In a surprise move Tuesday night, Viperio Esports have added Matas “Extinct” Strumila to the team. The move reunites Extinct with Tom “arTisT” Clarke and Callum “Girafffe” Jones, with whom he played for nearly three years, dating back to the Chrome Gaming roster and continuing under UMX Gaming, Fambit, Coalesce and EKO. This means Viperio are once again complete, after parting ways with James “bevve” Slinn 12 days ago.
The team qualified for the BLAST Paris Major EU RMR A with Rory “cryths” Ursell , however according to a statement by the organisation, cryths was unable to commit to the team’s schedule in the run-up and after the event. Viperio have confirmed the team will reunite with Extinct, who has been competing with dripmen since leaving arTisT and Girafffe (then under the orgless SOS banner) last September. Despite only achieving a 1.02 average HLTV rating with dripmen, Extinct’s 1.18 impact rating showed his importance to the dripmen team.
The move brings the core which won EPIC.34 under Team Coalesce and alpenScene LEVEL UP 2022 under EKO Esports back together. Extinct was also victorious with arTisT at SiGMA Esports Technologies Cup 2021 in Malta, the biggest win of both players’ careers (Girafffe was replaced for that event by Javier “Ping” Griffiths). With a little over a month to prepare for the event, Viperio will be hoping that familiarity will aid them as they look towards their date with destiny in Copenhagen.
Shortly after the announcement on Twitter the organisation received backlash from the UK CS:GO community, with many feeling it was unfair that cryths would be replaced ahead of the RMR. Viperio’s coach, Ciaran “biscu” King, responded to the criticism saying:
To everyone who is disappointed with us, we have to make hard decisions in the best interests of the roster with the long term in mind and we believed this was our best plan of action. https://t.co/dUNJ86K2BM
— Ciarán King (@biscu_) February 28, 2023
The move leaves dripmen seeking their own replacement for Extinct, having already parted ways with Richard “Zulu” Wood just last week. It also doubles the number of Irish players who will compete at the RMR.
Viperio are now:
Tom “arTisT” Clarke
Callum “Girafffe” Jones
Jack “Gizmy” Von Spreckelsen
Marco “MMS” Salomone
Matas “Extinct” Strumila
Ciaran “biscu” King (Coach)
Javier “Ping” Griffiths (Substitute)
