9z has promoted its former academy CS:GO player Nicolás “buda” Kramer to take the place left vacant by the departure of Martin “rox” Molina earlier this month.
The 19-year-old Argentinian player will go through a baptism by fire in the near future since he’ll debut against tier-one teams at the IEM Rio Major Americas Regional Major Ranking (RMR) tournament in October, which will decide whether 9z qualify for the second Valve-sponsored event of the year.
Buda will have big shoes to fill considering that rox helped 9z qualify for the PGL Antwerp Major earlier this year in historic fashion. 9z were 0-2 down in the Americas RMR and went on to win five best-of-three series in a row to earn a spot in the $1 million tournament.
Rox left 9z’s active lineup due to personal reasons after the team qualified for the Americas RMR via the second South American open qualifier. He joined the Argentinian organization in January 2021 and helped them peak at 19th in the world in HLTV’s rankings in August 2022.
Buda, on the other hand, has been playing for 9z Academy since May 2021 and has averaged a 1.14 rating across 23 maps recorded by HLTV this year. He’s only played in South American events thus far and will have his first international experience during the IEM Rio Major Americas RMR.
With the addition of buda, 9z will play at the Americas RMR with him, Franco “dgt” Garcia, David “dav1d” Maldonado, Lucas “nqz” Soares, and Maximiliano “max” Gonzalez. There are six IEM Rio Major spots up for grabs in the competition that will run from Oct. 5 to 9 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Published: Sep 15, 2022 03:06 pm