Owen “smooya” Butterfield is about to be removed from Movistar Riders’ active CS:GO lineup since the organization wants to transition to an all-Spanish roster, according to a report by Richard Lewis from Dexerto.
If this move is confirmed, it’d mark Movistar Riders’ third roster change during the offseason. The organization released the Estonian rifler Kristjan “shokz” Jakobson and benched its Brazilian in-game leader Lucas “steel” Lopes on July 31. To replace these players, Movistar Riders has set its sights on the Iberian Family trio of David “dav1g” Granado Bermudo, Raúl “DeathZz” Jordán Nieto, and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia, according to the report. That team beat Movistar Riders in the group stage of the Iberian BLAST Premier Fall Showdown qualifier in early July but didn’t make it into the event.
Smooya has been playing for Movistar Riders since February following an almost four-month period on the sidelines. The British AWPer is by far the best player on the roster at the moment, averaging a 1.25 rating over that period, according to HLTV’s statistics. His performance, however, hasn’t been enough for Movistar Riders to reach new heights.
If smooya is benched, it’s unclear if he’ll stay in CS:GO for much longer since he already said he’d transition to VALORANT if he doesn’t receive any Counter-Strike offers that are worthy. Movistar Riders should officially reveal its plans for the rest of the season in the coming days since the summer player break will end on Aug. 15.
