CSGO: Fnatic Bench Xizt and Twist

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CSGO: Fnatic Bench Xizt and Twist

Fnatic has moved Richard “Xizt” Landström and Simon “twist” Eliasson to the bench. This move follows their failure to return to the Major cycle after being eliminated during StarLadder Berlin’s European Minor.

Fnatic announced today that the team will be moving into “a new phase,” starting with the removal of both Landström and Eliasson. Landström first joined Fnatic in June of 2018 after a short but successful stint as a stand-in for FaZe Clan, which followed his benching from long-time team Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Though he brought with him a legacy of successful in-game leadership, Landström still struggled to bring Fnatic back to the heights they reached in early 2018. The FACEIT London Major proved fruitless for them. Here, they failed to retain their legend status and bowed out in the group stage. The next roster change saw Simon “twist” Eliasson join the squad in October of 2018.

The revamped lineup showed some promise, nearly taking out peak-form Astralis in the semi-finals of IEM Chicago in November 2018. 2019’s first Major was not as kind to them. Afterward, they were sent back to the Minor circuit following their IEM Katowice Main Qualifier exit. Shortly after Katowice, the squad made it to the IEM Sydney Grand Final. Unfortunately, this is where they fell to a dominant Team Liquid. A good run of form gave fans hope for the upcoming European Minor, but the team was eliminated from Major contention at the hands of Serbian-mix team CR4ZY.

It is currently unclear who will be joining the squad. Many fans are looking towards former Fnatic star Robin “flusha” Rönnquist to rejoin the team. Rönnquist has been on hiatus since his departure from Cloud9 in February of this year.

Fnatic CS:GO’s next LAN appearance will be at DreamHack Masters Malmö in early October.

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Caroline Rutledge
Caroline is an esports journalist focusing on CS:GO. Starting out as a casual CS:GO fan, her interest quickly turned into a passion as she spent years studying the game. She has put that knowledge to use as a journalist, now writing about professional CS:GO for multiple websites including TheGamer.