after fnatic cs won 2012 dreamhack summer and the swedish championships, rasmus "gux" stahl retired from "counter-strike", leaving an open spot in fnatic. on 26 june, fnatic announced that martin "trace" heldt will join the team. in august, richard "xizt" landstorm left the team to play cs:go for nip; emil "fyrr73" karlsson was announced as his replacement.