On March 9, the cybersports organization fnatic announced that seventeen-year-old youth player Matias «Banjo» Kivisto will appear in its opening match in the ESL Pro League in place of Freddy «KRIMZ» Jonasson. The latter will be forced to miss the match after testing positive for coronavirus.
This substitution was another link in the chain of roster troubles the team has been facing lately. Sniper Owen «smooya» Butterfield recently left its squad, while Ludwig «Brollan» Brolin is intact and speculation has recently been voiced about his possible move to NIP. In addition, fnatic had to make another substitution – instead of Iulian «regali» Hariau in the first matches of the tournament will appear Bulgarian cyber athlete Valentin «Poizon» Vasiliev. Although KRIMZ cannot arrive in Germany yet due to quarantine restrictions, fnatic hopes that he will be able to join the team in the later stages of the championship.
Thus, Banjo will play his first match with fnatic's main roster. It already features another player coming from fnatic Rising – Peppe «Peppzor» Borak. Banjo joined fnatic Rising in September 2021, on the eve of the second season of the WePlay Academy league. His current average rating is 1.06.