Kristou joins North on loan as Kjaerbye takes extended break

The 18-year-old AGF player Kristoffer "⁠Kristou⁠" Aamand will be joining North on loan, standing-in for Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye who announced an extended break due to medical reasons.

Kjaerbye had been missing from North's official games since earlier this month, with the Danish squad managing to reach the playoffs of ESL One: Road to Rio nonetheless, using their coach Jimmy "⁠Jumpy⁠" Berndtsson as a stand-in.

More light has now been shed on what caused Kjaerbye to step down now, with the 22-year-old citing "abdominal pains, breathing problems, and chest cramps" which caused problems playing the game.

To replace him, North have turned to Kristou, a fairly inexperienced Dane who will join on loan from AGF. The 18-year-old averaged just a 0.98 rating across 104 maps played so far, with little recent activity in terms of HLTV-featured matches - just nine in the last three months.

Kristou does, however, stand out on a lower level, in the Elgiganten League, the Danish competition where he boasts a 1.47 K/D, helping AGF secure nine wins from eleven games. North's Head of Esports Operations Graham Pitt says that Kristou had "the qualities they desired":

"We have been collecting and tracking data on a number of young talents in the Scandinavian region as part of our expanded scouting directive in 2020. When it became apparent that we would need a short term substitute due to Kjaerbye's unfortunate situation, we wanted to take the opportunity to look at the future and use a young and developing talent.

"Among the many players that were at the top of our metrics, further analysis from our coaching team lead to Kristou standing out as a player that had the qualities that we desired for the role we were looking to fill. We are looking forward to seeing him play during our run in Dreamhack Masters." - Graham Pitt, Head of Esports Operations

North will be using the following roster moving forward, starting with DreamHack Masters Spring Europe, withe a timeframe for Kjaerbye's return currently unknown:

Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade
Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen
René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup
Kristoffer "⁠Kristou⁠" Aamand (stand-in)

Jimmy "⁠Jumpy⁠" Berndtsson (coach)
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye (on break)