(Photo credit: Heroic | X)

Rifler Yasin '?xfl0ud?' Koc has returned to HEROIC's active roster for the Esports World Cup with the team announcing that Andrey '?tN1R?' Tatarinovich has been sold to another organization.

xfl0ud, 22, was replaced in June for Linus 'nilo' Bergman, but now returns with HTLV reporting that tN1R is replacing Myroslav 'zont1x' Plakhotia at Spirit after the EWC.

'The truth of the situation is that it's a byproduct of Andrey leaving us. In order for us to retain our VRS points and keeping a core from the iteration of the roster pre-summer, we have to bring back either Yasin or Alvaro ('SunPayus' Garcia),' Robin Nymann, HEROIC's director of esports, told HLTV.

'That being said, Yasin is and has always been a solid player. We're happy to have him back. Tobias ('TOBIZ' Theo) had conversations with Yasin, and I with his agent, about the improvements we want to see from him in order to make his return to HEROIC as successful as possible.'

tN1R, 24, will finish the EWC with HEROIC before joining Spirit. Ironically, the teams face each other in their first match in Saudi Arabia on Aug. 20.

'Our plan didn't have us parting ways with Andrey at this point in time,' Nymann said.

'We have repeatedly declined bids for him but his contract has a buyout clause towards the team he is going to, and they've chosen to activate it, making it happen now.'

Spirit also recently replaced Boris 'magixx' Vorobiev with Ivan 'zweih' Gogin, and went on to win IEM Cologne.

HEROIC has undergone numerous recent changes. SunPayus and Eetu 'sAw' Saha went to G2 and were replaced by TOBIZ and Gleb 'gr1ks' Gazin, in addition to nilo taking the place of xfl0ud. The Norwegian team also loaned Alimzhan '?Alkaren?' Bitimbai from Spirit.

--Field Level Media