ropz joins mousesports

Robin "ropz" Kool built his reputation as a rising star mainly through FPL, FACEIT's pick-up game service for professional players, where he caught the attention of many notable pros. Two of them were Dennis "dennis" Edman and Nikola "NiKo" Kovač who picked ropz as a potential breakout player of 2017 in their top 20 players interviews at the beginning of the year.

The 17-year-old Estonian will now have a chance to prove his worth in a competitive environment as he will be joining mousesports, replacing one of the team's longer-standing members—Timo "Spiidi" Richter. The 21-year-old German will be leaving the active roster after some lackluster LAN performances, with his showing at the ELEAGUE Major probably standing out the most.

However, the German organization confirmed that Spiidi is still under contract with mousesports and will be on the bench for the time being.

This is what ropz had to say about the move in the official announcement:

"Today marks the day I start my pro career which I am extremely excited for. I'm really happy to start this journey with mousesports, one of the best international CS:GO teams out there currently. I am very motivated to work hard and prove myself to everyone out there. We as a team are determined to become a top contender and do our best. #vamouz."

mousesports CEO Cengiz Tüylü added that he was sad to see Spiidi move from the active lineup to the bench:

"Ropz is one of the biggest talents out there and we had great success nurturing upcoming young players in the past. I am confident that he will be a great addition to the team and develop into an important role for mousesports. On the other hand I am really sad that Spiidi will move out of the lineup. Timo is a great person and player, unfortunately he lost some of his motivation to play in the past months and decided to take a step back."

Finally, Spiidi noted a lack of motivation and pointed out that he would be keeping in touch with his supporters via streaming:

"After the ELEAGUE Major I fell into a bit of a hole, motivation wise. I didn't feel as comfortable in the team as before and decided I will take a step back and try to get into my old form again. I will keep streaming for all of you guys and will definitely not leave the competitive scene for good"

You can watch ropz in action with mousesports today at 19:00 when his team will take on Envy in ESL Pro League. More information about the match is available here. 

mousesports are now:

Chris "chrisJ" de Jong
Denis "denis" Howell
Christian "loWel" Garcia Antoran
Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný
Robin "ropz" Kool 

Timo "Spiidi" Richter (backup)

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.