​ North American organization Rogue is close to signing Mathias "MSL" Lauridsen to replace Kevin "kRYSTAL" Amend as in-game leader, according to multiple sources close to the player and team.





During his time with North, MSL won multiple events including DreamHack Montreal 2017, DreamHack Tours 2018 and DreamHack Valencia 2018. The most impressive victory came less than a month before he was benched, a victory over Astralis at DreamHack Stockholm in late August. During that event, MSL was the primary AWPer and in-game leader but was unable to find repeat success at the FACEIT Major: London.





KRYSTAL joined Rogue at the start of October in an attempt to fill the void left by Casper “cadiaN” Møller, who replaced MSL on North in late September.





Before joining Rogue's ​CS:GO team, kRYSTAL played multiple events with Ghost Gaming on loan from The Imperial. His most prestigious finish includes a victory at DreamHack Summer this year with The Imperial and a semifinal appearance with Ghost at the ZOTAC Cup Masters.





Rogue has a 5-13 record and 16 points in Season 8 of ESL Pro League North America, leaving the team in 10th place. Teams must finish in the top six to qualify for the LAN finals and finish in the top nine to avoid playing relegation. The 12th place team will automatically get relegated to ESEA premier. In Season 6 of ECS, Rogue holds the sixth place position and must finish in the top four to qualify for the offline finals. In ECS, Rogue must finish eighth or better to avoid relegation.





Rogue could not initially be reached for comment.





Photo by Jennika Ojala/DreamHack