The American veteran will represent Wildcard in their upcoming tournament.
Wildcard have confirmed the addition of Jake "Stewie2K" Yip for the PGL Astana North American closed qualifier. The organization's announcement did not reveal any information on the length of Stewie2K's stint in the team or who he is replacing.
The change could return the team to a North American majority if Stewie2K replaces Aran "Sonic" Groesbeek, Tim "susp" Ångström, or Love "phzy" Smidebrant.
Valve's rules require teams with split-region majorities to get invited from the strongest region possible. That means a European invite would come before a North American one if Wildcard failed to stay in the top five of the Americas ranking, which is set to award a direct Stage 2 invite for the Major.
Given this is Wildcard's last event before the Major invite cut-off date on April 7, the swap would allow Wildcard to attend the North American MRQ and avoid the European tournament.
The Astana qualifier will mark Stewie2K's return to the server after his IEM Dallas stand-in stint with G2, where he helped the team claim an unlikely title despite averaging a 0.85 rating.
Wildcard have been placed in Group A and will begin their run against Daaku on Wednesday.
| Date | Matches | |
|---|---|---|
| PGL Astana 2025 North America Closed Qualifier | ||
| 28/03/2025 | Wildcard  00:00  Daaku | Match |
Wildcard #22 
Peter 'stanislaw' Jarguz
Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek
Love 'phzy' SmidebrantTim 'susp' Ångström
Josh 'JBa' Barutt 
Vincent 'vinS' Jozefiak Love 'phzy' Smidebrant 
Age: 22 Team: Wildcard Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 842 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.62 Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek 
Age: 26 Team: Wildcard Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 1289 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 Daaku Gabe 'icarus' JohnsonSimon 'nomizz' Palm Niléhn 
G2 #7 Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski
Nemanja 'huNter-' Kovač
Mario 'malbsMd' Samayoa
Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov
Nikita 'HeavyGod' Martynenko Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas Tim 'susp' Ångström 
Age: 20 Team: Wildcard Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 574 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67 Jake 'Stewie2K' Yip 
Age: 27 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 1559 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.69 (责任编辑：skinhub)
