The European esports organization has brought in former rifler Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen to fill nexa’s spot in the starting five. OG’s official statement also confirmed that the team was currently in Warsaw for a pre-tournament boot camp expected to last the entire week.

“Nemanja “nexa” Isakovié will be stepping back from the team temporarily for personal reasons. The team remains determined to qualify for the BLAST Major Paris and is currently gathering for a week-long bootcamp in Warsaw,” the statement read.

“We are pleased to announce that Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen is temporarily joining the starting lineup for the rest of the Major circuit, starting with tomorrow’s Closed Qualifier.”

Nexa’s exclusion from the lineup may deal some damage to OG’s chances of qualifying for the upcoming Europe RMR. The Serbian has played an integral part on the team since he joined in 2022.

With nexa as the in-game leader, OG placed top three in the CCT Central Europe Series # 2, BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022, Global Esports Tour Dubai 2022, and BLAST Premier World Final 2022. He also led the side to victory in the Fall and Spring groups of the BLAST Premier competition.

OG did not announce who would take nexa’s place. None of their current lineup — Adam “?NEOFRAG?” Zouhar, Russia Abdul “?degster?” Gasanov, Maciej “?F1KU?” Miklas, Shahar “?flameZ?” Shushan, or niko — have any experience as an in-game leader in a top-tier tournament.

Niko’s ability to perform in the Europe RMR closed qualifier is also yet to be seen, as the player has only participated in minor events for teams like NtK and Astralis Talent since he was benched in May 2022. He is now an unrestricted free agency after his contract with OG expired on January 1.

OG are seeded in BLAST.tv Paris Major RMR Closed Qualifier B along with GamerLegion, forZe, Apeks, Illuminar, Monte, Aurora, Falcons, and eigth other teams. The event is slated to run from February 16-19.

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?Apeks slipped against hellslayerz (0-2) in the opening round of REPUBLEAGUE Season 3 Closed Qualifier on Monday. Now they have to play ENTERPRISE esports, who were just as unconvincing in the first round, where they lost against ECSTATIC (1-2), and things won’t get much easier for ENTERPRISE on Tuesday when they face off against Apeks for the first time since late March.

Last time out, Apeks defeated ENTERPRISE 2-1, with 16-10 on Inferno, 19-22 on Ancient, and 16-6 on Mirage. So even though the score would suggest that ENTERPRISE were competitive, the eye test would prove otherwise.

The only reason why ENTERPRISE forced Ancient into overtime was their strong CT-Side (13-2); however, ENTERPRISE also went 2-13 on T-Side. Their performance seems solid on paper, but Erik “The eLiVe” Sith and his crew did not show anything in that match that would convince us that they’re good enough to compete with Apeks, and they have since not produced anything that would change our minds.

That’s not to say that Apeks are a perfect team or guaranteed to win; however, they look stronger and should be able to overcome ENTERPRISE with relative ease. ENTERPRISE can surprise Apeks and steal one map, but Apeks to win 2-0 at +137 is a far more appealing bet.

SKADE secured a well-deserved 2-1 victory against Budapest Five on Monday, with 13-16 on Nuke, 16-2 on Overpass, and 16-11 on Dust II to book a meeting with Into the Breach. The latter produced a very interesting victory against Case Esports (2-0) in the first round of the qualifiers, with 16-4 on Inferno and 22-20 on Ancient.

This will mark SKADE’s third meeting with Into the Breach since December 2021 as they look to go 3-0 up in the head-to-head. But that might be easier said than done.

Last time out, ITB came just a couple of rounds short of sweeping SKADE but lost the series (1-2) with 17-19 on Ancient, 19-17 on Vertigo, and 8-16 on Inferno. You could also say that SKADE came a couple of rounds short of sweeping the British squad. Either way, it was a very close series.

On paper, SKADE look stronger, but ITB have been playing well, and they no longer rely on Owen “smooya” Butterfield to do all the heavy lifting. We expect another close affair that can easily go the distance; hence we’re on overs at -111.11.

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