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Richard “ritchiEE” Mestdagh has announced that he is stepping down from GORILLAZ roster on Monday, September 20. This marks another setback for the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, who are left with only four active members.
RitchiEE Out Of GORILLAZ
RitchiEE has announced that he is leaving GORILLAZ on Monday, leaving the team with four active members. GORILLAZ are now left with Kevin “HS” Tarn, Jere “sergej” Salo, Miikka “sunny” Kemppi, and Robin “flusha” Ronnquist.
With the departure of the Belgian CS:GO esports pro, have now GORILLAZ parted ways with five players in just as many months.
The former Club Brugge star player’s decision to leave comes as a shock since he had been with their team for only over a month. He has joined GORILLAZ in August, alongside HS, to replace Niels Christian “NaToSaphiX” Sillassen and Yasin “xfl0ud” Koç.
During the short time he has spent with GORILLAZ, ritchiEE struggled to achieve much. Oddly enough, the team’s best tournament run is coming at Elisa Invitational, where GORILLAZ are still competing.
During the Swiss stage of the Elisa Invitational, GORILLAZ achieved a 3-2 record. With that, they’ve qualified for the Elisa Invitational Fall, slated for September 13 – October 15
RitchiEE has played 16 games for GORILLAZ during his stay and averaged a fairly disappointing 0.94 rating. Over that stretch, ritchiEE posted a 45.7% map win rate and has had a +1.00 rating in only 40% of maps.
Another Setback
GORILLAZ was formed in April 2021 as an independent stack of players who wanted to complete together. Although the team was billed as an exciting project, their performances left a lot to be desired.
GORILLAZ haven’t achieved much since their inception and hardly lived up to the hype. A month after forming, GORILLAZ peaked at no.74 in the world but have since struggled to reach that status.
A streak of mediocre showings saw GORILLAZ enter summer as world no.89, having since dropped down to world no.219 in August. Of late, the ritchiEE’s former team found some traction and climbed their way to world no.82.
GORILLAZ hold an underwhelming 50% win rate across the last three months with no tournament titles to show for. Their most notable accomplishment came in August when they placed second at Pelaajatcom Series Fall Showoff 2021.
All of GORILLAZ’s other tournament endeavors ended in premature exits and disappointing finishes.
Due to the team’s lack of success, it doesn’t come off as a surprise that players are deciding to leave. Regardless, GORILLAZ have yet to decide to pull the plug on their project.
As revealed by flusha, GORILLAZ will continue competing at Elisa Invitational Fall. There, the team will chase the lion’s share of the $100,000 prize pool and their first tournament title.
GORILLAZ Continue Their Journey at Elisa Invitational
GORILLAZ started their campaign through Elisa Invitational with a shock 2-0 win against world no.22 team, Sinners Esports. However, they quickly returned to their old ways and lost against SKADE, who beat them 2-0 on Monday.
With a 1-1 record, GORILLAZ need to win two more matches to advance into the playoffs. Achieving that feat would guarantee GORILLAZ at least $2,000 in tournament winnings and take them one step closer to the $50,000 winner’s share.
Due to the departure of ritchiEE, GORILLAZ had to find their new fifth player on short notice. Regardless, flusha and co. found a replacement in an Estonian CS:GO esports pro Anton “supra” Tšernobai.
The 19-year-old is currently benched from Nordavind and will take over the vacant spot left behind by ritchiEE. Supra made his debut on Monday when he posted a 0.97 rating in GORILLAZ’s defeat against SKADE.
Regardless of that defeat, GORILLAZ are still in an excellent position to compete for the top spots. However, it remains to be seen who they will face next, as the tournament organizers have yet to announce the schedule for the next round.