In November of last year, Aihama left Pandemic to re-join United5 after barely a month with the team. Two months later, he returned to the Pandemic fold in order to continue playing 1.6, and Pandemic President Mark Dolven was assured that the situation would not happen again. Today, it has: Aihama has left Pandemic once again for United5.

At issue seems to be the hot topic in eSports, DirecTV's Championship Gaming Series, and the possibilities it offers. Two press releases from Pandemic have clarified some of the details - the Counter-Strike team is participating in the CGS Eastern Regional as well as this weekend's Live Qualifier in Los Angeles; the team has picked up Sam "devour" Chamma and re-added Adam "elusive" Messner to aid in these competitions; Aihama has indeed returned to United5 to help them in the same qualifiers; and Jonny "PH33R" Schwan is not currently competing with the team.

Two days ago, it was posted by Dolven that Pandemic was currently in talks with United 5 for the re-purchasing of Aihama's contract so that he could return to his former team. Today, May 9th, it was announced that the negotiations have been finalized and Aihama is officially no longer a part of Pandemic. This marks the second time in half a year that Aihama has gone from Pandemic to u5.

Along with Aihama's departure comes the news that Schwan has also left the team. To compensate for the losses, Pandemic wasted no time in bolstering the roster for the Source qualifiers with Source players - Chamma and Messner. Messner is a well-known name to anyone who has followed Pandemic for any length of time, playing with the team on multiple occasions and filling in for a brief period last year after Aihama's initial departure. His addition is critical as he has been playing Source in the interim, and should provide a boost to the team's chances.

Chamma, on the other hand, is a new addition to the Pandemic family. He was in the news recently after leaving verGe gaming to join a new all-star team, Heroic, which was intended to compete for a spot in the CGS. Unfortunately, the team never came to fruition, and Chamma was a free agent for about a week before Pandemic came calling. Verge entered the CEVO-P playoffs as the fourth seed despite a myriad of roster problems, and shortly after the season ended, the team disbanded.

Despite the news that the team is playing in qualifiers for a Source-only event, Dolven has expressed that the team, the lone professional team to stick with 1.6, remains a 1.6 team at this time, but the door has been left open for a possible switch depending on how schedules work between summer LANs and the CGS events. The first press release stated that Pandemic is participating in the Source qualifiers "in order to have all options available to the team for 2007."

Ironically, Pandemic faced u5 in Round 3 of the Eastern Regional and lost, 10-7.

This leaves Pandemic with the following roster for the CGS Qualifier at The Bridge:

Mark "masternook" Torrez
Chad "DAFF" White
Hoang "s0nNy" Tran
Adam "elusive" Messner
Sam "Devour" Chamma

United5 now has the following roster:

Bobby "keen" Aihama
Cyrus "org" Habibi
Albert Hahn
Ben Hui
Jimmy "foogs" Koller