After just over four months with the Fnatic Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team, AWPer Owen “smooya” Butterfield has left the team after a disappointing showing at IEM Katowice 2022. This is smooya’s fourth org in the two years since leaving BIG, and he has never stayed on any of them for more than six months.
Smooya joined Fnatic on a three-month trial in October 2021, replacing Jack “Jackinho” Ström. The British CS:GO player appeared to be a perfect match for the team at first, making an immediate impact. With a 1.22 rating, he put up excellent individual performances and helped Fnatic win a number of tournaments, notably the DreamHack Open November.
However, by the new year, smooya’s individual rating had dropped to 1.01 in 2022. Fnatic’s team results fell as well, albeit this wasn’t entirely down to smooya’s poor performance. The team beat G2 Esports to go to the IEM Katowice group stage. They were unable to advance any farther in the tournament, and were eliminated following consecutive losses to FaZe Clan and Astralis.
Smooya was benched after the poor results. He was unable to represent Fnatic in the open qualifiers for the European Regional Major Ranking (RMR). Instead, AWPer Iulian “regali” Harjău of Fnatic Rising, the Academy team, was promoted to the main roster. Smooya formed a mixed team to compete in open qualifiers after being benched, however they have failed to book a seat to the PGL Antwerp Major Europe RMR.
Since leaving BIG in early 2020, where he spent over two years, smooya has bounced around between teams like Chaos, c0ntact Gaming, Movistar Riders, and Fnatic, but is now a free agent once more.
