- Mikkel “Maze” Sparvath’s trial period in Sprout ends after just two days
- This is the second resignation this week, following that of Ismail “refrezh” Ali
- Coach BERRY will be the team’s new stand-in
Sprout continues to search for a new in-game leader after refresh left the organization earlier this week and the organization ended Maze’s short stay on the roster.
Maze Leaves Sprout
Esports teams would often run a trial period for a potential [layer before signing them. Sprout did just that recently as the team continues to search for an in-game captain for their CS:GO roster. The organization tested Mikkel “Maze” Sparvath, it announced on Tuesday, but today the organization has released the Dane from his short tenure as captain.
Instead, coach Danny “BERRY” Krüger will be stepping in for Sprout in their upcoming matches in ESL Challenger League Season 44 as well as the CCT Central Europe Malta Finals 1. The team played with Maze at its helm during the IEM Brazil Europe closed qualifier, hoping to secure a spot for the quarter-million-dollar tournament.
However, Sprout did not perform well at the event, which was plagued by technical issues and huge delays. Quite the opposite, Sprout finished joint last after conceding losses to 9INE, a side currently ranked outside of the top 30, and BIG.
Refrezh Had To Step Down as IGL
The whole reason for Sprout’s roster shifts was the stepping down of their former captain, Ismail “refrezh” Ali, who was at the team’s helm for the past six months. In a Twitlonger, the former in-game leader explained that he suffers from a stutter which has he suffers from a stutter. “I’ve stuttered my entire life, and it has been much, much worse than it is today,” refresh wrote. “I’ve spent many hours working on it with speech therapists and performance/mental coaches, and while it’s gotten much better compared to when I was younger, it was still an issue for me, when I was the IGL.”
With refrezh stepping down, Sprout welcomes 32-year-old BERRY as a stand-in. This will be the fort time the coach returns to competition since playing with the team in their second-place run through ESL Meisterschaft Autumn 2022 Finals in December.
Sprout has been in significant turmoil the past few weeks. Not only did the team perform poorly at the recent IEM Brazil Europe closed qualifier, but also faired poorly in the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2023, being eliminated from the tournament by Spirit. Only time will tell if BERRY’s experience will turn Sprout’s fortunes around.
The organization’s roster currently looks like this:
- Victor “Staehr” Staehr
- Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea
- Ismail “refrezh” Ali
- Adrian “XELLOW” Guță
Danny “BERRY” Krüger (stand-in)
