Jacob “Maelk” Toft-Andersen, ex-Dota2 professional and former sports director of
esports division, was hired as the newly created organisation’s Sports Director, and put in charge of scouting and recruiting new players. Life-long FCK fan Phillip Rasmussen was also brought on-board from Danish rivals
Astralis, as Digital Marketing Manager.
With a strong brand in place, and talented backroom staff behind that,
North were ready to announce their first ever line-up, the ex-
Dignitas lineup.
North's first lineup:
This lineup only lasted for a month, after being knocked out of the Eleague Major Atlanta in the Quarter Finals by
Virtus.pro, and it was announced that RUBINO wanted to step down from the roster, and due to this
Philip "aizy" Aistrup had been bought from
Faze Clan on a three-year contract.
This lineup got off to a decent start, quickly attending DreamHack Las Vegas, where they made it to the semi-finals, missing out on the final after being defeated by
SK Gaming.
Despite having a strong roster on paper, the only real 'result' for the team over the following months was a second place finish, in July, at the ESL Pro League Finals in Dallas, where they fell 3-1 against
G2 Esports in the Grand-final.
The team made Legend status at the PGL Major Krakow 2017, but lost out to Virtus.pro once again in the Quarter-finals, and it was shortly after this event that
Emil "Magisk" Reif found himself benched from the active roster. During the summer player break North were searching for his replacement, and they chose to bring in
Valdemar "valde" Vangså, and subsequently Magisk was signed by
Optic Gaming.
The newly refreshed lineup got off to a strong start online, defeating
Envy and
Ninjas in Pyjamas in the ESL Pro League, before attending DreamHack Masters Malmö. At this event they continued to show good form, managing to take a second place finish, after facing G2 in the final once more.
DreamHack Open Montreal quickly followed just a week later, at which North were finally able to lift their first trophy. Although this was, at no fault of their own, in somewhat controversial circumstances, due to their opponents for the Grand-final,
Immortals, failing to show up on time for the game, resulting in them forfeiting the first map of the best-of-three series.
LAN placements for the remainder of the year: Placement | Event |
---|
3rd-4th | Eleague CS:GO Premier |
5th-6th | Epicenter 2017 |
4th | Blast Pro Series |
11th-12th | ESL Pro League S6 Finals |
15th-16th | Eleague Major Boston 2018 |
After some lackluster results and placings it was announced that their coach
Casper "ruggah" Due was to be replaced by Danish legend,
Alexander "ave" Holdt, who was promoted from his role as the coach of
North Academy.
However he wasn't the only member of the academy to step up, as
René "cajunb" Borg found himself on the bench, being replaced by
Daniel "mertz" Mertz. Just a week after this change, there was a surprise shift in the Danish scene as
Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye announced that he was leaving rival team
Astralis to join North!
With Kjærbye's arrival the player he was replacing,
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke and the previously benched
René "cajunb" Borg, joined
Optic Gaming.
As this lineup continues to work together and gel their performances continue to be rocky. But the talent is there, it just has to be harnessed and the Danish organisation will be hoping that in 2018 we really do hear the roar of the North.