ESL Pro League Season 9. A coming out party for Argentine Counter-Strike. Ignacio "meyern" Meyer showed his worth as one of the youngest and most exciting South American prodigies not plying his trade for Furia. And now he's on the move.
For those who don't speak Portuguese: Sharks Esports has bought the young star out of his contract with Isurus Gaming, adding him to a currently incomplete roster featuring Raphael "exit" Lacerda, Leonardo "leo_druNky" Oliveira, and Jhonatan "jnt" Silva. The roster has previously made their intentions of relocation to North America to further their development clear, so this move may make sense for a young star that was outgrowing his hometown team. The cash influx should be helpful for Isurus, hopefully to continue developing the Counter Strike scene in Argentina.
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Meyern's biggest results to date include taking a series off of one of America's most storied CSGO franchises, Complexity, 2-1, as well as a map off of Renegades. The sixteen year old may not have an impressive career purse quite yet, but could you do this when you were sixteen?
The Bigger Picture
With this newly bolstered roster, we may be looking at the deepest talent pool in CSG:O history for South America. Three rosters will represent the region at the Berlin StarLadder Major: MIBR, Furia, and INTZ. Five of the eight teams in the Americas Minor were from South America, not their NA counterparts. That means that teams that have relocated from SA to NA for the elevated level of competition were able to successfully swipe NA qualifier slots from NA organizations.
No longer can we just assign the success of the SA region to one legendary major winning lineup. There is a fully developed scene that can and has put forth teams that can compete and win against teams outside of their own region. Furia alone is a testament to that statement, but you add in teams like INTZ starting to capitalize on things like the 3rd place play-in, Luminosity steadily improving (despite constant roster shake ups) and Sharks being on the up and up, it's too much to ignore.
Last major it was Asia that surprised us all. Is it SA's turn in Berlin? Only time will tell, but I cannot wait.
Picture: meyern / Twitter
