EG's 32-year-old talent listed as sub for Katowice
While BLAST Premier Spring Groups are underway and already recovering from the roster drama that came from FaZe trying to use Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke only to have him denied at the last moment, the rosters submitted for IEM Katowice have been revealed.
Evil Geniuses, fresh off submitting a roster for BLAST that included Wesley "viz" Harris and Jeorge "jeorgesnorts" Endicott as substitutes, have now included three additional players onto their IEM Katowice roster. The five players included in the substitutes include coaches Alan "Shakezullah" Hardeman and Nate "madcow" Retterath. Additionally, the aforementioned viz and jeorge have been included, but the special addition is 32-year-old talent Josh "PwnAlone" Pigue. A favorite of the community for his relative high-performance despite his older age, PwnAlone is finally listed as a sub for the main team since signing for the organization.
Evil Geniuses is not the only team to submit a full 10-person roster for IEM Katowice. They are joined by ENCE and NIP in submitting ten players, while MIBR, MOUZ, BIG, and Heroic have submitted nine personnel for the upcoming event.
Some additional surprises that come from the submitted rosters is the inclusion of 19-year-old FURIA Academy player Kaue "kauez" Kaschuk. As Roque Marques of Dust2 Brasil noted, this is the first time the player is listed by himself as a substitute for the FURIA roster. In the past, the Brazilian org included Lucas "decenty" Bacelar however the former FURIA Academy graduate has moved to O PLANO.
Finally, and as we come full circle, FaZe have submitted a roster that includes pair Håvard "rain" Nygaard and coach Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström. The much sought-after k0nfig will not be joining the European roster and it seems that rain will be coming back just in time for ESL's first event of 2023. The Norwegian player initially took time off as he and his partner are expecting a child.
IEM Katowice kicks off on February 1st with the start of the Play-in round.
