Report: NRG sign tarik to replace FugLy
NRG have signed Tarik "tarik" Celik to replace Jacob "FugLy" Medina on their active roster, according to a report by VPEsports. NRG had a successful run towards the start of the year, winning eleven maps straight to qualify for the IEM Katowice Major New Challengers stage. They followed up their run by sweeping through the Round of 24 3-0, but bombed out of the New Legends stage 0-3 with losses to NiP, AVANGAR, and compLexity and will be forced to once again play through the Minor circuit for the StarLadder Major in Berlin.
tarik has been on the sidelines since his benching on MIBR, with the team returning to a Brazilian roster with the additions of Epitacio "TACO" de Melo and João "felps" Vasconcellos. During his tenure on MIBR alongside Jake "Stewie2K" Yip, tarik helped the team achieve a 3-4th place finish at the FACEIT Major and ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, but fell short at a number of other events including DreamHack Masters Stockholm and IEM Chicago.
Since being benched, tarik has awaited results from the IEM Katowice Major to fully weigh up his options. Most recently, he was reportedly in talks with TSM, who are looking to re-enter the Counter-Strike landscape with a North American roster. It now appears that TSM will have to look elsewhere as NRG look to redeem themselves and improve upon their results following their IEM Katowice Major exit with tarik in tow.
FugLy has been a part of the NRG roster since May of 2016, playing in the German version of the team that contained Fatih "gob b" Dayik, Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz, and Nikola "LEGIJA" Ninic. He is the longest serving member of the roster, with Damian "daps" Steele and Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte coming in second having joined the organization in December of 2016.
With the addition of tarik, NRG's roster should look as follows:
Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte
Tsvetelin "CeRq" Dimitrov
Damian "daps" Steele- Ethan "Ethan" Arnold
- Tarik "tarik" Celik
- Chet "ImAPet" Singh (Coach)
Update: NRG have declined a request to comment.
The team will likely debut on LAN with tarik at StarSeries i-League Season 7, set to run from March 30th - April 7th in Shanghai, China. The team currently has no matches lined up as they await the end of the IEM Katowice Major.
