Just over a week ago, Pandemic was dealt a setback in their efforts to reach the top echelon of Counter-Strike teams when their newest recruit, Garett “Grt” Bambrough, left to join Canadians Evil Geniuses. The move was somewhat surprising given the Arkansas-based organization’s recent success, including a 4th place finish at the WSVG finals and winning the fourth CEVO-P season. Former member Adam “elusive” Messner was tapped to fill in temporarily while Pandemic decided on a course of action.

“After Winter CPL, we started coming up with a extensive list of prospective additions to the team,” Team President Mark Dolven said. “Garett was just a temporary solution, so we started looking immediately for our permanent fifth. The list included a ton of people and we intended to use the whole month of January to find the perfect fifth.”

That proved to be unnecessary, as today Pandemic announced the addition of Bobby “keen” Aihama to solidify their 2007 roster. Aihama was most recently seen playing with United5 at the CPL Winter Championships, and has played with numerous other teams during his well-known career.

When asked what made Aihama the choice, Dolven stated, “We ultimately chose Bobby because of the dedication he has shown in the past, but also because he is still a raw talent. Bobby has not plateaued like many of the other players we were looking at, so that was a huge incentive.”

United5’s recent addition of Kevin “aZn” Wang left the team with 6 players; Aihama stated, “Pandemic offered me a spot on their team again…and I accepted because u5 is switching to Source while Pandemic is staying 1.6. aZn was picked up to fill the spot since I was leaving.”

Many will remember that Aihama was briefly part of Pandemic in November of last year, during which time he participated at the most recent Digital Life tournament. His abrupt departure to return to United5 did not sit well with Dolven at the time.

“Bobby's decision to abandon us last year was an unfortunate one and did rub me the wrong way at the time," said Dolven. "After spending the last three weeks interviewing Bobby, I learned more about the situation that happened last year. In the end, it was a management mistake not immediately contracting Bobby before the Digital Life Event. The same mistake has not been made as we've already purchased his United 5 contract which has four months remaining. We will eventually nullify that contract and sign him to the Team Pandemic Player Agreement, but at this time prevention has already been taken to eliminate the problem from happening again.”

At a time when roster instability has plagued nearly every top US team, as well as some European squads, Dolven is committed to making this roster stick.

“After 2006, we knew that stability was the only thing that prevented us from being the number one team in the country,” he said. “With that being said, we will stick with this roster, through thick and thin for the duration of 2007.”

Pandemic's lineup for 2007 is:
Bobby “keen” Aihama
Jonny “PH33R” Schwan
Mark “Masternook” Torrez
Hoang “s0nny” Tran
Chad “daffsta” White

Pandemic also affirmed its dedication to Counter-Strike 1.6, when most major North American teams are seemingly making the transition to CS: Source for the upcoming year.

The official press release can be found on the next page.