Following the recent split of their Call of Duty 4 team, the British Team YoYoTech organisation has announced the signing of Team Derailed.
Team Derailed finished at a respectable 9-16th place finish at the Antwerp Esports Festival in Antwerp, Belgium last month, losing to the Swedish powerhouse fnatic 0 to 2 (mp_strike: 7-13, mp_citystreets: 7-13) in the second round of the playoff stages. The Brits had surprised the community a day earlier when they upset their British counterparts Team Dignitas, Europe's current number four, on mp_strike: 13-11.
The team's roster has stayed largely the same, with the exception of John "GlaDiA" Hoye, who has left the team after taking an interest in Starcraft II. Replacing him in the starting lineup is Stacey "sKeir" Keir, one of the more familiar faces from the British CoD4 community and until recently a part of the old YoYoTech roster.
Tom "tomzki" Churchman Chris "alpha" Bald Luke "stokley" McGowan Chris "KexSTAR" Tuck Stacey "sKeir" Keir
Statement Luke "stokley" McGowan: "After AEF we as a team, decided it would be best for gladia to move on as he was taking more interest in SC2 than COD4. He played extremely well at AEF to be fair, but we felt as a team in order to move on we had to find another player. Kex had been on a 2 week holiday after AEF so we had plenty time to find a fifth. We had went through a fair amount of people and then we approached sKeir and he agreed to play a few games. He started gelling with the team within the first few. He is a really good replacement and will help us progress further with his experience within COD4. Although he has recently left YYT as having played SMG, it hasn't took him long to get used to the AK47 role.
When we took sKeir and started playing, we knew that YYT had recently folded and would be looking for a new COD4 team. Tom had been talking to srgy for quite a long period of time now and when he cracked the news on teamspeak I was shocked, aswell as everybody in our team. We see this as a huge opportunity to progress even further and be looked upon within the COD4 scene with a little more respect. Placing top 16 at AEF was such a big acheivement for us as we had only formed 2 months prior to the actual event. We hope to finish top 8 at our next .eu LAN which will probably be DSRACK and or TeX. Derailed have taken us extremely far and I would like to thank them, on behalf of the rest of my team, for all the support and work they put into us. You'll see an appearance from us at DSRack, TeX and VitaNova UK LAN and hopefully any other lan announced."
Following a fourth place finish at the Antwerp Esports Festival, Rage Gaming has parted ways with Jeroen "XTCTJE" Tübee, who has quit gaming due to personal circumstances.
One of the teams most recent additions will be replaced by a familiar face in the shape of Danny "DEKO" Meeuwsen. DEKO, one of the core members of the old TheLastResort team, will be returning to the Dutch side after leaving them mid April to take a break and had until recently been a part of NCC, with whom he attended the Antwerp Esports Festival.
With the addition of DEKO, the current number 7 in Europe will be preparing themselves for the next Frag-O-Matic event, which is set to take place between the 24th and 26th of September in Wieze, Belgium.
Roy "obama" Godschalk Sander "sANDERRr" Quaedvlieg Rody "DRAGZZ" de Graaf Bart "bARTYEz" Gort Danny "DEKO" Meeuwsen
Statement Danny "DEKO" Meeuwsen: "After having some good fun in NCC I decided it was time for something different again. Although different may be the wrong word here since it were the guys from RAGE that contacted me again and asked if I wanted to return to the line-up. As I knew all the guys for a long time it seemed the right thing to do for me. Last but not least I want to thank all the people behind NCC for the fun times."
Statement Roy "obama" Godschalk: "After AEF our first thoughts were to continue playing with the same lineup. However in the last couple of days some problems appeared, and Jeroen decided to leave the team. Things like this are never easy but I think on the long term this might be better for the team, even though Jeroen played sick at both Gamersject and AEF. Only one man could replace Jeroen and that is ofcourse Danny. Danny was in our team for nine months before and back then decided to take a break but will return now. Our first offline events will be FOM and the Dutch Vita Nova lan. I want to thank Jeroen for a great summer and welcome back Danny."
Power Gaming have just won the Antwerp Esports Festival Call of Duty 4 tournament, defeating the Swedes from H2k Gaming in a best-of-three Grand Final.
After winning mp_crossfire 13-10, Power Gaming lost the second map on mp_citystreets, 8 to 13, before taking the third and decisive map: 13-10. With their victory, Power gaming claims first place and 6,000 euro in prizemoney. H2k Gaming has to settle for second place and 3,000 euro, while fnatic take third place and 1,750 euro for their efforts. Just outside of the podium is Rage Gaming, who finished at a respectable fourth place.