Jesper "JW" Wecksell has been thrown on the bench by fnatic as part of a major overhaul of the team in which the Swedish team will switch to an international line-up, the organization announced. The roster is now reduced to three active players after fnatic put the in-game leader Maikil "Golden" Selim on the bench at the beginning of July.
The organization has not commented on whether someone from the remaining trio (Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson, Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin and Jack "Jackinho" Ström Mattsson) could also be at the door, or they they are looking as potential candidates to replace JW and Golden.
The move follows a string of poor results that date back to the beginning of the year when fnatic finished last or penultimate place in the last four appearances in high-level tournaments and dropped to 38th place in the HLTV.org team rankings - the lowest Value in the organization's history with the exception of a brief transition period in 2016.
"After six weeks of intensive evaluation and hard work, we decided to put Jesper on the bench," said fnatics team director and head coach Andreas "Samuelsson" Samuelsson. "We've spent tons of hours deciding which route to take to get fnatic back where we belong and the final decision is to switch to an international line-up."
JW's current contract with fnatic is expected to expire in early 2022 after he and KRIMZ signed new three-year contracts with the organization in early 2019. He has addressed his future in a short statement and stated that he will take the time to think about what he could have done differently and "take that with him to everything that comes next in life, be it CS, VALORANT or eSport in general . "
JW was the longest serving member of the team, having played under the black and orange banner for more than seven years between 2013 and 2021. The 26-year-old is one of the most successful players to touch the game to date as he won three of the top six majors - DreamHack Winter 2013, ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL. One Cologne 2015 helped shape the CS: GO legacy of fnatic - and won over 20 other titles during his tenure with the organization.
