MSL Forms a New CS:GO Team

Renowned Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in-game leader Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen had formed his own esports team. The Dane announced the news on his Twitter account on Friday, July 31.

MSL Forms His Own Team

MSL has announced his return to the competitive CS:GO scene with his own roster. In the announcement, the Dane called out on interested esports organizations with “high ambitions” to contact him.

The 26-year-old has not unveiled the names of any of his new teammates. However, he has stated that the roster comprises players forming a good mixture of experience and talent.

“I have decided to create my own team. I have found all the players and it’s a good mixture of talent and experience,” said MSL
“We are searching an organization with high ambitions! If you are interested, contact me here on Twitter or on e-mail @ mattienn@sommer-online.dk for more info.”

Shortly after the announcement, the speculations started to rise, guessing the names of players who could join MSL in his endeavor. Potential candidates include former HYENAS core, which disbanded at the start of July.

Philip “aizy” Aistrup, Nicklas “gade” Gade, Frederik “Fessor” Sørensen, and Johannes “b0RUP” Borup have all been teammates at HYENAS and are currently free agents. Although MSL has not commented whether his team will be all-Danish, either of the four could join MSL’s new team.

MSL has previously played with aizy and gade at North, so it is likely he would want to carry over the synergy into his new team. At the time of writing, however, there are no official announcements regarding the roster.

MSL Ends A Five-Month Hiatus

By forming his own CS:GO esports team, MSL will make a return to the competitive scene after spending the better part of the year teamless. He was last seen competing with North in 2020.

MSL stepped down from the team once the Danish esports organization decided to move to a talent development strategy. MSL remained contracted with North until February 2021, when the organization ceased operation.

MSL’s recent stint with North lasted for 10 months and was largely unsuccessful, seeing how the team failed to win a single tournament throughout 2020. North’s only notable accomplishments included top-four finishes at DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020, #HomeSweetHome: Week 1, and Nine to Five #3.

The closest North came to winning a tournament title was in September 2020. They placed runners-up at Eden Arena: Malta Vibes – Week 10.

MSL has previously played at North from January 2017 – September 2018, before moving to Rogue and OpTic Gaming. During his first stint with the Danish esports organization, MSL won several high-profile tournaments, including DreamHack Open Montreal 2017, DreamHack Open Tours 2018, DreamHack

Open Valencia 2018, and DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018.

Things, however, took a sudden turn for the worse following an early exit from FACEIT Major: London 2018. Amidst all the roster changes that followed, MSL left for Rogue.

MSL’s Plans For The Future

Although the experienced in-game lead had offers, he has decided against joining an already established team. As stated by MSL, the organizations that were after him didn’t have solid enough rosters to achieve his goals.

“I had some offers, but they were not strong enough lineup wise,” said MSL. “I felt there was more potential creating my own team and make better results, in the end, that’s what matters for me.”

His only other option to return to the competitive CS:GO scene was to create his own roster. As revealed, MSL’s initial goal for his team is to compete at the top-20 level and move on from there.

MSL forming his own team rules out a potential move to Fnatic. The Dane has been previously linked with the Swedish esports organization as one of the most experience in-game leaders in the market.

Those rumours, however, soon turned to dust after the reports of Fnatic signing Alex “ALEX” McMeekin as their new skipper.

We can expect MSL to announce his team’s lineup in the following weeks. For the time being, however, we can only speculate who will join the 26-year-old in his journey to the summit of the CS:GO esports scene.