Fnatic has decided to permanently sign in-game leader Maikil "Golden" Selim to its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster following a strong performance with the team in 2019.
Golden, who had previously played for Fnatic in 2017, has been on loan from Cloud9 since September of last year, following the departure of Richard "Xizt" Landström and Simon "twist" Eliasson. However, he was not signed to a permanent deal, with Fnatic likely wanting to keep their options for IGL open in case the move failed to produce results.
However, the team decided to make the move permanent in an announcement made last Friday via Fnatic's twitter account, where they had the following to say:
As mentioned, since Golden's return to the team, Fnatic has climbed to number four in HLTV's world rankings, and finished top-three in four LAN events including a 2nd place finish at the ESL Pro League Season 10 finals, as well as winning DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019. All of this was enough to convince the Organization to bring Golden on full-time ahead of the 2020 season.
Fnatic will return to action on February 25th at IEM Katowice 2020 with the following lineup:
- Robin "flusha" Rönnquist
- Jesper "JW" Wecksell
- Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson
- Maikil "Golden" Selim
- Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin
It will be interesting to see how Fnatic performs going forward now that the 2020 lineup has been finalized. Golden should certainly enter this year with newfound confidence since he has an organization to call home to start the year.
Ideally, this should take some of the pressure to perform off of his shoulders, as he is no longer fighting to earn a spot on the roster. With Fnatic demonstrating their faith in him, he should have a greater ability to put his own stamp on the team's style of play, as well as try things he may have otherwise felt unable to implement previously.
This will benefit the rest of the squad as well. It's difficult to buy into someone's system fully if you aren't sure if they'll still be a part of the team in a few months' time. Now that Golden will be leading the team for the foreseeable future, it gives them a stable platform to build on, which will hopefully allow them to continue to find success in 2020.
Source: Fnatic