In addition to the rebuilding, a seasoned new coach, Mason “Neighbor” Cobb, who is a former champion of the Major League Gaming tournament and a former Built by Gamers coach, was added to the Halo team.

Ever since the latter week of June, the Halo team has been in the process of reconstructing its roster, but with one week left until the HCS Orlando Major, that endeavor has finally come to a successful conclusion.

“After a period of underperformance and inconsistency from the FNATIC Halo division, we decided to enter a period of rebuild. We unfortunately parted ways with our head coach, Strobe, and two players, SuperCC and Rammyy. We wish them the best of luck and hope they find success at their next teams,” a press release from Fnatic read.

FNATIC was unable to break into the top eight of any major online or LAN tournament on multiple occasions. Even when the squad replaced Torez “Envore” Broyles in July with Rammyy, the team’s performance did not improve. A finish in the top 20 at the Online Super the previous month was the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

As a result of FNATIC’s failure to qualify for the pool play portion of the Orlando Major, which will begin on September 23, the organization’s recently revamped roster will have to compete in the open bracket in order to have a shot at qualifying for a spot at the World Championship. It is a risk for the team, but this is the only card they have left in their deck.

The official statement by FNATIC stated that the prime aim of the roster changes is to qualify for the Worlds and that the new lineup they have assembled will be among the most formidable that they have ever had.

“Qualifying for Worlds is at the moment our main focus and we have built a roster which we believe will be the most competitive we have ever had under the Black and Orange,” the official statement read.

The organization goes on to note that the new coach, Neighbor, has been instrumental in determining the new course that the team will take, and they have already noticed a significant increase in their scrims, which indicates that the addition of players is not the only element at play here.

“In the head coach role, we wanted someone to come in with a bit of experience who knows how to win and we ended up securing one of the most experienced Halo players of all time. Mason “Neighbor” Cobb, the former MLG San Diego and Orlando Champion, joined us about 3 weeks ago and has been key in the new direction of the team and has already seen marked improvement in our scrims and synergy,” Fnatic’s press release read.

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The Halo esports franchise announced the signing of Donnie “Suppressed” Lopez from XSET as the replacement for Rammyy. Suppressed was signed as a free agent having been dropped by XSET last month.

A new teammate has entered the battle.

Welcome @sSuppressed to SSG Halo. pic.twitter.com/MdCFswXwGC

— Spacestation Gaming (@Spacestation) June 6, 2022

His predicament with XSET was unexpected, going by the team’s consistency throughout the season. The team has been a strong contender in every tournament played, proving itself to be in perfect shape with its roster. The team had finished within the top eight spot both at HCS Anaheim and the FaZe Invitational, but their insistence on internal changes saw the team boot Suppressed out of the roster before the HCS Pro Series.

With Suppressed free, Spacestation saw an opening that it couldn’t pass off, following the Rammyy’s dismissal from the roster. With top teams including FaZe Clan, Sentinels, and eUnited unavoidably absent from the tournament, Spacestation was fortunate to place top six. Its top six placement appeared to be a rewarding venture as it was found to be good enough to acquire Suppressed for the foreseeable future of competition.

Suppressed had perceived the result of the tournament to be disappointing and not exactly what was expected. Going forward he was positive, writing it off as teething problems and said a little practice would iron out the issues.

Despite Spacestation’s battles with inconsistencies and failure to rank highly amongst other North American teams. The team made a top-six finish in the HCS Pro Series split two kickoff tournament which was held last week.

It is the franchise’s hope that the addition of Suppressed will see the team succeed in tournaments. It is expected to see an improvement from its poor start into Halo Infinite in the coming weeks.

The release of Rammyy and the signing of Suppressed has not entirely been received well across board as a player has aired his concerns. Spacestation’s Kahari “Kuhlect” Miller has been vocal about his reservations as he took to his Twitter page to air them last week.

He had insinuated that he was not informed about Rammyy being released and described the situation as “SICK”.

“Kinda cringe but whatever, people can just lie, not tell me shit and do whatever they want,” Kuhlect tweeted. “Didn’t even give me any options, SICK!”

The exact same incident that hinged on a lack of communication as regards a roster change saw eUnited’s Spartan and the franchise at loggerheads last month. This, in turn, led to the player putting himself on the bench. While that is not expected to occur with Kuhlect and Spacestation, it is noteworthy.

The new roster of Kuhlect, Aaron “Ace” Elam, Alec “Tylenul” Mumper, and Suppressed promises to be the perfect mix to get Spacestation making its way into the top six in the North American Halo region. The aim: to see the team leave its top eight battles behind them.

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