Gentle Mates benched deLonge after eight months in charge

French organization Gentle Mates has announced that coach Eloy “deLonge” Suarez has been moved to the bench. For the 31-year-old specialist, this marks the end of another chapter with a roster he had actually been connected to much longer than his time under the club’s tag might suggest.

Formally, deLonge had been leading Gentle Mates’ CS roster for around eight months, but his history with the team’s current core started much earlier. The Spanish coach had been working with these players since January 2024, when the lineup first competed under the KOI name and later as Iberian Soul. Only afterward was the roster signed by Gentle Mates.

During that period, the team went through several important stages. Still under the KOI banner, the lineup played at the PGL Copenhagen Major, and later, as Gentle Mates, came close to qualifying for both the StarLadder Budapest Major and the upcoming IEM Cologne Major. Their chances of reaching Cologne remained alive almost until the very end of the invite race, but disappointing results at BC Game Masters and Stake Ranked Episode 1 prevented the squad from staying within the required range before the April 6 cutoff.

Commenting on his removal, deLonge thanked the team for the journey they shared and said that this period left him with vivid memories and strong emotions.

After the changes, the current Gentle Mates lineup is as follows:

• Alejandro “mopoz” Fernández-Quejo Cano

• Pere “sausol” Solsona Saumell

• David “dav1g” Granado Bermudo

• Alejandro “alex” Masanet

• Antonio “MartinezSa” Martínez Sánchez

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The organization has not yet announced who will lead the team going forward, but the move clearly shows that the club is looking for a new spark after several missed opportunities to qualify for major tournaments.