The 27-year-old Swede will take over the vacant spot left behind by Markus “?Kjaerbye?” Kj?rbye, who departed for FaZe Clan in July.

Lekr0 is now set to team up with Philip “aizy” Aistrup, Nicklas “gade” Gade, Ren�� “cajunb” Borg, Mathias “MSL” Lauridsen, and coach Jimmy “Jumpy” Berndtsson, who was his boss during his two stints with Fnatic.

North will mark Lekr0’s eighth stop in a five-year esports career that began in 2015 with Team Decerto. He later played for TSK, Publiclir.se, Team Ancient and GODSENT before joining Fnatic in August 2016. After a two-month stay with Fnatic, Lekr0 left to play for GODSENT and returned to play under the orange banner in August 2017.

Lekr0 saw vast international success during his time at Fnatic, leading the Swedish juggernauts to titles at the Intel Extreme Masters XII World Championship, World Electronic Sports Games 2017 and Europe Minor Championship London 2018, as well as deep runs in several other S-Tier CS:GO competitions.

In May 2018, shortly after Fnatic��s fourth-place finish at the Esports Championship Series Season 5 Europe, Lekr0 was benched in favour of Richard “Xizt” Landstr?m. His career did not stop there, however, since Lekr0 found a new home at Ninjas in Pyjamas, who he joined in June as a replacement for William “?draken?” Sundin.

As NiP’s in-game leader, Lekr0 led the Swedish squad to their first Major in two years – FACEIT Major London 2018 – which was just one of many impressive accomplishments during his two-year tenure with the team. Lekr0’s journey with NiP ended in May 2020 when he was put on the transfer list following the signing of Hampus “?hampus?” Poser, who took over as the new captain of the team.

Despite his experience as an IGL, Lekr0 will take over the role of the main rifler at North, but he will also assist MSL with “tactical input pre and mid-game”, as revealed by North’s Head of Esports Operations, Graham Pitt. Mr Pitt also stated that the communication in the team will not change with this signing, meaning North will continue using a mixture of Danish and Swedish language like they have since February when they appointed Jumpy as their head coach.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Jonas into the North family,” said Mr Pitt.

“Jonas is a player both our Head Coach, Jimmy Berndtsson, and I have worked with extensively in the past years, so we know exactly what kind of a player we are getting in and outside of the game where we expect him to slot perfectly into his role on the server and the team culture.”

In the announcement on North’s official website, Lekr0 said he had no doubts about joining North, even though he was on the verge of signing for FLASHPOINT Season 1 champions MAD Lions in July.

“I am really looking forward to joining North,” said Lekr0.

“There has been a lot of rumours about me joining ‘this and that’ org, but when I started talking to North about the project and what they aim for with this team and their Nordic ambitions, I didn’t have any doubts. This is definitely the new home for me, and I am really looking forward to playing with the guys and bringing this team to the next level.”

Lekr0 will make his debut with North at the US $50,000 Nine to Five #3 CS:GO tournament, where the Danish esports organisation, alongside Heroic, MiBR and Team Spirit, received a direct invite to the playoffs.

According to recent reports the 27-year-old CS:GO veteran is on the brink of joining MAD Lions, who have set their eyes on the Swedish pro as a possible replacement for Lucas “?Bubzkji?” Andersen. The latter has been benched from the Danish roster at the end of June, following MAD Lions’ disappointing performance at cs_summit 6 Europe Regional Qualifier, where the Danes finished last after suffering a shock 0-2 loss to PACT.

Due to their failure to leave a mark at the cs_summit 6 Europe Regional Qualifier, MAD Lions are the only high-profile European CS:GO team that has yet to put up points in the European Regional Major Rankings: Rio Major 2020, effectively meaning the FLASHPOINT League Season 1 champions are likely to miss out on the upcoming $2 million ESL One Rio Major.

Benching of Bubzkji? comes off as a bit of a shock since it is very unlikely his removal from the active roster is performance-related. The 22-year-old Danish esports pro has been averaging 1.10 rating across the last three months and is holding onto an impressive 1.13 rating since joining the team, which makes him the best-performing player on the roster.

Bubzkji? also played a pivotal role in MAD Lions’ success at the inaugural season of FLASHPOINT, where he averaged 1.22 rating, which was by far the highest mark in his team and third-highest overall.

Nevertheless, the signing of Lekr0? could prove to be a massive addition to MAD Lions’ roster, since the Swede? is regarded as a highly experienced CS:GO player. Throughout his five-year-long esports career, the 27-year-old Swede played for some of the biggest teams in the scene, including Fnatic and most recently Ninjas in Pyjamas, who he led to three Majors in a row in addition to a playoffs appearance at the IEM Katowice 2019. He remained with the Swedish CS:GO juggernauts until May 2020, when he got replaced by Hampus “hampus” Poser as their new in-game leader.

According to reports, Lekr0 will not replace Asger “?AcilioN?” Larsen as MAD Lions’ new IGL, but instead return to his old role as a rifler and team up with Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand, Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand and Fredrik “roeJ” J?rgensen under the guidance of the 23-year-old Danish captain.

MAD Lions are slated to return to the battlefield in early August when they are set to compete at the DreamHack Open Summer Europe. The tournament will kick off on Saturday, August 8, and run until Sunday, August 18.

Attending the event are Complexity Gaming, forZe, Heroic, Team Spirit, OG, Endpoint and the reigning cs_summit 6 Online: Europe and DreamHack Masters Spring 2020: Europe champions BIG, who recently secured the no.1 spot in the global CS:GO rankings.

MAD Lions have also confirmed their attendance at the upcoming ESL One Cologne, which is slated to kick off on Tuesday, August 18, featuring 18 European teams vying for the largest slice of US $325,000 prize pool and 2,195 Pro Tour points.

Unlike how it was reported in June, ESL One Cologne will be split into four regional divisions (Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania), and will be played online due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which foiled the initial plans of the event being hosted on LAN.