On Monday, fnatic tweeted that Owen "smooya" Butterfield will be inactive. This decision was made after the team took 9th-12th place at IEM Katowice. In the matches that fnatic played in this tournament, smooya was not able to significantly prove himself and achieve effective play. Now the sniper’s place in the main roster will be taken by the Romanian e-sportsman Lulian “regali” Kharjau.
Owen Butterfield joined fnatic in October 2021. He performed successfully at several online tournaments, but did not start the New Year in the best shape. As a result, the team management decided to replace him with another player in order to increase their chances of qualifying for the PGL Antwerp Major.
Regali has been playing for fnatic Rising since July 2021. Over the past seven months, he has appeared at WePlay Academy and several other events. Currently his rating is 1.15. Regali previously played with fnatic's main roster for a short time when the team was looking for a replacement for Jack "Jackinho" Ström Mattson.
In their statement regarding the decision, fnatic commented on it as follows: “Given that qualifying for the Major begins this week and we need to achieve better and better results, we have decided to make smooya inactive. However, the team management would like to note that they are grateful to smooya for his contributions to our CS:GO strategy and will continue to support his next steps in the development of his career.
