FunPlus Phoenix, the Chinese organization that won the 2019 League of Legends World Championship, will enter the CS:GO scene, according to a report from French website 1pv.fr.
FPX has reportedly signed Heroic’s CS:GO lineup, which features Marco “snappi” Pfeiffer, Martin “stavn” Lund, Casper “cadiaN” Møller, Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, Jonas “b0RUP” Borup, and head coach Frederik “LOMME” Nielsen.
FPX decided to step into Counter-Strike to participate in FLASHPOINT, the newest CS:GO league that’s organized by teams, according to 1pv.fr’s report. The league has seven founding members: MIBR, Cloud9, Dignitas, MAD Lions, Envy, Gen.G, and c0ntact Gaming. FLASHPOINT is missing three founding teams after BIG and Orgless secured spots through its global qualifier.
It’s unclear what will happen to Heroic’s ESL Pro League spot, though. The organization signed a long-term agreement with ESL and was set to participate in Group B alongside Natus Vincere, Fnatic, Complexity, forZe, and FURIA starting on March 17.
Heroic rose through HLTV’s world rankings last year with the lineup led by Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, who signed with Complexity at the end of 2019. The Danish squad is now ranked 14th, but they’ve struggled in their latest tournaments. Snappi and crew failed to qualify for the ICE Challenge playoffs in February and most recently failed to qualify for the Europe Minor after losing to Heretics and Copenhagen Flames.
FLASHPOINT will kick off on Friday, so FPX may announce this move in the next few days.
