Vancouver Surge are signing European Call of Duty pros Byron ‘Nastie’ Plumridge and Charlie ‘Hicksy’ Hicks to complete their roster for the Black Ops 6 Call of Duty League season.
Surge had a bit of a turbulent Modern Warfare III season, then representing the city of Seattle before a relocation and rebrand to the Canadian city.
They regularly featured among the top 6 teams, but failed to ever break past that despite high expectations for the team. After positive improvements in scrims, Surge secured just 7-8th place at Champs.
They had a solid uptick at the Esports World Cup, with a 3-4th place finish, but they fell to LA Thieves in the semi-finals.
Following that, the organization said farewell to Cuyler ‘Huke’ Garland and Paul ‘Breszy’ Breszynski, who are without a team at the time of writing.
In their place, Surge are working on acquiring the signatures of Nastie and Hicksy. Nastie was on the LA Thieves team that placed fourth at Champs and second at the Esports World Cup, though, with their rumored God-squad coming together, Nastie found himself pushed out of the team in favor of Thomas ‘Scrappy’ Ernst.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Hicksy, meanwhile, spent the year playing in Challengers following an incredibly successful rookie season in 2023 with Toronto Ultra, which saw him win a Major and place second at Champs.
He ended up being replaced by Dylan ‘Envoy’ Hannon for the 2024 season – who now looks set to be following Scrap to LA Thieves – and, despite interest from the likes of Surge and Vegas Legion during the season, was never picked up.
Kyle ‘Kremp’ Haworth has been linked with the second SMG spot on Surge, too, but it looks likely they opt for the European instead. Kremp remains an option to stay on LA Thieves if Gentle Mates end up buying out Scrap and HyDra instead.
The two EU stars will join Jovan ‘04’ Rodriguez and Jordan ‘Abuzah’ François to round out the roster, under the guidance of head coach Ray ‘Rambo’ Lussier. At the time of writing, Nastie has signed on the dotted line, while the Hicksy deal is close but not quite finalized.