British CSGO pro player Owen ‘smooya’ Butterfield was benched by Fnatic earlier today – but why?
Fnatic explained why they had replaced the 22-year-old AWPer with 19-year-old Romanian player Lulian ‘regali’ Harjău from the Fnatic Rising academy roster.
Fnatic team director Andreas Samuelsson said on the Fnatic website: “We acknowledge and appreciate the hard work and amazing plays Smooya put into our Katowice run but we have come to the conclusion that he is currently not the right fit for our main CSGO roster. We think now is the best time to allow Smooya to explore his options within the game.
“Owen has given his all to Fnatic and contributed greatly to our performances over the past few months. Myself and the entire team wish to thank him for the great memories we have shared and the entertainment he has provided.”
“We have come to the conclusion that smooya is currently not the right fit for our main CSGO roster. We think now is the best time to allow Smooya to explore his options within the game.”
Andreas Samuelsson, Fnatic
Fnatic added that they had been “very impressed” with academy player regali for his “talent, dedication and attitude”, hence his promotion.
The news comes after Fnatic were eliminated from the IEM Katowice 2022 CSGO tournament. They made it through to the group stage before losing to Faze Clan 2-1 in the second round of the upper bracket, then falling to Astralis 2-1 in the lower bracket.
smooya had initially joined Fnatic late last year on a trial basis.
What did smooya have to say about being benched?
The UK CSGO pro opened up on his benching in a series of tweets this evening.
He suggested his removal may be due to him attempting to be a better teammate rather than focusing on individual skill, or his usual approach:
smooya added: “Honestly not many things I would have done differently, some things in life are not meant to work. I’m now a huge believer that top teams can’t work if people don’t like each other in-game/outside of game. Anything that is only professional will only go so far. Some issues are unfixable in specific situations.”
He also said on stream: “It’s fucked up to search for an AWPer mid-event, and when I find out from someone else that’s not in Fnatic, that’s fucked up.
“It’s kind of hard to play an event knowing your team are searching for AWPers while I’m preparing for G2 the next day.”
On the idea that Fnatic as a team had “too many personalities”, smooya responded, saying: “No, the team has two personalities – me and Alex – the only people that have an opinion on anything.”
He also played a video of a tumbleweed floating along to illustrate what it was like whenever he and Alex shared their opinion on something in a team meeting, to be met with silence by the rest of the team.
smooya did take the time to thank Fnatic and team director Andreas Samuelsson, and also wished good luck to his replacement, regali, as well as the rest of the team.
“Was a good experience, with more wins than losses, which is always good! I’m sorry it didn’t end the way we expected, but again a huge thank you [to Fnatic/Andreas] for trying.”
smooya said he will now be streaming “until something comes up”.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
