NYFU part ways with Jonaaa6 and Lear, bench mummAy and vice

NYFU have let go of Jonard "Jonaaa6" Penaflor and Dayton "Lear" Akau, while also benching Anthony "mummAy" DiPaolo and Daniel "vice" Kim.

The New York-based organization has entered a major rebuilding phase with the sidelining of four players, leaving only Chad "oderus" Miller on the active roster. The changes come after a disappointing start to the VCT 2022 season where the team finished 13th-16th in both VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Open Qualifier 1 and VCT 2022 - North America - Stage 1 - Open Qualifier 2, missing out on the NA Challengers Main Event. Otherwise, the team participated in a host of tier 2 events with varying degrees of success, most notably finishing 3rd at a stacked Pittsburgh Knights Monthly Gauntlet 2022 - February. This iteration of the lineup played its final tournament at Pittsburgh Knights Monthly Gauntlet 2022 - March, where they went out in 17th-32nd following a loss to Complexity.

It was a short stint for Jonaaa6 and Lear, who were brought in just at the start of the year. That has been the story of both their careers, either player being part of multiple teams for short periods of time. Jonaaa6 most memorably stood in for Pittsburgh Knights, while Lear had played for Knights Academy prior to joining NYFU. They now enter free agency again and it will be interesting to see their next project.

mummAy had been with the organization officially since November 2021, before which his impressive trial saw the team win NSG 2022 Winter Championship - Online Open 1. NYFU are yet to replicate that success ever since, with mummAy experimenting with controllers, duelists, and more recently with Chamber, but the team has been unable to find consistency despite his solid individual performances.

vice has been the longest standing member of the lineup, signing for the team in April last year. He came highly rated, having previously played for Cloud9, but is yet to live up to the promise with only a 1.03 rating and 197 ACS throughout his career. The American remains committed to the initiator role, having extensively played Sova, Breach, Skye, and KAY/O.

mummAy and vice will stay on the books for NYFU but are allowed to explore their options away from the team, the organization stated on Twitter. They will no doubt be fielding calls post-Masters Reykjavik as teams scramble to rebuild and qualify for the next stage of NA Challengers.

NYFU are now:

Anthony "mummAy" DiPaolo (benched) Daniel "vice" Kim (benched)

Matt "wardino" Dickens (Head Coach) Gordan "g0g1" Prošić (Assistant Coach)