IEM Katowice 2024 coverage powered by Predator Gaming; thanks to Reece Barrett for the news tip
Veteran UK Counter-Strike player talent Rory ‘dephh’ Jackson (pictured) has been moved from the position of coach to play for M80’s active roster.
The Brit, who started out in Counter-Strike, before moving to Valorant in 2020 and back to CS last year, has been working as a coach for M80 since July 2023.
American organisation M80 published a tweet earlier today saying that their Danish IGL maNkz had been moved to the bench, and will be replaced by dephh at Intel Extreme Masters IEM Katowice 2024 and the American RMR events.
“M80 Counter-Strike update: maNkz will be moving to the inactive roster and dephh will be stepping in for the upcoming IEM Katowice and American RMR events,” the org said in the announcement tweet above.
maNkz to miss IEM Katowice 2024 due to personal reasons
dephh told dust2.us that maNkz has moved to the inactive roster due to personal reasons.
“Sometime this week, maNkz informed the team he felt he needed to leave the team for personal reasons,” dephh said.
“As much as it came as a shock to all the players, we must respect his decision. I will be filling in for the two upcoming tournaments due to roster lock restrictions and look forward to competing at both Katowice and the RMR.”
Other M80 players also commented on the situation.
Swisher said: “Heartbreaking. I was very much looking forward to playing with the full squad since our addition of slaxz. We respect [maNkz’] decision but UK CS shall rise again.”
slaxz said: “Everyone would have loved for Marcus to be here with us, but it is what it is so it’s time for the Rory show again.”
malbsMd added: “Sadly we will have to play with a ‘stand-in’ again but we completely respect his decision and also completely trust dephh as an IGL and we hope to make a nice showing at both events.”
IEM Katowice will once again take place in Poland from January 31st 2024.
The IEM Katowice 2024 broadcast talent were recently announced, including Brits James Banks, Freya, Machine, Harry, Hugo, Dinko and OJ Borg.
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.
