Six months after he was crowned world champion with TSM FTX, Emilio "Geometrics" Leynez has now joined the Soniqs alongside Parabellum's Shaun "Gunnar" Pottorff following the departures of Alexander "Yeti" Lawson and Seth "supr" Hoffman.
After previously competing on teams such as Elevate, Counter Logic Gaming, Rogue, and Evil Geniuses, Geometrics spent almost three years on TSM FTX. During this time, the team finished SI 2020 in third, SI 2021 in fourth, ended in the top two of every regional tournament during the 2020 season, and won the 2020 NAL title.
Most recently, TSM became world champions after a successful 2022 Six Invitational campaign. This came despite failing to qualify for the Sweden Major and a COVID-hit Mexico Major run.
He has now moved to the Soniqs ahead of Stage 3.
After a number of years on tier two or three lineups, Gunnar meanwhile made his competitive debut in Stage 2 of the NAL as he replaced Tim "Creators" Humpherys on Parabellum. Here, he helped PBLM inch close to a Berlin Major appearance, but a final play day defeat to the Soniqs was the difference between his team and the Soniqs making it to the Major.
During Stage 2, Gunnar was the third-best player by SiegeGG Rating and also had the best opening kill differential in the league. He will now join the team that bested Parabellum in his prior game.
Soniqs, meanwhile, have been a regular fixture on the world stage after qualifying for four of the last five global events. While they did finish 5-6th at the last Six Invitational, they have won just three games combined across their three Six Major appearances.
Now, following supr's retirement and the exit of Yeti, they'll be hoping to keep a top-four position and do much better in November with one of North America's most experienced active players and one of the region's most promising rookies.