Solarity part ways with Airwaks and Nikof
Solarity, a French esports organisation, which competes in Fortnite announced the departure of Karim "Airwaks" Benghalia and Nicolas "Nikof" Frejavise, who both left to join Team Vitality earlier this Saturday.
The departure of Airwaks and Nikof was made public on Saturday, February 15, when it was unveiled the duo parted ways with Solarity amidst contract negotiations. Airwaks and Nikof will from now on play Team Vitality, who unveiled their signing on the same day via their official Twitter page.
Nikof started his professional Fortnite career in February 2018, when he joined PCS Boucheros. He later played for KLIM eSports, Team-LDLC, Bastille Legacy and most recently Solarity. Shortly after he made his first appearance in the competitive Fortnite scene, Nikof pocketed gold at DreamHack Sevilla 2018 and silver at Colmar Esports Show alongside three PCS Boucheros teammates in Sabri "Xoxo" Boulegrou, Youssef "Orange" Otsmane and Ivan "Hawkers" Riffel, with whom Nikof will reunite at Vitality.
Airwaks on the other side started his career in April 2018 with team Lunarity and later in June joined Solarity, where he remained since. Throughout his career, Airwaks saw a fair amount of success, but it was not until he teamed up with Nikof that his career really took off.
Since Nikof and Airwaks joined forces at Solarity, the duo seemingly became inseparable, as they started to compete together in duo tournaments, where they reached a respectable amount of success. Nikof and Airwaks won Lyon e-Sport 2019, finished 11th at Katowice Royale 2019 and qualified for 2019 Fortnite World Cup, where they finished 29th, which earned them US $100,000 in prize winnings.
After their strong performance at World Cup, they continued to compete together in both iterations of the Fortnite Champions Series. In August 2019, Nikof, Airwaks and Pierre "Vato" Mesey finished third at Champion's Trios Cash Cup: Week 1 – Europe, second at Champion's Trios Cash Cup: Week 3 – Europe and first at Champion's Trios Cash Cup: Week 4 – Europe. The trio also claimed a top-six finish at Week 2 and 3 of Fortnite Champion Series: Season X.
Towards the end of the year, Nikof, Airwaks, Vato and Clément "Skite" Danglot won Fishy Cup Series: Cup 3 and War Legend: Holly Hedges – Invitational, which put them on the map as a dominant quartet. But it was not until December, when they made a serious statement in the Fortnite professional scene when they won Fortnite Champion Series: Chapter 2: Season 1 Heat 1 – Europe and finished third at Fortnite Champion Series: Chapter 2: Season 1 Grand Finals – Europe.
Airwaks and Nikof have been playing Fortnite together for most of their competitive career, and it seems like they arrived at Vitality as a package deal. Solarity co-founder Amaury Vedis talked about the move of Airwaks and Nikof and stated that Solarity were able to match initial offers from Team Vitality, but were outbid when the figures started to grow, which suggests Vitality had splash out big money in order to acquire the duo.
It was also reported that Vitality had their eyes set on Airwalks and Nikof for quite some time, which is why it should not come off as a surprise they did not hesitate to jump at the opportunity to sign them once their contract with Solarity ended.
Airwalks and Nikof will now join forces with Philippe "Oslo" Carvalho, Zoubiri "BadSniper" Naofel, Corentin "Gotaga" Houssein, Mickaël "Mickalow" Maruin, Maxime "Robi" Dambrine, Adil "Adz" Kamel and Hawkers.
