Australia’s premier Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team has made a drastic change to their roster, one day ahead of their first large competition in 2017.
Detroit Renegades have announced that they will be using Swedish up-and-comer Simon “atter” Atterstam at the $450,000 DreamHack Masters Las Vegas event, which is set to begin on Feb. 15. Meaning the squad’s long-time AWPer Ricky “Rickeh” Mulholland will not be competing with the team for the first time since his acquisition in July, 2016.
Whether atter will become a permanent fixture on the roster is unknown, as neither the players nor the organization has commented on the situation, according to HLTV.
The addition of atter also means the Renegades roster will not be competing as a fully-Australian outfit, something that had become a trademark for the core group of the squad after they emerged on the international stage in 2015. Atter’s addition to the roster, as well as the recent signing of former mousesports coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovic, seems to show that the organization is moving away from the idea of keeping the roster strictly Australian.
Known primarily for his performances in the Swedish Counter-Strike 1.6 scene, atter’s international LAN debut in CS:GO came in 2016 at the Counter Pit Season 2 LAN finals. Since then, he has also competed at the Efrag World Championship where competed for Sweden’s national team. Most recently, however, he competed with the short-lived roster of qwerty, which had former Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan AWPer Mikail “Maikelele” Bill at the helm at, DreamHack Leipzig on Jan. 14.
Renegades’ first game at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas will see the squad take on FaZe Clan at 9:30pm ET (6.30pm PT).
