MOUZ have opted against attending EPICENTER, the German organisation have announced.

In a brief Twitter post, the ESL One New York champions explained that they will be skipping the event due to scheduling reasons and apologised to the fans who will be in Moscow for the competition.

The announcement comes at a time when MOUZ are linked with roster changes following an early exit at StarSeries i-League Season 6. According to a report from VPEsports.com, the team are considering benching Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski and bringing Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk back into the line-up, just four months after signing the Polish star from Virtus.pro.

MOUZ' next offline event is IEM Chicago, which will run from November 6-11. Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong's side are currently at the top of the table in ECS, with a 5-1 record, while they sit in fifth place in the ESL Pro League, with five victories in eight games.

EPICENTER organisers Epic Esports Events have not yet announced a replacement for MOUZ. There are now four tournament slots to be filled, three of which will go to the wildcard qualifier. The highest-ranked team of the qualifier on October 19 will secure direct entry into the tournament, while the remaining four teams will square off for two places in the $300,000 competition.

The team list for the event currently looks as follows: