A day after Emil "FYRR73" Karlsson left Winfakt, fnaticRC made an announcement just recently that they have acquired the services of the young Swedish Counter-Strike superstar and will be their new in-game leader.
Considered by many an excellent move by fnatic; as they were left virtually crippled after their former in-game leader and arguably one of their best CS 1.6 players Robert “Xist” Landström chose to join Ninjas in Pyjamas’ CS:Global Offensive team. With this development fnaticRC has now a complete five-man roster in time for next week’s K1 League in Shanghai.
Karlsson has this to say about being the newest fnaticRC member:
"It will be an honour playing under the Fnatic tag and it was not a hard decision regarding the current situation of CS 1.6. I will miss my old team mates I played with for years, but I believe it´s time to move on and I really look forward to play with these 4 amazing players and try to win more titles for Fnatic!"
Although a lot of teams have transitioned to Global Offensive, fnaticRC has chosen to remain in the meantime in CS 1.6 to honor their upcoming tournament commitments and for their fans also. After the Shanghai tournament, they will compete in MCG Tehran, DreamHack Romania, PGS Portugal and then finally DreamHack Winter.
The new fnaticRC Counter-Strike 1.6 line-up:
Michael "Friis" Jørgensen- Martin "trace" Heldt
- Finn "Karrigan" Andersen
Andreas "MODDII" Frid- Emil "FYRR73" Karlsson
“The winds of changes are blowing in the world of eSports. Counter-Strike that has been the longest serving title in eSports is about to bid farewell to us all from competitive gaming, with a limited international events around the corner. No longer is CS as we know it supported by tournaments organizers and therefore is Fnatic’s strategy in FPS under transformation, in order to prepare for the future.
However, we are not ready to move to CS:GO just yet. Fnatic believes that the right thing is to proceed with CS1.6 for the next months to come, and not jumping on a train that many are afraid to miss or show up late to. We will indeed take this step later this year, but until then we will still stand close with CS1.6 and its fans, and do our very best to represent our colours, sponsors and fans in the remaining events that actually are left: Pro Gamer Series Porto and Dreamhack Romania.
On top of this, I’m also happy to announce that Emil “Fyrr73” Karlsson will replace Richard “xizt” Landström in the role as Fnatic’s in-game leader. We have had our eyes on Emil for years and seen a player that has developed into one of the best players on the planet - we can’t wait to see him progress even further while playing under our banner.
I would like to use this moment to send our best of lucks to xizt who decided to leave us and CS1.6 earlier this month. Richard is for me one of the finest players I have ever had the chance to play with, and I’m sure he will be a tough opponent for us in future clashes.
As if this informations were not enough. I can today also confirm that Fnatic will travel to Shanghai,China early next week where we are to participate in K1 season 2 for the next three weeks to come. My boys are extremely pumped to travel to this vibrant city, and I’m positive these weeks together will merge us into an entity that represents sportsmanship and team spirit - something Fnatic has been famous for since long.
Now, let me use this moment to send a message to the CS community. The past weeks has been chaotic for us all. The game and sport we are so proud to represent has been questioned and challenged. I can only suggest this: think twice and remind yourself what is actually making our sport so exciting. Doesn’t the beauty of CS comes from having the perfect balance between team play and individual performances? Are we not quite alone in the current eSports scene by supporting a game that has such an extensive history, with tons of interesting stories from the last decade that led us to this very moment, stacked with memories of what now feels like ancient players and tournaments from a period of time when the concept eSports was born. I would like to believe that these pivotal elements of our sport would not necessarily vanish because we are moving away from CS1.6, they are transferable if we only open our eyes and welcome the change.
I’m hoping that we can find a home and game which a new generation of players can justify “wasting” a decade into, and sometimes even find themselves loving the sport more than life. This is what made Counter-strike successful for such a long period, but it’s no news that we have struggled to attract new talent into our scene, something that could potentially start happen again with the rise of CS:GO.
The question is: are we willing to adapt, and begin writing on the next chapter of the history of Counter-Strike? This is your and only your decision, but remember to respect others´. I can not say more on this topic besides confirming that our entrance in CS:GO will begin from November onwards. By then we are anticipating that the community has developed much more in terms of competitions and game improvements. In an ideal world the team would of course like to stay with CS1.6, but as our nature excels from competition and there are no 1.6 tournaments left, we feel that we better give CS:GO a chance at this point and see where that step leads us.
Finally, thanks to all our fans out there for all your support, we really appreciate having you! Also, big shout-outs to our sponsors: Raidcall, SteelSeries, MSI, Eizo and Own3d for the endless support. Oh, I almost forgot, we will also attend MGC in Tehran as well!
See you on the road!
Lots of love and game on!”
