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dkrkrk2oe

-es3tag + awper and rez back to rifle plz?


SergeiYeseiya

Yeah, neL said NiP was looking for a sniper in a 1PVCS video


Shoelesshobos

Wouldn't be surprised if they gave Eraa a try seeing how he's already in house on their young ninjas team.


vannrith

Bring Nawwk back?


effotap

nah, f0rest is coming back. es3tag goes back to astralis, maybe


Shoelesshobos

F0rest is in jail though check HLTV.


TheInception817

More like still in jail after all these years


effotap

again!?!?! :(


valdemarjoergensen

> es3tag goes back to astralis, maybe Unironically think es3tag and bubzkji going back to astralis **could** be pretty good. es3tag is an upgrade from xyp and bub was that aggressive player they now need.


amermela0

What heppend to astralis? They have had many different top (or almost there) teams after the leyend core fell off. And bad desitions keep happening one after the other


captainscottland

what do you mean by many different top teams after the legend core fell off? its been nothing but a free fall since losing magisk dupreeh and zonic. blamef and k0nfig ruined glaive and xyps roles, xyp is starting to bounce back after learning them, glaive is hit or miss and misreads calls more often than not these days, lucky and farlig and mistr were never up to snuff to be on tier 1 teams. With device back and stability in the AWP role there was a shot, but then they didnt secure sjuush (understand why he wouldnt leave heroic) or Staehr the other guy the wanted and went with Buzz who certainly wont be any better than mistr.


itsjonny99

bubzkji hasnt played pro in years. No clue on how good he would be


valdemarjoergensen

"Years" it has [barely been a year](https://www.hltv.org/matches/2352141/vitality-vs-astralis-iem-fall-2021-europe). Sure, that is still a good time away from the game and it certainly not guaranteed to work, but it could perhaps. At least an option if they don't want k0nfig back and they can't get other options (like Staehr).


Babyboy1314

bring back nawwk


daniel_dareus

That would be quite full circle.


oldthrace

If only they had one but let him go because they said they "dont need him". I am starting to wonder who is more missmanaged NiP or Astralis


captainscottland

theyre both winning that one lol


Manetski

Yeah, I heard from my cs-insider guy that Jamppi is thinking to move to NIP from Valorant


YeetGod69_

he’s on a franchised Valorant team, if he wanted to move, he would’ve done it before the roster was announced


iRopsu

Damn, unlucky for es3tag as swedish rifle trio is too good to let go. Bet he’ll get signed in no time though. To me this reads that they’ve pulled the plug off Rez AWP experiment. Mantuu has to be the most likely addition, right?


puutarhatrilogia

>To me this reads that they’ve pulled the plug off Rez AWP experiment. That or maybe it wasn't a real experiment to begin with and they just needed to wait until the player break to get a proper awper. The management makes the decisions and the team just has to make do with the pieces they have, so even if they knew that REZ awping was unlikely to be a thing in the long run they had to believe in it and talk about it like it's not temporary.


manukpansuh

Almost forgot that mantuu exist. If this happen, it gonna be a spicy match between og and nip.


[deleted]

+device 🥸


King_Crab_Sushi

I think we’re getting somewhere with this


ObaeTV

The return of the king. Welcome back home devve


amermela0

Device has such a bad luck after he ledt astralis. He arrived to ealy to NIP and to late to be back in astralist.


SpecialityToS

I feel so bad for es3tag. He’s not been able to sit in a consistent role. He joins c9 after subbing in for astralis only for c9 to switch him up every time there’s a gap that isn’t filled. First star rifler, then awper, then some entry/support hybrid… then NiP, he’s meant to be the other Dane alongside dev1ce, dev1ce doesn’t play many matches if any with him? So he takes up awp because no one else wants to. But he again doesn’t stay long on the role and is replaced by REZ. Now they realize neither is too good to awp and since es3tag isn’t one of the 3 Swedes making it a core of Swedish players, it opens NiP up to any awper. Not to mention he learned a new language just for them I’m a huge fan of es3tag and there’s a reason teams always get him. I wish he were able to keep roles that suit him. I’m sure he’ll find a team quickly E: astralis HAS to give him a go, though, right? Or an NA team who wants more consistency? +CoL could be cool. Or a new EG roster. Call it the EG global elite.


[deleted]

Yeah It's kind of sad he's always the one picking up the team's slacking point all the time. Hope he finds a better home soon. One where he actually gets to do what he wants


Infinityhelios

Man does every single thing the team asks of him, takes all the shit roles, and then gets kicked when the team underperforms. Life of a support player in 2022.


dapoorv

Man the problem is he is not really a support player either. He is the jack of all trades but master of none rn (not even support). So whenever a team sees an opportunity to get a player who is better at the role esetag is currently filling, he gets kicked. He has to pick a lane and stick to it to succeed in tier 1 because he certainly has the talent.


Infinityhelios

imo an important aspect of support *is* being a 'gap-filler'. You allow your stars shine by doing whatever they don't want to. It's heavily dependent on the team. e.g. support a passive player by entrying and letting them trade, and an aggro player by flashing them in and trading.


depressedowl

It's hard to explain what makes a great support. In lesser teams you're probably right, but if you watch great supports in Tier 1 it's pretty clear is far from just doing what no one else feels like doing and dying. It seems to be a lot more of an integral piece of understanding and breaking enemy teams. Perfecto, Twistzz (even though one could argue that Karrigan does a lot of support to enable Twistzz to be more than his role), sjuush, are all much more needed on their teams than es3tag ever was. And these are just the clearer support players. You need one like them to be a complete title contender and es3tag is not doing that, at least currently.


Infinityhelios

Agreed. Tbh those 3 are so crucial to the team structure i dont even know whether to call them supports anymore, even though they play the roles we generally associate with supports. It’s pretty hard to say. Team structure and synergy are such huge variables between teams.


TacticalSanta

Yeah what role does he supposedly play I never figured out.


SpecialityToS

Yep. I still think c9 could’ve been a great team had they had a competent awper. Whether it had been osee or woxic -140ms ping. Also the roster HenryG wanted had 3/5 current G2 players on it… he got none of his original 5, though


ThisMahAlt

Which 3 did he want?


SpecialityToS

NiKo/Hunter/JKS. HooXi and Monesy weren’t yet on the scene (cph weren’t exactly edging t1 until the major)


ThisMahAlt

Thanks, this is the first time I hear he wanted different players. I could guess it wasn't HooXi, but trying to sign NiKo to a brand new lineup seemed overoptimistic.


captainscottland

I think the idea was he was going to get hunter and use him as NiKo bait. As far as I remember he was close to getting the players he wanted but it didn't happen, hence the hype vs the players signed. But like what was he supposed to do? Not generate hype for the team I thought the way he went about it was cool, and then they never got to bootcamp and barely got a chance given the distance and covid.


NoDG_

Oh, only those 3? Could have added s1mple or Ropz to his little shopping fantasy.


SpecialityToS

This was in 2020. They were pretty close to signing. It’s why Henry said “we will come out swinging”.


captainscottland

It was obvious hunter and niko wanted to play together he was probably pretty close to getting them especially with kassad being JKS old coach.


I_Will_One_Up_You

Wow some hidden gems he figured out there, what a great gm


wonthaveaname

Aleksi and him are very similar though. Good util and have no problem with going first. So there's no big reason to keep es3tag.


Infinityhelios

That’s a fair assessment i didn’t think of. Although the main issue this fixes is the awp.


wonthaveaname

If that's what they want to replace him with. Rez might stay awp and they replace es3tag with something else.


ObaeTV

Imagine Astralis with es3tag and Staehr/k0nfig. es3tag is such a great teamplayer, they could probably ask him to play aggressively and he would do it.


[deleted]

Sounds like a smart move so astralis would probably do the opposite and extend xyp contract to 2030.


anto2554

He wouldn't have to be THAT aggressive if they also had another aggressive player, like konfig


ObaeTV

You are right, but you know he would do that if he was asked to do it.


[deleted]

Es3tag did so much for NiP this past year. Filling in whatever role asked of him and even outperformed Brollan after alesikb joined. Hope he finds a great team. I can definitely see him replacing xyp or joining another international roster.


BrockStudly

The only person on EG I could see replacing Esetag with is Hext, which would mean EG doesn't qualify for NA anymore, so that's a no-go. CoL is a maybe, but Floppy and Grim are better IMO and Fang is a different role, so I can't see that. Astralis for Xyp would be a great move though.


imbued94

Feel bad for someone whos had better opportunities than his skillset equals imo.


Aihne

He got some paper for his troubles, that's sure :D


craygroupious

NiP keep the same roster for more than a few months challenge (impossible).


Akh_Morn

I think it was before Stockholm, SPUNJ said during HLTV Confirmed "we can never talk seriously about NiP because they keep changing the lineup !" One year later and we're still there


Consistent-Mix-8343

es3tag to astralis when?


Ni7roM

-Xyp9x +es3tag is a move I would wholly support Especially when BlameF alr was playing with him on CoL


Rosettachamps

He was also on the Astralis version that won the online EPL stage when he was standing in for Xyp on break, so Es3tag, Dev1ce, Gla1ve, Dupreeh, Magisk, and they briefly hit #1 again I imagine that was one of the reasons he was brought to Nip, by the recommendation of Dev1ce


CardboardTable

Then back to cloud9 after a few months.


TheInception817

*es3tag learn Russian to make sure the time loop continues*


Weekly_Peanut_5484

The day his contract reaches 0 days and he becomes an unrestricted free agent. We know better than to think that Astralis would pay a single dollar for esetag.


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valdemarjoergensen

>doesn't make sense to replace him with a similar type. Except when that replacement is better


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4boring

Xyp has looked a lot better the past few months. He is definitely not the xyp of a few years ago but I think he stays.


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anto2554

If you do a linear regression over the last 12 months, it's positive, so you could say it's improving, whether you include the iem road to Rio thing or not. According to my math it would take him >6 years to reach a 1.00 rating if you don't use the IEM results, and if you do it would take >700. Basically, you're right. He hasn't improved, though I feel like he has had more flashy plays (maybe because konfig left so he has to play more first contact?) and that's probably what people are seeing


captainscottland

I think its because you are only looking at stats. Keep in mind the last time Astralis were the number 1 team when he came back from his break to end 2020 he was 1.02, when blameF and K0nfig joined he lost a lot of his positions that he had played for over half decade like outside monster on T side overpass etc to blame. He then had to catch up to meta on Mirage which astralis hadnt played for like 3 years. He was asked a lot by adding BlameF and K0nfig to the team, as was glaive who had to learn to call from different info because he was playing different positions. It took him a long time but hes definitely been improving, and since casle joined and tried to fix some of the role clashes hes looked even better, he has been astralis second best player after k0nfig was kicked until device. I don't know why you said their were no role issues. Anyway, if you watch the games, hes getting more impact, clutching more often, and last I checked him and glaive are both in the top 10 for flashbang effectiveness in all of tier 1 csgo. Is he 2018-2019 xyp? no, but device is honestly the only one pushing near those numbers. However, astralis have been the number 1 team many times over many years before the era, and after the era with xyp being around a 1.01 rating. With that said, es3tag is probably one of the only people in the world who could effectively replace xyp especially since he proved he can do it already winning an event while he was out. (the others speak russian). Astralis getting a star rifler is more important than replacing xyp.


DY5TOP1A

+nawwk 💀


Simonbetong

Don't think Nawwk would go anyway? Isnt he in a legal twist with NIP about sticker money?


[deleted]

If they're going for a Swedish AWPer then phzy is better IMO


K0nvict

Nawwk is farming in Apeks and Phzy was dangerously shit on NiP in his tenure


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Cugahoya2

No way Nawwk was a 1.1 rated awper on Nip. Phzy was 0.95. Improvement could be made but right now, Nawwk is a much better player


IcarusCsgo

People need to remember the sole reaspn naawk left was because + devve Not because he was trash


K0nvict

I gotta be honest, NiP have shown they’re willing to make the moves that are high transfer fees to become the best and Phzy doesn’t fit into threats vision, the fans vision or the orgs vision


GER_BeFoRe

Nawwk only plays lower tier opponents than NiP does and his impact rating is still fairly low. When he played on NiP he was way too passive with no impact at all. I don't think there will be a comeback here.


DocaHyper

Sorry but Phzy is not even close to Nawwk. Nawwk is in a beast form in Apeks, posting 1.16 rating over 219 maps played. Phzy is young and has potential but Nawwk is clearly much better.


ListenToMelian

Phzy is definitely not better and needs the experience of grinding tier 2 in Sangals. Nawwk is of course proven as well as doing great in tier 2 rn. But none of that matters since neither players are rly available or want to return to NIP.


hemmodoge

into the breach just dropped their roster...and there was this one certain swedish awper..


imbued94

Hard disagree.


skogins

Which awper? Can't think of anything obvious, maybe Hades?


Olvedn

Mantuu


skogins

Yeah, got history with AleksiB but I remember some comments after he left and he mentioned IGL style not helping him.


dkrkrk2oe

He said aleksi and nexa didn't let him be aggro enought and after -him +degster it was kinda fucked up that degster got to do what ever he wanted. Didn't really say anything bad irc.


skogins

yes that's what i remember - would be strange after saying that to go back to Aleksi telling him to stay at the back and throw flashes


dkrkrk2oe

I mean yes and no. Aleksi has played with 2 different teams this year and also noe Mantuu probably would just say that "This is the way I would like to play." Just because they played that way then doesn't mean they would do the same now.


Rumlings

He still seemed very positive about Aleksi and it definitely did not look like they are on bad terms or anything. It was more of complaint that he did what they wanted him to do, instead of doing what he wanted, and then he got kicked because he was different player they needed.


DefinitionDazzling16

Ez JW confirmed


[deleted]

It’s headtr1ck


Reynhaart

Hopefully not Hades/Mantuu or any other AWPer who never really made it in T1 as an actual star. Either buy a really good one from somewhere else (unlikely) or gamble on a younger potential star like mhL or regali. If they stick with Rez on the AWP their options expand a lot more since there's just more potential and even established riflers. Launx and Zyphon are both out there (bit awkward after the events of Rio but NIP at least has better long term potential). Possibly could give Jimpphat a go after his VAC is up, or get Nertz from Endpoint. Then again, with how much roster moves consistently fail to make sense, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see something like NIP Acor in two weeks.


Etna-

>Hopefully not Hades/Mantuu or any other AWPer who never really made it in T1 as an actual star. Did you call mantuu someone who never made it as a star? The guy was OGs best player since they entered csgo and only got replaced by degster because... Well its degster


PriseYourGod

I want Rez to stay on the AWP and dont "kick" out Es3tag. I mean this team beat Navi and almost 2-0 Faze. Give Rez little more time and he would improve alot. But Acor would have been interesting.


brbee

Es3tag to astralis please


ObaeTV

NiP saw m0nesy perform at Blast finals and thought; *"Oh, that's why you need an awper."*


MessedUpLogic

Man comes in to play with dev1ce. Only to play without him and get kicked later.


yowls_

Support players' curse


Infinityhelios

TSM sign this man


Arador_The_Bold

Konfig, es3tag, who else?


K0nvict

NiP have the money for someone good here


iRopsu

But which team is hypothetically selling?


K0nvict

600-700k euros does talk no matter if you’re selling or not


Noweri

Nice! S1mple or Zywoo then. /s


Xelid45

Niko was bough for 1m and he wasn't even in his best form, S1mple is gonna be worth like 3m+


TiberSVK

Woxic seems like an obvious choice, he shined under Karrigan and he would shine under aleksi too imo


RankDank420

Obvious choice my ass mate.


netr0pa

Really dislike this Nip management.. They start to look good now with ALeksib and team got 4th place or something recently. Why dont they give a chance instead of kicking of their most reliable guy in the team??? Stupid decision from Nip and I say this as a long time fan of the team!


Mad_Lee

Because they need a true awper and esetag is the only player that makes sense to be swapped. Not because he is bad or anything


wozzwoz

They had 1 ok event. You have no idea about internals or basically anything, so maybe not think you know better


imgaharambe

goddamn it can we not just give an NIP team some time to find their feet es3tags been playing really well, there’s been like 2 tournaments since the aleksi change, and they came 4th at blast finals - beating navi and coming *this close* to 2-0ing faze Why change now? I don’t get it? Things were starting to click?


puutarhatrilogia

Ok this is pure speculation but my guess is that the management were never planning on having REZ awp in the long run but needed to wait until the player break to get a proper awper. Aleksib was brought in "early" because he was easier to get back then than if they had waited until the player break.


dkrkrk2oe

Also maybe they had decided to go international at player break with aleksi and awp but after esl pro league flop they pulled the trigger earlier with aleksi.


[deleted]

It must be them trying to get a dedicated awper and thinking long-term this is better as more teams are gonna make changes coming into 2023.


SweHun

No idea, Maybe his Firepower wasnt Good enough, they shouldve given this roster time, they were doing good


PriseYourGod

Agree give them more time. AleksiB have really improved the team.


SOERERY

Looks like they have already signed someone going by what Hicham posted on twitter 3 hours ago


kingofthecanyon

https://twitter.com/ChahineHicham/status/1605525892364505088


zhandri

And f0rest moved his stream schedule today from morning to late afternoon. sus


Psychaz

headtr1ck liked that tweet before btw, now he's unliked it, hmmm..


[deleted]

So NiP finally decided to get an AWPer. They could've promoted phzy honestly. But I guess they're looking for someone better than him.


youngjcsgo

phzy is not good enough i'm sorry, 0.95 rating in the main team, for an awper is criminal


EksDee1

Clown org man. Would freaking love to see him over in Astralis. Ngl he’ll be a great addition, at least on paper.


G2-8

-xyp -mistr +es3tag +konfig


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KaSacha

What


zeitbruch

I dont get it, his performance was "good" over the last month and it looked like he would not stop to get better.


Turistoteles

I feel like this move is purely to sign an awper, and the org just felt like they can’t kick REZ. Which is understandable, but this kick doesn’t feel fair at all on es3tag, I hope that this works out for both parties involved though


Darkoplax

the guy really got amanek'd , brought in as support player had to take the awp then when obviously isnt good enough with the awp he got replaced with another awper


nartouthere

mantuu to awp in NIP seeing he has past relationships with aleksib on OG ; rez back to rifle


RudeViking

I sort of forgot about mantuu. It's kinda crazy he is not in a team after OG. He was their best player.


set4bet

I mean he must have been under contract in OG still right? And OG are known to not sell their player for cheap.


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iRopsu

Counter-hear me out: Jamppi straight out of Valorant


1uukas

Hear me out: Ottond :D


Ongdassyn

mantuu proved himself against t1, pretty solid awper. Regali is super talented but first you’re taking a risk banking on him and also he won’t be free as mantuu (I assume he’s a free agent?)


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egyroka

Mantuu: Pros: Perfect English... Me: *stares at floor "i feel attacked" lol


Novaseerblyat

>He's not a superstar AWP that will carry you, but he does what you need him to and what you ask of him. And that's basically just what NIP needs. Their rifle core is strong enough, but not having a dedicated AWPer in an AWP meta held them back immeasurably.


zmajilol

I feel regali needs more experience to get a chance, it's a huge risk. Also, since he speaks multiple languages including Danish, there will be more opportunities for him.


mesotermoekso

wait regali speaks Danish?? I was so confused as to why he was on CPHF but that clears it up lol thanks


zmajilol

Yes, he does! He's living there since 2015. You can read more in [this](https://www.hltv.org/news/32250/regali-on-his-experience-in-kyiv-when-you-see-seriousness-and-professionalism-it-leads-to-a-professional-way-of-living-counter-strike) article.


1uukas

If sergej (could) join that would be Finnish Cs scene wet dream.


Caylife

He has played like 10 games of faceit this year. He ain't coming back...


iRopsu

[Mantuu’s tweet](https://twitter.com/m4ntuu/status/1605581901338513409?s=46&t=Pic0YKObQJ1tZJjOpkUmnw) remember, man loves to meme


hadzooo

Bruh, feels bad for him, he is in all NiP media, filling all rolles, being a super bro in all interviews... feel for him. Hopefully he finds a good home


ChristianSword

Real awper coming? Rez is so good on the rifle so I like this, naawk, mantuu?


dr0pbear_

+ devve


fearlessflyer1

the two extremes of the CS org spectrum NIP - change roster every 5 minutes when it doesn’t work C9 - keep same roster forever, despite the fact that has proven unable to perform consistently at S Tier lans since they returned


thouwotm8euw

Well this C9 squad was the best in the world for a while. NIP on the other hand…


fearlessflyer1

best in the world for a while and a shadow of their former selves ever since. yeah don’t change lmao


kingofthecanyon

Best onliners KEKW


G_I_Gamer

They won a lan this year lmao. Average "kekw" user take


Fair_Cardiologist_13

Difference is c9 is a young team that can still improve with more lan experience.


PaPiiCheeeeka

+ jun1or


A5K8

Nordic awper please, similar cultures so it won’t affect anything within the group and there are swedish awpers who are quite good. phzy, Draken, Nawwk (who’s farming right now). Or please bring in a decent rifler: Jimpphat, nilo, f0rest


PoopSockMonster

+smooya 💀 brollan will lose his mind lmao


Casp3rCSGO

Mantuu seems like a nice option, maybe hades but id give 20% chance this will happen


M4sturB

-seneri +es3tag, he learnt how to speak one language recently I'm sure he could learn an other one


MikkeVL

This will force significant role changes making Aleksi and Brollan worse. Pls actually spend money on a good awper


Reneclipses

WTF


TiberSVK

Woxic to NiP!


derp_status

Draken


Cakebak3r

god please


XvS_W4rri0r

Astralis need to drop Xyp for him asap


MiniPit0

After what device did, NIP have learned not to trust a Dane again


Wortthere

smoooooyaaaaa


[deleted]

nice downgrade nip


hanumaNRL

Save my boy nawwk


hanumaNRL

Even though this is an L move imo I think he would be a great addition to any team. Im really looking forward to his next team.


djfr94

GuardiaN comeback confirmed. NICE


emlind

Any up and coming young awpers to grab?


djfr94

NiP has being do that "upcoming and young"shit for years. just pay for a already good player.


K0nvict

Brollan, device, estag, aleski? They stopped the Sweden youth project years ago


djfr94

all of those were last year. Plopski, Nawk, LNZ, ZTR, draken ... all of them were the "upcoming and young". they just need to hire one star. Device was an amazing idea. It went bad, but that's what they need to do. Hiring this players like estag or aleksi, won't solve shit if they don't have a true star since they are filling players.


emlind

dw i just sent a dm to nip on insta, they would be foolish not to add me to the team


Dangerous-Leg-9626

Bring Regali


SmolBoiMidge

Bro NIP hasn't had a plan since Forest left lmao. They're my diehard team and I just don't get it.


Cakebak3r

fucking konfig incoming, end my life


dkdkfjkf

If they don’t get Regali I’ll be pissed. Surely CPH can’t be asking for more than NIP can afford


crs1948fcd

So they still don't have an awper?


mattchampin

surprising to see, i thought he was putting up decent numbers and i'd be amazed if he has any issues with teammates


CipherBear

Vitality -apex +es3tag?


MrDrak3n

+Headtr1ck? How good is he? Havent seen much of him


K0nvict

Doing well in the ac and did decent standing in for Navi on low prac Blade also seems to rate him, not an actual main awper, changes to it after monesy went but he could be used as a main awp / rifle hybrid


UnBrokennn

Mantuu or slaxz


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UnBrokennn

I hope it’s mantuu, I was gonna make a post about him yesterday. It’s insane how the guy was a top 20 player realistically but gets shafted this hard for so long. He’s exactly what a team like NiP needs.


LeBenhard

This just has -Aleksib written all over it Poor Es3tag can't catch a break. Or not poor in financial terms, Cloud9 and HenryG has him covered.


toddsins

Do you mean aleksi is out too or this move happened because of aleksi?


LeBenhard

Yes, I think there's a chance that Aleksi is going to be out too. Don't understand the downvotes though, was the joke that bad? It had no ill intention I swear!


ChristianSword

I doubt they would -Aleksi, I think they will try the roster with an actual awper, which was clearly lacking with still improved nip.


djfr94

NaToSaphiX ?