forZe round out roster with r3salt

The Russian side secured their complete lineup after three months of trials.

FORZE have announced the acquisition of 17-year-old prospect Evgeny "⁠r3salt⁠" Frolov, previously of VP.Prodigy, to complete their roster. The Russian organization has finally landed on its permanent squad after three months of trials that began in October.

Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov's squad announced the benching of Aleksandr "⁠KENSI⁠" Gurkin and Evgeny "⁠Norwi⁠" Ermolin after their failure to qualify for the IEM Rio Major and then spent the next three months trialing various iterations in online competitions before landing on Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko and r3salt.

The 17-year-old rifler joined VP.Prodigy in March 2021 and spent almost two years with the organization, representing the brand at the first three editions of the WePlay Academy League. The Russian squad never managed to crack into the top four at the junior events. Still, they claimed higher placements at other online tournaments, most recently at Winline Insight Season 2 where they finished in second place behind FORZE.

r3salt averaged a 1.03 rating throughout his time with Virtus.pro's academy roster, with personal highlights at WePlay Academy League Season 3 and 1xBet FRAG Season 9 where he recorded 1.16 and 1.22 ratings, respectively.

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Krad joins forZe

FORZE trialed various CIS players in their search for a permanent fifth in the last months of 2022, namely Igor "⁠Forester⁠" Bezotecheskiy and Amin "⁠sugaR⁠" Azimov, but landed on the 17-year-old after the turn of the year. r3salt has already represented FORZE at three events in 2023, most notably in the later stages of ESL Pro League Season 17 Conference Europe where they finished in 3rd place.

"Evgeny is a young and perspective talent who is ready to show himself on the highest level. You could see him playing for VP.Prodigy earlier and being our substitute in recent matches," read FORZE's statement on Twitter.

The Russian squad are currently competing at CCT North Europe Series 3 and ESL Challenger League Season 44 Europe, and r3salt has already made an impact in the squad with an averaged 1.11 rating across the two events.

FORZE are now:

Andrey "⁠Jerry⁠" Mekhryakov
Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko
Aleksandr "⁠shalfey⁠" Marenov
Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko
Evgeny "⁠r3salt⁠" Frolov

Artem "⁠Fierce⁠" Ivanov (coach)