Fnatic has announced the departure of Richard “xizt” Landström. The news was revealed on the organization’s Twitter account.
This continues to add credibility to rumors of a reunion of the 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster under the Dignitas umbrella. Dignitas has been linked to a plan to acquire most of the players from the legendary lineup, including Adam “friberg” Friberg, Christopher “GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, and xiztÂ
Fnatic originally benched xizt alongside Simon “twist” Eliasson in August 2019 amid a string of poor results. While twist ironically found a home with Ninjas in Pyjamas, xizt has warmed Fnatic’s bench since that time.
Rumors surrounding the former NiP players have swirled since reports surfaced indicating that Dignitas was pursuing NiP’s original foursome for their reentry into CSGO esports. HĂĄkon “hallzerk” Fjærli was also linked to Dignitas during that time, with reports suggesting he would serve as the team’s AWPer. hallzerk was released by the Norwegian esports organization Nordavind on January 15.
With xizt’s release, four of the five players linked to Dignitas are currently free agents. The only exception to this is f0rest, who remains with NiP. Neither NiP or f0rest have shown any indication that a separation is underway.
While f0rest and GeT_RiGhT stuck with NiP for years, friberg and Xizt have followed different paths.
friberg spent time with OpTic Gaming before moving to Heroic before being released in August 2019. GeT_RiGhT is also a free agent, having been released by NiP after the StarLadder Berlin Major. He most recently manned the analyst desk at the ECS Season 8 Finals. f0rest has continued on with the NiP lineup since his original signing in August 2012.
The rumored Dignitas lineup would consist of the following players according to reports:
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