Monte has announced on Twitter that Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev will take a break from competitions. Meanwhile, he will be replaced by Max “Marix” Kugener. For Monte, however, the question now is what to do next anyway, because the organisation has been banned from leaving Ukraine and is not allowed to leave the country for the time being.
Monte has explained that sdy is taking a break to recharge his batteries because the season was very exhausting for the player.
sdy takes a break at Monte
sdy is an important player at Monte and has helped his team to success at the BLAST Paris Major, among others. Monte will be competing in the upcoming Elisa Invitational Spring online tournament after being invited directly to the quarterfinals by the tournament organiser. They will compete there the day after tomorrow, on 8 June with Marix in tow.
We welcome @marixcsgo to the team, who will replace sdy š¤
He is an incredibly talented player who will strengthen our team in the upcoming tournament.
Max, show your power with #MonteGang š«” pic.twitter.com/mlCo0buFya
— MONTE ESPORTS šŗš¦ (@Monte_Esports) June 5, 2023
It’s lucky that the tournament is online – because the team is not allowed to leave Ukraine from now on, which is of course a big obstacle, because you don’t know how long this ban will last. 3 months? Until the end of the war? Forever? No one knows at the moment.
Monte and B8 are banned from leaving Ukraine
The Ukrainian players of Team Monte are no longer allowed to leave the country as they did before – although until now they could always fall back on the special rules for athletes. Since the start of the war, men over the age of 18 have been forbidden to leave Ukraine. However, athletes are lucky, they are allowed to leave for competitions, but they have to come straight back. Monte did not do that and ended up on the red list from the Ministry of Youth and Sports. At the end of May, the umbrella organisation had published a list of athletes who had not returned from abroad after completing competitions.
We are finishing the CS season, and there will be a short break š„š«”
Summing up, there were many victories at the beginning of the season, more losses due to fatigue towards the end,Ā and tons of your support š„°
Thanks to everyone who cheers ā¤ļø pic.twitter.com/aDoY2A1TyG
— B8 Esports (@B8esportsGG) June 6, 2023
This affected 236 people, including the Monte and B8 players. Other Ukrainian teams, such as NAVI, were not included on the list because they had left the country before the new rules were applied. Another team that will not be allowed to leave is B8. Monte explained that they left for the RMR but stayed in Europe longer afterwards because they qualified for the BLAST Major in Paris, France. They apologised to the ministry after the penalty was announced, but apparently it did little good. It is unclear what other options they have to travel abroad or if there will be an appeal process.
Monte consists of the following players:
Volodymyr “Voro2k” Veletniuk
Sergiy “DemQQ” Demchenko
Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas
Szymon “kRaSnaL” Mrozek
Victor “sdy” Orudzhev (temporarily on leave)