Ex-North trio reunite in new team

The players are now looking for an organisation to represent.

The former North trio of Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade, Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup and Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye have decided to get back together and have already begun the search for an organisation interested in supporting this new project, which also includes Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup and Frederik "⁠Fessor⁠" Sørensen, the players have announced.

aizy and gade are still tied to North, which ceased all esports operations last month because of the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but the latter will be allowed to leave the organisation for free, the players have told HLTV.org. Kjaerbye was moved to FaZe's bench in January to make way for the arrival of Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken after just five months with the international team.

The trio are trying to reignite their careers after enduring some tough times in the last two years. They played together between September 2018 and May 2020, winning the GG.BET Ice Challenge and DreamHack Open Sevilla, both in 2019. Kjaerbye ended up leaving North in July 2020, two months after taking a break due to medical reasons, and went on to sign with FaZe later that summer. aizy was benched and made available for transfer in November as North entered the second stage of their talent development plan, with gade remaining in the team as the in-game leader until the organisation was shut down.

"After North ceased operations, I began talking with Kjaerbye and aizy about how we wanted to reunite and build a new team," gade said. "We wanted to find our approach to the game and establish what type of players we wanted to play with and what we would like to accomplish and gain from this project. I think all of us aligned our expectations and standards, which is a really good thing."

But aizy and Kjaerbye are not the only familiar faces for gade in this new team. He will also reunite with b0RUP after the two played together in Singularity and North Academy between 2016 and 2018. The 21-year-old has spent the last month on the sidelines after being benched by Heroic following the double signing of Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck and Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali from MAD Lions.

Fessor has only two matches on record since joining BLUEJAYS at the start of February. He is by far the least experienced player on the roster, but gade believes that the 20-year-old has the potential to grow into a top player.

"b0rup and I go way back, and we always joked about playing in the same team again," gade explained. "I am super happy that this has finally become reality.

"Fessor is a rising star, and the decision to pick him up was a no-brainer."

With the roster set in stone, the players are now looking for an organisation willing to invest in the team. Economic times are tough and the uncertainty in the Counter-Strike scene at the moment poses a huge challenge, but gade remains hopeful.

"It's a rough situation with the pandemic and organisations jumping into other games, but I do believe that good things come to those who are patient and hardworking," gade said. "Right now it's about developing and performing so that we can have a breakthrough."

The new Danish team, who can be contacted via email, look as follows:

Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade
Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye
Philip "⁠aizy⁠" Aistrup
Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup
Frederik "⁠Fessor⁠" Sørensen