The veteran rifler will take the place of fellow Swede Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson, who will be missing due to personal reasons.

fnatic have announced that Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg will once again be donning their colors as a stand in, the 34-year-old taking the place of KRIMZ for IEM Dallas.

The announcement stated that KRIMZ was unable to attend Dallas "due to personal reasons and the limited time there is between events," but assured fans that he would be "back on the server before you know it."

f0rest acted as a stand in for fnatic for an event in 2022

f0rest has served as a stand in for fnatic once before in recent times, attending the Pinnacle Cup Championship in Lund, Sweden with the team mid-way through 2022. It was fnatic’s first event with Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi and Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen among their number, having revamped the squad in the wake of their failure to qualify for the PGL Major Antwerp.

The Pinnacle Cup Championship began well for f0rest and fnatic as they picked up a surprise win over favorites HEROIC in their first game, a tight 16-14 victory on Inferno. fnatic then crashed out of the competition after losses to BIG and HEROIC in series play, but we got a glimpse of vintage f0rest in a 1.31-rated performance against BIG on Nuke.

Read more fnatic to attend IEM Dallas instead of Virtus.pro

Of course, f0rest’s history with fnatic stretches back much farther than his prior short stint as a stand in, having represented the organization for over four years in Counter-Strike 1.6, from 2006-2010. During this time he helped fnatic win a plethora of championships and cemented himself as one of the best players in the game.

fnatic's lineup for IEM Dallas will be:

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman
Fredrik "⁠roeJ⁠" Jørgensen
Nico "⁠nicoodoz⁠" Tamjidi
Dion "⁠FASHR⁠" Derksen
Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg (stand in)

fnatic #14 Freddy 'KRIMZ' JohanssonDion 'FASHR' DerksenNico 'nicoodoz' TamjidiFredrik 'roeJ' JørgensenWilliam 'mezii' Merriman Jamie 'keita' Hall Dion 'FASHR' Derksen Age: 27 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 871 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Nico 'nicoodoz' Tamjidi Age: 22 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 867 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.61 Fredrik 'roeJ' Jørgensen Age: 29 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1036 KPR: 0.74 DPR: 0.69 BIG #16 Johannes 'tabseN' WodarzNils 'k1to' GruhneJosef 'faveN' BaumannKarim 'Krimbo' MoussaMarcel 'hyped' Köhn Fatih 'gob b' Dayik Freddy 'KRIMZ' Johansson Age: 29 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 1918 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.64 Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg Age: 34 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 2102 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.65 William 'mezii' Merriman Age: 24 Team: fnatic Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 662 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.63 HEROIC #2 Casper 'cadiaN' MøllerMartin 'stavn' LundRené 'TeSeS' MadsenRasmus 'sjuush' BeckJakob 'jabbi' Nygaard Richard 'Xizt' Landström