Legacy player Chris "yellow" McGillivray will sit out IEM Sydney due to work commitments, it has been revealed.

The 25-year-old will be replaced by Stefan "⁠Lacore⁠" Paunovic, who was a teammate of Peter "⁠BL1TZ⁠" Athanasatos in the SIN team who finished runners-up to Legacy at the Australian Esports Masters Season 2 Finals.

The news comes as a tough blow for the Australian team, who were one of the two last-minute replacements announced by ESL for the event following the withdrawals of Natus Vincere and Space Soldiers due to visa issues.

yellow will miss the Australian event

On Twitter, Legacy Business Manager Michael "EmJaeCaer" Carmody admitted that Chris "⁠yellow⁠" McGillivray's absence "ramps up our already steep difficulty curve", but stressed that the team "plan to make the most" of the experience.

Legacy OCE have been drawn in Group A, headlined by FaZe, Cloud9 and SK. In their first match in the double-elimination group stage, they will take on Renegades.

This means that Legacy OCE will attend the event with:

Egor "⁠LONSDALE⁠" Baranov
 Hugh "⁠HUGH⁠" Anderson
 Peter "⁠BL1TZ⁠" Athanasatos
 Jay "⁠soju_j⁠" Jeong
 Stefan "⁠Lacore⁠" Paunovic (stand-in)

Its a little bittersweet, and I have been super busy and in two minds.

Unfortunately due to work commitments @yellowCSGO wont be able to play at IEM Sydney, which has his teammates and mgmt super bummed that he is missing this opportunity. Send him love, he needs it right now.

— Michael Carmody (@EmJaeCaer) April 30, 2018