The core that made a splash at LAN2 is back here in June 2026. After a solid performance in Columbus, the team was forced to split with captain redz taking a step back to extend his families lineage. Now that he is back in the fold, the former wizards turned fAMILY turned emp turned cross faded core is ready to move forward, with just under 4 months left until the big tournament in Columbus. The roster is rounded out by Zexi, and Athn from a dead goons squad, who often showed great promised, but ultimately failed to deliver on thier personal goals over the last 18 months.

Can a retooled roster bring an up-beat string of results? I sat down with the twitterman himself, redz, to get some insight into the retooled roster going into ladder season + LAN3.

cross-faded

redz, tox, trauma, zexi, athn

The emp trio is back and ready to go, adding some impressive pieces to round out the roster. What are the expectations for the group going into ladder season + LAN3?

First and foremost, thanks for doing what you do for the community to provide entertainment and content. Whether it’s memeing cod2discussion, casting, or writing articles we all appreciate what you do. No matter how many times we say you’re reported, banned, or blocked (stupid dumb idiot bitch) As far as expectations go we’re very confident in the roster and its roles. Trauma, Tox, and myself felt the floor would be pretty high with us 3 as a core going back to LAN2 and we only felt stronger on that front this go around. I was already in talks with Zexi about potentially teaming up so while the SpawnX falling out was unfortunate, it made for an easy connection between Trauma, Tox, Zexi, and myself, we just needed to find a 5th. I asked Zexi if he could get Athn back to playing if it was this roster then he and I worked some magic and got him onboard. It only took 12 LB of freshly grated, grade A parm from Tox to get him to commit. With the roster we’ve put together, we feel playoffs are a given (shoutout GOONS), and we at the very least want to be competitive against the top teams. We wanna work and build something where if we can catch a LAN wave we can ride it to the rosters full potential.

You took some off for baby after LAN2, which ultimately disbanded EMP. Did you expect to be back with the same core a few months later?

I honestly wasn’t sure if I was going to come to LAN3 when it was announced. The newborn + gaming life was rough, and I was only playing once a week at most with WLC4. Time passed, baby is sleeping at night (praise baby jesus), and opportunities were brought forth but eventually playing with Tox and Trauma again fell in my lap. I had a string of bad luck, Trauma and Tox as well, on m80/wizards/emp trying to keep or even field 5 players at times. This time it fell into our lap and we’re grateful to be playing with friends that vibe well together that we believe we can compete with.

You add Zexi and athn to round out the roster. (With Sam coming in as the groups 6th), why them?

Adding Zexi to this core has been something that’s been in the works on our end since Season 1. He unfortunately for us remained loyal to GOONS since then but thankfully for us the meme of goons dying finally came true. We’ve always felt Tox and Zexi could work well in tandem and just in initial talks as well as our one ladder match it seems the shoe fits. Athn is someone that came to mind when we were workshopping a 5th due to the connection with Zexi, but as well as Tox and I as he’s a previous teammate of both of us, as well as years of experience together in the cod4 scene. There’s comfort, know how, personality fit for us as well as leadership qualities that I personally felt I needed help with on the IGL side of things. I know we’ll help each other fill the gaps and help make in game adjustments that are crucial to any closely contested match. On emp I ended up alone on that front a lot, and having the help on that aspect of the game was important for us to add imo. Sam was put in the shitty roles on GOONS, a player like that can fill any role when we need it and he’ll succeed when called upon. was a no brainer add as a 6th, and I suppose you can say completed the merger.

Most would consider the roles in this team pretty clear. But can we expect anything fun or a deviation on some maps? I know Tox would love the scope.

Role wise it’s pretty straight forward, you’ll likely see me as dedi shotty, and the others running around like it’s cod4 with whatever gun they want to use. Spawn based gameplay, and go prove that you’re better than the opponent. I would love to never see Tox scope again in my lifetime, I love him but this ain’t cod4 lol. Any words for the fans? To any fans of cross faded, rest assured sobriety isn’t an option, but we’re going to put the work in required to put on a show at the Game Arena in Columbus.

Any words for the fans?

To any fans of cross faded, rest assured sobriety isn’t an option, but we’re going to put the work in required to put on a show at the Game Arena in Columbus.