Fnatic drop out of EPICENTER, mousesports to replace them

Fnatic’s CS:GO team won’t participate in EPICENTER, which will be played from Dec. 17 to 22, the Swedish organization announced today.

They’re pulling out of the competition due to their busy schedule. Fnatic will play in the ECS season eight finals in Dallas this weekend and will travel to Odense, Denmark to attend the ESL Pro League season 10 finals from Dec. 3 to 8. That would only give the Swedes one week to rest and prepare to travel to Moscow and play at EPICENTER.

“This means that after our trips to ECS season eight finals in the U.S. and the ESL Pro League season 10 finals in Denmark, we’ll be giving the players an extended break,” Fnatic said.

EPICENTER acted quickly and announced that mousesports will take Fnatic’s slot since they were the finalists of the European qualifiers. Although Fnatic are one of the best teams in the world, mousesports are a solid top-10 squad that won the CS:GO Asia Championships in Shangai last weekend.

Counter-Strike players have a busy agenda throughout the season and Fnatic isn’t the first organization to pull its team out of a tournament this year. Team Liquid didn’t participate in IEM Beijing this month because of their jam-packed calendar.

EPICENTER will now feature Evil Geniuses, Natus Vincere, mousesports, AVANGAR, Vitality, Heroic, forZe, and EHOME. They’ll play for a $500,000 prize pool next month.