Swedish Counter Strike 2 powerhouse 9INE announced on Saturday via their official X (Twitter) account that they have officially signed Latvian AWP-er shield.

According to 9INE's official statement, after a month as a substitute, the club decided to officially sign shield, who was previously a free agent.

He will continue to represent the team in the NODWIN Clutch Series 4 Round of 16s and CCT Europe Series 14, both starting next week.

This transfer also officially resolves the AWP-er position vacancy that had plagued the club phzy's departure following phzy's departure from 9INE.

A month ago, phzy, who experienced a turbulent period with Wildcard in the latter half of 2025, left 9INE for the third time, joining Astralis.

During shield's time as a stand-in, 9INE achieved second place at Fragadelphia Miami, lost to FURIA in the first round of the BLAST Bounty, and finished fourth in the Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) Rio Closed Qualifier. His average rating is 1.03.

9INE's current roster is as follows:

In-Game Leader: raalz

AWP-er: shield

Rifler: kraghen

Rifler: cej0t

Rifler: bnox

Coach: BERRY

Image source: Internet / X (Twitter)