00Nation Bench Leo_Drk

Brazilian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team 00Nation benched Leonardo “leo_drk” Oliveira, who was removed from the active lineup. The news surfaced on Friday, May 6, following the team’s poor results at the start of the year.

As reported, leo_drk is no longer a member of 00Nation’s active lineup. The 22-year-old got benched from the Brazilian squad on Friday as the team looks to make changes that would bring better results.

But even though the whole team performed poorly over the last weeks, leo_drk drew the short end of the stick and got removed from the active lineup. It remains to be seen who 00Nation will sign to fill in the voids, but according to the recent reports, the team already has its eyes on a couple of high-profile players.

According to rumors, 00Nation are looking at paiN Gaming’s Rodrigo “biguzera” Bittencourt and Sharks Esports’ Lucas “Lucaozy” Neves as two potential signings. It remains to be seen which of the two will 00Nation sign, but both would be an upgrade on paper.

Biguzera is a 25-year-old player who started his CS:GO career in 2018, having the first player for a few regional stacks. Most notably, he was a member of NO ORG and ex-Team Wild, which got acquired by paiN Gaming in February 2019.

And even though they were a fairly unknown group of players at the time, ex-Team Wild achieved respectable success under the paiN Gaming’s banner. Most notably, paiN reached PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and won BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2022 at the start of May.

Lucaozy, on the other side, is a current member of Sharks Esports, who also attended PGL Major Stockholm 2021 but failed to achieve much success in 2022. But despite the team’s lack of success, it remains to be seen whether the Sharks will look to make any changes

It’s worth noting that even though 00Nation would be happy to sign either of the two, the Brazilian team has stated that negotiations are far from over. Furthermore, 00Nation also believes that signing either of the two players from rival teams will be difficult.

Either way, the team believes either player will be an upgrade for leo_drk, who has been struggling with his form.

Leo_drk joined 00Nation in September 2021, when 00Nation signed the whole O Plano roster. Even though leo_drk and his crew saw some success while playing under O Plano, they didn’t reach the same heights under a new banner. His most notable accomplishment with 00Nation was a runner-up finish at RTP Arena Cup 2022.

Moreover, leo_drk has been struggling with his individual performances, averaging a 0.98 rating since joining the team. But that figure plummeted even further during PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Americas RMR.

Over the seven maps the team has played in the tournament, leo_drk has managed a positive rating in only one – against Team Liquid. Across the remaining six, he has failed to post a rating higher than 0.91.

With leo_drk leaving the team, Vinicius “vsm” Moreira remains the only player left over from the old O Plano roster. But unlike his former teammates who either got cut from the roster or left to play elsewhere, vsm has been posting solid results.

Since joining the team, vsm has averaged a 1.03 rating and was one of the best-performing individuals in 00Nations’ failed run through the RMR.

As it stands now, 00Nation have yet to finalize the signing of leo_drk’s replacement, and the organization believes that signing either of the two shortlisted players will be tough.

Still, we should get more information about the roster changes in the coming weeks, about whether 00Nation have reached an agreement with Sharks of paiN Gaming.