One of the best Call of Duty players in the world has been benched.
Luminosity is moving superstar Peirce “Gunless” Hillman to the substitute roster and replacing him with the team’s coach and former professional player Richard “Ricky” Stacy, the organization announced today. Ricky will now compete alongside Josiah “Slacked” Berry, Johnathan “John” Perez, Matthew “FormaL” Piper, and Nicholas “Classic” DiCostanzo.
“It’s no secret that our Call of Duty team has been struggling recently,” said Luminosity founder Steve Maida. “After our tournament win at CWL Fort Worth, the team atmosphere has slowly deteriorated. Despite our attempts to rectify the situation, we’ve reached a point where a change is necessary.”
Luminosity have had a turbulent season so far in Black Ops 4. After coming in fourth place at the first event of the season, CWL Las Vegas in December 2018, Luminosity won CWL Fort Worth in March. Gunless was named the MVP of CWL Fort Worth.
But since then, Luminosity have struggled in the CWL Pro League, falling to last place in Division A with a 5-12 record. They also picked up a top eight placing at the most recent major LAN event, CWL London, earlier this month.
Although Gunless has statistically been Luminosity’s strongest player this year, it seems like circumstances outside of the game led to the organization’s decision to bench him. Following Luminosity’s announcement, Gunless tweeted that he “didn’t force [himself] on the bench and that [he respects] the organization’s decision and whatever they decide to do.”
Ricky, who hasn’t competed since the CWL Pro League Qualifier in January, will play in his first CWL Pro League match this year when Luminosity take on OpTic Gaming today (Thursday, May 23) at 6:30pm CT.
