With western Challenger scene rosters finalizing across the world, European Challenger Series pre-qualified squad Inspire Esports has completed its five man roster. The team has retained three of its members from the previous season, while adding two former League Championship Series players to fill the remaining gaps, sources close to the team tell ESPN.
Returning to the team will be top laner Max "Satorius" Günther, mid laner Sofyan "CozQ" Rechchad, and AD carry Paweł "Woolite" Pruski. The new members to the team are former Team Dignitas jungler Thomas "Kirei" Yuen and former ROCCAT support Lewis "NoXiAK" Simon Felix.
That team will compete in the summer half of the European Challenger Series, and will not need to qualify through any form of qualifier due to its third-fourth place finish last split in the spring playoffs after falling to Team Huma. The team will not need to compete in recorded matches until June, when the series starts.
Shortly after losing to Huma, the team's contracts expired, with the organization granting permission to its players to look for other offers. Former jungler Nubar "Maxlore" Sarafian is headed to LCS teams Giants Gaming this offseason, sources say, while former support Daniel "Wendelbo" Ernst Wendelbo's name hasn't come up in any major trade deals this offseason. The team has now renewed its contracts with Satorius, CozQ, and Woolite.
As for its new members, both recently left their teams. Shortly after being relegated from the North American LCS, Kirei had no interest in remaining with Team Dignitas due to uncertainty of the team's plans. The spot has now been sold to Apex Gaming, who will build a sister team to its LCS side that will compete in the Challenger Series.
Today, NoXiAK announced -- in conjunction with Team ROCCAT -- that he would be leaving the team by his own choice. That seems to be due to his intentions to compete with the Inspire squad.
I decided to not play with roc next split btw
— Lewis Felix (@NoXiAKLoL) April 25, 2016
Inspire first entered the League of Legends scene after acquiring Satorius, CozQ, Woolite, and Wendelbo last winter. That allowed them to take the Challenger Series spot previously owned by Denial Esports, which after alleged mismanagement and missing payments, left that organization.
Inspire wanted this new roster then, but was unable to complete it due to NoXiAK and Kirei receiving offers from ROCCAT and Team Dignitas respectively, of which they both accepted. That made the team pick up Maxlore and Wendelbo and compete in the spring Challenger leg.