AZR comes out of inactivity and signs with Sprout

Sprout have taken to social media to announce the signing of 30-year-old Australian esports athlete Aaron "AZR" Ward, who has been inactive since the fall of 2022, as the new captain of their roster.

As Sprout’s IGL, Ward filled the vacancy left by Ismail "refrezh" Ali, who departed the team a few days ago. The German organization has finally found a captain after trialing several candidates, including their coach Danny "BERRY" Krüger.

AZR is most well known for his time at Renegades from 2015 to 2019. Together with him, the team established themselves as the Pacific region’s undisputed leaders and regularly took part in big tournaments. The Australians’ best achievement was advancing to the semi-finals of StarLadder Major Berlin 2019.

At the end of 2019, Renegades sold their roster to 100 Thieves, where Ward with his teammates fell short to achieve any success. A year later, 100T left the CS:GO’s competitive scene, and the AZR-led squad joined EXTREMUM, where it also failed to show significant results and was disbanded at the end of 2021. Since then, the experienced IGL has only competed at several regional events for Encore, where he was a stand-in last fall.

The first Sprout match together with the new captain will take place tomorrow, March 4, at ESL Challenger League Season 44 Europe. At 18:00 MSK the roster will play against Apeks.

 Sprout's current lineup is:

 Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr
 Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea
 Adrian "⁠XELLOW⁠" Guță
 Rasmus "Zyphon" Nordfoss
 Aaron "AZR" Ward

 Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger (coach)

Origin: twitter.com