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Monte finished their Counter-Strike 2 roster rebuild on Tuesday with the arrival of French duo Ali “hAdji” Haïnouss and Aurélien “afro” Drapier.
Afro and hAdji join Monte as replacements for Serghij “DemQQ” Demchenko, who left for Passion UA at the start of the week, and Aleksander “hades” Miśkiewicz, who has been linked with a move to G2 Esports as a replacement for Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov.
Afro heads to Monte from Mercenaries, who he joined after a two-month stint with Persona Grata. With the two teams, the 25-year-old has been competing mainly in online qualifiers, but without much success.
Since leaving Fnatic in September 2024, afro’s most notable accomplishments have been a semifinal appearance at Justice Cup vol. 4 and a successful run through PGL Astana 2025 European Open Qualifier #1.
His new teammate, hAdji, has spent the last few months competing in lesser events with Adventurers, with who he won United21 Season 27 at the start of March and averaged a 1.12 performance rating.
By signing for Monte, hAdji will return to the team he represented as a stand-in between May and July 2024.
During his first stint with Monte, the French rifler reached the semifinals of Elisa Invitational Spring 2024, CCT Season 2 European Series #5, RES European Masters Fall 2024, and RES European Series #4.
With the addition of hAdji and afro, Monte are back in full force and ready to start fresh after failing to accomplish much since the start of the season.
Their most notable achievement this year is a runner-up finish at CCT Season 2 European Series #16. Since then, Monte have not placed higher than top nine across seven online tournaments.
In their debut match on Tuesday, the new-look roster lost 6-13 to M1 Gaming in the first round of the YGames PRO Series 2025 Closed Qualifier.
