Fly becomes Avulus’ new captain but will stand in for BetBoom Team at BLAST Slam III

Avulus are gearing up for the final stretch of the competitive season by adding three new members to the team, including veteran captain Tal "Fly" Aizik.

When they formed in the second half of last year, Avulus created quite the stir in Western Europe. Despite competing in the most stacked region, the team managed to snatch qualifier places at some of the most important LANs. They registered decent results at their first LANs played together, taking a top 8 at PGL Wallachia Season 2 and a top 6 at ESL One Bangkok at the end of 2024. However, the honeymoon period seemed to have ended abruptly when the competitive season resumed in 2025.

Following a bottom two finish at DreamLeague Season 25 and a bottom four placement at PGL Wallachia Season 3, Avulus started to tinker with their roster and played the next two tournaments with trials and stand-ins. They had Alliance’s Fabian "Mo13ei" Knehr and Athanasios "dEsire" Kartsabas standing in at ESL One Raleigh 2025 earlier this month and came back home with a top 8 finish. More recently, they also had Tal "Fly" Aizik standing in for Akbar "SoNNeikO" Butaev, who ran into visa complications for PGL Wallachia Season 4.

Despite an early exit at the recently concluded PGL event, the three stand-ins have now been announced to have become full members of the squad, with SoNNeikO also stepping down from the team.

Avulus roster

Aleksey "Smiling Knight" Sviridov Fabian "Mo13ei" Knehr Andreas "Xibbe" Ragnemalm Athanasios "dEsire" Kartsabas Tal "Fly" Aizik coach: Andrey "Mag" Chipenk

Fly to stand in for BetBoom Team

While Avulus are setting sights on the two biggest objectives of the competitive year, the Esports World Cup and The International, their new captain will also be busy competing in another LAN tournament. Fly is set to play with BetBoom Team at BLAST Slam III, which starts on the 5th of May with 10 teams travelling to the BLAST studios from Copenhagen, Denmark.

He will be standing in for Vladislav "Kataomi`" Semenov at BLAST Slam III, and from there he will regroup with Avulus to fully prepare for DreamLeague Season 26, which besides a one million dollars’ prize pool it also has a hefty amount of ESL Pro Tour (EPT) points up for grabs. The EPT points are probably the most important for Avulus now, as they count towards a possible invite to the Esports World Cup.

Courtesy of their top six finish at ESL One Bangkok and top eight at ESL One Raleigh, Avulus are in eighth place on the EPT leaderboard. If they manage to maintain their position after DreamLeague Season 26, then their invitation to the Esports World Cup is guaranteed.