GODSENT announced on Friday that Counter-Strike player Joel “joel” Holmlund was benched from the main squad.
The news marks the end of Joel’s five-month stint with the Swedish organization. GODSENT’s coach, Maikil “Golden” Selim, will take his place in upcoming events until the team decides on a more permanent solution.
“As of Monday this week Joel has been benched from the main roster. For the time being the team will play with Golden as a stand-in during ongoing and future tournaments,” GODSENT wrote.
While GODSENT did not state the reason for the move, the organization promised to inform fans of new changes in the future.
GODSENT currently includes Erik “ztr” Gustafsson, Alfred “RuStY” Karlsson, William “draken” Sundin, Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez Zamora, and Golden as the substitute.
As of Monday this week Joel has been benched from the main roster. For the time being the team will play with Golden as a stand-in during ongoing and future tournaments.
We will release more information in due course. #godmode pic.twitter.com/BKhmSYZ3TM
— GODSENT (@GODSENT) May 26, 2023
joel joined GODSENT at the beginning of the season and has consistently put out impressive numbers during events. He was their highest-rated player this year, with a 1.11 average rating across 119 maps.
The player recorded his best performance in the BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic 2023, reaching a 1.41 rating. The team finished top four in the event following victories over teams like Sprout, BIG, and HEET. joel also recorded an impressive score during the semi-final game against Cloud9, with a 1.33 rating and a 100 ADR.
GODSENT placed third in the Thunderpick Bitcoin Series 2 but were unable to reach the final stages of the online events they competed in. The team also failed to qualify for high-profile LAN events after being eliminated in the qualifiers.
GODSENT failed out of the open RMR qualifiers and were recently eliminated from the Intel Extreme Masters Dallas and ESL Challenger Katowice closed qualifiers. The Swedish team have also continued to hover outside the top 40 in CS:GO world rankings.
GODSENT’s new changes will come into effect during their closed qualifiers run to secure a spot in the ESL Challenger Katowice 2023.