FlipSid3 Tactics, a pillar of the Russian-speaking Counter-Strike:Global Offensive scene has added Jan “wayLander” Rahkonen to its roster. WayLander has already played with the roster for roughly two months, but wasn’t officially recognized as a stand-in until today.
During his time as a stand-in, wayLander helped FlipSid3 in their successful run through the offline qualifier for the upcoming Valve major, ESL One Cologne. He was an invaluable tool, often topping the scoreboard for his team. He also ended their run with a blistering 27 frags against HellRaisers, securing their trip to the ninth Valve major in July.
WayLander is widely regarded as one of the most skilled players from the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region. His career has hardly been stable, though.
In his international LAN debut at last year’s ESL One Cologne qualifiers, he quickly made a name for himself playing for the Russian mix team PiTER. Their performance didn’t see the team make it through to the main event, but WayLander’s individual skill definitely turned heads.
His initial time in the limelight was cut short due to his mandatory military service in the Finnish army. He spent the remainder of 2015 outside of the professional CS:GO scene. His return to competition came in January this year when he was recruited by Gambit Gaming.
This new Gambit roster qualified for MLG Columbus, the most recent major, where the team narrowly missed their chance at clinching a top eight finish after a surprising loss to North American squad Counter Logic Gaming in the group stage. WayLander left the team shortly after the disappointing result in Columbus.
Now his time as a stand-in for FlipSid3 has come to an end. It will be interesting to see if he can surpass his previous result at the last major with this new team.
