The team’s inability to qualify for the PGL Stockholm Major was the primary reason for EXTREMUM benching the roster. We are still unsure what’s next for the players.

Following the benching of the 100 Thieves roster, Aaron “AZR” Ward’s men were without an organization’s support for quite a while. However, after the ex-QBF pieces of EXTREMUM continued to put forth poor results, the organization decided to pivot to the Aussies and push for a return to glory for the team. Justin “jks” Savage’s departure was quickly replaced by one of Asia’s greatest talents of Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand and the roster was let loose onto the European scene.

EXTREMUM's former CS:GO Roster now in tatters. (Courtesy of @EXTREMUM)
EXTREMUM's former CS:GO Roster now in tatters. (Courtesy of @EXTREMUM)

Instead of the domination the world expected from EXTREMUM’s LAN tenured squad, the Tier 2 online tournaments within Europe ripped apart the Aussies from the get-go. Failure to win in any of the Snow Sweet Snow cups or qualify for any meaningful Tier 1 tournaments meant the ability to show what the squad was capable of kept slipping away. However, the Major qualification still looked like a beacon of hope for EXTREMUM and the success that they had at cs_summit 8 suggested that there were still signs of life in the Australian camp.

Being in pole position to qualify for Stockholm, bare minimum results were expected of the AZR-led roster at IEM Fall when calamity struck. EXTREMUM dropped their qualification-deciding series against a floundering Evil Geniuses and in shocking fashion, failed to qualify even with the favorable odds. The pairing of poor results from Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai and the heartbreaking loss at IEM Fall have now led the organization to let go of their Australian roster and seek new opportunities within the Counter-Strike sphere. The former greats of AZR, Liazz, jkaem, Gratisfaction, and BnTeT and their status on the situation is still unclear.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for any updates regarding the Australian roster’s remnants.