Image: Ubisoft/Joao Ferreira
MNM Gaming today announced the departure of Callum "Neonical" Humphreys ahead of the Six Invitational 2023 next week, which they are already qualified for. Replacing him will be Nathan "Nathan" Sharp, who left MNM for NAVI in Mar. 2021.
MNM Gaming had a fairly strong calendar year in 2022, even though they were criticised for being poor on attack and being inconsistent at times. Despite that, they managed qualification to SI 2022 before confirming their promotion to the EUL.
While they missed out on the Charlotte Major in May, they qualified to the subsequent Berlin Major and then the Jönköping Major in August and November, respectively. Their consistent form in the EUL also saw them finish in the top five in every stage and awarded them an EUL Finals place.
While Jönköping Major champions Team BDS were unstoppable in the EUL Finals grand-final, their results over 2022 were impressive for a team that had only secured promotion to the EUL that very year.
Nevertheless, the losses, failures to qualify to the Charlotte Major and to progress to the playoffs in the Berlin and Jönköping Majors have seemingly spurred MNM into a change before the world championship event next month.
Making way on MNM is Neonical, who was the worst player on the team by SiegeGG Rating in Stages 2 and 3 of the EUL. His SiegeGG Rating was also only a little higher in Stage 1, but his IGL Leon "neLo" Pesić had a slightly lower Rating. During this period, he largely played Hibana, Nomad, and Ace on attack, and Jaeger on defense.
Nath, on the other hand, was with the former MNM Gaming team from Oct. 2019 to Mar. 2021. During this period, the roster also briefly played under the CR4ZY banner.
In Stages 2 and 3, Nath had nearly identical figures to Neonical. Nath had a 0.91 Rating in Stage 2 to Neonical's 0.89, while both finished with a SiegeGG Rating of 0.93 in Stage 3. However, Nathan was NAVI's best player in Stage 1 with a SiegeGG Rating of 1.04, compared to Neonical's 0.84.