Rory “cryths” Ursell may have retired from full-time Counter-Strike, but it keeps on finding him. After helping the then-Viperio roster to qualify for the BLAST Paris Major RMR, only to find himself replaced in controversial circumstances, he’s back to help them have another shot at Valve’s premier competition.
We'd like to welcome @crythscs to our CS2 roster as he will be standing in to aid us over the coming weeks.
Rory will be helping out as @ARTISTCS2 takes some time away to focus on personal matters.#ThriveByNature🌿 pic.twitter.com/KjPZ0C2kI3
— Verdant (@Verdant_gg) January 5, 2024
cryths stood in for the qualification stage of the previous RMR tournament after James “bevve” Slinn had to take personal leave. Disagreements over bevve’s return to the team along with other conflicts led to him and the team parting ways, with cryths initially set to stand in for the RMR tournament itself as well; however, he was replaced by Matas “Extinct” Strumila, who has been with the roster ever since. Since then, cryths teamed with bevve on mix team ‘Jack3d’, winning the UKIC CeX Summer Invitational, but would not be part of the project when bevve and William “dobbo” Dobson went on to join Team 7AM. Meanwhile, the Viperio roster would join a different organisation, Verdant, as well as adding Andrew “Wolfie” Allan and Mohamad “Ducky” Nourelden to the lineup.
This time cryths joins in place of Tom “arTisT” Clarke, the team’s in-game leader and wielder of the AWP, who has elected to take a break for personal reasons. It’s not clear who will be calling in the Irishman’s place, nor the team’s primary AWPer – or even if the team will elect to use one, with a growing number of teams (such as Cloud9 and Preasy Esport) opting to go without a dedicated sniper. A combination of nerfs to the AWP and the MR12 economy has made a five-rifle setup more appealing to teams who lack an outstanding mechanical talent to wield the game’s riskiest weapon. It is also not clear how long arTisT will be away. However, with the PGL RMR open qualifiers starting next week, cryths will be at a minimum used for that.
For the PGL CS2 Copenhagen Major Verdant will be:
Callum “Girafffe” Jones
Matas “Extinct” Strumila
Andrew “Wolfie” Allan
Mohamad “Ducky” Nourelden
Rory “cryths” Ursell (stand-in)
Ciaran “biscu” King (coach)
