AZR leaves Sprout after failing to qualify for the Paris Major

German esports organization Sprout has decided to part ways with their in-game leader Aaron “AZR” Ward after 1.5 months of working together.

According to Sprout’s statement, the organization is going back to trials to search for a new IGL and it may result in changing players in the squad.

30-year-old AZR joined Sprout on March 03 after leaving EXTREMUM in 2021 and playing with Australian Encore Esports Club in several B-Tier tournaments in 2022.

In an interview with BLIX, AZR complained about the language difficulties in the German team, where English is not native to his teammates and he does not always understand speech.

With AZR’s leadership, the team did not win a single tournament and bombed out of the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023: European RMR A, finishing 12th – 14th.

Australian athlete claims that his vision of his role did not coincide with the rest of the team.

“Even though it was a short amount of time I spent with the team, it was clear early on that it just wasn’t a good fit with roles clashing and not having the same vision for the IGL to take and create space for the team as I believe this way is the best for me to call. With me coming back from a longer break and then having just one month to prepare for the RMR I felt like we had no time to implement the roles I would have liked for the team. Along side a rough RMR this would be the best outcome for both parties,” he noted on Twitlonger.

In addition to parting ways with the Australian and the promise of changes in the primary team, Sprout also announced the creation of an Academy roster this summer.

“I am thrilled to be involved in our upcoming CS:GO academy team project. I see this team not as a separate entity but as a second team that will bring great value to our organization. I will be heavily involved in this project, serving not only as a distant observer but also as a full-fledged supportive coach as much as I can. Our primary goal is to find the right players who have the talent, skill, and dedication to compete at the highest levels.” Said Danny “Berry” Krüger, CS:GO Coach.

Sprout is now:

• Victor “Staehr” Staehr
• Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea
• Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss
• Adrian “XELLOW” Guță
• Danny “BERRY” Krüger (Coach)