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London-based esports franchise, FNATIC, made the announcement yesterday that its Halo team has acquired Donnie “Suppressed” Lopez and Uriah “Artic” Legoretta, to replace the players Abel “Rammyy” Garcia and Chasen “SuperCC” Cavuto, who will no longer be competing for the team.
In addition to the rebuilding, a seasoned new coach, Mason “Neighbor” Cobb, who is a former champion of the Major League Gaming tournament and a former Built by Gamers coach, was added to the Halo team.
Ever since the latter week of June, the Halo team has been in the process of reconstructing its roster, but with one week left until the HCS Orlando Major, that endeavor has finally come to a successful conclusion.
“After a period of underperformance and inconsistency from the FNATIC Halo division, we decided to enter a period of rebuild. We unfortunately parted ways with our head coach, Strobe, and two players, SuperCC and Rammyy. We wish them the best of luck and hope they find success at their next teams,” a press release from Fnatic read.
FNATIC was unable to break into the top eight of any major online or LAN tournament on multiple occasions. Even when the squad replaced Torez “Envore” Broyles in July with Rammyy, the team’s performance did not improve. A finish in the top 20 at the Online Super the previous month was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.
As a result of FNATIC’s failure to qualify for the pool play portion of the Orlando Major, which will begin on September 23, the organization’s recently revamped roster will have to compete in the open bracket in order to have a shot at qualifying for a spot at the World Championship. It is a risk for the team, but this is the only card they have left in their deck.
The official statement by FNATIC stated that the prime aim of the roster changes is to qualify for the Worlds and that the new lineup they have assembled will be among the most formidable that they have ever had.
“Qualifying for Worlds is at the moment our main focus and we have built a roster which we believe will be the most competitive we have ever had under the Black and Orange,” the official statement read.
The organization goes on to note that the new coach, Neighbor, has been instrumental in determining the new course that the team will take, and they have already noticed a significant increase in their scrims, which indicates that the addition of players is not the only element at play here.
“In the head coach role, we wanted someone to come in with a bit of experience who knows how to win and we ended up securing one of the most experienced Halo players of all time. Mason “Neighbor” Cobb, the former MLG San Diego and Orlando Champion, joined us about 3 weeks ago and has been key in the new direction of the team and has already seen marked improvement in our scrims and synergy,” Fnatic’s press release read.
