MIBR will attend BLAST Pro Series Lisbon with Swole Patrol member Braxton "⁠swag⁠" Pierce as a stand-in, it has been revealed.

The North American player will be filling in for Fernando "⁠fer⁠" Alvarenga, who is ruled out of the event as he will undergo surgery to fix an ear problem.

The announcement comes just days after MIBR cut ties with Ricardo "⁠boltz⁠" Prass, who had been on the bench since the organisation signed Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik from Cloud9.

swag will attend BLAST Pro Series Lisbon with MIBR

BLAST Pro Series Lisbon will be held at Altice Arena from December 14-15, with $250,000 in prize money. It is believed that MIBR turned to swag as the event will clash with both PLG Grand Slam - where INTZ will be in attendance - and the closed qualifier for the Americas Minor, in which the former iBUYPOWER member cannot compete due to being banned from all Valve-sponsored tournaments.

swag recently played at the WESG 2018 US Regional Finals, where Swole Patrol finished runners-up to Singularity. Before that, he had attended EPICENTER 2018 - his first Big Event since DreamHack Winter 2014, helping his team to reach the main tournament before they lost to Liquid and NiP in the group stage.

"This will be a great opportunity for me, and I look forward to playing alongside such legendary names," swag said.

"I think it will be a great experience, playing on stage is a thing that I miss. I am super excited, and I will do everything I can to prepare and try to get some wins for MIBR and the fans."

MIBR will attend the event with: