Nexa stepping back temporarily from OG, and niko will stand in for Major circuit

Other surprises continue in lineup changes in different professional teams in esports. Whether Dota 2, League of Legends, CS:GO, Call of Duty, or Apex, any team is always in the spotlight of organizations, so there can be changes at any time.

We have witnessed different changes in the CS:GO scene in the last few days. First, ENCE has decided to bench Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså, and Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov returns to the scene after nine months under the 1WIN banner.

In the last few hours, OG has announced that their IGL, Serbian Nemanja “nexa” Isaković, is temporarily retiring from the CS:GO lineup for personal reasons.

Nexa temporarily retires for personal reasons

OG Esports’ IGL and one of the most consistent players in the CS:GO scene, nexa, has decided to retire from the competitive scene for a while. As mentioned, nexa has made this decision for personal reasons.

Now, with nexa’s completely unexpected absence, his place will be taken by Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen for the BLAST Paris Major’s Europe RMR closed qualifier starting today, February 16.

There is no doubt that this sudden departure of nexa is a tough blow for OG in its quest to qualify for the next RMR to be played in April. However, remember that nexa is one of the most dedicated and committed IGLs in the professional CS:GO scene. Therefore, for the team to have to face this qualifier without him will undoubtedly affect the players’ performance.

It is unclear who will take his place as in-game captain

For now, the organization has not indicated who will be the one to take the reins of OG within the game. If we look at the team’s lineup, none of them has experience in this IGL role that is excellently handled by nexa.

In the official statement shown in the Tweet above, we can see that OG said:

“The team is still determined to qualify for the BLAST Paris Major and is gathering for a week-long training camp in Warsaw.”

OG’s problems go beyond his IGL

There is no doubt that nexa’s absence suggests a real blow to the team. However, this is not the only problem OG has to face now.

Niko has mainly been inactive from the CS:GO competitive scene for the past few months. Recall that this player was benched for OG in May 2022 and has only played a few official matches in lower-level tournaments. So, it remains to be seen if Niko is ready to face a tournament of this magnitude as the BLAST Paris Major’s Europe RMR closed qualifier.

On the other hand, niko was released by OG on January 1, 2023, and since then, he has been waiting for an opportunity in some top-level organization.

The BLAST Paris Major’s Europe RMR closed qualifier will be played between February 16-19, 2023. In this tournament, there are 18 slots for the RMR to be played in April, and OG is aiming for a brilliant performance despite not playing with their IGL, nexa.

Header: Stefan Petrescu | PGL