Sonic: "Wildcard asked me to stay so we could retain the core [...] I didn't want to do that"

Wildcard's first tournament with new additions Jaxon "Peeping" Cornwell and Sebastian "fr3nd" Kuśmierz did not go to plan, seeing the North American side lose both of their matches in FISSURE Playground 1 in a disappointing fashion, finishing the event in last place as a result.

Following elimination, Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek spoke to HLTV about the team's tumultuous offseason, confirming his likely future exit from the team while also providing insight into his fractious relationship with the organization.

Sonic told HLTV's Luís Mira that he nearly left Wildcard in the offseason, saying he was "supposed to go to a different team" that ultimately didn't work out. This ultimately saved Wildcard following the benching of Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and Love "phzy" Smidebrant as Sonic's departure would cost the team their core and thus all of their VRS points.

This led Wildcard management to return to Sonic and find a deal to retain him for the "foreseeable future". However Sonic did not rule out leaving the team in the near future saying he could "Absolutely" head elsewhere now that Wildcard have made fr3nd and peeping core players.

Dust2.us' sources previously told the publication that Sonic would leave the organization after Wildcard built up their new core, with this seeming more likely than ever in light of his comments.