TT9 Esports have moved to bolster their roster with the signings of former Team Empire, Rogue, and Virtus.pro IGL Eugene "karzheka" Petrishin and former Virtus.pro player Yaroslav "FMX" Kurzin. The duo replace Anatoly "eXoduSS" Martynov and Nikita "Niko2k" Rusjaev.
This follows the conclusion of Stage 3 of the 2022 season and is intended as preparation for the upcoming European Six Invitational 2023 qualifiers, according to the organization's official tweet and a tweet from TT9 manager Igor "TheRealestRussian" Obukhov.
Karzheka is best-known for his efforts on Team Empire, with whom he achieved qualification to the ESL Pro League in Season 9, reached the Six Invitational 2019 grand-final, and won the Season 9 Pro League and Raleigh Major titles.
The Estonian player was dropped in 2020 and moved to Rogue, but had an unsuccessful nine-month stint before he joined Virtus.pro for a further nine months. However, his struggles continued and he left Virtus.pro and joined Eplus4 -- the entirety of the former Six Invitational 2022 grand-finalist Team Empire roster.
However, the EU tier-two and three scene was even more unforgiving and Eplus4 failed to even qualify for the Challenger League.
The ESL Pro League Season 9 Team Empire roster. From left: karzheka, JoyStiCK, Scyther, ShepparD, dan, and RayzerGM.
With Danil "JoyStiCK" Gabov, Dmitry "Always" Mitrahovich, and Danila "dan" Dontsov having joined Virtus.pro -- currently known as Outsiders -- karzheka has now also marked his return to the top-flight with what that grand-finalist Team Empire roster became throughout the 2022 season.
As such, he rejoins forces with Dmitry "Scyther" Semenov, with whom he achieved all of his Team Empire accolades. Scyther was also the only player out of JoyStiCK, Always, dan, and Artur "ShepparD" Ipatov who was not dropped by Empire ahead of the start of the 2022 season.
Karzheka will now also be coached by Oleg "RayzerGM" Kuchin once more, who once again returned to his coaching position with Empire amidst the shocking changes that saw the four players dropped.
Signed alongisde is FMX, who joined Virtus.pro in 2022 as one of the replacements for karkheza and Artyom "wTg" Morozov -- both of whom will now be FMX's teammates. FMX had previously played in the Challenger League with DED Inside, but was one of the outgoing casualties on Outsiders due to the signings of Always and dan as players.
While both karhzeka and FMX have not played for five and three months, respectively, at this point, they are both extremely experienced. TT9 will require the experience that both bring to the table, having finished 10th in the EUL in every single stage of the 2022 season and having only managed 16 points across the 27 games played.
Catch this new-look TT9 in action later today at 6:30PM CET (UTC+1) in the European Six Invitational 2023 open qualifier, when they take on Team 86.