Just as paiN seemed to be picking up steam following their roster changes at the start of the year, they’ll now be playing with a stand-in for the foreseeable future, as nqz is going to be spending some time on the sidelines for “personal reasons”.

Fortunately for paiN, in a landscape full of terrible AWPers, saffee isn’t actually a bad option.

That said, you’d hope that nqz is back by Cologne, but given that saffee is listed as a sub… we doubt it.

Oh well, at least that should be one less spot for the Americas. Sorry Liquid!

In other news, fame is back on a team. He’s signed for K27 on loan, and will be playing with them until the end of May.

That means he’ll be playing with them at PGL Astana, so we’re being given a fantastic opportunity to see if he’s actually cheeks or was just another player suffering from the VP curse.

Former ENCE player Maden will also soon hopefully have another chance to prove himself, having entered free agency following a failed move to fnatic. Given how bad fnatic have been this year it’s hard to actually say anything bad about him, but there might just be a shout that he’s nothing more than an average player who was elevated by Snappi’s system.

Which, to be fair, could be a fantastic landing spot for him if cairne continues to fail to live up to the hype.

Speaking of failing to live up to the hype, Zyphon has rejoined the Sashi lineup.

Benched for barely a month, this feels like a last, last, last chance for the Danish rifler, who once showed so much promise on Copenhagen Flames.

And finally, Gentle Mates have parted ways with their coach, deLonge. Given that M8s failed to make the Major despite their ambitions as an org, this feels like a logical first step, with something telling us that it won’t be the only step they make as they look to replicate the success they’ve enjoyed in other games.