North’s CS:GO star Kjaerbye will take an extended break from competing due to medical reasons, the organization announced today.
He’ll be replaced by 18-year-old Kristoffer “Kristou” Aamand from AGF, a small Danish team. Kjaerbye has been missing from North’s matches since May 7 and was being replaced by head coach Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson, who helped North qualify for the ESL One: Road to Rio Europe playoffs.
Although Kjaerbye’s illness is still unknown, he described some of the
symptoms he’s been feeling lately.
“Over the last couple of months I have experienced abdominal pains, breathing problems and chest cramps, in such manner, that I have had problems playing the game I love on highest level,” Kjaerbye said. “I have come to a point, where I need to listen to my body, and give it time to recover fully. I don’t know when I will be back on the server but, I do know that I need a break.”
Kristou has no experience at the highest level of CS:GO competition and averages a 0,98 rating across 104 maps played, according to HLTV’s statistics. The newcomer, however, has been playing well lately at the Elgiganten League, a small Danish league, and helped AGF secure nine wins in 11 matches with an average 1.47 K/D ratio.
Graham “messioso” Pitt, North’s head of esports operation, said the organization has been keeping track of a number of young talents and decided to take the opportunity to use a young player to replace Kjaerbye in the short term.
“Among the many players that were at the top of our metrics, further analysis from our coaching team lead to Kristou standing out as a player that had the qualities that we desired for the role we were looking to fill,” messioso said.
Kristou has already started practicing with his new teammates for the upcoming DreamHack Masters Spring Europe, which will kick off on May 19. North will face Astralis, G2, and Heroic in the group stage.
