Image: Ubisoft/Kirill Bashkirov
In a shock move just under a week after their semi-final appearance at Jönköping Major, Soniqs have benched Evan "Kanzen" Bushore. The move was confirmed by former Soniqs IGL and current General Manager Seth "supr" Hoffman on his Twitch stream.
Supr elaborated that the move was a "team decision" and also revealed that the team has not yet lined up a replacement for Kanzen.
"In my opinion, he is one of the best players in the world, and this was a very difficult decision, especially for me and what we were able to accomplish together as teammates," said supr in a response to a BLIX.GG query. "But the team felt this was a necessary step to take heading into SI."
Soniqs looked resurgent at the most recent Major, finishing in the top four despite two sizeable roster changes that included the retirement of supr himself. Finishing top in their group, their run finally came to an end at the hands of the eventual champions, Team BDS.
Kanzen was the third-best Soniqs player at the Jönköping Major by SiegeGG Rating, finishing the event with a 1.06 figure while primarily playing Sledge and Melusi. In the NAL, he was fourth-best by the same metric but still had a 1.00 SiegeGG Rating -- a balanced figure -- while having largely played Smoke on defense instead.