Rasmus 'raalz' Steensborg will play for the colors of Sprout in the future. The Danish player comes from the Lyngby Vikings. 99Damage talks to manager Daniel Paulus about the new signing and the record of the past season.
Sprout has been internationally positioned again since Thursday. The Dane Rasmus "raalz" Steensborg, who was previously in the service of Lyngby Vikings, is now wearing the green jersey of the Berlin organization. 99Damage spoke to team manager Daniel Paulus about the commitment.
Player with plenty of experience
The new addition raalz should bring a breath of fresh air to Sprout. At the age of 26, the Dane is already a veteran professional who has been in the business since 2012. At the beginning of his career, raalz celebrated international successes with Anexis eSports at the Pro Gamer Series Exponor 2012 and the DreamHack Bucharest 2012. This was followed by many other positions, including his time at the German organization n! Faculty.
According to Daniel Paulus, Sprout had a shortlist of 20 players who were shortlisted. Coach Niclas "enkay J" Krumhorn and analyst Jan "Jansen" Westerheide were always involved in the search process. “Niclas and Jan have dealt intensively with raalz. Various information was obtained and a lot of demos watched, ”says the Sprout manager.
The entire package from raalz convinced the youngsters. “In addition to the playful component, the mindset of our CS: GO raster needs a realignment. Rasmus is a trained pedagogue and we expect this to have a positive side effect, ”says Daniel Paulus.
The signing of Rasmus "raalz" Steensborg is the next international attempt by Sprout after the two Polish players Paweł "dycha" Dycha and Michał "snatchie" Rudzki left the team at the turn of the year. "Of course we scoured the German scene for possible candidates, but not everyone is easy to come by who would suit us," explains Sprout's team manager.
The Sprout youngster Can 'kyuubii' Kamber is not yet an option because he is currently focusing on his school commitments. "When talking to Can, we agreed that he can do better at No Limit Gaming at the moment," adds Daniel Paulus.
Bad season record
Sprout had drawn a sobering balance after the previous season. "We did not achieve our goals", Daniel Paulus sums up without further ado. “In our discussions, we agreed that we wanted to provide a new impetus.” As a result, the eyes turned to the lineup.
The long-serving player Denis "denis" Howell, who was benched on July 29th, suffered from the revision. The team's results were not consistently bad, but rather mixed. "Of course, winning the ESL championship was positive and there were bright spots like eleventh place at Flashpoint."
But in the other international appearances it was visibly stuck at Sprout. The quintet has slipped out of the targeted top 30 in the world, and Spiidi and Co. are currently in 37th place. Sprout's strategy of primarily playing large and well-known competitions doomed the team to success in this regard. If the good results are missing, the desired place in the world rankings is difficult to achieve.
The result of Sprout in ESEA Premier Daniel Paulus is heavy in the stomach: “Relegation is not our claim.” Even looking at the results of the IEM Cologne does not awaken positive memories in the manager: “We should have won against Team Spirit. “That would have meant the group stage in the“ home game ”.
But as it was, Sprout was eliminated in the play-ins and missed the chance to present itself even better internationally and to be able to set a warning sign. Team manager Paulus shows that sometimes only nuances were missing for successful appearances. Going on was apparently not an option and Sprout drew the consequences of a player change.
Paulus expects the Danish newcomer to provide an additional motivational factor: “He's a player who can push the team extremely.” He should also have a mediating influence on the team structure in order to be able to find his way back on the road to success.
The warm-up phase of raalz will begin in the coming days and weeks, the premiere appearance will follow on August 19 in the ESL autumn championship 2021 against cowana Gaming. Daniel Paulus clearly states the goals: “In the ESL Championship we want to defend our title and play for promotion to the ESL Pro League. In addition, a place among the top 30 in the world is still our aim. "
What about the coming major? “Of course we would like to be there, although the way there will be very difficult for us,” says Paulus. Sprout is currently on the eleventh
Image: © Sprout Twitter
