GotFrag- Things seemed to be going well for vitriolic.NA until Shaffer made a decision to leave the team looking for a new 5th. Many people have been wondering about this decision, will he be bringing the sponsorship to attend i38 with him, the answer is no. Shaffer recently made this post to clear up this debacle and let the community understand his reasoning.

Ok, I figured before any rumors or initial posts were made I thought it to be beneficial to go ahead and make the post myself. I have decided to leave Vitriolic and start my own team…..before anyone flames or anything please understand that I think Chewbacca/tck/frozt/dazed are all incredible players and without a doubt 1 of the best teams I’ve had the pleasure of playing on, as well as vitriolic being one of the best organizations I’ve had the honor of playing for.

The decision to leave the team is nothing more complicated than the fact that the play style they are a custom to and myself are completely different. Im more of a fast paced pick and roll kind of guy, and they are different. To be honest the way they play the game is probably better for a team anyways, it just isn’t how I have always played. So it is safe to say I have not played to my potential in the past couple weeks we have been a team so I think it is safe to say that Vitriolic is better off with someone in my place as I may be better off in another place. I really feel we were the best team in the U.S at the time and we had a small problem we had to get over to be at full potential however It wasn’t the same game for me anymore and I personally didn’t like playing it as I always have in the past, and to me that’s where I wanted to be, playing professionally but also playing for fun and with people I love to play with. This is why I have decided to go my own way in making a new team of people I know can compete at the top level and I know I can play with in the style I enjoy playing. I'm not saying we will be the best in a week, I just know that I am a competitor as is anyone who will be playing on a team with me.

As for the trip to Europe I’m sure everyone is wondering, Vitriolic will still be attending i38…there is no change in that, I have decided to leave the team, and that wouldn’t change them from heading to compete in a very great LAN opportunity. I have no doubt in my mind that the 4 guys will pickup a great fit for the team and compete for first at that event. I believe they will have the practice/dedication to ready themselves for the event and surprise a lot of non-believers. It will be a great thing for CSS in north America as well as Vitriolic for putting the risk out there to send a USA team to Europe for CSS, as it has never been done.

Lastly I would like to thank the supporters we have had through the roster changes and what not, truly some amazing people out there. I know this doesn’t look good for me to leave a Europe trip and the #1 or #2 team in north America and I’m sure I’ll hear about it =D , however It is something I felt I needed to do to be happy to play this game and at a high level hopefully everyone understands and my former teammates don’t hold a grudge as I feel they will be even better without me and a player who can full time rifle and play the position better than I did. So to wrap up this long un readable story, good luck to Vitriolic Ill be a fan in the source tv’s =D and look forward to a new roster I’ll be announcing soon =D

Since his departure with Vitriolic.NA he has followed through with his statement to bring a new roster to the table under the organization Blight Gaming. The owner of Blight Gaming , had this to say about shaffer's new team

I am happy to announce this team to our already copious list of professional teams, I hope to see this team at the top of NA very soon. At this time we aren't able to announce which lan but they will be attending a few European LANs which will be announced at a later time as well as bootcamping in an appropriate country. Shaffer's squad will also be helping us and our server sponsor in a play with pros night

Shaffer made this statement on playing under Blight Gaming, the new roster, and what lans they are planning to attend.

Well the first thing I would like to say is thanks to the management at Blight Gaming, they have been extremely helpful in this transition. I would like to explain how excited I am to be a part of a top USA gaming organization again, as I have been recently involved with a European organization for some time. I feel that myself and my team can help restore USA css to the top of the world and with Blight’s help We are both very excited to be representing Blight in the upcoming CEVO-p/ESEA-i/ESL-I Leagues this coming fall. We will be attending GXL in October as well and look forward to meeting anyone that comes out. Our lineup in its current form is:
Lloyd “shaffeR” Shaffer
Chris “deppy” DePaul
Ryan “ryaaan” Romba
Alex “Prec1sioN” Becklo
Josh “jov” Valleo
As you can see I have included 3 of our former 5 we had on stormakt when we were in ESEA-I and cevo-p , myself, ryan, and p1. We had a good thing going we just had some scheduling issues before and they have been handled to where we can devote the amount of time needed to stay on top. Deppy has been a friend of mine for a long time , we have been to many LANs together and pretty much started our CSS careers together, his experience with XFX and other top teams will solidify him as a top player in the game and there would be no reason not to include him. Jov is a somewhat of a dark horse in our lineup, not many people would recognize his name off the top of their head and think they know him, however he has been around for some time and playing with him in pugs and just 10mans around the game and getting to know him, I have found he could be a great asset to the team and will continue to grow as a player which will be very good for our team in the long run as well as right now.