Owen “smooya” Butterfield has announced the team he will be competing with for the BLAST Paris Major RMR qualifiers. He is joined by Eugene “Aunkere” Karyat from his last outing in the IEM Road to Rio RMR qualifiers, and three other international players to repeat the feat they pulled off less than half a year ago.
Alongside the two aforementioned players are all similarly free agents, or benched players. Both Niclas “PlesseN” Plessen and Vladislav “FinigaN” Usov are currently not tied to any organisations and have most recently been seen playing in Swedish mix aktiebolag and Invictus International respectively. Both players also played in the Road to Rio RMR qualifiers, with FinigaN qualifying with the Russian squad of K23 on their first attempt in the second open qualifier with a 1.15 HLTV rating to boot. PlesseN, who was playing for Finest at the time, made attempts to qualify on 3 separate occasions, but unfortunately missed out by a slim margin each time. One 17-32nd and two 9-16th placements led to disappointment, and the Swedish team was forced to watch the RMRs from the sidelines.
Rounding out the team is Ali “hAdji” Haïnouss, who is currently on the Falcons bench. He was a key component in the French squad’s success in the Road to Rio RMR qualifiers. hAdji posted a +15 K/D differential over 7 maps, and scored a 1.17 HLTV rating to net them 2nd place overall, comfortably qualifying for the offline portion of the RMR.
This follows from smooya’s last attempt at qualifying for the Major RMR stage, back at the end of September last year. The mix featuring smooya and Aunkere went under the name Benched Heroes during their efforts, and had an impressive streak of wins to qualify for the event. Joined by Buğra “Calyx” Arkın, Michał “MICHU” Müller and Rodion “fear” Smyk, the mix took down some notable names such as Russian team TAG and the Poles behind Illuminar, the latter of whom netted them the golden ticket to Malta for the next stage in the event. smooya was an unconditionally crucial factor for this success, posting a 1.25 HLTV rating throughout the duration of the qualifier.
The good times were short lived however, as despite making qualifying for the RMRs in Malta, visa issues arose and plagued the team. After a long saga of back and forth deliberation, both Aunkere and Calyx were not able to obtain visas. Thomas “Thomas” Utting was listed as a substitute for the roster, however, since two players were unable to play at the next stage, Benched Heroes were ultimately replaced by Illuminar.
Benchedheros will be missing the RMR due to visa issues. After qualifying for the biggest event possible with a complete mix to missing out due to something sadly easily preventable. Crushed is the only word:( thanks for all the support kings and queens. GGs✌️
— Owen Butterfield (@smooyacs) September 29, 2022
The upcoming RMR qualifiers will take place in the middle of February, with the offline segment located at the BLAST Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark. smooya and company have two chances at repeating the feat he pulled off during his last RMR qualifier outing.
smooya’s newest mix team for the upcoming BLAST Paris RMR qualifiers is:
Owen “smooya” Butterfield
Eugene “Aunkere” Karyat
Ali “hAdji” Haïnouss
Niclas “PlesseN” Plessen
Vladislav “FinigaN” Ugov
BLAST Paris RMR squad@smooyacs@Aunkere @hAdjiCSGO @Plessencsgo @FinigaNcsgo
Let’s get it started🤓😁 any coaches wanting to join us for the ride feel free to DM👀
— Owen Butterfield (@smooyacs) January 28, 2023
