Envy bench FugLy, with more roster changes on the horizon
Two weeks after announcing the benching of Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor, Team Envy released yet another roster update earlier this Wednesday, unveiling Jacob "FugLy" Medina has been removed from their active roster, while suggesting some major changes are set to take place in the team.
The North American organization made a "CS:GO Update" post on their official Twitter account, unveiling they are moving FugLy from their active roster to the reserve roster as a restricted free agent while suggesting "additional roster change information is coming soon".
FugLy has been a member of Envy since March 2019, when he arrived at the team alongside Sam "s0m" Oh, who left for Gen.G Esports in December and Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor who has been benched by Envy at the start of the month.
Since the arrival of FugLy, s0m and ANDROID, Envy failed to produce any notable results. The team attended several qualifiers and only four offline events, where they earned a 13th-16th place finish at ESL Pro League S9 – Americas, last-place finish at IEM Chicago 2019 and DreamHack Masters Malmo 2019, as well as ninth-10th place finish at ESL Pro League S10 – Americas earlier in mid-November.
Their underwhelming results ultimately led to s0m's departure in early December, which was followed by the removal of Envy's coach Zachary "Eley" Stauffer less than a week later.
The roster changes, while expected based on Envy's performance, have been reportedly shocking news for FugLy, who addressed Envy's decision to bench him in a lengthy Twitter post he made shortly after the announcement. In his post, FugLy spoke in detail about his time on Envy, claiming that he was only informed of his benching on January 14 and that he was not updated about his future, but instead "kept in the dark for all the off-season".
While fugLy claimed he does not care he was moved to the bench, he is frustrated with the way it has happened. However, that was not the only thing that disappointed fugLy, who explained in detail about his experiences with the team, starting with the events that took place in August.
As claimed by FugLy, his frustrations with the teams started barely five months after his arrival, when Envy signed Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek from ATK. During that time, Envy went through struggles as they were failing to generate the results they were aiming to achieve, which led to internal turmoil. The whole team, except for one unnamed individual, felt like Noah "Nifty" Francis was the cause of their poor results, which led to the roster deciding to approach the team's management in a bid to cut him off and start fresh. The news somehow reached Nifty, who in return cut Sonic out of the team, presumably to keep his position as a team member and IGL.
FugLy also explained that the main reason he chose Envy over the other two offers he had on the table in March was because the organization assured him he won't need to move out from Arizona, which leads us to the second issue he had with Envy.
In September, Envy informed FugLy he might need to move to Dallas come January-February, as the organization built new facilities in Dallas and wanted all of their teams to be located in the same state. After asking the team about the situation, FugLy reportedly did not receive any response until December, when Envy told him he either moves to Dallas or gets kicked from the team. The organization did, however, claim they will help him move, with no additional information provided back then.
Additionally, Nifty contacted FugLy to talk about his thoughts on the team and his vision for the future, which included the discussion of which players they would keep heading into 2020. FugLy supposedly said he would like to see Ryan "ryann" Welsh remain at the team, but was unsure about ANDROID, asking Nifty to consult ryann about it. All that happened at the time when Eley and Tailored were cut from the coach and CS Manager positions, which again, FugLy was not informed about beforehand.
As for the events towards the end of December, FugLy wrote:
"December 20th, I get another call from Nifty. No news about ANDROID yet, ryann has not been contacted from Nifty. We just talk about me moving and that if I am ready/not ready to commit to Dallas. I just said I was waiting to hear back from Envy. I messaged Envy the same day asking for an update and was told I will hop in a call with them over the weekend."
Three days later, FugLy was informed ANDROID was cut from the team, which he found weird and contacted ryann, who told him he was not asked nor informed about the move by Nifty. The same day, FugLy also received a message from Envy, who claimed they will not be able to help him move until January because it was "the holidays".
At the start of January, FugLy asked for another update from Envy, to which they replied they are working on getting the team sorted out the same weekend and urged FugLy to "hang tight" and wait. At that point, FugLy thought it was all a bunch of bulls**t, so he messaged Nifty, saying he is 100% ready to move, just so he would get things moving. He also asked Nifty about the plans for the future, which they discussed in December, to which he got a response assuring him that he, Nifty, ryann and two more players are in the plans for Envy for 2020. After receiving the confirmation that everything is going nicely and that there were no changes in plans, FugLy simply thought Envy are busy with their new facilities and that he just isn't at the top of their priority list – which is understandable.
On January 9, last week, FugLy received a message from an unknown number asking him "When are you looking to move?". FugLy messaged the number back but received no reply. He then messaged Nifty asking who that number was, considering Nifty was the only one who knew FugLy is ready to move but received no reply for five days.
"I wait for the weekend to get an update from Envy. Weekend passes and nothing. Then on the 13th I see an artcle about Calyx joining Envy and ask ryann if he knew about it. Which he did, and he also thought that I knew about it. That's when I messaged Envy again and asked for a real update this time. That is when I got the call saying that I have been moved to the Bench. And also ryann, who is still part of the starting roster, had no idea about me being cut nor about ANDROID getting cut."
FugLy claimed he feels like he was very naive and that he should have known something is up after the whole Sonic situation took place, as it was clear it was not the team, but a single person making every decision for himself without asking any other members whether they are OK with it.
"They want him running the show as Nifty and Envy are very close," said FugLy
As an update, FugLy stated that he was presumably in the plans for Envy up until January 13, when "new options" came to light, yet he was not informed about anything that was happening in the team since January 9, making the whole process very sketchy, to say the least. What does the future hold in store for FugLy is still a huge mystery but considering he is still under contract with Envy, he can not leave in order to join another team.
Since the benching of FugLy, Team Envy roster looks as follows:
Noah "Nifty" Francis
Ryan "ryann" Welsh
Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor (benched)
Jacob "FugLy" Medina (benched)
