Originally signing the team in November of last year, Raptors have parted ways with their newest roster which was previously named Projectx. The team’s tenure was not one of stability as Raptors underwent roster moves just 13 days after the rosters formation which saw Adrian “Cha0s” Zielinsk and Lorenzo “LTH” Venanz out the door.
However this roster did have a tough act to follow as Raptors had just parted ways with the winners of the very last ESL Premiership where they had taken down British powerhouse, Endpoint, in the Finals. Unfortunately their replacements failed the meet the expectations that the organisation had set out for them.
According to Raptor’s official statement, it was not due to a lack of commitment from the players, but rather that the team’s “recent outings have fallen short of the club’s ambitious standards.” Raptors are currently competing in UKIC Division 2 where they are just outside of the automatic promotion spot in third and recently attended EPIC.LAN 41 where they finished 12th. They also competed in ESEA Main this season, making playoffs with a record of 9-5, but they lost in the first round to xGod.
As the organisation joked in their announcement, this follows a trend of instability for the Raptors who, before winning ESL Premiership Autumn 2023, had made many roster moves in a short period of time.
For the roster this move could potentially benefit them as they are reportedly looking to move out of the UK scene and form an international lineup. According to the Raptors CEO, Brad Heaton: “they aspire to move to an international lineup and completely drop out of [the] UK, which was not going to be supported by us at this stage.”
The CEO also doubled down on the team’s commitment to UK CS, stating:
Our commitment to UK CS means that we highly value tournaments such as EPIC.LAN and UKIC and therefore better results are required for us to remain committed to a roster. Nevertheless, we now look forward to a new opportunity to return to the top of UK Counter-Strike and once again look to cement our place as a leader in UK CS.
Raptors have yet to announce what their new roster might be, but the former Raptors roster, excluding Heiðar Flóvent “Midgard” Friðriksson, will continue to compete together under the name ‘halal5’. They are currently:
Connor “Finui” Finucane
Igor “Igorek” Kochany
Rudolf “Rutk0” Kovalčik
Alex “PALM1” Palm
Szymon “Deuce” Czapiewski (coach)
