Following a tenth-placed finish in Stage 1 of the European League (EUL), Chaos has decided to re-sign their former players of Arif "Next1" Keskin and Rickard "Secretly" Olofsson, benching Ville "Shatte" Palola and Rasmus "REDGROOVE" Larsson in the process.
Next1 previously played in a number of national tournaments including the Castle Siege, the 2019 German National and the Benelux Season 3 Finals -- finishing in third in all three LAN tournaments -- before breaking right into the top leagues as he replaced Kripps on the Chaos Esports Club lineup.
Next1 only spent the remaining three playdays of the Season 10 season on the roster, however, where he beat both Empire and GiFu but lost to Na'Vi which was just enough to push the team from seventh to sixth, above PENTA and out of the relegation zone. His performance across these three maps, however, was less than desired with him finishing as the lowest-rated player despite playing on frag orientated roles.
Chaos' individual player performances during Season 10.
Due to this, Next1 was replaced by the ex-Six Invitational and Pro League champion of SHA77E for Season 11, with Next1 joining the Challenger League contenders of LowLandLions (previously known as Defusekids and Trust Gaming) for the nine months since then. In this time, he finished Season 11 in fourth place and, more impressively, finished the season as the fourth-highest performing Challenger League player in Europe, with a 1.15 rating and a +36 kill differential while still playing the same operators of Zofia and Jager.
The top players during Season 11's Challenger League.
Secretly, meanwhile, was one of the earliest members of this roster. After spending Season 3 and the 2017 Six Invitational on the Swedish majority roster of EURONICS Gaming, he joined Playing Ducks in the Pro League for Season 5 alongside Renuilz where he stayed for the following three years.
Most recently, Secretly left after a particularly bad Season 11 in which he finished as the third-lowest rated player in Europe across all 14 playdays. Since then, he narrowly missed out on the UKIN Finals on Fierce Esports, but has not been able to challenge regionally in any new team.
Now, both players rejoin their old team in Chaos Esports Club for Stage 2 of the European League:
Since its reformation in Season 7, the Chaos Esports Club team has had a very rocky history with their Season 7 to 11 results seeing them finish in fifth, sixth, fifth, sixth, and seventh. The team most recently finished stage one of the European League in tenth place without a single win across the nine games.
Chaos did have a few notable performances, finishing fourth in both the Allied Minor and DreamHack Valencia event just over a year ago, but they have been unable to effectively challenge domestically and have attended no international events since.
Secretly playing at DreamHack Valencia 2019.
Now, in order to rectify this, the roster has opted to remove two of the most experienced players in the team of Rasmus "REDGROOVE" Larsson and Ville "SHA77E" Palola. Starting with SHA77E he's best known for his time on the GiFu lineup where he attended four Pro League Finals including a victory in Season 6 before joining PENTA Sports and winning the 2018 Six Invitational. Since then he returned to GiFu for seasons eight to 10 before joining Chaos ahead of Season 11.
REDGROOVE meanwhile played at the 2018 Six Invitational also on ROOM FACTORY alongside JoyStiCK, ShepparD, and Shockwave, before joining Chaos in the Pro League the following season. Despite both these players history, they have slipped down near to the bottom of the player ratings over the last few seasons likely leading to these changes.
These roster moves now reunite Cryn and Next1 from their time in Defusekids during last season's Challenger League and recreates the core lineup of VITO, Renuilz, and Secretly first scene during Season 9 when Chaos finished joint third in points, the team's best-ever performance.
The Season 9 standings, which had the same core roster as the new lineup.
This change may, however, be too late for the 2020 season as their stage one performance means they will likely need around a sixth-place finish in Stage 2 (depending on how many points each team secures) in order to escape the relegation zone, with the last-placed team across both stages combined set to be auto relegated down to the Challenger League, while the ninth-placed team will play in a relegation matchup.
Nevertheless, Chaos' debut with their new active lineup will be on Sunday against Ambush Esport in the online Finals of the Nordic Championship with the following roster:
Mattias Johannes "Renuilz" Nordebäck Aleks "VITO" Lyapun Pascal "cryn" Alouane Arif "Next1" Keskin Rickard "Secretly" Olofsson Galdim "Hyperino" Dani (coach) Jack "Fresh" Thomas Allen (analyst)
