Ryan “Freakazoid” Abadir Returns to Counter-Strike for DreamHack Austin
Ryan “Freakazoid” Abadir, who was recently benched from Cloud9, will be making a temporary comeback to Counter-Strike next weekend at DreamHack Austin.
Freakazoid will be joining the team Splyce as a stand-in player for the upcoming MLG Columbus competition at DreamHack Austin. This invitation came at short notice, preventing Splyce’s regular player Abraham “abe” Fasli from attending due to pre-planned vacation.
Since being removed from Cloud9, Freakazoid’s future has been the subject of speculation. Echo Fox, a team led by his former teammate Sean Gares, showed interest in including Freakazoid as part of their roster changes. The team has recently added Daniel “roca” Gustaferri from CompLexity.
Cloud9 announced Alec “Slemmy” White as Freakazoid’s replacement on Sunday.
Initially, DreamHack invited top European teams for the tournament. However, these teams declined the invitation due to scheduling conflicts in Counter-Strike. As a result, the invitations were given to Splyce, Tempo Storm, and NRG Esports.
The three newly invited teams will join Counter Logic Gaming, Team Liquid, Luminosity Gaming (the MLG Columbus champions), as well as the qualified teams Selfless Gaming and Freakazoid’s former team, Cloud9.
The eight teams will compete for a $100,000 prize pool during DreamHack’s North American debut in Austin.