Aurora will facilitate deko's return at any time

deko has paused his playing career

Aurora announced that AWPer Denis "deko" Zhukov has been moved to the inactive list as the 23-year-old player decided to take a hiatus from professional play.

This news comes less than a week after the Russian team was eliminated from the RMR portion of the Perfect World Shanghai Major, where they posted a 1-3 record with a win over B8 but losses to Eternal Fire, Spirit, and 9 Pandas .

This AWPer has been with Aurora since November 2023, when he was transferred from 1WIN along with coach Dmitry "hooch" Bogdanov.

During his year with Aurora, deko averaged 1.15 and helped the team to wins at the Skyesports Grand Slam and Skyesports Masters, as well as runner-up at ESL Challenger Melbourne and third place at MESA Nomadic Masters Spring.

"Denis will always be an Aurora legend – we deeply appreciate the year he spent with us, despite the challenges we faced," a statement from Aurora read.

"We discussed how to reach a common consensus. Taking into account Denis's wishes and how he sees the future, we have mutually decided to freeze the contract. Denis can return to the professional stage career at any time, and we will be ready to support him."

"What about now? Denis is still a representative of our organization. Important: we do not prevent deko from participating in any entertainment tournaments. We will continue to monitor and celebrate success him as much as the team's success."

Current Aurora lineup:

• Timur "clax" Sabirov
• Viktor "Lack1" Boldyrev
• Aleksandr "KENSI" Gurkin
• Evgeny "Norwi" Ermolin
• Stepan "brain" Sivoronov (coach)
• Denis "deko" Zhukov (inactive)