JW and flusha re-create team EYEBALLERS

Former Fnatic players and CS:GO legends Jesper “JW” Wecksell and Robin “flusha” Rönnquist have announced their new esports organization named EYEBALLERS.

The name should sound familiar to older fans of the game as it’s not the first time it was used in Counter-Strike. The inception of team EYEBALLERS dates back to 1998, however, this is the first time in 14 years that the team re-emerged. Can the two Swedes also return to S-tier tournaments with their new team?

About JW and flusha

In the CS:GO community, JW and flusha are considered legendary players. Both of them were a part of the Fnatic roster that dominated the professional scene in 2015. However, since 2019, neither of them has seen any significant results, except for the title they won together at DreamHack Masters Malmo 2019.

In recent seasons, JW played for Fnatic while flusha tried multiple teams, including Cloud9 and GORILLAZ. However, he quickly lost steam each time and did not reach any achievements.

In terms of role distribution, JW is a strong AWPer and the team’s IGL, while flusha is a Rifler. Aged 27 and 28, respectively, both of them probably have at least a couple more years before retirement to try to reach to the top again.

In terms of their potential, it’s not hard to argue that the Swedes have what it takes to compete against the world’s best and secure a spot in the top 16. But it will take a lot of hard work to become a tier-1 team in the current CS:GO landscape. There are many strong competitors on the current scene and the average skill level of the top 30 teams is higher than ever.

EYEBALLERS’ roster and chances

Apart from JW and flusha, the EYEBALLERS roster features three more players from Sweden. This means that things should go well at the very least in the communication department. However, in terms of experience, the team is likely to struggle, at least at the beginning.

Leo “Svedjehed” Svedjehed is only 18 and his other two colleagues, Casper “ShiNE” Wennerberg and Anton “Sapec” Palmgren are both 19 years old. The strongest of the three seems to be Sapec, simply because he played for Young Ninjas for 15 months.

It appears that JW doesn’t want to invest in superstar players and would rather try to build his roster from scratch. This is a viable strategy but it can likely only produce results in the long run. In 2022, CS:GO fans shouldn’t expect much from EYEBALLERS. Unless of course, JW struck gold and each of his young teammates is the next s1mple or at least the next JW.

Header: ESL|IEM Katowice|Patrick Strack