olofmeister joins FaZe, replaces kioShiMa
After a 3-year-long tenure in fnatic, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer has parted ways with the Swedish team and will be joining FaZe. Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey is the player that will be removed from the active lineup of the international squad to make room for the incoming Swede.
Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer's CS:GO career kicked off with LGB as the Swede went on to make the playoffs of the first two majors playing alongside the likes of Dennis "dennis" Edman and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson. Shortly after, olofmeister and KRIMZ made the swap to fnatic, with olofmeister being a part of the Swedish squad ever since.
After defining an era with Markus "pronax" Wallsten in 2014-2015 and winning six tournaments back-to-back with dennis in 2015-2016, the team hit a rough patch and changes followed, with some of the core members departing to GODSENT. Both teams struggled to achieve much after the swap, which ended up being reversed at the beginning of 2017, reuniting the likes of Jesper "JW" Wecksell, Robin "flusha" Rönnquist with dennis and olofmeister.
With six months under their belt and little to show in terms of results, that squad has come to an end as well, as the longest-standing member—olofmeister—makes the switch to FaZe after three years with the Black and Orange.
FaZe have announced that Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey, who was a part of the squad from April 2016, is now on his way out of the team, making way for HLTV.org's #1 player of 2015.
Patrik "cArn" Sättermon said his farewell to olofmeister in the official statement, which you can read in full here, and announced the addition of Maikil "Golden" Selim and the new team manager Andreas "Samuelsson" Samuelsson:
"I want to use this moment to send my biggest thanks to Olof for everything he has done for us and the team. We all look forward to following your incredible career going forward. Please also join me in giving Golden and Samuelsson a warm welcome. The Golden era starts now."
olofmeister explained his departure from the Swedish squad in the following way:
"After a lot of contemplation, I have decided to step down from Fnatic and take on new challenges with Faze Clan. It has been a very hard decision to leave the organization that I love and the organization that has given me so much in terms of winnings, experience, friends, fans and great times."
"As good as it has been I have during the last months felt a slight lack of motivation, or rather positive nervousness, that I felt when I first joined Fnatic. I want that feeling back and feel that the only remedy is to try something new."
"Ps. And maybe, just maybe, people will remember a Olofmeister flick"
FaZe's coach, Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, pointed out that they have now finally found a lineup that has the same goals and good chemistry:
"I'm super excited to have olofmeister on the team. It's a guy that have everything that you want. During my time in FaZe there have been alot of roster changes trying to find a lineup that have the same goals and in the same time have good chemistry, we now have that. Now it's all about practice hard and find the best way to use our players. Thank you kioShiMa for many great memories together including one trophy and a big welcome to Olof!"
The first LAN event for olofmeister and his new squad will be DreamHack Masters Malmö 2017, where Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács will have his offline debut for FaZe as well.
The international team currently boasts the following squad:
Håvard "rain" Nygaard
Finn "karrigan" Andersen
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács
Olof "olofmeister" KajbjerRobert "RobbaN" Dahlström (coach)
On the other hand, fnatic have added Golden from fnatic Academy to fill in the spot left by olofmeister's departure:
Dennis "dennis" Edman
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist
Jesper "JW" Wecksell
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson
Maikil "Golden" SelimJimmy "Jumpy" Berndtsson (coach)