Less than a month ago, Tom “jenko” Jenkinson was announced as the fifth man for the epsilon lineup, giving the squad a majority UK roster. While earning themselves the spot as the de-facto ‘best team in the UK’, the roster hasn’t worked out as some may have planned.
Jenko disappeared from the active lineup, with cryptic messages, as is now tradition, being spread around by Owen “Smooya” Butterfield; a tweet posted by him showing two UK flags, two Swedish and a Greek, his usual technique to start roster rumours. Around the time of this tweet DeKay posted his first report of BIG linking Smooya to their squad: a replacement for failed trial Niels “luckeRRR” Jasiek.
In an interview after Copenhagen games, where Jenko was last active with Epsilon, Smooya said that five days into the Epsilon bootcamp, Jenko returned home for exams, leaving the squad with less practice than intended. Since then, to no surprise, Smooya’s attitude towards this issue was passive aggressive at best: In response to Immi asking why Thomas wasn’t picked up over Jenko, Smooya replied that he wishes he did, “he wouldn’t of wasted the chance”.
https://twitter.com/smooyacs/status/984192321968332800
Smooya’s roster rumor came to fruition after the Copenhagen games exit, with Dylan “DH” Hamrini playing alongside the team in their main playoff matches, there is however no mention if he is a permanent addition to the team. With DH, Epsilon managed to reach the top four of ESEA Main Season 27, securing a spot in the MDL; if they wish to keep this spot, they must play 8 out of the 9 first games of the season with two players on the roster that played a match, as per ESEA rules.
Earlier today, DeKay published his second report on Smooya to BIG, claiming that the signing has been finalised. Doubt’s had been cast on the transfer after a screencap of Smooya’s stream was posted to reddit, where he mentioned in chat that Epsilon wanted €40000 (the currency presumed, not specified), and that BIG had declined.
It’s unclear what’s happening to Epsilon’s roster, as the team was originally built around and handpicked by Smooya. Without Smooya or Cosmeen, the team has an excess of supportive players and a void of fragging power.
IGL Robin “robiin” Sjögren yesterday played the ESL One Belo Horizonte European qualifiers with his old singularity lineup, going out to a mix of GameAgents players. With DH on the active roster, there is a chance that Epsilon may look to return to a full Swedish roster for ESEA’s MDL Season 28.
