PARIVISION have announced the signing of Abay "HObbit" Khassenov, with the veteran replacing Vyacheslav "slaxejezzz" Vinokurov on the active roster.
slaxejezzz is moved to the bench, with the organization looking to loan the 18-year-old to a different team.
"It is important to emphasize: we are not considering selling Slava [slaxejezzz]," Andrey Kvasnevsky, CEO of PARIVISION, said in a statement. "He remains a part of PARIVISION, and we are counting on him in the future."
HObbit joins the team after a short stand-in period during the summer, during which he helped the team place second at XSE Pro League Guangzhou.
He was replaced by Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev shortly after the tournament, but now returns alongside the Russian rifler to reunite with long-term coach Dastan "dastan" Akbayev, who spoke about HObbit at EWC.
"I even think HObbit right now is stronger than, for example, slaxejezzz," he said in Paris when asked about the decision to remove the experienced Kazakh from the roster at the time.
"But in the long term, slaxejezzz will evolve more, and we need firepower. Because if we have HObbit, me, Jame and FL1T in one team, it might be too hard."
Despite those worries, however, the team opted to add HObbit's experience and increase the team's average age to 25.2 after an unsuccessful start to the season.
PARIVISION are now:
Dzhami "Jame" Ali Vladislav "xiELO" Lysov Ivan "zweih" Gogin Evgenii "FL1T" Lebedev Abay "HObbit" Khassenov
Dastan "dastan" Akbayev (coach)
Emil "nota" Moskvitin (on loan to CYBERSHOKE) Andrey "BELCHONOKK" Yasinskiy (on loan to 1win) Vyacheslav "slaxejezzz" Vinokurov (benched)
Dzhami 'Jame' AliPast 3 months
Abay 'HObbit' KhassenovPast 3 months
Emil 'nota' MoskvitinPast 3 months
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' YasinskiyPast 3 months
Ivan 'zweih' GoginPast 3 months
Vladislav 'xiELO' LysovPast 3 months
Vyacheslav 'slaxejezzz' VinokurovPast 3 months
1win
Andrey 'BELCHONOKK' Yasinskiy
Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov
Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov
Petr 'fame' Bolyshev
Artem 'ArtFr0st' Kharitonov
Konstantin 'groove' Pikiner
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
PARIVISION
Evgenii 'FL1T' Lebedev
Dzhami 'Jame' Ali
Vladislav 'xiELO' Lysov
Ivan 'zweih' Gogin
Vyacheslav 'slaxejezzz' Vinokurov
Dastan 'dastan' Akbayev
CYBERSHOKE
Emil 'nota' Moskvitin
Daniil 'alpha' Demin
Vladislav 'H4SAN4TOR' Tuchin
Alimzhan 'Alkaren' Bitimbay
Roman 'Mokuj1n' Petrushenko
Aleksandr 'mzng' Belkin
Evgenii 'FL1T' LebedevPast 3 months