leo_drk's benching leaves v$m as the sole remaining member of the original O PLANO squad

May 6, 2022 09:22PM

Written by Mnmzzz

00 Nation bench leo_drk after dismal start to year

As first reported by our colleagues at Dust2.com.br, 00 Nation have moved Leonardo "leo_drk" Oliveira to the bench by the mutual decision of the team. leo_drk's benching comes after 00 Nation failed to qualify to the PGL Antwerp Major after finishing the Americas RMR with a poor 1-3 record.

Per Dust2.com.br, 00 Nation are in the early days of looking for a replacement, with paiN's Rodrigo "biguzera" Bittencourt and Sharks' Lucas "Lucaozy" Neves being floated as names the Norwegian organization are looking at signing.

Also read: righi: coldzera's mentality is "not about being a superstar [but] helping the younger guys to reach what he has achieved in his career"

leo_drk's exit from 00 Nation marks the latest change for a project that has failed to find success despite a complete overhaul at the start of 2022 which saw Marcelo "coldzera" David signed as IGL while Latin American rising stars Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa and Santino "try" Rigal were brought in to beef up the lineup. Despite the significant signings and extended bootcamp in Europe, 00 Nation have not had appreciable improvement, with the team dropping series against tier three and tier four squads in Europe in a number of online cups.

Likewise, despite an early win against Liquid at the Americas RMR, 00 Nation went on to drop out of qualification for the Major following losses to Complexity, Evil Geniuses, and 9z. With this, 00 Nation have been unable to crack the top 30 on HLTV, peaking at 59th in the world

Also read: malbsMd signs for 00 Nation

In the announcement of his benching, leo_drk mentioned that he changed a number of his roles on this new lineup which likely contributed to his underwhelming individual performances this year. So far this year, he has a 0.98 rating over 52 maps.

00 Nation are now:

Vinicius "v$m" Moreira
Marcelo "coldzera" David
Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa
Santino "try" Rigal
João "righi" Righi (Coach)
Leonardo "leo_drk" Oliveira (Inactive)
Vito "kNgV-" Giuseppe (Inactive)
Raphael "cogu" Camargo (Inactive Coach)

00 Nation currently have an open calendar, which should give them time to pursue negotiations with Brazilian organizations as they look for a new fifth to try and get their squad back on track.

https://twitter.com/ZeroZeroBRASIL/status/1522647401802129409

Also read: max: "I passed a lot of bad things in my life so this is amazing"