In an unexpected move, NerdRage have announced that they will be exiting the UK esports space with immediate effect, cutting ties to their UK teams including their CS:GO roster and sponsors in the space.
In what seems to be a busy month of roster announcements as we head into the new league seasons of ESL Premiership, ESEA Season 27, and the upswing of LAN events in the next two months. NerdRage have announced their brand new roster for 2018, in the hopes of doing well over the coming months.
Impulse Gaming have announced that they will have a top contender representing us at i59 next week. Their lineup for the event consists of 3 ex-NerdRage players and 2 talented players brought in for the tournament.
In a recent announcement, nerdRage have merged organisations with Addiction eSports.
With talks between the two organisations, it has been finalized that both parties have merged meaning that all rosters will be playing under the same name. Before the merge Addiction eSports was the home of multiple rosters across a variation of eSports titles such as CS:GO & Dota 2.
With the recent announcement of the nerdRage Academy team being dropped from the organisation due to undisclosed reasons, since the removal of that lineup the ex-Addiction eSports lineup is now playing under the name nerdRage.Amateur their lineup as follows;
- Nick “nK” Feeney
- Sean “Sniffle” Taylor
- Jon “Jonobrow” Nicol
- Alex “mr.v1rus” Jones
- Richard “Viso” Harris
A statement from one of the CSGO division Sean ‘Sniffle’ Taylor:
As a relatively unknown team within the UK, this merge brings us under the wing of a headliner organisation, nerdRage. We have recently completed our line-up and we are now striving to quickly develop and impress. We will be trying to follow in the footsteps of the main nerdRage team, which have had recent success in ESL’s UK Premiership, by having the correct mindset in practice and play. Our team is currently competing in ESEA Intermediate and we are looking to frequent more tournaments and qualifiers with our consolidated roster.
Joining the CSGO roster in the merge to nerdRage follows two Hearthstone players & a Dota 2 team, here is what Paul ‘Despise’ Barcz had to say about the merge;
It was a tough decision to let Addiction eSports die but I have always had a lot of respect for nerdRage and I look forward to helping the organisation grow and become everything we want it to be. We now house some great teams in CSGO, Overwatch, Dota 2 and hearthstone. We hope to have one heck of an Insomnia 59.
To finalize the move & the addition of another CSGO lineup to the organisation representing nerdRage for the foreseeable future this is what Callum ‘Caspian’ Brawn – Team Captain of nerdRage.Pro had to say;
I am excited to be a part of the merge between our two organisations and hope that I can still be in a strong position within the organisation. With taking on new Hearthstone players as well as a Dota 2 team I will be looking forward to working alongside the new CS:GO roster too which are playing in ESEA intermediate as of now. I believe nerdRage will have a strong force of players leading into i59 now and excited to see what is to come.
It has recently come to light that nerdRage have officially decided to acquire their little sister organisation, in effect merging it into the already existing nerdRage organisation. This news follows after the long gap since the organisation lost their star CSGO line-up, leaving them unrepresented within the domestic scene.
It is to no surprise to anybody who frequents the scene that this has taken place, as MALIK originally existed as a more UK-focused branch of nerdRage itself. This image quickly twisted itself into a more academic view however, as they both moved on to collect accolades individually. Leading on from the academic mindset, it appears the core MALIK line-up put in the effort required to appease both MALIK management as well as the overhanging support from nerdRage itself. nerdRage themselves had this to add from their recent Press Release:
After working closely with the MALIK lineup over the past few months nerdRage have decided the time was right to further help the team, thanks to their great dedication and determination to improve. Aiming to join the top ranks of the UK scene by Christmas the nerdRage lineup will be pushed with a specific training schedule in place.
nerdRage has set some rigorous plans in motion, including a predetermined training schedule as mentioned above. Following from this was a set of goals, mostly towards domestic achievements such as reaching ESEA Main, ESL Major League and CEVO Main. One thing made clear is that the organisation is carrying itself with a clear sense of belief, as-well-as all the tools required to help nurture them to potentially reach their desired level, something only echoed by all statements from management and players alike.
Callum Caspian Brawn, the team captain of the nerdRage UK lineup had this to say;
The past few months playing under MALIK have been really good for us as a team to progress and expand our reach in the UK scene. Now that nerdRage have taken us on we are happy for the opportunity and hope we can provide the nerdRage brand the success it deserves. We will be representing nR at i58 and hope to reach both our personal goals, and that of NerdRage.
The current nerdRage UK lineup is as follows;
Callum “Caspian” Brawn
Jon “Cynic” Burvill
Marcus “Hveem” Hveem
Sam “Samwell” Reynolds
Liam “Ls” Scotter
Following from the UK line-up announcement, it was also been mentioned that nerdRage would be taking over the existing UK academy team that MALIK also ran. That roster is as follows;
Dean “TotunG” Grealish
Jerry “CANNIBAL” Stewart
Ross “Zephyr” Fung
Josh “FreeZie” Erskine
Jordan “jdG” Nixon
Yesterday NerdRage announced their new line-up following the split when Kia “Surreal” Man left the side to head up new ventures playing in compLexity. This, however, has seen them shift away from UK-majority teams and into one with a Benelux base.
This sees the side that NerdRage decided to move to adding two of Steusel’s former Team Orbit teammates in the form of the Dutch Kaj “kajsk1ng” van Staalduinen and the Belgian Fréderic “Monu” Dewever, in an attempt to add some firepower and European expertise alongside the British players.
The team is set to be focusing on the European scene and tournaments, including the ESL Major League and CEVO Pro, there in order to attempt to qualify for the upcoming Minor at DreamHack Tours for a potential run to the Major. They will, however, still be in attendance at UK LAN events including iSeries and epic.LAN in order to keep a connection to the UK Scene.
The new line-up consists of:
Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel (NL)
Aaron “AaroN” Hemmings (UK)
Josh “mole” Rowley (UK)
Kaj “kajsk1ng” van Staalduinen (NL)
Fréderic “Monu” Dewever (BE)
Neil “NeiL_M” Murphy (coach)
Connor “Sliggy” Blomfield (Manager)
The teams’ next game is set to be against the Swedish side Epsilon in the second EU Qualifier for the CEVO Pro League Season 9 finals, a tournament you can read about here, which will be played at 18:00 BST tonight.
Recent news came to light after the conclusion of NerdRage’s ESL Major League playoff game against Paranoia eSports the other night, which they won securing their advancement within playoffs. However all is not well for NerdRage’s roster as it, unfortunately, dwindles down to three, with both manager, Neil “NeiL_M” Murphy, and Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel departing to form a new lineup. This is the second blow for the org in as many days, with Surreal jetting off to America to trial for compLexity, and leaves the NerdRage camp with just 3 players.
The players left in NerdRage are:
Neil “neilzinho” Finlay
Philip “Whindanski” Nicholas
Som “s0m” Haddow
This lineup had only recently come together and been announced as joining NerdRage seven days ago. We saw a similar thing happen after i56 when compLexity made its first move on the UK scene taking Rory “deph” Jackson from CAZ eSports. Within a matter of days CAZ went from having a team that came 2nd at i56, to having three players, and soon after, no team at all.
Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel at i57 with FM eSports who joined NerdRage for a short period afterwards
The new lineup that’s sprung from this contains an interesting mix of Joey, Aaron, Josh +2, as well as utilising Niel_M as manager of the squad. Rumour has it that both Neil_M and Joey wanted to be in a lineup with Josh “mole” Rowley after Joey played alongside him at both i57 and epic.SEVENTEEN, claiming the first place spot at both.
In a slight curve ball which cropped up while this post was being written, it looks like NerdRage have decided remove their three remaining players from their roster, and pickup the roster than Neil_M and CRUC1AL were moving to. This now means that NerdRage’s current roster is:
Josh “mole” Rowley
Joey “CRUC1AL” Steusel
Aaron “Aaron” Hemmings
This lineup, with Neil_M still sitting in the coach position, and Connor “Sliggy” Blomfield as team manager, will now be looking for two able bodies to fill the final two spots in this roster.
It has been reported to us that the Team Infused CSGO team have parted ways with the organisation. They only joined Team Infused at the end of February after a mix containing some of their players won epic.SEVENTEEN under the Team Barrage tag. Now, just days after a very similar mix won i57 under the Rasta Gaming banner, they are leaving Infused in search for something bigger.
The current lineup of the ex-Infused squad is Philip “Whindanski” Nicholas, Som “s0m” Haddow, Kia “Surreal” Man, Neil “neilzinho” Finlay and Josh “mole” Rowley, with Neil “NeiL_M” Murphy as coach. It is unconfirmed if this roster will change now that it has parted ways with Infused but with a lot of teams shuffling at the moment, there is a large pool to choose from should they need to make any changes.
Neil made the following statement on their departure from Team Infused.
Today we parted ways with Team Infused on good terms. We’d like thank them for the short time we had and wish them all the best in the future. Our future plans will be announced very soon!
Rasta.Infused claim first place at i57
Neil’s quote points at the team already having a new organisation lined up, but as of yet there is no comment on which organisation that may be. We are slowly getting reports of a couple of teams in other organisations falling apart completely, leaving these organisations without a team, so there are a few homes that they could be moving to. From what we have heard, nerdRage is top of that list, after their CSGO team finished i57 below their seed.
We wish the team well as they move forward to a new home, we felt our current focus and their plans were progressing at different speeds and as a result this is what is best for all involved. – Andrew “Vanq” Chrisoforou, Team Infused owner
There are a lot of homeless teams floating around at the moment so it should only be a matter of time before they fill the spot with a roster that matches the speed that Team Infused wants to work at.
Late last night, James “redSNK” Littlewood put all rumours to bed and confirmed he would be joining NerdRage after Jonathan “Sheekey” Sheekey was removed from the roster last week. redSNK announces this move after attending epic.SEVENTEEN with his Infused mix lineup, where they managed to secure second place spot losing to Barrage eSports in the grand final. The team were looking for a strong leader to carry on from the foundations Sheekey had put in place, and they could see no better choice than redSNK as he has an impressive track record of LAN finishes and tournament experience.
He has been the cornerstone of Team Infused’s lineups for the last two years, and leaves a big question mark over what lineup Infused will pick up next, or if they will move away from CS to focus on their domination of the console scene.
redSNK released the following statement on the NerdRage website when they announced he was joining
I’m really excited with this new adventure and playing with these guys, as soon as I started playing with them in a few practices I saw there is a lot of potential and just how much work Sheekey had put in with these guys. I hope we can replicate the results that the guys got early on against some Tier2/Tier3 teams. Thanks very much to the guys and to NerdRage for this opportunity!
The complete NerdRage lineup is now:
James “redSNK” Littlewood
James “Lumji” Webb
Shane “SHANEY” Smith
Jerome “Roma” Parramore
Chris “dream” Choat
Last night, Sheekey announced that he is parting ways with NerdRage, citing personal differences between him and the rest of the team. As far as stability goes, this team has survived a couple post LAN shuffles. This stability has helped them show growing promise in the European scene and they also managed to snag first place in the UKCSGO January Top 10. Jonathan “Sheekey” Sheekey has been the driving force of this team as in game leader since it came together late last year. Sheekey and NerdRage have put the split down to friction growing between him and the rest of the team because of his calling style.
Today is the day myself and the NerdRage team part ways after a difference of opinions. Goodluck to who ever goes there next. glhf
— Jonathan Sheekey (@SHEEKEYCSGO) February 16, 2016
Sheekey expanded on his tweet with the following statement –
After our loss against Gbots it clearly showed that the team was not working and that no matter what I said or did, it was always going to lead into an argument of some form from someone within the team. I don’t know if it’s lack of experience in relation to losing important games or a personality issue or anything, really. At the end of the day, everyone knows I’m a ‘rager’ I don’t hide the fact, yes I rage and yes of course it effected the games but it was like trying to get blood from a stone when asking a simple question always seemed to lead onto a argument.
I obviously wish things were sorted at an earlier date and not spoke about behind my back for weeks but hey ho what can you do its the UK. I would of them rather kicked me 3 weeks ago and grew a pair instead of letting me get to this point were I have to force questions and basically just leave the team as I’m under stress with what’s going on in real-life at the moment.
On a positive note thanks to Rudiak and NerdRage for there support, it was one of the best organisations I have played under and they will go far with his mindset. GL to the rest of the UK scene and if anyone needs a coach, I’m here.
NerdRage followed up by posting the below statement –
After an apparent loss of strings since the Operation: Kinguin #2 event, the team has decided to replace Sheekey, citing chemistry, poor results, and the lack of the team being able to bond as one for being the issue for the replacement. In the meantime, the team looks to try out other fellow UK players in an attempt to regain the synergy NerdRage recently lost.
This comes as a surprise, even though the NerdRage team have lost their past 4 matches. Starting since Operation: Kinguin #2, the final blow was against gBots, when the team got obliterated on both de_cobblestone and de_train. That seemed to be the final blow for the NerdRage 4. It seemed like the team just weren’t themselves, and they chose to replace veteran IGL Sheekey. Sheekey has also had his string of bad results, most notably a poor performance against E-Frag on de_dust2 of the Operation: Kinguin #2 group stages.
We wish Sheekey the best of luck and hope that he will have a career just as successful as his time in NerdRage. We know that he is one of the stepping stones of the current UK scene, and losing him is brutal for us. With his current past experience and with him helping create the lineup we represent today; it was a regrettable decision to make, knowing he had the IGL-ing and talent which created the team.
This means that NerdRage is now –
James “Lumji” Webb
Shane “Shaney” Smith
Jerome “aqua” Parramore
Chris “dream” Choat
Rumours have been circling around that Sam “RattlesnK” Gawn is likely to be making a return to competitive play, and filling the empty spot in NerdRage. We will continue to bring the latest news from the NerdRage camp over the coming days and weeks on who the actual replacement is.
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