Following their 3rd and 2nd place finish in the ETF2L Season 26 Premiership playoffs and Gamers Assembly 2017 respectively, nerdRage have announced that they and blade have parted ways. In the wake of the moves, they have acquired the services of former Lemmings player Elacour for their lineup.
blade joined the team (known as top5rocket at the time) for Season 25 as a replacement for Blitzo. While a member of nerdRage during their recent finishes, blade also competed with the French national team (which mostly consisted of top5rocket players) on their gold medal winning run in the Nation Cup #6 last summer.
nerdRage’s medic Ombrack provided some thoughts regarding blade and his departure from the team.
It's sad that a player such as blade decides to quit the game after only of season with us. He will be really hard to replace, as his input to our gameplay and his abilities quickly made him a valuable teammate, and I think our accomplishments with him (winners of Nations Cup, 3rd place in Prem) speak for themselves. On a more positive note, I'm really glad we convinced him to go on LAN with us, and I simply hope he enjoyed his time with the team.
Elacour will be joining the team after a season with Lemmings, where they placed 6th in last season’s Premiership. He will be taking Namtac’s role on demoman, while Namtac will move up to the scout spot left vacant by blade.
Elacour shared his thoughts on joining the French lineup:
Well, its a pleasure to join the best actual French team in Europe. After Lemmings died, [nerdRage] were my priority, and they made me their main demo after a few scrims, so that was satisfying. Anyway, the team has performed quite well for now but we are a bit unstable, but I'm sure we'll find a solution quickly.
nerdRage’s roster now consists of:
- Scout: Neo
- Scout: Namtac
- Roamer: Corbac
- Pocket: Médico
- Demoman: Elacour
- Medic: Ombrack