It was a short and unsuccessful partnership between the European team and the Australian caller. Sprout has announced that Aaron “AZR” Ward will be leaving the team.
AZR has left the team after the in-game leader spent just one month on the roster. The announcement comes a little over a week after the team failed to qualify for the Paris Major at BLAST Europe RMR A.
Two IGLs on the team is not good
Sprout has stated that they will be trying out new IGLs in both their official matches and practice matches, which may result in different players competing each week. AZR came to Sprout after an unstable period for the European team, when the orga was looking for an adequate replacement for Ismail “refrezh” Ali, who had stepped down from his in-game lead role.
Dear Sproutlings,
With the apparent absence of success, following our RMR run last week, we spent a lot of time reflecting on our situation together as a team.
After intense and careful deliberation, we have recognized that we need to make extensive changes in order to be… pic.twitter.com/3cfTFphxyx
— Sprout (@sproutGG) April 17, 2023
At first, the team went with Mikkel “Maze” Sparvath in place of Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss, but then decided to put Zyphon back on the main team and bench refrezh instead. That even led to their coach Danny “BERRY” Kruger having to substitute for them at the CCT Central Europe Malta Finals.
“It was clear early on that it just wasn’t going to be a good fit as the roles overlapped and we didn’t have the same vision for the IGL to make room for the team,” AZR said of his time with the team in a TwitLonger post.
Departing Sprout
Read: https://t.co/xPi5o3mfic
— AZR (@Azr) April 17, 2023
Australian IGL AZR has led the team to a 6-10 record during his time, with their only win against a top-50 team in early March against Apeks. In the events they have participated in during this time, things have not gone well for them at all: they failed to qualify for ESL Challenger Melbourne, IEM Dallas, and BLAST Spring Showdown, finished second-to-last at BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic, and also failed to make it past the BLAST Paris Major RMRs.
Sprout creates Academy team
Daniel Paulus, Sprout’s CS:GO manager, said in a statement, “In the fast-paced world of Esports, making the right decisions for player and roster changes can be a challenge. With little to no time, you’ll never know for sure if a decision is appropriate until the end.”
The announcement also mentioned that Sprout plans to create an Academy team this summer. “I am very excited to be involved in our upcoming CS:GO Academy team project. I don’t see this team as a standalone entity, but as a second team that will bring great value to our organization,” BERRY said in a statement about the future Academy team.
Here’s Sprout’s current lineup:
- Victor “Staehr” Staehr
- Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea
- Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss
- Adrian “XELLOW” Guță
- Danny “BERRY” Krüger (Coach)