Legendary Danish tactician Alexander 'ave' Holdt has announced his retirement and replacing him in mTw will be AWPer Michael 'Friis' Jørgensen, most recently of notable . ave cites wanting to focus on school as one of his motivating factors for giving up the game he has played at such a high level for so many years.

fans can get their first look at the Friis era mTw lineup in today's IEM VI Global Challenge New York Qualifier #1.

mTw's new lineup:
Danny 'zonic' Sørensen
Martin Alexander 'trace' Bang Heldt
Oliver 'minet' Ari Minet
Timm 'ArcadioN' Henriksen
Michael 'Friis' Jørgensen

ave explained at mymtw:



zonic, who has played with ave for five straight years, issued the following statement:



The new man, Friis, has this to say:





ave's history

ave has been a member of the team now known as mTw since they were known under the NoA brand and switched from being a hybrid Norwegian-Danish team to entirely Danish. Making the switch over from SoA his new team just missed out on a medal at the WCG as they placed 4th behind Finland's hoorai. In 2007 the team brought in another ex-SoA player, Sunde, and their run as an elite team began. They placed 2nd at ESWC and the WCG that year. They also made the shift to the mTw organisation at the end of the year.

2008 was the year mTw fans will cherish as their fondest memory as the team's addition of whiMp saw them go on a very memorable run, during arguably the most competitive year of CS ever, as they took down KODE5, ESWC Masters Paris, WEM and WCG that year. They added the IEM III European title in early 2009 but the team was never able to replicate that level of success from there on out as fnatic took over as the dominant force in CS. Their best results were 2nds at Dreamhack Winter and Arbalet Cup Europe, playing with a stand-in at each, anizz and ArcadioN respectively.

In 2010 the team experienced a renaissance of sorts as they once more affirmed themselves as an elite level team capable of contending for titles. Despite a nice run of 3rd at Arbalet Cup Europe 2010, 3rd at ESWC, 2nd at WCG and 2nd at Dreamhack Winter they were plagued by bracket draws which pit them against Na`Vi, who were on their own world beating run. Losses in every single series against the Ukrainians soured the year for mTw and cost them not only titles but also higher placings they arguably should/could have gotten. Prior to Dreamhack they brought in ArcadioN to take over leadership of the team from ave.

In 2011 mTw have finished 2nd at the IEM V European Championship, 3rd at the IEM V World Championship, 2nd at Xperia PLAY, 2nd at Dreamhack Summer and 4th at e-Stars Seoul.



Friis' history

Friis became known to the public as a member of the SoA lineup which also featured trace and Arcadion. In 2010 he joined Roskilde Ravens as they went on a memorable tear through the IEM IV European Finals, beating SK.swe to finish 3rd overall. Later in the year he was a member of the Full-Gaming team will infamously failed to progress from their WCG group after losses to ENTITY from macedonia and bet4gamers from Spain. They would provide their own upsets later on as they beat mTw twice and fnatic once in bo3s to finish 1st and 2nd at DSRACK and KGC.

In 2011 Friis has played for TCM, a team who has established themselves as one fo the top 10 in the world but been unable to crack those elite level sides or make themselves legitimate dark horses to place top 3 at tournaments.

Source: mymtw and HLTV.org