.”

Losing mixwell was by far the biggest blow that OpTic could have suffered. However, it wasn’t made any easier by the confirmation of Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif’s departure soon after. The Danish star was offered the chance to join Astralis back in Denmark and jumped at the opportunity.

There were also reports of Kevin ‘HS’ Tarn departing OpTic to join the Australian Renegades. However, the transfer appears to have fallen through. Renegades have since announced their own 2018 roster and HS’s name doesn’t feature.

With the confirmation of this new 2018 lineup, HS will instead join OpTIc’s inactive roster.