OMEN by HP and HLTV.org are pleased to reveal the two amateur players and the talent line-up for the upcoming OMEN Challenge presented by HLTV.
Marco "hayden" Witzner, a 20-year-old player from Denmark, and Nikolas "n1k" Laiho, an 18-year-old hailing from Finland, were the two amateurs picked via a selection process led by Astralis coach Danny "zonic" Sørensen. This Friday, they will join six other players, including the best player of 2018, Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, and the StarLadder Major MVP, Nicolai "device" Reedtz, in London for the OMEN Challenge presented by HLTV, a duel-based tournament with $50,000 on offer.
Last weekend, haydenand n1khad the privilege to go through a bootcamp in Astralis' offices, where they were coached by zonic himself and other members of the Danish team's coaching staff on how to optimize their in-game performance and prepare mentally and physically for a big tournament.
Picking up where the bootcamp left off will be former Virtus.pro legend Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski and Besiktas player Julia "juliano" Kiran. The duo will make up the hype team, helping the two amateurs on the day of the tournament to prepare for the challenges that they will face.
Seven of the eight players who will be taking part in the OMEN Challenge presented by HLTV are now determined. The final professional player will be revealed on the show, which will begin at 14:30 .
The list of participants for the competition is the following:
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač
Håvard "rain" Nygaard
Marco "hayden" Witzner Nicolai "device" Reedtz
Denis "electroNic" Sharipov
Nikolas "n1k" Laiho
TBD Freya Spiers, who has hosted a number of FACEIT events, including last year's London Major, will be running the show, which will feature an augmented reality set-up to immerse viewers in the action. The highly-popular duo Anders "Anders" Blume-Jason "moses" O'Toole will be casting the duels.
You will be able follow all the action live on Friday at 14:30 on Twitch.tv/omenbyhpeurope. Check out OMEN by HP's Instagram page for a teaser about something very special that is being prepared for the tournament.
Julia 'juliano' Kiran 
Age: 25 Team: Besiktas Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 215 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.67 
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz 
Age: 24 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 1354 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.62 Astralis #2 Andreas 'Xyp9x' HøjslethPeter 'dupreeh' RasmussenLukas 'gla1ve' RossanderNicolai 'device' ReedtzEmil 'Magisk' Reif 
Besiktas 
Zainab 'zAAz' TurkieJulia 'juliano' Kiran
Meyssa 'Missa' Bellouati
Petra 'Petra' StokerAnastasia 'kr4sy' Khlobystina Anders 'Anders' Blume 
Age: 33 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.53 Maps played: 1 KPR: 0.19 DPR: 0.58 Time is adjusted to your selected timezone 
Jason 'moses' O'Toole 
Age: 32 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 0.93 Maps played: 18 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.71 Danny 'zonic' Sørensen 
Age: 33 Team: AstralisC 
Denis 'electroNic' Sharipov 
Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 782 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard 
Age: 25 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.06 Maps played: 1123 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.69 
Virtus.pro #90 Janusz 'Snax' PogorzelskiMichał 'MICHU' MüllerMichał 'snatchie' RudzkiTomasz 'phr' WójcikArek 'Vegi' Nawojski Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač 
Age: 22 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.17 Maps played: 1092 KPR: 0.81 DPR: 0.67 Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski 
Age: 31 Team: No team Rating 1.0: 1.02 Maps played: 1592 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.69 Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev 
Age: 21 Team: Natus Vincere Rating 1.0: 1.23 Maps played: 1035 KPR: 0.85 DPR: 0.66