Nitro jumps to new team

Nick “Nitro” Cannella has a new team.

After having been ousted from iBUYPOWER as it made way for Spencer “Hiko” Martin, Cannella was set to temporarily join the ranks of Torqued and participate in a qualifier for MLG’s upcoming Counter-Strike tournament at X Games Aspen.

But plans quickly changed. Denial, which had solidified its own roster with the recent addition of Eric “Adren” Hoag, has decided to capitalize on the immense reshuffling hitting the North American Counter-Strike scene.

Denial.CSGO would like to welcome @nitr0cs back to the #WolfPack! In replace of fugly. We wish Fugly the best of luck in the future!

— Denial eSports (@DenialEsports) December 16, 2014

That Denial would be interested in Cannella is no surprise. Cannella was generally impressive during his international debut while playing with iBUYPOWER in two major tournaments. His aggressive play and solid statistics spoke to his potential as a player at the game’s highest level.

But the team dropping Jacob “Fugly” Medina may come as a surprise to fans. Medina has been with the team for some time, and was a part of its core as it rose into the upper reaches of the ranks of American Counter-Strike teams to begin contending with squads like Cloud9 and iBUYPOWER.

Denial has since had to deal with multiple instances of its roster being raided for talent, including the most recent such incident which saw Shahzeb “Shahzam” Khan move to Cloud9 to replace the departing Martin.

Dropping Medina in favor of Canella is a clear sign that Denial is no longer interested in maintaining a semblance of the team that brought it to the top. The concern now is acquiring the best available talent, and it clearly believes Canella represents exactly that.