Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield will step in for Denial in the second North American open qualifier for IEM Sydney, the former BIG player has revealed.

The 19-year-old Brit will fill the spot left vacant by Dimitri "⁠Detrony⁠" Hadjipaschali, who opted to stay with Bravado, leaving behind the team he had helped to reach the top 30 in the world ranking.

The news comes just hours after BIG confirmed that smooya had stepped down from the active roster to make way for Johannes "⁠nex⁠" Maget, who returns to activity after a period on the sidelines due to a wrist problem.

smooya will play for Denial in this weekend's qualifier

In a follow-up Twitlonger post, smooya revealed that he hopes to further his career in North America to "work on my craft and have zero distractions outside of the game."

He will become the second AWPer to stand in for the South African side after Peter "⁠ptr⁠" Gurney, who helped the team to reach the Round of 16 in the first qualifier, in which they were eliminated by TeamOne.

Denial will compete in the second qualifier, which will be held over the weekend, with:

Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek
Rhys "⁠Fadey⁠" Armstrong
Ruan "⁠ELUSIVE⁠" van Wyk
Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou
Owen "⁠smooya⁠" Butterfield (stand-in)

Rhys 'Fadey' Armstrong Age: 20 Team: Denial Rating 1.0: 0.98 Maps played: 304 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.74 Peter 'ptr' Gurney Age: 28 Team: Bad News Bears Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 712 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.62 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek Age: 20 Team: Denial Rating 1.0: 1.19 Maps played: 349 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.63 Owen 'smooya' Butterfield Age: 19 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 323 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.66 Johannes 'nex' Maget Age: 26 Team: BIG Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 929 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.66 Bravado Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali Dimitri 'Detrony' Hadjipaschali Age: 28 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 363 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65 BIG #13 Fatih 'gob b' DayikJohannes 'tabseN' WodarzTizian 'tiziaN' FeldbuschJohannes 'nex' MagetIsmailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş TeamOne #45 Bruno 'BIT' Fukuda LimaPedro 'Maluk3' CamposNicolas 'NikoM' MiozziVictor 'iDk' TorracaAlencar 'trk' Rossato Johnny 'JT' Theodosiou Age: 19 Team: Denial Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 298 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.67 Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van Wyk Age: 25 Team: Denial Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 366 KPR: 0.63 DPR: 0.63 Denial #31 Ruan 'ELUSIVE' van WykAran 'Sonic' GroesbeekRhys 'Fadey' ArmstrongJohnny 'JT' Theodosiou