The ESL Pro League is back in action after a short vacation that was quite busy for some European Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams in terms of roster shuffles. Just before the start of Season 6, teams made some last-minute adjustments to their lineups before the roster lock took effect.
Let's take a look how some teams adjusted in the busy first week of competition.
For one, FaZe Clan (6-2, 18 points) debuted its roster with some familiar additions. Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer recently made the move to FaZe to fill in the role of Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey. Sniping superstar Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovacs also joined recently. With the two additions, FaZe Clan are currently sitting on top of the standings after accruing the best record.
Not only did Fnatic lose olofmeister, the team also lost in-game leader Dennis "dennis" Edman, who transferred to GODSENT (1-1, 5 points). Fnatic, in turn, brought in former GODSENT member Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson and in-game leader Maikil "Golden" Selim from Fnatic Academy. With those two new members, it stormed through Week 1 with two convincing series wins over BIG (2-4, 6 points) and Team LDLC (0-2, 0 points). Although Fnatic struggled to close out a series with a crushing Game 2 loss to Na'Vi, Fnatic still remain a threat with a second place finish in the standings through Week 1.
Na'Vi had a rather interesting offseason after the Major. Shortly after falling out of the group stages, GuardiaN and Denis "seized" Kostin decided to step down from the active roster to search for more opportunities. During that time, PGL Major Krakow Champion Daniil "Zeus" Teslenko stepped down from Gambit Esports to return on the Na'Vi lineup after years away. Zeus got back to work Thursday with a disappointing sweep at the hands of Heroic (5-3, 15 points) following a pair of split series with Fnatic on Saturday and Ninjas in Pyjamas (1-3, 3 points) on Sunday.
Ninjas in Pyjamas looked to rebound in Season 6 after missing the playoffs in Season 5 and losing one of its core members, Adam "friberg" Friberg, to OpTic Gaming in the European shuffle. NiP brought in young talent Fredrik "REZ" Sterner who started Week 1 with an 0-2 loss to North (5-1, 15 points) on Saturday and rounded out the week over Na'Vi for a series split.
FaZe Clan, Fnatic, Heroic, North, G2 Esports and Astralis rounded out the top-six of Week 1 action in Europe as Week 2 will resume after DreamHack Masters Malmo.