The hard-hitting French squad will be without Nabil “Nivera” Benriltom, with Christophe “SIXER” Xia swooping in last minute as an emergency substitute.
According to the EPIC.LAN rule book:
Some situations may allow for emergency substitutes pending Tournament Official’s approval. A Player may be substituted for an emergency or medical reason(s) during a live match with approval.
UKCSGO can confirm that this move has been approved by EPIC, and SIXER will be travelling to Kettering today.
In the meantime, FUT will be playing their coach, François-Xavier “falco” Collinet, for the first few games before the French AWPer arrives.
SIXER in his heyday was one of the best players in the world. Listed as the 13th best player in 2010 in the HLTV top 20 players of the year, SIXER was playing at the top of the French scene and the world in 1.6.
In Global Offensive, SIXER competed at the ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017 and the ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018 under Envy. Additionally, he also won the WESG 2016 World Finals and placed highly at other Tier-1 events.
In more recent history, however, SIXER hasn’t had the most illustrious career. Currently sitting in an inactive Onyx Ravens squad, the French AWPer hasn’t recorded a game on HLTV since December 2024.
On paper, FUT could be the next coming of a French superteam as they feature some of the biggest names to come out of France. Unfortunately, over two months into the project, there are no redeemable results to point towards.
Headlined by Audric “JACKZ” Jug and Nivera, the organisation sits 251st out of 273 in the world on the VRS ranking, very far out of the invite threshold for Tier-2/3 events.
Like many others, FUT are bottlenecked by their VRS rank and has no opportunity to prove themselves because of this major limitation. This puts a lot of importance on EPIC.LAN 45 for the French squad to bolster their rank.
Luckily for FUT, EPIC.LAN will feature 12 teams on HLTV. With many VRS points up for grabs, how will this last-minute change affect them?
With other European teams such as The Last Resort, AaB, Alliance, and Iberian Soul coming out in full force, it might be a challenge for FUT as they not only have to play with their coach but also a stand-in who isn’t actively competing.
FUT have been seeded into Group A. They will be competing against Alliance, TRAXXXMANIA, and Max “MiGHTYMAX” Heath’s bezos bois. The Swedes will be their biggest competition, and despite these roster troubles, the expectations are to place in the top two, qualifying straight to the Upper Bracket and onto HLTV.
