North announced today that it’s trying out a new team composition for the first time in its history.
The Danish organization is testing out the idea of an international team with the trial of Spanish rifler Oscar “mixwell” Canellas. Mixwell will be replacing Daniel Mertz as the main AWPer at North’s next event, DreamHack Open Valencia from July 12 to 14.
Related: Mixwell leaves G2 Esports after three months on trial with the team
This means that North will have to switch over to speaking English, since it’s the only language that the team and Mixwell can speak together. Ever since North signed the former Danish Team Dignitas roster of 2017, it has maintained shaky teams under the command of Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen. Now the organization is open to the prospect of housing international lineups, as recommended by coach Alexander “ave” Holdt.
“I have been looking to change up things, inside and outside the game, for some time and with the player break coming up after Valencia, I thought that now would be a good time to do a test-run with an International lineup,” ave said in the team’s announcement. “Our CT side has been a pain point for months, and I felt that we needed to try out something different in order to fix that“.
North will be Mixwell’s first roster since he left French powerhouse G2 Esports in May. At the time, G2 wanted to see how they’d do with Mixwell in place of Richard “shox” Papillon and Nathan “NBK” Schmitt as IGL. Then the organization had a change in heart as shox returned from his wrist surgery, allowing him to form a new team with Kevin “Ex6TenZ” Droolans and former G2 coach Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux. These changes left Mixwell, NBK, and Dan “apEX” Madesclaire without a team last month.
“The trend in rosters is moving towards a more International outlook, and in our current situation, [ave] and I felt that the last event before the player break would be a good time to change up the dynamics and see how the players react to a new structure,” North’s director of esports Jonas Svendsen also said in the announcement. “We have an important Autumn coming up, with a lot of big tournaments, including the [FACEIT London] Major [in September], and with the lack of consistency that we have been showing we can’t leave any stones unturned. I want to see how the team fares in a different setting and to break up the current dynamics.”
The team and organization will consider which direction to go in—either remain an all-Danish team or turn into an international team—as July progresses.
