Team Menace introduces new squad

The Finnish organization had been on the hunt for a new CS:GO squad for some time. Yesterday, Team Menace announced the signing of the lineup formerly known as Team Imperial, which includes a few household Counter-Strike names.

Following their trend of supporting domestic players, Menace expressed their desire to field the most competitive team in Finland. As such, they have picked up Imperial, a roster including the likes of Mikko "xartE" Välimaa, Timo "REFLEX" Rintala, Niko "naSu" Kovanen, Miikka "suNny" Kemppi, and Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä. The team has only played together for a short time, but there is some legitimate talent here.

Most CS:GO fans will recognize xartE and REFLEX for their time in 3DMAX, where they were replaced at the beginning of the year. XartE acted as a stand-in for 3DMAX just last weekend at the ESL One Katowice offline qualifier, and helped them qualify for the main event which takes place in March. More seasoned followers of the Counter-Strike scene are sure to take notice of naSu and aslak, particularly the former. NaSu has been a mainstay in the Finnish CS scene for many years, and was even long considered the very best Finland had to offer.

Team Menace CEO Teijo "Warrior" Sepponen on the signing:

I'm very excited about our new CS:GO lineup, after losing our CS:GO team our management started to gather information about possible teams to represent Team Menace.fi. Little did we know that the possible team would be calling our phones (literally). suNny called me that he would be interested in building a very competitive team. We talked about possibilities and decided that they would play as their own for the start of the year 2015 and show that their future line-up is stable. After confirmation we are more than happy to welcome our new CS:GO team to home! Counter-Strike has always been a passion for us and we will always continue to support it.”

The first LAN event for the new Menace squad will be next week at Finland's own Lantrek 2015 tournament, featuring a $6,000 prize pool. Also in attendance will be 3DMAX, the team Menace hopes to surpass as #1 in Finland. The organization is hoping to win the title this year after finishing second at last year's edition. The team has been boot camping the past few days in preparation for Lantrek. The inevitable showdown between Menace and 3DMAX should be a treat, and perhaps the start of a national rivalry.

Team Menace now consists of:
Mikko "xartE" Välimaa
Timo "REFLEX" Rintala
Niko "naSu" Kovanen
Miikka "suNny" Kemppi
Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä

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