Earlier on Friday, PGL has unveiled the official lineups teams have submitted for the upcoming Major in Stockholm. Overall, there are no big surprises on the list after Virtus.pro announced the switch of Sanjar “SANJI” Kuliev for Evgeny “FL1T” Lebedev for the tournament, but a few curious names still appear in some of the big teams.
Everyone has been given the chance to submit a substitute player at no cost of their RMR points, whom they can swap in and out once during the tournament at their leisure. While it’s unlikely anyone will make substitutions by choice, given that positive COVID cases could see players disqualified, it’s smart to have another player ready to step in in the worst-case scenario. Some have opted to go that route, while others decided to let their coach be the substitute.
pasha appears on Liquid’s roster as a substitute
Let’s look at the additions teams have made to their official PGL Major Stockholm lineups, as well as the changes some needed to make due to bans from the coaching bug scandal:
Vitality
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
One of the most unexpected additions came in Vitality, who added DBL PONEY in-game leader bodyy to their lineup as a substitute. In 2017-2018, the 24-year-old played alongside apEX and shox in G2.
Liquid
Michael “Grim” Wince
Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo
Keith “NAF” Markovic
Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski (Substitute)
Having been teased on social media, it should come as no big shock to see pashaBiceps appear on Liquid‘s official roster as a reserve player. The legendary Pole has turned his attention to entertainment ever since he last played with AGO and is now part of the North American organization as a streamer.
As previously announced, the team’s manager, jokasteve, will step in for Eric “adreN” Hoag as the coach will stay at home for the birth of his child.
Entropiq
Igor “Forester” Bezotecheskiy
Viktor “Lack1” Boldyrev
flamie makes a surprising appearance as a substitute for Entropiq. The 24-year-old became a free agent last month after six years with Natus Vincere and has since been seen playing with NAVI Junior in the WePlay Academy League Season 2, helping them qualify for the Kyiv Finals.
FURIA
With Nicholas “guerri” Nogueira banned from the next five Majors due to his involvement in the coaching bug scandal, FURIA promoted assistant coach tacitus for the PGL Major once again, having done so previously at IEM Fall. The Brazilian side also listed one of their academy players, decenty, as a substitute.
FaZe
Håvard “rain” Nygaard
Helvijs “broky” Saukants
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
In a similar vein, FaZe needed a different coach due to Robert “RobbaN” Dahlström‘s ban for the next two Majors. innersh1ne, the team’s analyst, will take up the role in Stockholm for the European squad.
Copenhagen Flames
As another banned coach, Faruk “pita” Pita is unable to participate in the following three Majors, and his place behind the Danish team will once again be filled by Copenhagen Flames director and co-owner, Daniel Vorborg. The team has also decided to bring in a substitute if needed in the form of free agent NaToSaphiX, who last stood in for Complexity.
paiN
In the last of the list of teams who had to bring in a replacement coach because of a standing ban from Valve-affiliated events, paiN brought in felippe to fill in for Bruno “ellllll” Ono in Stockholm. Currently the owner of Imperial, felippe has past ties to the paiN organization, having played under the banner in CS 1.6 and in early CS:GO.
TYLOO
HaoWen “somebody” Xu
Although it’s unclear why or whether this is a permanent change, TYLOO‘s assistant coach Karsa is traveling to Stockholm with the team instead of LiKan “ryk” Luo.
Virtus.pro
The biggest change of all, and the only change to a team’s main roster outside of Astralis, was announced on Friday in Virtus.pro. Former forZe player FL1T replaced SANJI on the Major roster just days before the kick-off of the tournament, with the team seemingly using the $2 million competition as a trial of sorts for the 20-year-old. A notable takeaway is that SANJI is not listed in the lineup at all.
Other substitutes
Several other teams listed substitutes who are currently sitting on the bench or are part of the organization’s academy rosters. Here’s a list of everyone else who has a reserve player listed for the PGL Major that isn’t their coach:
Aleksi “allu” Jalli (ENCE)
Nico “Aqua” Kembitzky (BIG)
Everyone else whom we haven’t mentioned have submitted their current official lineup, relying on their skipper stepping in to play should anything go wrong.
Who do you see as the biggest surprise?
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Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/32610/biggest-takeaways-from-lineups-submitted-for-pgl-major
