- Sangal brings in German AWPer PANIX in place of phzy
- The move is surprising, as phzy was Sangal’s best player so far in 2023
- The Turkish organization has been struggling a lot so far this year
Turkish CS:GO organization Sangal is going through some unexpected roster changes following an underwhelming performance so far in 2023.
Sangal Replaces Phzy
Swedish AWPer Love “phzy” Smidebrant is no longer a part of the Turkish CS:GO team Sangal’s main roster. This ends the 20-year-old player’s eight-month stint on the active lineup, following a somewhat unremarkable stay with the Turkish organization. The Swede will be replaced by the German AWP-er Max “PANIX” Hangebruch.
PANIX comes into the lineup having posted some strong performances in 2023 whilst playing for Into the Bin. The German AWP-er scored an impressive 1.26 rating over nine maps in ESL Challenger League. With an average rating of 1.16 for the year so far with an excellent 1.30 impact, the 24-year-old player is surely going to be a valuable addition to Sangal.
Meanwhile, phzy now finds himself on the bench of the team he joined in August 2022 on a loan deal from Ninjas in Pyjamas. It’s surprising Sangal decided to bench him as he was the team’s highest-rated player so far this year, posting a positive rating of 1.09. It’s unknown f the player is going to be put up for transfer any time soon.
The reason for this roster shuffle is most likely Sangal’s lackluster performance on the competitive CS:GO scene so far this year. This is a far cry from the team’s gameplay in 2022 when they put themselves on the map with some impressive results. This included some decent performances in the latter half of the year, which included narrowly missing out on qualification for the IEM Rio Major. Some other of Sangal’s achievements include a surprising victory over BIG at the BLAST Fall Showdown. All of these allowed the Turkish team to rise to their best-ever ranking of No. 33 in the world.
Despite these non-trivial results in 2022, the Turkish squad has been struggling this year. The team failed to make it past 5-8th in online events like CCT Series and missed out on a spot at the BLAST Paris Major RMRs. March was particularly bad for the team, as it sported a 5-10 series record and suffered losses to squads hovering just inside the top 100 in the world, such as Astralis Talent and ALTERNATE aTTaX.
This is what Sangal’s composition looks like currently:
- Robin “ScrunK” Röpke
- Kornél “kory” Szedlár
- Can “kyuubii” Ali
- Caner “Soulfly” Kesici
- Max “PANIX” Hangebruch
- Klesti “stikle-” Kola (coach)
- Love “phzy” Smidebrant (benched)
