Heroic complete roster with es3tag

Heroic's roster is now back to five as the Danish team announced the signing of Patrick "es3tag" Hansen.

A couple of weeks ago, after a quite long and successful period, Heroic surprisingly removed Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså with whom they won Power-LAN 2016 and International Gaming League 2016. With valde playing for Heroic, the Danish-Swedish roster also secured several semi-final placements in prestigious events, most notably at Intel Extreme Masters: Katowice 2017.

Benching valde, one of the architects of Heroic's rise to the top-level, was a tough decision but the team immediately started looking for a new fifth. And as they found it, perhaps with a little help from past experiences. Twenty-one year-old player Patrick "es3tag" Hansen signed for Heroic, following the footsteps of his former teammates Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen and Jakob "JUGi" Hansen.

Clearly, valde is a capable player and can live up to expectations, but Heroic were linked to another player in the last week. Allan "AnJ" Jensen, who is on his way out of Singularity had been considered to be the main target of Heroic. Apart from AnJ, Casper "cadiaN" Møller looked to be a fitting player for Heroic during his time as a stand-in for the team in the vacancy of a permanent fifth player.

Heroic's latest addition, es3tag, released a statement:

“

I am thrilled to be playing with Heroic, who I know from playing with a couple of the guys earlier, but more importantly is a major step up for me. It’s my ambition to be among the best, and Heroic has the potential to be an absolute top contender.

I’ve been shown around the facilities at RFRSH and been introduced to the set-up, and I am really looking forward to be a part of a top professional environment like this. I have only good things to say about Tricked and the guys in the organization, but this is a major step up compared to what I’ve experienced before.

Short term we have some extremely important tournaments ahead of us and little time to prepare, but I’ve already pracced with the team, so I think we’ll be in good shape. The competition is fierce, but long term, the ambition is to be in top 10 and ultimately to take on the top teams.”

Team coach Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen added:

“

I’ve been very focused upon finding a player who can contribute to the team from day one and we had several highly qualified candidates. Individual skills and team work has been key words, and even though we knew him beforehand, I must say es3tag has impressed me during the days we’ve worked with him.

It’s always a challenge to change a strong player, but by bringing in es3tag, I am confident we’re actually coming out a lot stronger from this move. We have high ambitions, and I believe we’re closer to reaching them by this move. No words or talking will bring us there, though, so from here on it’s hard work and focus from each and every one of us.”

Heroic now have:

Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer
Andreas "MODDII" Fridh
Nikolaj "niko" Kristensen
Jakob "JUGi" Hansen
Patrick "es3tag" Hansen