Fnatic announced the two new additions yesterday on Twitter.

Aurélien "afro" Drapier replace Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi as the new AWP'er on the team. This will be the first international team for afro, who has played professionally for Team LDLC, DBL Poney, and HEET in his career. The Frenchman is joined by Christopher "dexter" Nong. The former MOUZ in-game leader will take over the IGL role from William "mezii" Merriman, who can now focus on the Rifler role. The Australian replace Dion "FASHR" Derksen, who moved to OG last week.

The new Fnatic roster will play their first game at the IEM Cologne Play-in event in two weeks' time.

dexter

afroo

Fnatic

HEET currently only has three players on their active lineup after both bodyy and afro are joining rivals on the French scene. Creator and Organization leader Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro has in recent years been the main character when talking about HEET and its success on the international scene. With both bodyy and afro on the roster, HEET managed to reach their peak as number #23 on the HLTV World Ranking list. 

Could this lead to a disbandment within the team as HEET needs to have huge roster chances in the upcoming days in order to recreate a team that can compete against international teams? 

HEET is set to play against K23 on Jan 24. But with recent information of two of their star players leaving the team to join rivals, the Belgium organization needs to find two new players for their active roster.

Read more about bodyy and afro leaving HEET in the article below:

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bodyy

HEET

The Belgian organization HEET has announced the departure of Aurélien "afro" Drapier and Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro this Tuesday. The French duo leaves the squad after a one-year stint after joining the project together with the rest of DBL Poney last year.

- We had some amazing moments together, such as qualifying for the ESL Pro League and winning many tournaments, HEET wrote in a farewell statement. We were also a couple of rounds short of qualifying for the Major two times. But every good story has an ending. That is why we will be parting ways with 2 wonderful and talented players.

- We want to thank Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro for numerous amazing moments, crazy calls, and split-second decisions. We hope we will never be in his way behind that wall or a smoke! We would also love to thank Aurélien "afro" Drapier for incredible highlights and crazy quick scopes. Let's just hope we will never be under his scope, HEET writes in a [link:{"url":"http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss7nnu","isNewTab":true,"text":"statement"}]. 

Today's news arrives following a fresh [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/french-awper-set-join-ldlc","isNewTab":true,"text":"report "}]by neLendirekt and 1pv.fr stating that afro is close to joining another French team namely LDLC OL. Some potential destinations for bodyy could be Falcons together with Kenny "kennyS" Schrub or Richard "shox" Papillon's new project. 

This leaves HEET with the following lineup:

{cflag:FR} Pierre "⁠Ex3rcice⁠" Bulinge 

{cflag:FR} Matthieu "⁠matHEND⁠" Roquigny (coach) 

{cflag:FR} Lucas "⁠Lucky⁠" Chastang (benched)

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The 23-year-old Frenchmen Aurélien "afro" Drapier is close to signing with his former team LDLC according to a report from [link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/news/146382-afro-close-to-join-ldlc-ol-heet-to-rebuild","isNewTab":true,"text":"1pv.fr"}].

The source state that the reason behind the move is because of the financial problems that HEET has been met with as well as their poor results during the last few months of the 2022 season despite winning the ELISA Invitational Spring 2022 and ESL National Championship France Autumn 2022. 

LDLC has in recent months been playing better and better. The LDLC OL organization is sure that bringing in a new star player could give the roster what it needs to become a top team in french CS. HEET and Falcons are both better teams than LDLC, but their most recent signing François "AMANEK" Delaunay took LDLC to its new highest with his experience and know-how. LDLC is currently ranked number #65 in the world which is its all-time peak on the HLTV World Ranking list. 

Following LDLC on their journey will be Aurélien "afro" Drapier as the French AWPer is set to replace their current AWPer Remi "Diviiii" Alexandre. 

If Adro joins LDLC, the French team will look as follows:

{cflag:FR} François "⁠AMANEK⁠" Delaunay

{cflag:FR} Aurélien "⁠afro⁠" Drapier

{cflag:FR} Filip "⁠Graviti⁠" Brankovic

{cflag:FR} Arthur "⁠Snobling⁠" Benard

{cflag:FR} Lambert "Lambert" Prigent (coach)

LDLC

While BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Lisbon attracted the most attention over the weekend, an important qualifier was played out in Jönköping, Sweden. The fight for six spot's in the ESL Pro League Season 16 was at stake for 16 teams.

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One of the four remaining teams in the tournament is the French roster from HEET. In their lower bracket match against the Brazilian team from Hummer, Aurélien "afro" Drapier found a perfect way to start the match by taking down three opponents through the smoke all with crisp headshots.

HUMMER

Who will make their big breakthrough in 2022? Only time will tell, but we tried to find out, who the professional CS:GO players are keeping an eye on next year.

While Valerii "b1t" Vakhovskyi made his big entrance to the scene in 2021, it will be interesting to see, who will do it this year. Obviously, there is a lot of hype surrounding the new G2 player, Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who is also mentioned multiple times in this video. The 16-year-old Russian has been on everyone's radar after his impressive performances in the WePlay Academy League. 

m0NESY

Kvem

Jabbi

Lucky

w0nderfu1

mezii

smooya

DBL PONEY

Copenhagen Flames

In the Bo1 match between NIP and FaZe, the Swedish Ninjas managed to set up a near-perfect CT-side in the first half, which meant that they went into the switch with an 11-4 lead. In the second half, the European weren’t able to turn things around, and NIP got their second win at IEM FALL.

NIP won the first round on Ancient with a great CT side, after which they gained a 5-0 lead before FaZe tallied their first. The first half ended 11-4 in favor of NIP and it seemed like the Swedes were going to quickly wrap up the match. In the second half, The Swedish Ninja once again got off to a good start as they grabbed the first four rounds of the half, extending their lead. FaZe found their footing and won four rounds in a row to go up 15-8 on the scoreboard. Unfortunately for FaZe, device and company managed to set up a perfect defense that FaZe couldn’t breakthrough, which meant NIP went to closing the map 16-8.

16-8 (Ancient) | {cflag:SE} hampus – 1.63 Rating / 22-13 K-D / 111.1 ADR

Fiend – SKADE (14-16) | {cflag:BG} dennyslaw - 1.58 Rating / 31-15 K-D / 98.7 ADR

fnatic – DBL PONEY (13-16) | {cflag:FR} afro - 1.54 Rating / 30-17 K-D / 89.3 ADR

hampus

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Ninjas in Pyjamas

FaZe

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SKADE

DBL PONEY was on everyone’s lips last week when they managed to do the impossible by taking down the superstars from Vitality at Flashpoint 3. In the sense of their countrymen from Vitality being the French flagship in CS:GO and possessing the prodigy Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, the defeat was highly astounding for the CS:GO world.

And DBL PONEY didn’t just beat Vitality – They destroyed them.

The underdogs, led by Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro, dismantled ZywOo and company by handing them two crushing defeats on Nuke (16-5) and Inferno (16-7), only giving up 12 rounds in total.

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The French Counter-Strike scene is one of the biggest in the world and has always played a huge and significant role in the history of the game. The big European country holds a rich history of legendary players and teams like G2, LDLC, EnVyUs who’ve won iconic majors titles in DreamHack Winter 2014 and DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca.

The origin and creation of DBL PONEY can also be found in correlation with these renowned organization, with DBL PONEY’s most profiled players Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro and Lucas “Lucky” Chastang having represented G2 and LDLC in the past.

The duo has, alongside the more unknown Aurélien “afro” Drapier and Thomas “Djoko” Pavoni, played under the DBL PONEY banner since mid-February this year, where they quickly showed promising levels, despite being without an organization. The Frenchmen got a heavy boost of firepower and experience when they managed to acquire the benched G2 rifler Audric “JaCkz” Jug as a stand-in, who later on was replaced by the 2-time major winner Nathan “NBK-“ Schmitt.

Lucas “Lucky” Chastang (Rifler) | 23 years – 2021 Rating: 1.13

Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro (IGL) | 24 years – 2021 Rating: 1.10

Aurélien “afro” Drapier (AWPer) | 21 years – 2021 Rating: 1.10

Thomas “Djoko” Pavoni (Rifler) | 24 years – 2021 Rating: 1.06

Nathan “NBK-“ Pavoni (Stand-in) | 26 years – 2021 Rating: 1.04

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Copyright_-_Adela-Sznajder_-_bodyy_yjyznd","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Adela Sznajder ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}]

The mind behind DBL PONEY: Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro

With JaCkz on board and bodyy at the helm, DBL PONEY went on to display strong performances at different cash cups, winning one and ending 2nd in two. The Frenchmen continued their great form at the lower-ranked event ofFantasyexpo Spring, where they managed to beat strong Top 30 teams in Sprout and mousesports  - Just to lose in the Grand Final against a likewise profiled Endpoint.

Their first real taste of tier-1 CS:GO was at the closed qualifiers at Flashpoint 3 at the end of March. Despite being among much stronger and established teams, the dark horses from DBL PONEY didn’t bow down anyone. Quite the contrary in fact. bodyy and company ended up taking a spot at the main event, in front of the likes of ENCE, Endpoint, and HAVU.

A ticket, they converted into the astounding victory vs Vitality in the opening round of Flashpoint 3, which could be seen as the culmination of their hard work and dedication throughout the last 3 months.  

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NBK-

Djoko

JaCkz

Just when you thought the pro players had figured out every way to deliver 200IQ plays think again, afro delivered Play of the Day after perfect improvision and kills an opponent through a rooftop vent!

The Twenty-one-year-old Aurelien “afro” Drapier joined DBL PONEY in February and has been playing on a high level ever since with a rating of 1.12 in the last three months.

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Anonymo

Double Poney continues their lower bracket run at Flashpoint 3 after a 2-1 victory against Anonymo.

The two teams won their own map pick comfortably to set up a decider on Nuke.

Here Anonymo got off to the best start leading 9-6 at the break. A well-playing Aurélien 'afro' Drapier kept the Frenchmen in the game with the AWP and AUG in his hands. At 12-12, the two teams started trading rounds in a nerve-wracking ending to the match, where it was the smallest of margins that made the difference. Anonymo had the chance to close off the match at 15-14, but Double Poney managed to force the match to overtime.

The Frenchmen turned up the heat in OT, and simply ran over the Poles. They ended the OT with a perfect boost, which gave them the entry kill to seal the deal.

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/UnusualAttractiveJellyfishTheTarFu-6fGCYv304a79ez1a]

Double Poney will now face BIG in the next match in the lower bracket, while Anonymo is eliminated from the main tournament. The Poles will now fight for extra RMR points in the 9-12th place decider.

16-9 (Vertigo) | {cflag:PL} KEi – 1.78 Rating / 27-11 K-D / 103.5 ADR

8-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:FR} afro – 1.62 Rating / 22-10 K-D / 96.4 ADR

16-19 (Nuke) | {cflag:FR} afro – 1.25 Rating / 31-22 K-D / 91.2 ADR

Aurélien 'afro' Drapier – 1.29 Rating / 72-51 K-D / 88.5 ADR

After being benched at his former team OG, Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt stepped in to help the French team DBL Poney. Initially, the French rifler had stated the three closed qualifiers would be the extent to which he would play for DBL Poney. This, however, isn't the case as it has now been announced that he is going to be participating alongside DBL Poney at the Flashpoint 3 event. 

DBL Poney is set to begin their Flashpoint 3 journey on May 10 where they will fight in a French derby against Vitality in their opening round. DBL Poney has expressed their gratitude towards the agreement that "NBK-" was allowed to be playing for them at the upcoming event: 

"DBL PONEY has received confirmation that Nathan is eligible to play the competition with the team. We would like to thank NBK as well as OG, his agent, Valve, Flashpoint, and all the people who helped this tale continue for some time. Thanks also to the community that has been so supportive over the past few weeks."

After Alexandre "bodyy" Pianaro and Aurélien "afroo" Drapier didn't renew their contract with the organization the roster was depleted to only consisting of three members. Today, however, LDLC has announced their newest signings in Bryan "Maka" Canda and Nicolas "Keoz" Dgus on their Twitter-page. 

The French AWP'er in "Maka" had a great 2020, where he showed his skillset and proved himself to be one of the bearing engines in the Heretics roster. Heretics' greatest accomplishment in 2020 was when they managed to take a sixth-place finish at ESL One: Road to Rio Europe. "Maka" finished the tournament with an impressive 1.20 rating. 

Whilst the 20-year-old "Keoz" from Belgium is still an unfamiliar name for many, he has proven himself to be a competent player spending most of his time in the CIS-region. This won't be the first time he is representing LDLC as he played for them in 2019 as a stand-in. 

The newly shaped roster will have their chance to showcase their work and capabilities when participating in ESL's European Championship Winter, which starts on January 18.

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afroo

Player stats

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