Fnatic locks in rising Swedish star Jackinho for CSGO roster shuffle

Fnatic have confirmed the first piece of their 2021 CS:GO roster puzzle, locking in Swedish star Jack ‘Jackinho’ Ström Mattson joining the squad. He comes in to replace Robin ‘flusha’ Ronnquist, who stood down earlier in January.

The semi-pro Counter-Strike star, 21, has been involved in the Nordic scene since late 2016, but has never made the jump to a top-class European roster.

However, that has changed. The Swedish heavyweights in Fnatic have locked in Jackinho as a replacement for long-time star flusha leading into 2021.

Jackinho has played semi-professionally across much of his CSGO career. In 2016 he played for Nordic Knights and Property, before taking a two-year hiatus. The 21-year-old then played for nerdRage, Visomvet, and Prima Esport in 2019 and 2020.

Mattson has primarily played as AWPer across his staggered four-year career, which could conflict with the duties of Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell on the squad.

This roster shift marks a big moment for Fnatic moving forward. The legacy CSGO squad has been relatively settled across 2020, and that stability led to them winning ESL Pro League Season 11, and finishing third in Flashpoint Season 2.

Fnatic last shifted players nearly 12 months ago, and even then it wasn’t a big swap; Maikil ‘Golden’ Selim joined the roster full time after a loan from Cloud9.

The question on every Fnatic fan’s lips now is; what happens from here? Jackinho could be the first of many moves — given his role clashes with a long-standing figure in the squad.

Either JW or Jackinho would be forced to reinvent themselves for Fnatic if they weren’t to make any more roster moves.

• Read More: FalleN joins Team Liquid CSGO squad to replace Twistzz

With flusha out of the picture too, it could just be that JW shifts to a secondary AWPer role. Brollan and KRIMZ are expected to keep their roster spots.

Fnatic isn’t the only Counter-Strike outfit looking to make changes after a staggered 2020 either. Team Liquid have announced Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo is joining the squad to replace Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken.

FURIA has also locked in former Triumph Gaming AWPer Paytyn ‘Junior’ Johnson to replace Henrique ‘HEN1’ Teles.