Martin "STYKO" Styk has been transferred from HellRaisers to mousesports, replacing Denis "denis" Howell.

Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk was linked with mousesports once before, in March this year, when he was in talks with the German organization. In the end, he decided to stay with HellRaisers, who grabbed a semi-finals finish at SL i-League StarSeries Season 3 Finals weeks later.

Despite re-signing with the Ukrainian organization in April, STYKO has now been transferred to mousesports, after HellRaisers garnered mixed results, such as the disappointing run at the PGL Major Krakow Main Qualifier and third-fourth place at DreamHack Open Atlanta following a loss to Heroic.

STYKO reunites with oskar and lmbt in mousesports

To make room for the new player, Denis "⁠denis⁠" Howell has departed mousesports, who most recently failed to qualify for the PGL Major's playoffs following one win and three losses in the Swiss format. The German was up to this point the team's second longest-standing member, after over two years of playing under the organization.

This is the second roster change mousesports have made during the off-season, after Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi replaced Christian "⁠loWel⁠" Garcia Antoran earlier this week.

"Martin is a very smart player. I have been working with him before and know what he is capable of. He can adapt to almost any role in a team. STYKO will be able to support chrisJ with calling our strategies and be very helpful in clutch situations," coach Sergey "⁠lmbt⁠" Bezhanov said in the announcement.

"I am very pleased with the opportunity to be part of mousesports and rejoining with my former teammates Oskar and my former coach. We will have a rather busy schedule during the next few months, but I am sure we will mix well within the team in terms of in-game roles and personalities." - Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk

„Martin is a very smart player. I have been working with him before and know what he is capable of. He can adapt to MOUSESPORTS WELCOMES STYKO FROM MOUSESPORTS ON AUGUST 8, 2017 almost any role in a team. STYKO will be able to support chrisJ with calling our strategies and be very helpful in clutch situations“, says mouz coach Sergey Bezhanov.

STYKO has also addressed his departure from HellRaisers, as well as the criticism he has been a target of amidst rumors of the transfer, and his role in his new team, in a Twitlonger post:

"I wanted to write a twitlonger on why I wanted to leave from HR, why mouz offered me a spot and why I accepted it. But then I realized my best option would be to just shut down haters who judge roster changes based off of stats by showing myself playing well on the server. And by playing well I do not mean dropping 30 bomb every map, but rather letting stars on my team shine even brighter and stepping up when it is needed." "I do not want to go over issues we had towards the end of my career in HR. Those people close to our team knew them and it came to a point where a roster change would be a better solution. I am thankful to these people nonetheless! They gave me a chance to sign my first contract 21 months ago when I was just an FPL pugger with little knowledge of how competitive CS:GO works."

mousesports now have the following lineup:

The European side's online debut is scheduled for August 22, 21:20 , in the ESL Pro League Season 5, where they're set to face GODSENT up first.

As mentioned in STYKO's statement, mousesports have a busy schedule in September in terms of offline events: DreamHack Masters Malmö (August 30-September 3), ESG Tour Mykonos (September 7-10), and ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier (Group B runs from September 15-16).

Meanwhile, HellRaisers are down to four players: