Bad News Bears part ways with crashies; sign dazzLe
Will "dazzLe" Loafman will replace Austin "crashies" Roberts as the new rifler for Bad News Bears, as announced by the North American CS:GO team this Wednesday, April 15.
The announcement comes shortly after Bad News Bears concluded their FLASHPOINT Season 1 appearance under the FunPlus Phoenix banner, where Peter "ptr" Gurney and co. finished at a respectable seventh-eighth place after failing to make it past round one of the playoffs.
According to reliable sources, crashies decided to step down from the Bad News Bears roster and move away from the Counter-Strike scene entirely in a bid to instead focus on Riot Games' upcoming tactical shooter VALORANT. Although his abrupt decision meant Bad News Bears were left to search for a new player just one week ahead of their ESL One: Road to Rio, ptr's squad did not need long to find the perfect replacement in dazzLe, who already wore the Bad News Bears jersey back in April 2019.
Crashies was first seen in a competitive CS:GO environment in February 2017, when he appeared at EsportsArena Santa Ana Showdown III while playing under a stack named The Banishers. Although crashies got signed by Ben's Anime Team, he spent most of his early days as a CS:GO pro moving between different stacks while competing at some lesser C and B-Tier tournaments.
Crashies continued with his nomadic ways into 2018 as well, having played for five different unsigned teams. The 22-year-old ex-CS:GO pro failed to see any outstanding success at the highest level of the competition, however, his potential did not go unnoticed and in May, he got offered a contract by Bad News Bears.
During his stay, crashies helped ptr's squad in their ventures through ESL One: Cologne 2019 – North American Qualifier, Mythic Cup #2, Intel Extreme Masters XIV – Chicago: North American Open Qualifier #2, Americas Minor Championship – Berlin 2019: North American Open Qualifier #2 and Americas Minor Championship – Berlin 2019: North American Open Qualifier #3, where Bad News Bears finished seventh-eighth, first, eighth-fifth, third-fourth and first-place finish respectively.
On June 19, 2019, Bad News Bears roster got signed by Riot Squad Esports, where crashies helped his team secure their second Mythic Cup title in August, fourth-place finish at MSI Gaming Arena 2019 and WESG 2019 North America: United States, as well as grand finals appearance at ESEA Season 32: Global Challenge.
Shortly after the departure of Riot Squad's CS:GO coach Brandon "weber" Weber, the North American organisation decided to pull the plug on their CS:GO project in February, which ushered Mitch "mitch" Semago, Jonathan "Jonji" Carey, ptr and crashies to return playing under their old banner.
Since their departure from Riot Squad, Bad News Bears pocketed a top-six finish at Flashpoint Season 1: North American Qualifier and made it through both Americas Minor Championship – Rio 2020: North American Closed Qualifier and ESEA Season 33: Premier Division – North America. In April, the squad also got a chance to prove themselves at FLASHPOINT, where they played under Fun PlusPhoenix's banner and finished top-eight.
During that time, crashies averaged 1.18 rating and 75.7% map win rate, which is only an extension of his solid numbers under Bad News Bears from before they signed for Riot Squad (1.16 rating, 55% W/R).
His replacement, dazzLe, formerly of eUnited, previously played alongside Michael "dapr" Gulino and Jonji on Singularity and New Identity, so he is coming to the squad with some already established synergy. Since dazzLe parted ways with Singularity in January, his sole appearance as a part of New Patrol came at Americas Minor Championship – Rio 2020: North American Closed Qualifier in March, where he averaged 0.93 rating.
