motm details personal struggles while at IEM Chengdu

In a thread posted earlier this morning, Wildcard stand-in Ian "motm" Hardy detailed the struggles he endured while joining up with the organization for the Chinese event.

As everyone was aware, Wildcard's young star Josh "JBa" Barutt came down with a severe case of food poisoning and was unable to make the flight across the Pacific. This left coach João "horvy" Horvath to have to fill in at the last minute, which according to motm, left the squad with "no strategy." This was seen in the unfortunate 1-13 loss against Russian heavyweights Virtus.pro.

Just before the match, motm would learn more information that would impact the rifler; his best friend had taken their own life. Anyone learning that information immediately before a game would be excused for a poor performance or for not even being able to play the game at all. As motm explained, "I did everything in my power to put this aside, focus on the games. I think I did well in this regard."

With the loss against Cloud9 earlier this morning, Wildcard and motm's time in China has come to an end. The rifler will not be able to continue with the organization going forward due to roster restriction issues from ESL and instead will be replaced by Chinese upcomer Qihao "C4LLM3SU3" Su.

As a response to concerns about playing through this adversity, motm commented on how he's feeling. "I am still alive which means not enough adversity. Do not worry, my head is not down. Bad things happening does not mean I am in a bad place."

Dust2.us wishes to extend our condolences to motm and look forward to him competing in 2024.