fnatic have announced that they have decided to withdraw from EPICENTER, with a replacement still to be confirmed.

The Swedish giants had received one of the five direct invites to the tournament, but have opted out so that the players can get "an extended break" and enter 2020 "with a renewed sense of purpose, ready to settle for nothing less than reaching their boundless potential."

This means that fnatic will end 2019 at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, in Odense, in early December. The DreamHack Masters Malmö champions, who are currently ranked third in the world, are also scheduled to play the ECS Season 8 Finals, kicking off this Thursday in Arlington.

fnatic will skip EPICENTER to recharge their batteries for 2020

EPICENTER 2019 will be held from December 17-22 at the Crocus Expo Hall, in Moscow. The tournament will have $500,000 on the line and eight teams, five invited and three determined by qualifiers.

The team list for the Russian event currently looks as follows: