OpTic Gaming, North and Heroic make changes to their CS:GO rosters as Danish shuffle begins

DreamHack | Jennika Ojala | Adela Sznajder

The Danish CS:GO shuffle that numerous community members predicted has begun, with OpTic Gaming, North and Heroic all seeing changes.

Astralis are currently on top of the world after winning the FACEIT London Major in dominant fashion, but all of the Danish teams underneath them seem to be making, or considering, changes.

Mathias ‘MSL’ Lauridsen, who took North to victory at DreamHack Stockholm less than a month ago, is the first casualty of the shuffle – the in-game leader has been benched and replaced by Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller, who impressed during his time in North America as part of Rogue.

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That’s not all, though, as North have also decided to call Nicklas ‘gade’ Gade back to the starting roster, bringing his seven month loan period with OpTic Gaming to an end.

The return of gade also means that Nikolaj ‘niko’ Kristensen time with the organization has come to an end. The 20-year-old spent just one month with the organization on loan from Heroic but was a key component in their DreamHack Stockholm win.

As Heroic were still playing with Daniel ‘mertz’ Mertz, who they have loaned out from North, it was originally believed that niko would simply be returning to the team as a substitute.

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However, the young Dane joined an entirely different ESEA roster: OpTic Gaming’s. The loss of gade meant that OpTic were a team of four, so niko would be an obvious choice to replace him, even if it is just on a loan basis.

Now, OpTic Gaming and Heroic have confirmed that niko has been transferred to OpTic’s starting roster and Heroic, in turn, have signed mertz on a full-time basis from North.

After the changes, the official CS:GO rosters for North, OpTic Gaming and Heroic are as follows:

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North:

  • Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye
  • Valdemar ‘valde’ Bjørn Vangså
  • Philip ‘aizy’ Aistrup
  • Nicklas ‘gade’ Gade
  • Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller

OpTic Gaming:

  • Kristian ‘k0nfig’ Wienecke
  • René ‘cajunb’ Borg
  • Jakob ‘JUGi’ Hansen
  • Marco ‘Snappi Pfeiffer
  • Nikolaj ‘niko’ Kristensen

Heroic:

  • Andreas ‘MODDII’ Fridh
  • Adam ‘friberg’ Friberg
  • Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen
  • Asger ‘AcilioN’ Larsen
  • Daniel ‘mertz’ Mertz