Since ROOT’s comeback some months ago they have made a very big impact on the scene, which has been ever growing over time. Not necessarily their results so far is what has made them stand out for the mass, but rather their pick-ups for their roster, which now range from established and well-decorated players to well-known e-Sports personalities and casters. Almost as per usual their latest few catches are some of the more ‘controversial’ and well-known players of the scene respectively: MajOr and ToD.

The latest and most prominent pick-up is that of French Protoss Yoan “ToD” Merlo, the Warcraft 3 legend who turned into StarCraft 2 pro. The Frenchman was mostly in the limelight during his time with fnatic, a team which he was with for almost a year after also residing with Millenium for an extended period of time in 2011. Although the Frenchman hasn’t won any premier tournaments his extended training periods in the Fnatic house in Korea have shaped him into a fierce competitor for foreigners and Koreans alike, a feat he has shown time and time again in online tournaments.
Now almost a month after leaving fnatic the Frenchman has announced that he will be joining the ROOT side, in the hope of a better team spirit and high-level training.

Yoan “ToD” Merlo’s thoughts on the move to ROOT:

I'm friend with everyone on the team, it is one the very rare team where there actually is real team spirit in my opinion and that's something i have really been missing so far playing starcraft 2. ROOT is also the only pro team run by players, CatZ and drewbie know what players want and need and understand the game better than any other team owner obviously and the community support for the team is amazing, its just a really great atmosphere.

Hopefully i can improve, and try to give custom games/ internal practice a real shot besides laddering, other than that i'm expecting to live a great adventure with my new teammates, i know we can do well if we just try !

A few days earlier ROOT also announced they picked up one of their ex-members from the first life of the organization in the form of Juan Carlos "MajOr" Tena Lopez, a more controversial character on the scene. That specific move is somewhat surprising, as the two sides terminated their cooperation the last time due to “maturity issues”.
Although his maturity has been questioned and his team history isn’t one of the most glorious ones to speak of most people do agree that MajOr is a decent competitor. He has successfully competed in MLG’s, TSL and Battle.net invitationals and has been practicing in Korea alongside the Korean clan GosI. His hopes of being picked up by an elite Korean team though have gone unanswered, and as a result he came knocking back at ROOT’s door for a second chance.

As Paulo "CatZ" Vizcarra Explained:

We were warned before Juan joined for the first time that, that it might end up being a mistake to let him in. We were told Loyalty wasn’t his thing. Inviting Juan back was hard. He is the only ROOT member to have ever left the team without hesitation with the first offer he got; we were very unhappy at the time. Though I thought Juan was immature and disloyal, we remained friends, had ups and downs here and there but I know for a fact that he is a good kind hearted person, and everyone deserves a second chance.

As soon as we remade ROOT, Juan started asking to join, I told him no about in about 5 different ocassions. He insisted, I consulted with the team, didn’t go in his favor. Not because we didn’t like him, but because of our past experience. He asked again, and again, and again. I realized he was serious, he came clean and told me beforehand “I really want to join, but to be completely clear I would like the opportunity to leave if I had the chance to join a KeSPA team, and for no other reason” I was thinking, that if anything he had matured and he was transparent with his intentions, but that wasn’t enough to join ROOT as we want our members to be as commited as possible to the team and its members. A few weeks passed and Juan asked again, this time he said “the KeSPA team.. its not gonna happen, I want to join ROOT and I want to join to stay” Juan was ready to sign with us.

I went back to the skype team chat and we discussed, with no one having objections this time after expressing I strongly wanted to give him a second chance, we unanimously decided to let Juan be a part of our family again. One of my best teachers once told me ‘History is there so that we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past’ Today, I would like to tell my teacher to shut up. Circumstances and people can change. I believe Juan is a very mature person and I consider him a friend. We at ROOT are very proud and happy to welcome him back into our house and hope that he, like the rest of us, will find a home in it to stay. Welcome, Juanito.

These moves will end the recruiting spree that ROOT has been having lately, leaving them with a bulky but well-rounded roster, consisting of big personalities, well-achieved players and up-and-coming talent to be reckoned with.

The entire ROOT Roster consists of:

CatZ
Destiny
Drewbie
Fitzyhere
MajOr
MaSa
PuCk
RotterdaM
Slush
ToD
TT1
ViBe
KiWiKaKi - Inactive
Fayth - Inactive