ATK crash out of BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic
BetBoom Playlist Urbanistic 2023 got off to a rough start for ATK, being forced to field Ukranian player Evgeniy 'j3kie' Sergachev for their against Bad News Eagles in place of Jonathan "djay" Dallal. Losing 2-0 to the highest-ranked team in the tournament was to be expected, especially considering djay's travel woes, but ATK had little else to show for otherwise. Coming back from 10-1 down on Mirage against Endpoint to win 16-14 showed a glimmer of hope for the North American representatives, but they would go on to lose the series 2-1 overall before Forze sent them out with an 0-3 record.
FORZEATK| FORZE |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aleksandr 'shalfey' Marenov |
45 - 31 | +14 | 97.7 | 78.4% | 1.47 |
| Evgeny 'r3salt' Frolov |
46 - 37 | +9 | 97.1 | 82.4% | 1.35 |
| Aleksandr 'zorte' Zagodyrenko |
35 - 26 | +9 | 60.6 | 76.5% | 1.17 |
| Andrey 'Jerry' Mekhryakov |
28 - 29 | -1 | 74.1 | 72.5% | 1.02 |
| Vladislav 'Krad' Kravchenko |
33 - 32 | +1 | 61.7 | 64.7% | 0.96 |
| ATK |
K - D | +/- | ADR | KAST | Rating 2.0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Aleksandar 'CacaNito' Kjulukoski |
42 - 40 | +2 | 95.0 | 72.5% | 1.18 |
 Gareth 'MisteM' Ries |
35 - 36 | -1 | 75.4 | 72.5% | 1.04 |
 Jonathan 'b0denmaster' Bodenmalm |
31 - 36 | -5 | 64.3 | 66.7% | 0.87 |
 Michael 'Swisher' Schmid |
29 - 39 | -10 | 70.4 | 58.8% | 0.72 |
 Jonathan 'djay' Dallal |
17 - 38 | -21 | 42.1 | 51.0% | 0.55 |
ATK has struggled with keeping a stable roster lately as long-time member Rhys "Fadey" Armstrong stepped down from the team at the beginning of February. After failing to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR, Saad "Pluto" Siraj, the replacement for Fadey, was removed with the team now fielding North Macedonian player Aleksandar "CacaNito" Kjulukoski for their European trip.
The main event of ATK's trip across the Atlantic comes next week in group D of ESL Pro League Season 17, where they are set to square off against ENCE in their opening fixture. Before then, Michael "Swisher" Schmid and co. will take on the winner of Young Ninjas vs Copenhagen Flames in the playoffs of Elisa Invitational Winter 2023. With this direct invite to playoffs and no lower bracket, there will be no room for error for the ATK squad.
