Author: Nik Ranger

Sergej slams allu after former ENCE teammate claims he lacks “motivation” HLTVCSGO pro Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli sparked a bit of controversy when he discussed his teammate Jere ‘sergej’ Salo’s leaving ENCE for military service in an interview with HLTV. When Allu sat down for an interview on HLTV’s Twitch channel on Monday, December 14, he probably wasn’t expecting to set off a social media firestorm, but that’s exactly what ended up happening. Roughly 50 minutes into the interview, the topic of Sergej leaving CSGO for his compulsory military service in Finland came up, and Allu shared his thoughts on why his teammate made the choice. “In the Spring we already took a one-month break for him, to maybe get him motivation, to maybe get his things going on, and it wasn’t enough,” allu said in the interview. “He still tried and played with us for six months and really tried to make it work, really much respect.” Sergej didn’t take too kindly to this, and fired back on twitter saying people shouldn’t take everything allu said “as granted” while the interview was still going on. “I wouldn’t take everything what @alluCSGO said/says as granted. He isn’t as simple and harmless persona as it may look,” sergej wrote on Twitter. “There’s a reason he’s the only one left in the team from the original roster.” That initial tweet got, as expected, a ton of attention in the CSGO world, but the former Finnish pro said he wouldn’t be talking about it anymore as it was a “mental health thing” but promised that “old teammates can back up my tweet, though.” https://twitter.com/sergej_cs/status/1338583573570392067?s=20 Remember how we said that sergej tweeted that out during the broadcast, well the HLTV hosts decided to crank up the pressure and asked for allu’s thoughts on his former teammate’s response during the show. “I can always say, obviously I’ve made mistakes, not always been the best teammate, this is correct,” allu replied. “But what else can I say? I don’t know.” ENCE has been, from an outside perspective at least, practically falling apart at the seams over the last year, with the cutting of Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen in early 2020 sending the team into a “death spiral,” according to Richard Lewis, and this latest drama doesn’t seem to help things either. Lewis has also suggested that Sergej being willing to go and complete his service when he could get an exemption at 18 for being an esports pro, after being one of the best young players in the world “tells you all you need to know about what is going on in ENCE right now.” On the other hand, allu seemed pretty optimistic about ENCE headed forward into 2021 throughout the full interview, and, despite this last-minute drama to end the year off with, fans will still be waiting to see what the org can do with a new, hopefully stable lineup come 2021.

Seized claims Trident Clan owes $35,000 to former team as org exits CSGO WESG/Trident ClanProfessional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Denis ‘seized’ Kostin has informed Dexerto that Trident Clan, an organization that he represented until recently, owes their entire former team approximately $35,000 — including $7,000 to seized himself. The former Natus Vincere and Gambit player first claimed that he and his teammates were owed thousands of dollars on September 8. He stated that the org had stopped paying their salaries in May 2021 and told the players “completely different stories” as to why funds were being withheld. Contacted by Dexerto, seized confirmed that he and his team are still waiting to receive their money and, subsequently, provided more information regarding the claims. Trident Clan have not responded to Dexerto’s request for comment at the time of publication. The Russian player informed Dexerto that he was in direct communication with the CEO of the Russian org Trident Clan, Ruslan ‘Bobidze’ Bibulatov, throughout the claimed period of difficulty. It’s alleged that the CEO would consistently tell the players that they would receive what was owed to them within 24 hours. 7 months of training, sweat, victories and defeats — today we farewell with our CS:GO roster.@seizedwf, @guardiancsgo, Norwi, @claxiics, @trickycsgo, thanks a lot for your contribution. You gave us unforgetable emotions, big plays and friendly fans. GL in your future career. pic.twitter.com/6qqGphKIEF — TridentClan (@TridentGLHF) July 19, 2021 seized and his colleagues departed Trident Clan in July, two months after the financial trouble began. The withheld sum includes prize money for players, coaches, and managers worth an estimated $11,000, according to his original post. He told Dexerto that the team stuck it out at the organization as they believed that Bobidze was good on his word, especially due to the players holding a great relationship with him “outside of the server.” It’s claimed that the Trident CEO informed the team in July that he would have to close their CS:GO division due to a lack of funds. September 1 was supposed to be the deadline as to when the organization would pay what they allegedly owe. According to seized, their most recent communication with the CEO resulted in him promising that they would “pay as soon as they get the money.” The roster have since signed with Danish organization Team Singularity, seeing seized compete alongside CIS legend and veteran player Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács as well as Timur ‘clax’ Sabirov, Evgeny ‘Norwi’ Ermolin, and Daniil ‘d1Ledez’ Kustov.

Secret CSGO map update fuels Source 2 speculation ValveAn update to a handful of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive maps has flown under the radar of most players, but it has only fueled the Source 2 engine port fire for some. A port to Source 2 for CS:GO seems so close, yet so far away for most Counter-Strike players. After years of waiting, the game is due a facelift, especially as competitors like Valorant start to ramp up in popularity. However, as more hints keep on dropping, the hopes of players are slowly getting raised. An update on April 9 might be the biggest one yet too, as the first possible tangible changes to gameplay have been shipped to a number of maps. A compatibility update was pushed for nine of the game’s active maps — Anubis, Chlorine, Dust 2, Inferno, Mirage, Office, Overpass, Train, and Vertigo — on April 9. Only Nuke, Cache, and Agency were spared. While it’s not unusual for a few maps to be updated for demo reasons, having a bulk of maps undergo an update has perked players’ interest about a possible port to Source 2 coming soon. However, there’s a bunch of reasons to be skeptical as to whether this actually means the Source 2 update is just around the corner. With Easter happening this weekend, it could be part of changes to give the maps some festive flair, like Valve have done in the past. Also, it could just be a few minor fixes across a number of maps. Some players have noted that Chlorine, a community-made map recently introduced into the game, just received a lighting upgrade. Given the poor visibility on some of these other maps, more uniform changes could have been made. Comment byu/Isola747 from discussion inGlobalOffensive However, the hype train for what will likely be CS:GO’s biggest update in history is going full steam ahead. With leaks indicating the Source 2 engine is just a matter of weeks away from being added into Counter-Strike, there’s never been more excitement in the Counter-Strike community. Now, it’s just a waiting game to see if it all comes true.

Sean Gares mocks new CSGO models at ECS Season 8 Finals CS:GO analyst and former pro Sean Gares took aim at the game’s new character model skins during the ECS Season 8 Finals. As part of Operation Shattered Web, the latest major content update for CS:GO, Valve introduced the ability for players to change the default look of their character model in the game. While on the surface this might seem like a harmless cosmetic option, in practice players have discovered that it can cause issues due to some looks blending in which the background or features of certain maps, effectively ‘camouflaging’ them and making it harder for opponents to identify targets. As a result, the new feature has not been entirely popular with competitive players, with several pros criticizing the change. During an analyst desk segment at the ECS Season 8 Finals, Sean Gares also took the opportunity to fire some shots at the new skins. As the camera switched to show the analysts, Sean Gares’ chair was empty. “I put on my new skin right here,” he explained, “Oh, I have the camo skin on. Can you not see me?” Fortunately for the players at the event, some organizers – including ECS organizers FACEIT – have banned the use of the new skins, a move that appears to have been made in cooperation with the CS Professional Players’ Association. Valve have yet to respond to the criticism of the new models. While it seems unlikely that they will reverse the option altogether, it remains possible that they may look to adjust the more problematic skins to improve visibility. According to map maker FMPONE – creator of Cache – however, allowing custom skins is inherently “game breaking”. He states that map designers choose specific models to be used on their maps in order to provide a clear contrast, and it seems possible that any ability to change character skins could cause visibility issues in certain locations.

sdy to remain with NAVI CSGO team through IEM Rio Major Adela Sznajder/ESL Gaming via ESPATNAVI have announced that Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev will be part of the team at least until the end of the current CS:GO Major cycle. The news brings an end to speculation about NAVI’s fifth player for the new tournament season, which begins on August 19 with the BLAST Premier Fall Groups. The announcement was made by NAVI coach Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy in a video posted on the organization’s YouTube channel. “We’ve had some pretty good results with sdy,” B1ad3 said. “That’s why we decided it makes sense to keep going with him as a stand-in, giving him a chance to prove himself even more since he’s making a lot of mistakes and he’s not fully comfortable in the game. “The idea is to make him reveal more of his potential and get comfortable. We’ll see how he does going forward.” Helping NAVI sdy stepped in for Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhaylov in the season’s final leg after the Russian player was removed from the team due to what NAVI described as “high reputational risks for the club”. With sdy as a stand-in and Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov as the new in-game leader, NAVI won the BLAST Premier Spring Final and finished second to FaZe at IEM Cologne 2022. sdy has not exactly been a standout performer, as his 0.98 HLTV rating shows, but NAVI have decided to give the Ukrainian player more time, confident that they will still be able to contend for titles in the new season. NAVI will play their first match of the season on August 20 against Complexity in the opening round of Group B, which also includes G2 Esports and Team Liquid. NAVI CS:GO roster: Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev – Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov – Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy – Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy – Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev –

sdy leaves NAVI CSGO roster as 17-year-old npl moves to starting lineup Adela Sznajder/ESL Gaming via ESPATViktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev has confirmed his departure from Natus Vincere, the organization the Ukrainian joined on a temporary basis to replace Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhaylov. sdy, also known as ‘somedieyoung’, was somewhat of a surprise addition to the Major winning lineup when it was announced in June. Boombl4 had led NAVI to their first Major victory at PGL Stockholm, but was forced to leave in rather acrimonious circumstances due to controversy regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and comments made by his wife on social media. As Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov moved to the IGL role, sdy came in as another support player, and had some standout performances. Mostly though, his stats reverted to the mean, and while he was mostly dependable, he lacked a superstar edge NAVI may be looking for long term. “The experience that I’ve got from this time together is unbelievable,” sdy said in a statement on Twitter. “I would have never imagined how fast I could learn in and out of the game. I now understand and have proper vision on how things should work as well as the best ways to make a great team.” NAVI said, “We wish sdy luck in his future career and thank him for his professionalism, personal qualities, and spectacular rounds.” The organization also confirmed that Andrii ‘npl’ Kukharskyi, who has already featured for the team in some maps at the BLAST Premier World Final, has been promoted to a full-time main roster player, and will play IEM Katowice 2023 as his first full event with the team. sdy has confirmed he is now looking for a new team, and has no buyout as his contract with NAVI has expired. “I’m highly motivated. I can travel to bootcamps and tournaments, there’s no problem with that.” The full NAVI CSGO roster is now: Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev – Valerii ‘b1t’ Vakhovskyi – Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov – Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy – Andrii ‘npl’ Kukharskyi – Andrii ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskyi (coach) – Alexander ‘LK-» Lemeshev (manager) – Check out our list of the best CS:GO players of 2022 here.

Scrutinizing the ESIC “whistleblower”: More wild claims and ESIC’s response Stephanie Lindgren/ESL Gaming via ESPAT & ESICAleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov continues to throw out wild accusations in his chats with Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large, Richard Lewis, who gets ESIC’s perspective on the work of the self-proclaimed whistleblower. You can read Part 1 of this article series, ‘The first contact’, here. Part 2, ‘Going down the rabbit hole’, can be found here. Part 3, ‘It’s a wonderful life’, can be found here. Following public allegations made by the self-styled “ESIC whistleblower” Aleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov about their player Igor “w0nderful” Zhdanov, Team Spirit posted a statement that they would be cooperating with an ESIC investigation into the matter and conducting one of their own. They were also sure to thank Yarabeu for his “assistance,” which as far as I could tell was publicly smearing the player and threatening to publicly release more “evidence” if they didn’t take him seriously. The Major in Rio came and went, yet there have been no follow-ups from any party involved, and one has to assume it will end up in the same pile of dead ends other such investigations have landed. Yarabeu’s scattershot approach to his allegations has simultaneously had a broad reach but limited potency. Just weeks after they were made, they have mostly been forgotten, and ESIC’s current credibility crisis with the community following a number of humiliating climb-downs over previously issued bans won’t help either. Despite this, I am told Yarabeu is still plugging away in the background, reaching out to organizations to inform them of their players’ transgressions and continuing to make a number of outlandish claims. I can’t say I am surprised. After all, the final interview session that we conducted saw him descend into a kind of madness, making a number of allegations towards me as he became increasingly frustrated at my requests to see the evidence behind his claims. What he did share wasn’t, in my opinion at least, enough to sanction someone with a potential lifetime ban. Indeed, I doubted it was enough to even convict someone in the court of public opinion. Some second-hand testimony and a few out-of-context screenshots would make for a good starting point. But for him, it was the final destination, irrefutable proof that had to be acted on at his behest. Further complicating things was the fact that he himself had participated in a number of match-fixing activities over the years and even went so far as to claim he himself had induced some of the players he was now publicly accusing. That alone would be grounds for recusal in his role at ESIC but now he was trying to continue that “work” without guardrails or oversight. For who or what ends wasn’t initially clear but would come into focus later. “Let’s try it another way: To you, what [constitutes] proof of guilt of a player?” he asked again during one of the many times I explained that I felt his evidence was insufficient. “After all, we have different standards, I think like a person from the police, and you as a journalist, I understand that in my context a person from the police sounds ridiculous, so you can say a jailed specialist but somehow or other, I still somehow got into ESIC and for three months no one touched me, apparently my work is all satisfactory?” Of course, the limited amount of work he had done at ESIC, details of which he had shared with me in our initial email exchange, had yet to bear fruit. It seemed to me his expectations were unrealistic in that he had turned up on day one with a number of claims about corrupt activity in multiple esports titles and he expected ESIC to simply act upon them. If he had known anything about ESIC at all before he took the job he would have known that their investigations take an eternity in esports terms. Another allegation he kept floating around was that ESIC was somehow involved in some financial irregularities as he couldn’t understand where they got the money from to pay him. “For starters, ask yourself a question: With what money did they pay my salary, and how much do employees older than me make? I think the salary of $100k + a year without any activity is already strange, no? At a nonprofit company? A video editor’s salary of $60,000 odd, too, no? Where is he? [Are there] any videos?” One thing we can agree on is that while there’s no indication of any irregularities or impropriety on ESIC’s part, its finances haven’t been as transparent as expected. It has publicly been suggested by several esports figures that they are ducking out on their responsibility to publish their annual financial statements as a non-profit organization. Naturally, this would clear up any confusion about the salaries Yarabeu was talking about. I again reiterated that while I was happy to look into these things, I would need to see some proof of the existence of the phantom video editor before making any allegations of the “fraud” he had publicly spoken of. ”You look like someone who either doesn’t want to get honest or someone who represents ESIC. I always wondered which employee is on a video editor’s salary for $60k a year, given that ESIC has no video.” I asked him if he was accusing me of being on ESIC’s payroll. “Where did I say that? You can use my words however you want, but so far you are a man – who defends a tired system that is not only useless but also encourages all kinds of fraud. “Just like ESIC.” This exchange is essentially all you need to know about Yarabeu – and by extension, his allegations. If you scrutinize his claims, even just to a basic degree, then he will accuse you of being part of the same sprawling conspiracy he, and only he, is going up against. He had made a number of swipes at my integrity during the course of the conversation but I had put up with it as I did expect somewhere down the line he would eventually show me something worthwhile. In the interests of full disclosure, I have, of course, never taken a penny from ESIC. The totality of my involvement with them goes something like this… I met their founder, Ian Smith, in 2016 during the MLG Columbus Major and discussed the ESIC project, which I felt would be a very welcome addition to the existing esports infrastructure. In July of that same year, I had Ian come on the 14th episode of my podcast during which no money changed hands. I would then periodically send across tips about match-fixing activity and suspicious betting patterns, based on things my sources would share with me, all free of charge, of course. In 2018, I spoke at their annual general meeting, something publicly disclosed and I even published the speech at the now-defunct VP Esports, which you can still read via archive. Again, this was done for free, although if I recall correctly I was bought a double Johnnie Walker Black by an ESIC employee. I was scheduled to speak at their Global Esports Summit in April this year but caught Covid and had to withdraw. This again would have been done free of charge. So no, I am certainly not a secret off-the-books employee for ESIC raking in an additional $60,000 a year for the purposes of promoting them. Indeed, if that were the case, it’d be the worst money ESIC had ever spent since as I have been repeatedly critical of them both in writing and on various podcast appearances. But facts don’t seem to matter much to Yarabeu and unfortunately for him, that’s a problem when you want the world to believe you about serious allegations you supposedly have intimate knowledge of. With him, it’s not so much a boy crying wolf as it is him telling you to your face that you are the wolf and then spending several hours telling you he can definitely prove your lupine heritage before changing the subject. None of which is to say I don’t believe him on a number of his claims, but two things became increasingly clear. First and foremost, anyone who listened to this guy was going to have to sift through a river of shit just to fish out the occasional nugget of truth; and secondly, he wanted all the public credit for any findings those nuggets led to. I believe that the last part was why he was so reluctant to provide specifics. He genuinely feared I would write a story that didn’t mention him. I certainly couldn’t doubt his commitment to being the center of attention at least. This was someone who walked away from a six-figure salary as we hurtle towards a recession because he would have had to do the work in the shadows. His other allegation about ESIC was that they had made him demand money from a partner to conduct an investigation. “When I’m doing an investigation and they call me up and say, ‘Are you stupid? Are you doing it for free? Contact the company and ask for money.’ Do you think it’s OK?” I told him, again, I would need to know more details before passing a judgment but acknowledged that as he worded it that it sounded strange. Not good enough. In fact, no kind of pushback was. Every time he made a claim that I challenged he simply said it was proof that I was biased towards ESIC, even though I had spent hours and hours trying to assist him in substantiating his claims in a way that was fit for publication. “If you and I go online with this same dialogue, no one in the world would appreciate you as an independent [party]. You ignore any issue with ESIC and defend them in any aspect. After all, I am not a stupid person. You say they are unproductive in spite of their funding and that’s fine. Mistakes with coaches are normal. The lack of investigations is normal, even now you say they are doing them.” The conversation devolved and became unproductive. With the exception of one more claim he had made, one about a vulnerability within the game CS:GO that only he and a handful of others knew about, there wasn’t much more of value exchanged. Even that ended with him demanding I give up one of my direct contacts with Valve as he refused to share any specifics with me. I steered the conversation back to his allegations about the Team Spirit player w0nderful and asked if he would at least share with me what he was going to show them so I could write up the story ahead of time and release it after they had published their statement on the matter. “Well, of course, you want news, but I want honesty in esports, so I’m waiting for a reaction from the management of Spirit, and I don’t give it to you for a public execution, I can publicly execute myself.” Now I might be many things, but one thing you can never accuse me of is being unthorough. Even though our conversation had descended into him refusing to share anything with me as he felt I had revealed myself to be an agent of ESIC, I felt it was still important to treat his allegations about them and me the same as any other. I reached out to the head of ESIC, Ian Smith, to address each of the specific claims he had made in public and to me in our supposedly private conversations. As anyone who has tried to report on ESIC knows, Smith is quite a hard person to get hold of, but I was able to catch him on an off day and leave him details of what was being claimed by Yarabeu. In response, he sent me a dictated message that I shall publish in its entirety. “Before getting into specifics, I can give some brief background about his [Yarabeu’s] hiring. We only got the budget to hire an Investigations Manager for the first time this year. As you know, resourcing has always been an issue and we struggled to find a suitable candidate. When Yarabeu came along I could see obviously that there were significant issues, but he also brought a lot to the table in terms of knowledge and understanding of betting practices and he had a decent level of insight into particularly the Eastern European Counter-Strike and Dota scenes, including where match-fixing, cheating and corruption were concerned. I felt that with a bit of structure and management he could be very helpful to us. For those first three months of his probationary period, I was supervising him and I don’t think I was doing the greatest job of this because obviously I have a ton of other responsibilities and there were a few language difficulties, even though his English is pretty good. Judging what he has subsequently said in public it is clear he misunderstood a hell of a lot of what I was saying and I possibly misunderstood some of what he was saying. “The main issue was that while he had a lot of raw data and insight, he had no idea how to structure this in a legally compliant and acceptable way, and this is where the real problem came. He was making endless allegations and jumping from matter to matter to matter, and I was trying to create some order out of that and in particular saying, ‘Can we prove it?’ Obviously, it’s no good saying some bloke in Odessa told me a team is fixing. Even where the betting evidence we had indicated that it was true… That’s a hell of a long way from being able to prosecute somebody because you have got to have evidence and we need it in a certain format so we can issue a notice of charge that is compliant with our code. “This is why for any hire we impose a strict probationary period but also why at the end of that period, when I realized I wasn’t getting the best out of him, I handed over management of him to someone else in the Australian office. They had more experience on the legal compliance side and also had the capacity I didn’t have because of my other duties. I thought that would be a great solution, to move his role more from being an Investigations Manager to more like an informant role, where we could point him in the right direction and then take whatever evidence he produced and handle it more professionally. “For whatever reason, he was massively resistant to that and neither I nor anyone else could persuade him that it was in his interests and ESIC’s interests that he worked in a different way. He just would not. I then didn’t hear from him for ten days, partially I assume because I was off sick but also partially because he was planning to do what he did. “I think a large amount of what he wrote is just garbage and I will address some of your questions specifically. I think it arises from the language difficulties and the basic misunderstandings between us although where he got some of this stuff from I honestly don’t know. Honestly, I just find it really, really sad. Not just because of his reaction at the end and turning us but also if he’d been able to accept supervision in the way in which we were structuring it he could have had a helpful career with us. So I’m sad because we’re not just back to square one with the recruitment issue; in fact, we’re a few squares behind square one because he has left us with a ton of unstructured information that is now quite difficult to dig into. “I have no idea what he is talking about with a $60k Video Editor role. We’ve never had any such role or any such budget or any such need. What would he be editing? So I don’t know what he’s referring to there. I tried to have a think, but obviously, we have my Operations Assistant and then Yarabeu was our only other full-time employee [with the exception of the founders] because we have never had the budget to have anything other than that. So, sorry, but I’m drawing an absolute blank on that one. I wish we had an additional $60k. “With regards to his claims that he was told to stop an investigation until he went and asked for money, it is a misunderstanding but one I understand where he got it from. In this particular instance, there was an investigation that was not for a member of ESIC but for a betting company that was not a member. The basis on which we agreed to complete that investigation or to at least help where we could with it was that they would pay for that investigation because it related directly to something on which they had a reputational as well as a financial exposure. So there are two elements, the first being we made it clear that we would not do the work unless they paid for the work because they were not a member of ESIC and had never paid us a cent but wanted our help with this matter. The second was that we discussed having anyone involved in unethical practices enter a program of rehabilitation, supervised by certain law enforcement communities, that would take place over a period of time. We had these talks with them with a view to them becoming members of ESIC because currently, they could not become a member as they couldn’t comply with our due diligence process. Yarabeu is likely to have overheard those conversations between me and an exec at that company, which had nothing to do with his investigation, but were about the politics and legality of betting operators within certain jurisdictions becoming members of ESIC over time because it simply wasn’t possible now. So with respect to his allegation, I did tell him not to do any work on that particular investigation because it was for a non-member that needed to pay us to do it. It is not true of any other investigation as those were special circumstances. I can forgive his misunderstanding there. “As to his claim that there were no investigations taking place before his appointment: Well that is of course absolutely ludicrous. Not only are there a number of investigations ongoing at the moment but there are a number of investigations that I am involved in that he wasn’t and he knows nothing about because it was too late to bring him into those and he didn’t have any value to add to them. I don’t know why he would have thought that this was the case. He was doing a review with my Operations Assistant of old unusual and suspicious betting alerts to determine whether or not there was to be an investigation carried out because as I’m sure you know we have a massive backlog of those and I haven’t had a chance to review our database with a view to determining what can and can’t be closed, what needs to remain open and what should be prioritized because we get a hell of a lot of these.” That was that then. A lot of work, a lot of wasted time and Yarabeu’s 15 minutes of fame had drawn to a close. So far not a single one of his allegations has led to any punitive measures and the general consensus among those accused is that he is something of a kook. He would reward me by repeating his public accusations that I was a clandestine ESIC employee and publishing the burner phone number I spoke to him from, a minor inconvenience but one that could have had some serious implications had I not taken precautions. I had come into this expecting to come away with at least one story of merit. Instead, the story is one asking how someone like this ever end up working at ESIC in the first place. I found Yarabeu to be an interesting figure not because he was an insider or a whistleblower but mostly because he was someone that had a genuine chance to do some good for esports in a role many would be envious of but instead threw that away for clout. Why, then, had writing this final installment been so slow given that ultimately there was little to talk about? Oh, you’re asking the same question my bosses do. Well, just when I thought it had run its course I received a message from one of the players that he had publicly accused of match-fixing. They asked about my interactions with Yarabeu, which as you’ll now know were mostly ridiculous, and what I had made of him. I was candid and then asked why he wanted to know. He told me that his organization had been approached by Yarabeu, or as he called him “the ESIC guy”, and that he had said he had proof of some of their players fixing matches. “We offered to help him investigate,” they said, “but since he didn’t want to do anything for free, we said that if we have evidence to ban our player we could pay, but the evidence he gave is not enough in general to do something to the player…We didn’t pay him and now he says we will not get any invites [to tournaments]. Would you like to help open this situation publicly and show who this person is?” Oh, go on then.

Scrutinizing the ESIC “whistleblower”: It’s a wonderful life ValveAs Richard Lewis, Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large, tries to get more information from Aleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov, he takes a look at the match-fixing allegations levied against Team Spirit’s Igor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov. You can read Part 1 of this article series, ‘Scrutinizing the ESIC “whistleblower”: The first contact’, here. Part 2, ‘Scrutinizing the ESIC “whistleblower”: Going down the rabbit hole’, can be found here. Seventeen-year-old w0nderful has had an incredible rise in his professional CS:GO career. A sniper by trade, he had the unenviable task of filling the shoes of Team Spirit’s star player Abdul ‘degster’ Gasanov, who departed after not wishing to relocate to the organization’s home base of Serbia. The opportunity only presented itself after HellRaisers, also adapting to the shifting landscape caused by the conflict in Ukraine, made their entire squad available for transfer. While things haven’t been great for Team Spirit, who were coming off an incredible semi-final finish at the Major in Antwerp, w0nderful has certainly had a number of standout performances that show, even at his young age, he is ready to compete at the highest level. This is something he is set to do in about two weeks’ time, when Team Spirit will compete at the second Major of the year, in Rio de Janeiro. As it happens, though, he will not be traveling to his first Major with a clear head. His name was one of the many put out into the public domain by an ex-ESIC employee who framed himself as a whistleblower. Aleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov spent only three months at ESIC before he allegedly became so disgusted at them and their inactivity that he felt compelled to release a bunch of names of players he says are guilty of match-fixing, primarily from Ukraine and Russian teams. However, since he did so, no real evidence has been forthcoming, and the allegations seem to have only made things worse. I spent several conversations trying to get Yarabeu to provide anything solid to corroborate his allegations so I could investigate and publish any of his claims that had substance. There was only one that even came close to meeting that standard. “I am the owner of MAJESTY (a team w0nderful played for briefly in 2020) and I paid for match-fixing. He [w0nderful] was my player. I sent him the money and I have another player who will confirm it.” This was the specific claim made to me in private by Yarabeu and the one in which he seemed the most invested. The conversation was a confusing back and forth as this seemed to be a starting point for his allegations rather than a destination. From what I could glean, he claimed to have been an off-the-books owner of a small Ukrainian esports organization called MAJESTY. In August of 2020, they acquired a squad that comprised w0nderful and Volodymyr ‘Woro2k’ Veletnyuk, both of whom he has publicly accused of fixing matches, as well as Evhen ‘j3kie’ Serhachev of the now-infamous Akuma team, which he also publicly accused of cheating. During this time, Yarabeu insisted that he paid money to the players to engage in fixed matches. Then coincidentally in 2022, when Yarabeu became an investigator at ESIC, he claims he was contacted by Team Spirit, who sent him evidence of w0nderful being potentially involved in match-fixing, seemingly from the time he competed on the MAJESTY roster. Yarabeu says that in his capacity as an ESIC investigator, he attempted to negotiate a deal whereby w0nderful testified about his involvement in exchange for immunity. Yarabeu said that this deal was reneged upon, infuriating him because he himself obviously had knowledge of the fix from his own involvement in it. When he got around to interviewing w0nderful, he said he made a four-hour recording of the conversation (which he initially offered to share with me but then didn’t) where the player allegedly made a number of mistakes and contradictions that prove his guilt. Yarabeu then supposedly spoke with another player who agreed to testify against the other players, including w0nderful, although he said he wouldn’t reveal who that was out of fear for that individual’s safety. “… The problem is that I’m worried about this man’s safety, because if he appears in your article in the wrong light, he may be threatened or worse, yet this man is willing to confess and suffer any punishment, but not a public hanging,” Yarabeu said. I then asked if he would share the information about this testimony with me, so I could write it up in advance as opposed to reacting to it, should anything be made public, but he refused. In fact, gaining any details I could use to investigate further was like pulling teeth. I pressed him very hard for evidence and, most likely due to the language barrier, there was some confusion about the details. He shared with me two screenshots of payments he said were made from the MAJESTY manager, Alexander Shyshko, to w0nderful. One was for approximately $350 on 10 December 2020 and the other for $400 on 18 January 2021. The screenshots were heavily cropped, and it wasn’t immediately clear who was being sent the money nor via which platform it was sent. Yarabeu refused to tell me specifically which matches MAJESTY had supposedly fixed, but he did say that they were “mostly ESEA” and a “second tournament I will not name until the reaction of Spirit’s management.” According to the team’s Liquipedia page and Twitter, they disbanded on 2 December 2020, a day after losing the finals of ESEA Season 35’s Open Division. This detail alone makes relating these payments directly to matches difficult. “I will be in touch with the management of the company [Team Spirit] on Monday [24 October 2022], “Yarabey said. “I ask you to wait with your material until their official statement on the situation because they want to understand how involved the player was, look at all the evidence and make a decision.” I spoke with a source at Team Spirit to try and confirm any of these details, and while they wouldn’t go on record about it, they did acknowledge that the organization had contacted ESIC in regards to some concerns they had about their newly recruited player. I asked ESIC and they simply told me that they do not comment on any potential ongoing investigations. There were still parts of this I couldn’t understand. For instance, if Yarabeu had indeed paid the players to fix matches, wouldn’t he have additional financial records that corroborated this fact? What are the odds of one of the first investigations that come across his desk being that of a player he himself claimed to have paid to fix matches? Why, if indeed such a deal had been agreed, would a 17-year-old player with a whole career ahead of him refuse to take a pretty generous deal to testify that he and some of his teammates threw matches? But the question that nagged at me most over the course of our interviews was why someone who claimed to want to catch match-fixers would be so aggressively against sharing any information or evidence. For example, when I asked which player was going to testify against w0nderful, something I think perfectly reasonable to ask, he said: “This question seems a little strange. Do you want to prepare a defense for him?” I explained that by knowing this I could then have my copy written in advance so we could publish in a timely fashion. “If you want a finished story, I think you’ll get it on Monday.” I then asked if he was able to prove any kind of ownership of the MAJESTY organization. “Funny question really, how long have you been following the competition [sic] scene? Not trying to offend or insult you, but have you seen team owners publicly in 2020? How often do you see team owners in public at all? I have a contract for my manager written out by a player to let him out of the country with him, this is the only confirmation I have, and it is written on [sic] the manager.” I asked if he could tell me which specific matches MAJESTY had fixed. “Yes, of course, I can even find them, but do you want to blame all the players? You’ll hurt innocent people that way. I told you, mostly ESEA, the second tournament I will not name until the reaction of Spirit’s management. It is one thing when a player admits and confesses, and another when he denies and tries to deceive everyone around him.” I ignored the very obvious contradiction about hurting innocent people following his podcast appearance and asked if he’d had any interactions with the players directly. “And why should I interact with them if I have a manager? Every team has a manager, and it’s his job to solve questions and do everything to make me ask fewer of them. Over me there was a man from China who fully paid the salaries and we decided what match to lose (most often him) specifically with Majesty we did ESEA, but there was also another tournament, which I will leave for now in order to save information to the management of Team Spirit, because if they want to protect the player, I will make it public.” He’d already criticized me for not asking for details about the system and setup he claimed to have, so that followed next. He told me that for all participants in fixed matches, each player received about $2,200 due to the fact they were able to get good limits at two undisclosed sportsbooks. He placed the bets in Europe and his Chinese associate in China. The $2,200 for each player represented half of the net profit. He told me that the Chinese associate was well known and had even supposedly been outed publicly by former Virtus.pro CEO Sergey Glamazda after they allegedly refused to accept money from him to fix a game. He also explained that match-fixing is only something that happens because salaries are low. He explained that at MAJESTY, players made $200 a month in salary and that many big organizations with more resources were paying similar amounts. “A cashier makes $500 and a CS:GO player only $200. What a joke.” I tried to steer us back to the topic of w0nderful. Out of all the claims Yarabeu had made, this was the one I felt was closest to a breakthrough. It was clear to me already, and it would be confirmed so later, that what Yarabeu wanted more than catching match-fixers was to be credited for doing so. He repeatedly made offhand comments about me either being in ESIC’s pockets or being a journalist that was looking to cut him out of the story entirely. At one point during our final conversation, which went completely off the rails, he said, ‘You are either making fun of me or do not understand that this is my work and no one will continue it without me.’ We’d not really talked much about motivations so I asked if he was angry with w0nderful. “I told you, I initiated an opportunity for him to get immunity from ESIC in exchange for testimony against everyone in the system. He agreed but then lied and said he didn’t know anything. Why should I be mad at him?” I responded that maybe, because w0nderful had refused to accept the deal and denied the story, he felt his time had been wasted. “I don’t think any of my time may have been wasted, I am disappointed that he gave up the opportunity to defend himself publicly and move to the side of justice. Why do you think he refused? I still don’t understand.” I said there could be a number of reasons and explained that immunity sounds good on paper but the chances are, if he was guilty, he would still be dropped. And if Valve were aware of it, they couldn’t make an exception in his case and he’d have to be banned from their events for life. Maybe there was an argument that could be made around him being 15 but it’s a hell of a risk to place a budding career on. “His testimony could make a big difference in the scene, the organization was just as aware and promised to help the player in any matter, even protecting the family… I believe he would have gotten proper protection, and now he’s on the precipice of losing his entire career.” I tried again to get him to give me some more details but we went around in the same circle. Monday has since come and gone and I’ve heard nothing from Team Spirit or ESIC, and it’s clear Yarabeu won’t be talking to me again any time soon. As you’ll see, our conversation degenerated into him essentially accusing me of secretly taking $60,000 a year from ESIC to cover up any of their errors. One of his colleagues has since been in touch making the vague threat that we will soon have “a dialogue”. Whatever that means. In short, the w0nderful allegations remain in limbo, and it’s not clear whether the evidence, if indeed there is any, will be enough to warrant action. He claimed he would make everything he had public but it begs the question: Why hasn’t he done that already if, as he says, he’s on a crusade to catch match-fixers? I know a little bit about that myself but also know that without proof, except in the most glaringly obvious of circumstances, you have to leave the allegations on the shelf. He didn’t see it that way. He repeatedly told me that my standards were too high and that’s why I would never catch anyone. Yet doing things his way hasn’t achieved much either, from what I can tell. If no action is forthcoming towards w0nderful or any of the other players he has accused, days from a Major, then the damage isn’t just reputational.

Scrutinizing the ESIC “whistleblower”: From savior to blackmailer Helena Kristiansson/ESL Gaming via ESPAT & ESICIn the final chapter of the article series about the wild story of Aleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov, Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large, Richard Lewis, speaks with a team that was allegedly blackmailed by the self-proclaimed whistleblower. You can read Part 1 of this article series, ‘The first contact’, here. Part 2, ‘Going down the rabbit hole’, can be found here. Part 3, ‘It’s a wonderful life’, can be found here. Part 4, More wild claims and ESIC’s response, can be found here. It’s 2023 and we should probably accept that any notion of integrity, competitive or otherwise, in CS:GO is an oil-pipe dream. We start the year with a calendar predominantly funded by a combination of oil money, war criminals, and despotic regimes, with a side helping of functional Ponzi schemes. Tournament operators ignore their own rules to benefit their partners, multi-gaming organizations ignore their own values to benefit their bank accounts, and developers spend more time worrying about penalizing those that would bruise their egos than those that would cause harm to their subordinates. For a brief period, we had a group in the form of ESIC that was at least trying to introduce the alien concept of accountability into an industry where lying and stealing are rewarded, and where failing upwards is all but guaranteed if you are fluent in American corporate bullshit. Their reputation is now mostly in tatters through a combination of constant attacks on their legitimacy and their own incompetence. The general consensus now among the rubes that make up the bulk of the esports audience is that it’d be better if they didn’t exist at all. All of this is why I spent so long conversing with and writing about someone I’d have no qualms about labeling a lunatic. A man so briefly employed by ESIC that to call him a former employee is only correct in a technical sense, Aleksey ‘Yarabeu’ Kurlov spent the weeks after his acrimonious split shouting suspicions, half-truths, and full-out delusions into any microphone placed in front of him. And even though he accused me of being embroiled in one of the many conspiracies he spoke of, I couldn’t help but want to write about him anyway. The story was one I could completely empathize with. A former match-fixer who wanted to join the “good guys” and catch the people doing the exact thing he claimed to have gotten away with for years only to then be driven insane by the knowledge that the evidentiary standard required to actually punish people was so high it was almost unreachable… Well, how could you not appreciate that? His breakdown was textbook Lovecraft. He had gazed long into the abyss, seen the formless and nameless atrocities within, and then realized in his final moments he was powerless to do anything except shriek and jibber at people who thought him mad. As a story, it was the kind I thought had value with many lessons to be learned from it. There’s the insight it gives us into ESIC’s hiring policies begging the question of how someone like this could end up in the center of a hotbed of sensitive information. There’s the broader discussion about what we can do about match-fixers when the developments in technology over the last few years mean you can only be caught using the tools law enforcement has access to (unless you’re a moron). There’s the glaring issue of players looking for a path to professional play being unable to monetize their efforts amid pressures to attend school or get a job. There’s the stark reality of how damaging false claims can be. There’s the grim reality that more professional players than you would ever care to know have fixed matches at some point in their careers. But hey, forget about all this… Tune in for my crowdsourced interview with a popular player where I ask them WHAT THEIR FAVOURITE COLOUR IS. Of course, in the end, even the story itself was disappointingly predictable, that Yarabeu wasn’t just the esports Francis Thurston but rather someone more self-interested. The most valuable commodity in the match-fixing scene is knowledge, and not just for obvious reasons. What you might not know is there’s a whole cottage industry of people who line their pockets not through betting on the assured outcomes but by other means. Selling information to tournament organizers about who is fixing their games is useful for both the diligent and nefarious alike. Some will react by excluding the guilty teams, other unscrupulous tournament operators will look to bring them into the fold and give a more profitable structure to their activities. If a player has ever been caught openly admitting to fixing in a recording or a chat log then, yes, blackmail is also a viable way to make money. The bigger the player the bigger the potential payday, and there is no statute of limitations on these alleged crimes. Indeed, when you think about it, it was just a variation of these methods that enabled Yarabeu to even get his opportunity with ESIC in the first place, his fabled “database” now exposed as little more than a collection of screenshots, shared gossip and innuendos. One of the many people accused of match-fixing by Yarabeu was Volodymyr “Woro2k” Veletnyuk. He denied it like every other name on the list, stating on Telegram, “Let them throw at least one proof [sic] so that they catch me on fraud. Why doesn’t he provide proofs [sic] if he knows everything about me? Let him call me the tags that are banned and the rest.” Woro2k is in many ways the perfect target for such an allegation if it were to be false. A player with, putting it mildly, a chequered history in an already short career, he finds himself without many advocates in the professional scene. Strange clips of his gameplay were shared among players on the FPL circuit with some arriving at the conclusion that he had to be cheating and alleged leaked VK screenshots claimed to show him admitting that he had played on VAC-banned accounts in the past. Worth noting though that no credible entity — and crucially, Valve — confirmed this or acted on it, despite the high-profile nature of the allegations. In the end, in his own words, the allegations, combined with a perception about his attitude, saw him removed from the most accomplished team he had played for to date, MAD LIONS. He now plies his trade for Ukrainian organization Monte, whose team managed to finish runners-up in the most recent ESEA Advanced League, guaranteeing themselves a spot in the more prestigious ESL European Challenger League, starting later this month. A little after I published my second piece about “The ESIC Whistleblower”, Woro2k sent me a message. He asked about my interactions with Yarabeu, which as you’ll now know were mostly ridiculous, and what I had made of him. I was candid and then asked why he wanted to know. He told me that the management of Monte had been approached by Yarabeu, or as he called him, “the ESIC guy”, and that he had said he had proof of some of their players fixing matches. “We offered to help him investigate,” Woro2k said, “but since he didn’t want to do anything for free, we said that if we have evidence to ban our player we could pay, but the evidence he gave is not enough, in general, to do something to the player…We didn’t pay him and now he says we will not get any invites [to tournaments]. Would you like to help open this situation publicly and show who this person is?” So, let’s lay the table. I absolutely cannot vouch for anyone’s innocence here. Everything from the top tier of Counter-Strike down is a joke in terms of competitive integrity, and it’s almost certain that out of the dozens of names Yarabeu threw out on the internet, a handful will certainly be guilty. That said, the presumption of innocence has to be the guiding principle, and there’s plenty to indicate why Monte would be the ideal target to threaten. An upcoming organization qualifying for a competition where they will compete alongside teams within the top 20 in the world is an opportunity for sponsorships and invites that cannot be squandered. Having unpopular players on the roster means the public is more inclined to believe that they could be guilty of anything at all. In layman’s terms, “That’s a really nice organization you have there… Be a shame if something were to happen to it.” Somewhat typically, despite having made allegations against Woro2k directly, Yarabeu was unable to produce evidence to back those claims and instead focused on other players on the Monte roster, namely young Swedish player Joel ‘joel’ Holmlund. Yarabeu had also apparently intimated that he also had evidence about Hristiyan ‘REDSTAR’ Pironkov, yet none of this was produced. “After his podcast, I wrote to him asking about myself,” Woro2k explained. “He didn’t give proof of anything about me, but after I asked [about other players on the team], he provided some evidence about Joel but it was only screenshots from some chat of someone selling info or something like that. I said to him if he gave solid evidence we would pay 5-10k… After that, he [Yarabeu] started talking about money every time, and now some tournaments don’t want to invite us after saying they would do it. He wrote to me and our CEO saying we would never get invited because the CEO had not paid him $5k and he said he lost [a source of] information because he gave [these] screens to us where some guy was talking about Joel match-fixing for money.” Having seen the “evidence” Yarabeu was using as leverage in this financial transaction, I have to say it is utterly laughable, the type of second-hand sourced gossip not even the most shameless anonymous leaker would post for clout. It was literally a screenshot of a conversation of someone saying the player in question threw a game for a “friend’s friend” for $500. There wasn’t any conversation with joel directly, no evidence of financial transactions… Hell, the person complaining about it didn’t even provide details of which game it was specifically or even if it was while he was on the Monte roster. Yet such is the nervousness around these claims being taken seriously behind the scenes that it was enough for Yarabeu to get a direct conversation with the Monte management to discuss a payment arrangement. I have to be honest: I’m not even sure what they would have been paying for. Public silence? Perhaps that’s a part of it, but that could never be guaranteed. It’s a screenshot, not an original document with a coded self-destruct sequence. Instead, Yarabeu was arguing that the organization would need the evidence of match-fixing in order to protect themselves from litigation should they decide to terminate a player’s contract early. In a private conversation with the management, he argued that the money he was requesting was cheaper than the cost of the three months’ mandatory severance he believed was required, and as such, it was a cost-cutting measure. In his own words, taken from WhatsApp messages that we reviewed, he said the following: “I have something more [meaning more information] I can only tell your CEO. When should I give you the Bitcoin wallet? Ask what’s happening with the promised payment?” After being told by the manager that he wasn’t sure what the CEO would want to pay, Yarabeu continued. “What’s your salary? [meaning player salary] 5k, give or take? 2 kicks saving 2k a month. Kicking without reason he’d have to pay 3 months’ salary by European standards of contracts, so 30k. You told me about 5k so savings are apparent.” After having reviewed these exchanges, I contacted the organization’s CEO, Dmyro Vovk, and asked him about what exactly had happened in regard to their interactions with Yarabeu. He told me the following: “Yarabeu gave us some screenshots that include some messages about Joel. After that, he started to demand money from us because he had lost contact with the person that gave him the information about fixed matches and helped him to earn money. He pretends to struggle with match-fixing, but at the same time makes money from it. He is literally just a scammer. He threatened us about new tournaments, talking about doing everything to make organizations stop inviting us. Overall, he is a nasty person.” Based on the inconclusive nature of the evidence that he had provided, they refused to pay Yarabeu any money. He didn’t take this with grace and threatened to hurt their ability to compete at future tournaments. “His last message to Woro was: ‘You can close our conversation. You will never get any invites. Say thank you to your CEO’”, Vovk said. “As he positions himself as an ex-ESIC employee I don’t know what he could say or who he could talk to. But I hope that he is just a liar.” I asked if he would characterize what happened as an attempt at blackmail, to which he simply replied, “Sure.” Even on the basis of such flimsy and tainted evidence, the organization had moved to protect itself and preserve its integrity. joel was moved to the inactive roster the same day that Yarabeu spoke with the team management, October 19, 2022. Towards the end of November, REDSTAR joined him there. In the absence of hard evidence, one has to feel sorry for them as it isn’t clear if they did anything wrong or are even being investigated by ESIC, who, putting it generously, are operating under a significant backlog. What this activity does do, is raise questions about the similar allegations that Yarabeu made about Team Spirit starlet Igor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov. The methodology seems alarmingly similar – publicly accuse a big name of match-fixing, claim to have evidence, refuse to share that evidence with anyone capable of vetting it, and demand to only speak with the organization directly. It’s not clear whether or not he did indeed pressure Team Spirit to make a financial “contribution”, but the similarities between these two interactions, as well as the overlap in their timing, cannot be ignored. It was on November 1 that Team Spirit publicly announced they were cooperating with ESIC in an investigation about w0nderful. Nothing has been said about it since. The reality at this stage is that it is all fruit of a very poisonous tree. Yarabeu’s allegations have gone from being intriguing, if dubious, to now being a clear mechanism through which he hopes to practice self-enrichment. Despite his claims of wanting to punish match-fixers, he has attempted to do deals where revelations of wrongdoing would go mostly undisclosed to the public. He’s eroded the credibility of ESIC when it was already coming under valid scrutiny and impugned the reputation of multiple professional players on the basis of his famous hunches and what appeared to me in some cases to be flat-out delusions. The good news at least is now he should be seen as a contemptible and ridiculous figure, even by the low, low standards of esports. I doubt he has the kind of clout needed to get a serious tournament operator to pull an invite for a team that deserves inclusion. But if he does, hopefully, this at least underlines why he shouldn’t be listened to. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and everything I’ve seen Yarabeu produce is the type of cheap talk you can find on any Discord where bitter fans and wannabe pretenders congregate. Far from cleaning up the scene, he became yet another indistinguishable stain on its blemished reputation.

ScreaM’s Fnatic future up in the air as CS:GO roster moves continue The ESL Pro League is back, but some teams, including Fnatic, are still announcing roster changes. Fnatic, historically one of the best CS:GO teams, announced Tuesday that Twist will be replacing Draken for this season. In addition, ScreaM, who came in as a stand-in for the team before ESL One New York, is staying with the team but, his future is unclear. “I’m going to keep stand-in with Fnatic,” he tweeted. “Don’t know for how long. EPL starts tomorrow.” Im going to keep stand-in with Fnatic. Don’t know for how long. EPL starts tomorrow :right_bicep::skin-tone-4: — ScreaM (@nV_ScreaM_) October 2, 2018 ScreaM joined as a replacement for Flusha after Fnatic’s disappointing finish at FACEIT London in September but the signing made it clear that it was a short-term arrangement. As we await news of ScreaM’s future, the other move Fnatic made is set in stone. Draken, a dominant player in 2016 and 2017, was not able to replicate past success when he joined Fnatic this year. Writing on Twitter, he said that he was in a “bad period of time” when he joined Fnatic, but he is “excited about the future.” as he looks to grow stronger as a player. I joined fnatic in a bad period of time and it didn’t really work out which I’m sad about. However i feel really excited for the future and i think this is the right path for me to take to build myself stronger. I want to wish @twistCSGO and the boys the best of luck. — draken (@drakenCSGO) October 2, 2018 As such, Fnatic is replacing him with Twist, a longtime pro, who most recently played for Red Reserve. Twist previously played for Fnatic when the team won the ESL Pro League Season 4 in 2016. Fnatic is hoping that bringing back a player from better times will help the organization regain its former dominance.

Top 5 CS:GO players with most headshots revealed and ScreaM is still king Gamer Legion InstagramCounter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom has had the title of “Headshot Machine” for years, but the scope of his dominance is even more startling when compared to the careers of other legendary players. While pristine teamwork is certainly the defining factor for a CS:GO squad to win over their competition, sometimes it can come down to stellar individual talent being the difference in a given round. Throughout his long career, ScreaM has amounted hundred of highlights littered with victims of his precision aim but it’s astonishing to see how his headshots skyrocket with every passing year. Emerging star ScreaM never stopped rising A video by YouTuber ‘CliperinoPP,’ with compiled stats from HLTV, doesn’t just give ScreaM’s numbers, instead it shows an active archive of “the top 5 CS:GO players with the most headshots” from 2012-2019. The video show’s ScreaM jumping up the list after 2013 during his time at VeryGames followed by his first stint at esport org Titan. Even as he fell off the Top 5 a few times, ScreaM came roaring back in early 2016 topping out the list with a whopping 8,738 headshots and has had a stingy grasp at number one since. (Timestamp at 1:44 for mobile viewers) ScreaM is in a league of his own Longtime CS:GO fans will recognize some of the names on the list, featuring the likes of Wiktor ‘TaZ’ Wojtas, Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund, Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt, and Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg among various other elite caliber players from the scene. F0rest had notched an incredible 1,069 days as the top headshot fiend when ScreaM first took hold of the top spot on the list. But f0rest, along with every other CS:GO pro, would have to sit in sidelines from then on as ScreaM completely separated himself from the pack. As the video’s shows, it was during his time with G2 Esports and Team Envy when ScreaM cemented his name as a headshot master. While second through fifth place vied for high positioning among themselves with about 12,600 headshots or lower by late 2017, ScreaM was playing a different game as he amounted over 14,500 in the same period of time. Even though he has struggled to compete at the top level of CS:GO as much in 2019, ScreaM’s hold on the top spot remains unchallenged as he’s tallied well over 17,000 headshot kills and has stayed at number one for 1,191 days in the seven year span.

ScreaM reveals transition back to “one tap” hair for fresh start in 2020 Youtube: ScreaMCounter-Strike veteran Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom unveiled a return to old ways with a trip to the barbers for the ‘one tap’ haircut. ScreaM is one of the most popular CS players in the world, largely due to his unique play-style focusing on accuracy. The Belgian earned the nickname ‘headshot machine’ thanks to his impeccable aim in Counter-Strike, where nearly every kill was a headshot. Fans quickly grew to love the flashy playstyle and he has been incredibly popular ever since. After a slow 2019 where Adil failed to return to highest levels and was removed from the GamerLegion line up, he has reinvigorated himself, once again donning the same hairstyle as he did in his peak. The player played with some of the best in the world during most of his career and it seems he’s keen to return there. ScreaM showed this off in a YouTube video on January 15, where he got a dramatic haircut after two years of growing his hair. After a short trip to the barbers, emotional music began to play as the haircut kicked off. The barber picked up the Belgians hair, getting ready to cut. However, ScreaM and his friend hilariously interrupt, shouting “wait, wait, wait… I’m not ready, I’m not ready.” Clearly needing some time to say goodbye to his luscious locks. Although, in the end, they finally let it begin, and a massive clump of hair fall to the floor. This is followed by more and more hair until it is complete and Adil has returned to his iconic ‘headshot machine’ hairstyle. Many fans will be hoping that with his hairstyle returning, so will his legendary skills. However, as ScreaM is currently without a team it may be a while until he will be back on the international stage.

ScreaM’s return to competitive CS:GO potentially ruined by injury (Update) DreamhackCounter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom’s return to competing may have been ruined after he picked up an injury. The legendary Belgian player, who played for iconic teams like VeryGames and Titan eSports, had most recently been playing as a part of Red Reserve following their recent roster issues. However, any chance he has of making a real return to the top level of competitive CS:GO may be in trouble after picking up an injury of his own doing – which he revealed to fans via Twitter. On February 16, ScreaM tweeted: “So, today, I went ice skating and fell down on my right hand 🙁 Can’t move my hand right now, I hope it will be better soon.” When some fans were suspicious of ScreaM baiting them with a lie, the Belgian then tweeted out a photo of his right hand wrapped in ice. However, a day later, on February 17, ScreaM returned to Twitter with a teasing post that signaled he had ‘bad news’ which concerned plenty of his fans further. Yet, the Belgian did not post any update following his tweet. It remains to be seen if ScreaM’s injury affects his play moving forward and if he can actually return to the top level of competitive CS:GO. Read More: Sources: TSM exploring options in CS:GO – Spots on top teams are likely to appear following the conclusion of the IEM Katowice Major when a period of roster changes is expected to happen with teams who have fallen short in their search of success trying to rejig their line-ups. Update The Belgian star has since revealed that his injury is less serious than first feared, as he only suffered a wrist sprain. He posted an update onSources: Several CS:GO teams interested in poizon ScreaM added: “The amount of love and support that I have received over the past few days has been breathtaking. All your attention means a lot and is truly inspiring me to come back better than ever. Thank you to everyone including all my new teammates, fans and players.” Since suffering the injury, the Belgian star has also joined up with a new set of teammates – playing under the ‘Uruguay’ name until they can find an organization to represent. It remains to be seen if the all European line-up can cause waves in the CS:GO scene but having a fully-fit ScreaM should certainly help.

ScreaM frustrated after realizing he can’t open CSGO Shattered Web cases CSGO star Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom was checking out the cases for new CSGO Operation Shattered Web, but expressed frustration after realizing he wasn’t allowed to open them at all. ScreaM experienced the ultimate form of torture while streaming on November 19, having to window shop at in-game items he simple wasn’t allowed to acquire. The Belgian CSGO legend, famous for his one-taps and stints with some of the best French teams in the game’s history, was in-between matches on FACEIT when he took a peek at some of the new skins offered in the Shattered Web cases. ScreaM made clear that he wanted one of the new knives that have been made available in the latest Operation, but quickly realized that he wasn’t going to be able to get one by opening cases. ScreaM currently lives in Belgium, where loot boxes of all kinds cannot be opened. This is due to a decision in 2018 by the Belgian Gaming Commission, when they declared that loot boxes were considered gambling. Belgian law does say that loot boxes can be opened when earned through gameplay, but cannot be purchased with real money. Therefore the Belgian was faced with disappointment after seeing the in-game warning that opening cases was not permitted in his country. While Counter-Strike players can earn loot boxes through playing, there is no way to actually open the boxes without using real money, thus making opening them unavailable in the country of Belgium. The same goes for players in the Netherlands. Prior to the clip, several fans in ScreaM’s chat asked him to open some cases, so he navigated to the case in his inventory to show his viewers opening any is not allowed in his country. One of his teammates said that players in Belgium would need to get a VPN in order to accomplish that. The Belgium Gaming Commission’s decision to remove paid-for loot boxes was met with varying degrees of resistance. Blizzard agreed to the BGC decision and removed lootboxes from its Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm games. EA and 2K both tried to fight to defend the loot boxes that are critical to the Ultimate Team modes of their respective sports franchises, FIFA and NBA 2K. EA infamously referred to them as “surprise mechanics” and 2K even tried to get its player base to sign a petition to allow them in Belgium. ScreaM has been streaming more and more as of late, after announcing at the end of September that despite being benched by Team GamerLegion, he is still eyeing a return to competitive play. Even if I’m not on GamerLegion’ active roster (as they decided to go Swedish), I’m still motivated to play and perform! Gonna stream a lot 🎯https://t.co/iYMYC2VV8i So I’m looking for a fresh start and open to offers. Contact my agent @Jerome_Coupez for your inquiries— ScreaM 🇵🇸 (@ScreaM_) September 30, 2019 He did highlight how happy he was with the new character models added in the Shattered Web update though, which he is allowed access to. I wanted new character skins since a looong time, so happy about this update so far! see you tomorrow #TeamBlackWolf — ScreaM 🇵🇸 (@ScreaM_) November 19, 2019 It’s been a while since people have talked about his one taps though, so hopefully we see them again soon.

ScreaM blows minds after pulling off “so easy” CSGO one-tap ace G2 Esports / Twitch: ScreaMVeteran of the competitive Counter-Strike scene and master of the one-taps, Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom, still seeks a comeback at the pro level, and his ability to get one-shot headshots hasn’t degraded in the slightest over his long career. The Belgian CS:GO sensation and former star of the French scene isn’t slowing down in his pursuit of returning to the highest competitive level. Currently, ScreaM is keeping his skills sharp in the robust FACEIT Pro scene, and during his February 1 stream, he dusted off an old classic with an incredible one-tap-riddled ace of the entire enemy team. While playing on CT side Inferno, ScreaM got his hands on an AK in the previous round, and used it to great effect. After getting the trade on the first enemy, he used two bullets to get two quick headshots on players that stepped out from behind the wall on banana. Confidence surging through him, and with the aid of a well-placed flashbang from a former GamerLegion teammate in Kevin ‘HS’ Tarn, he rounded the corner and dropped the two final unsuspecting and likely fearful enemies with two more one-taps. An excited ScreaM let out a powerful “Woooo!” before turning the camera and exclaiming “so f**king easy man.” While one-taps and highlights have always come easy to the experienced player, finding a permanent home the past couple years has been a more difficult challenge. Since Envy parted way with their French roster in June 2018 before moving to North America, ScreaM has found himself in limbo, unable to land a long-term spot with any one roster. He briefly stood in for Fnatic at the end of 2018 for a couple of weeks before very short stints with NoChance and Uruguay3. He spent half a year in 2019 with GamerLegion, his longest tenure since Envy, but has been sitting on the GL bench since the end of September. Earlier this month, ScreaM re-declared his intentions to make a return to the top level of CSGO, even going so far as to cut his long hair back to its prime one-tap state. ScreaM currently sits on the GamerLegion bench, which means any team looking to require his services would have to negotiate with the organization to buyout his contract. If GL were to release him, he could ideally sign anywhere, and the chance of one-taps returning to the major stage becomes possible.

ScreaM proves he’s still got it with epic CS:GO 1v5 clutch Professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom proved he’s still got what it takes to dominate opponents with a crazy 1v5 clutch during an FPL match. The Belgian, who recently filled in for Fnatic at ESL One New York, was playing on Cache when he found himself as the last player remaining on his squad, with five enemies all still alive. All five enemies had broken into the B bomb site, and with only a Desert Eagle in hand, ScreaM needed to take out all five players to stop the bomb plant and secure the round victory. Benrlitom quickly spotted an opponent running across the top of highway, firing off a couple of rounds from his heavy duty pistol to take him out. Hearing a second opponent jumping onto the roof beside him, ScreaM spun around and quickly put him down too. The third enemy player hopped out from behind one of the red containers to get shot in the head by ScreaM, before a fourth attempted to climb onto the roof where his teammate just died, and ended up with the same result as his partner. With just one enemy remaining, ScreaM pushed towards the dropped bomb and picked up an AK-47 that was lying on the ground, taking up a position behind the forklift close to the site, and picking off the final opponent as he rounded the corner from highway into the site. “That’s the highlight from today,” said ScreaM, as he grinned and stuck his tongue out to the camera, clearly happy with his incredible clutch. For ScreaM, he remains without an organization to call his permanent home now his spell filling in with Fnatic is over, but will be standing in for 3DMAX’s ESL team as they attempt to qualify for the Bucharest Gaming Week Invitational tournament.

S1mple’s graffiti re-added to CSGO’s Cache remake HLTV/ValveOleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev is one of the most well-known CSGO pros out there, and the apparent removal of his commemorative graffiti on the Cache remake caused confusion among fans. There aren’t many CSGO fans that don’t know about the graffiti splashed around certain maps, celebrating massive professional moments – the artwork on Cache commemorates s1mple’s back-to-back unscoped AWP kills against Fnatic in 2016. With the reveal of the Cache rework from Volcano Shawn ‘FMPONE’ Snelling, which debuted ahead of ESL New York’s showmatch on September 29, fans got a look at the planned changes, and noticed s1mple’s graffiti seemed to have been removed. S1mple is back on the map After fans noticed the spray’s absence, CSGO map designer Salvatore ‘Volcano’ Garozzo assured them that the map was still in development and hinted that the graffiti would be added back in to the remake. “We’re still putting in the finishing touches, don’t worry!” he said on Twitter, and now new clips of the remade map seem to show he wasn’t pulling our leg. In a clip from ESL_CSGO on Twitch, players are exploring the Cache remake, when they come across s1mple’s commemorative graffiti back on the wall near the B point. The CSGO pro has yet to respond to the development, but his fans are already celebrating the return of the spray to Cache. When will the new Cache be released? Cache was first removed from the game’s active map pool to make way for Inferno earlier this year. Now, it’s confirmed the map will be returning to CSGO’s regular pool in October, and now that the finishing touches – including returning s1mple’s memorabilia – are nearing completion, we could see the map released soon. Volcano has admitted Cache’s old design was inherently more T-sided, and revealed he and fellow CSGO map guru FMPONE had addressed that in the rework by trimming the Counter-Terrorist side’s long rotation times slightly to hopefully boost competitiveness. The revamped Cache was added to CSGO’s Scrimmage Matchmaking mode in the October 2 update, along with the Moroccan-based Mirage map. It is also expected Cache will be returning to the professional map pool, but there’s been no official confirmation if this would be at the expense of another competitive option or when it will happen.

s1mple tries Fortnite Battle Royale for first time with hilarious results ESL/Epic GamesProfessional CS:GO player Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, branched out his gaming skills into the immensely popular Fortnite Battle Royale, while streaming on May 25. Ukrainian s1mple is generally considered one of the best CS:GO players in the world, currently playing as an AWPer for Natus Vincere. He has amassed prize money of nearly half a million dollars over his career, starring for a number of outstanding rosters over his 6 years as a professional. Like many esports professionals, s1mple also runs an immensely popular Twitch channel, with over 780,000 followers on the platform. While live on May 25, s1mple decided he was going to branch out and play some Fortnite Battle Royale, much to his chat’s amusement. Kostyliev clearly had a lot of faith in his abilities, claiming that if he put a lot of time into the game, he would be the best player in the world. While admittedly a bold claim, other streamers, like Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, have proven how CS:GO players can seamlessly transition into other games. “Okay, guys, Fortnite? You want me to play Fortnite?” He asked his viewers, “I have never tried [to] play Fortnite. But if I try, and if I play more and more, I’ll be the best player in Fortnite.” The CS:GO superstar went into Playground mode to start with, trying to work out the game’s integral building mechanisms, much to his viewer’s delight, who are clearly not used to watching such a talented gamer struggling. After this, s1mple quickly jumped into some squads, and showed he was adept at Epic Games’ battle royale, amassing a few victories in his time. He even mentioned professional player Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney after a win. S1mple appeared to enjoy his time on Fortnite Battle Royale, as the talented Ukrainian demonstrated showing his natural ability at a number of video games. However, he clearly still needs a lot of work on his building techniques if he is to conquer competitive play in the battle royale title, like he has CS:GO.

s1mple: The icon that nearly wasn’t ESLFor many of us, even those who would rather not admit it, sports is a refuge. The average existence requires a shitty five-day working week in a job that demands more hours than you’re paid for and less benefits than you were promised but the weekend belongs to you. And so for a few hours, you can sit on the sofa with a cold beer, drone out the cacophonous noise of our modern lives, and engage in the type of catharsis that only sports can bring. Because of the sheer number of people who take part in this shared ritual, it becomes a type of escapism in plain sight, a weekly moment where people can come together and focus on a common cause. They can’t get you here. Of course, the world outside continues to exist in all its relentless awfulness and when things are truly at their worst, not even sports get to shut out reality. You can cut through the propaganda, spin, and history to recognise the invasion of Ukraine as the dreadful destruction of human life it is. Every day since it started we’ve seen it in graphic detail. Homes utterly destroyed by errant missiles and artillery, schools and hospitals levelled on the pretext they harbour soldiers, and dead women and children left in the streets until their bodies can be safely recovered. We only have to engage with the horror as much as we want to and our world mostly remains unchanged, but sports is global. How can it ignore these events that affect so many people within the ecosystem, competitors and fans alike? On February 25 in Katowice, as refugees flooded across the Poland border, teams featuring players from all across the world had to try and play Counter-Strike as if that was the most important thing that day. It would prove to be an impossible task of course, so many of the players there being directly impacted. There were concerns that a Polish crowd, made up of a people with their own historical grievances against the nation that had aggressively started a war, would pepper Russian competitors with vitriol. Some had questioned the wisdom of continuing the tournament at all in such circumstances and many expected tensions to spill over in ways that would go on to be portrayed as unsavoury but understandable. It was against this backdrop that the best player in the world, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, took to the stage. A Ukrainian, someone whose home city had been shelled the eve of the competition, there was no expectation he would even compete, let alone speak. But it had to be him if it was anyone at all, “I don’t have a lot of words to say but I want you to know that esports is out of politics and all our players, all players from different teams and all of you have nothing to do with government decisions. My whole career I played with Ukrainian players, I played with Russian players and I played with American players and all of them were great guys. And right now I stand with my friends, with my real friends. We win together and we lose together and all of us want peace for Ukraine and for the whole world. All of us are scared but all of us need to show an example on this tournament for the whole world. We need to stay together as a unit, with our fans, with our friends, with everyone who is going to watch and we all need to stay humans first.” I have seen such moments before in sports history. Their significance resonates for two reasons. The first is that it is inspiring to see someone already blessed with greatness become transcendent and use that status for good. The second is that what does it say about how mad the world can be that it takes the world of sports to make some sense of it all? While Oleksandr was on the stage, I couldn’t help but think about the ranks of icons that had to rise to occasions more difficult than the comparatively easy act of winning. I thought about Muhammed Ali speaking out about the Vietnam War. I thought about John Carlos and Tommie Smith on that podium in 1968. I thought about Jack Buck battling both cancer and Parkinson’s disease delivering a speech in the wake of the September 11 attacks. Moments that are about the right words and the right gestures coming at the right time from the right sources, rare alignments in history that make legends of mortals. I’d always wondered when esports would ever see such a moment and against what backdrop. I’ve covered multiple disciplines in a sixteen-year career and there wasn’t one that springs to mind. I’ve seen trite tributes and lip service, I’ve seen people cry at the joy of winning and the despair of losing and some have articulated those sentiments in fine and memorable ways. But until that day on the Katowice stage I hadn’t seen a moment that was bigger than us. I don’t care if it ends up a footnote in the history of CS:GO. I’ll not forget it. What was crucial to the resonance of the moment was the level-headed maturity coming from a source that would be forgiven for expressing unfiltered emotion. It’s hard enough to imagine how anyone could compete under such circumstances but to not be overwhelmed when placed in front of a camera shows exceptional poise. I also felt for a fleeting moment that maybe esports could finally hold true to its own values. It was still early in the conflict then, but even amidst the universal calls for peace, there were few calls for unity. I thought it profoundly brave for a Ukrainian to stand there next to a Russian and say we are friends and the heinous actions of a dictator cannot break that bond. I was naive to think that could hold up. Make no mistake, the world is now forever changed, the horrific actions of the past month destined to resonate throughout history, every day a new atrocity that cannot and will not be forgiven. The end result is one country in ruins and another cut off from half the global community, its people turned into the world’s pariahs regardless of their thoughts about the invasion. s1mple’s career in the crosshairs Even as things have gone from bad to worse, s1mple has been unwavering in his message. If you’ve followed his career it would make total sense that he would want people to save their vitriol for appropriate targets. He understands better than most what it is like to be in everyone’s crosshairs. His journey to this point has been anything but in line with his name. The player has always been identified as supremely talented but for many years it was deemed to be not enough of an upside for the baggage that came with it. He could very easily have been one of the biggest wastes of talent ever seen in any esport. He experienced the type of humiliation that drives many into obscurity. Not only was he removed from a team where he was very clearly the best player on the roster, but he was also publicly ridiculed by another player who had been his hero. When kicked from Flipsid3 in 2015, Counter-Strike legend Yegor ”Markeloff” Markelov said, “I do feel really awesome that he left, we all feel much better. Now we can concentrate on our personal and team game instead of fighting with a toxic kid.” That reputation would be cemented after helping Team Liquid to a semi-final at a Major when the in-game leader Eric ‘adreN’ Hoag said in an interview that s1mple was “worse than people thought” and that he “had a lot maturing to do.” Well of course he did. He was an eighteen-year-old esports professional who was already being earmarked to be the best player in the world. I don’t think people really understand all the potential pitfalls that come with that. In my experience, people who excel at things such as sports or music tend to be undersocialised – a necessary compromise for the huge amount of practice required. The advent of the internet may have changed that dynamic but with it comes other issues. A teenager now exists in a world of digital celebrity, where you are simultaneously expected to understand that every action speaks to “optics” and is about “your brand.” You must walk a line of expressing swagger and confidence to attain the online currency of “clout” without ever being perceived as undeservedly arrogant. You have to be funny without ever being offensive, opinionated without ever being wrong, and you have a very limited window within which to snowball your popularity and “get the bag.” That last part casts an especially large shadow if your career represents a singular opportunity to ensure your family is financially comfortable. Our expectation levels for esports competitors are frankly ridiculous but let’s also be clear, many of his transgressions as a young man are exactly the type of things we almost never give second chances for anymore. I won’t list them here as it would really undermine the point of this, making as much of a cop as the average social media user. Needless to say, if you can conceive of a critical misstep to make as a public figure, then it’s safe to say he did it and often did so without contrition. Each and every time it happened there was a digital crowd waiting to make proclamations about what it said about Kostyliev as a person and the person he would always be. Most agreed that the competitive scene would be much better off without him, that isolating him until he quit was the preferable strategy. That is because the internet is particularly good at one thing and that is taking a person at their worst moment and forever preserving it, enabling all who come in the future to witness it and make judgments. And by the time they do, the likelihood is that person doesn’t exist anymore for who goes through any experience without changing? Of course for the terminally online that fact doesn’t matter. They habitually engage in recreational outrage veiled as critique. But there is one exception to this nasty little rule and that is if you are the best at something, truly talented in ways simultaneously envy-inducing and aspirational, then the mob will make exceptions. They have to because if they didn’t it would taint their admiration, make them supportive of and complicit in behaviours they never waste a chance to condemn. So in place of that condemnation comes context and caveats, things all too eagerly eschewed when it’s time to demonise someone who’s good but ultimately won’t be missed. It is a type of hypocrisy we welcome in the same way we indulge in white lies to protect those we love from awkward truths. Prior to the moment you are conferred this status, the rabble will do everything they can to make sure it doesn’t happen. After the Katowice speech, the general consensus on social media seemed to match my own. People expressed pride in having watched the player develop into someone who can also lay claim to being an ambassador for the entire sport. The praise was universal even if in the aftermath esports has mostly ignored the messaging. Something rankled though… It was knowing that the moment was being lauded by people who steadfastly do not believe in concepts like personal growth or forgiveness. Though they chose not to admit it in that moment, they were people who would rather we never got here to begin with. I looked at some of their comments from the times their new icon was at fault. “Seriously, it’s not even about being 17. I wasn’t like that when I was 17. He is just acting like an arrogant prick who thinks he is the best, really sad. Modesty would suit him, he isn’t the best yet even though he has the potential.” “There’s going to be no need to explain anything, s1mple has always been a scummy person” “Good riddance, I hope no one picks up this little shit” “It’s funny how everyone is saying that s1mple is just too young and insecure and has issues he needs to address. MAYBE that’s the case, but have you ever considered that he is just an asshole? Some people are just shitty, they don’t need a reason to be toxic. S1mple might just be a shitty person fullstop.” I’ll leave this one with all the spelling errors in place. “This retarded kid never learns. And he thought this would go unnoticed? Im so happy hes withour a team. He literary does not deserve to be a part of one. Yes, hes skilled but having an attitude and childish behavors like that will stll beat his skill abilities and no team would want him with such aweak u trustful personality. I am also hoping that the whole csgo scene with all the pros gets to know about this i lncident to keep in mind who they play those faceit pugs with and id appreciate top players refuse to play even pugs with him maybe then itll click in his 10 year old brain what is really valuable in life once hes left alone.” I’m sure many would explain this away by saying “well, yes, when he was bad we said he was bad but now he’s good we say so, dummy” but that’s not an accurate summation. The sentiment has spanned the two extremes, both absolutist in their viewpoint. The first was that he was somehow irredeemable on every level, someone to be excommunicated from all of esports. His talents, his potential, the clear and obvious need for genuine mentorship… None of that would have spared him. Had he lacked character, had he been all the things they said he was, he would not be here today. Had the majority prevailed back then we’d exist in a very different timeline today. S1mple wouldn’t be the best player in the world and most likely wouldn’t be on any team at all. He’d most likely be streaming, supplementing that income through the promotion of dodgy websites, crypto scams and account boosting. We wouldn’t have had one of the most compelling narratives around the most recent Stockholm Major and we wouldn’t have had Katowice. Now we exist at the other extreme. Not only can he do no wrong but actually he never did. People busily retcon his past each time it is brought up, which is now hardly ever. It never happened and if it did it wasn’t that serious. While this is as insanely parasocial as the spiteful hatred, I much prefer this flavour of lunacy as it harms nobody except the fabric of reality and who really cares about that anymore? It’d be better if there wasn’t a need to sanitise our idols, to airbrush out their flaws, because it makes their story more inspirational in a way… That yes, even a wretch like you could do something great, that it’s never too late to change, that human complexity is impossible to simplify. After winning the 14th season of ESL Pro League Kostyliev said, “I need new haters, the old ones became my fans.” This might be the truest thing he has ever said. The problem is that it took becoming the current greatest of all time to enjoy that state of grace. The next s1mple might not be able to achieve that in a world where “accountability” for mistakes is synonymous with “metaphorically kicking the shit out of you forever until you disappear from the internet.” What could we stand to lose? What could we have lost? As things get dark and weird greatness is the lodestar that guides us through. As we saw in Katowice, sometimes the most important things you will say and do, don’t even happen in the game.

s1mple tells players not to play “sh**” Counter-Strike 2 yet João Ferreira/DexertoCounter-Strike 2 has been out for a little over a week and one of the best professional players in the world, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyljev, is calling for players to wait for updates before playing it professionally. The release of Counter-Strike 2 has been rocky as multiple players have reported bugs, glitches, and are having an overall bad experience with the title so far. Some have even reported having cheaters ruin their games already. The game has only been out for about a week at this point, but players expected a more finished product after a beta period that lasted a few months. However, Valve is constantly putting out updates for the game and has heard the community’s many complaints about the current state of CS2. That being said, many professional CS players have said that the game doesn’t seem ready for high-level competition, with the most recent being NAVI star player s1mple. s1mple says pros should wait to play Counter-Strike 2 The player posted a video of himself trying to play CS2 on October 5, which saw his PC screen flash and an error message popup on his screen. He then gave his early verdict on the title. “I can clearly tell that if you want to become CS2 pro you still have three months, don’t play this sh** game rn, wait for updates,” he said on social media. The transition to CS2 from CS:GO in the professional sphere has already begun as ESL announced last week that ESL Pro Tour and ESP Impact events will move competition to CS2 following the full release of the new title. However, some events are still going to keep CS:GO around, as BLAST is currently hosting its Fall Showdown on the old version of the game. Eventually, every pro player will have to get on the CS2 hype train as the game will be played at the next Counter-Strike Major. Whether the title will have all of its problems fixed remains to be seen.

S1mple slams Last Dance CSGO team: “Not going to do anything against NAVI” Stephanie Lindgren/PGLUkrainian CSGO prodigy Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has laughed off suggestions that Last Dance will be a threat against NAVI. Brazilian CS:GO legend Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo confirmed on January 16 the full roster of Last Dance, a new project featuring some of his country’s most successful Counter-Strike players. The core of the lineup is made up of FalleN, Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga, and Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau, who were all part of the Luminosity and SK Gaming teams that won the MLG Columbus and ESL One Cologne Majors in 2016. Former SK Gaming and MIBR player Ricardo ‘boltz’ Prass, and ex-FURIA member Vinicius ‘VINI’ Figueiredo round out the team, which at one point also included Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David before he decided to walk away from the project. Excitement in the Brazilian scene at the reunion of these players is reaching fever pitch, but not everyone seems convinced that this team will be a genuine title challenger. “To another world” Questioned by viewers on his stream about Last Dance and whether he’s worried about the possibility of facing the Brazilians, s1mple pulled no punches and made his views clear. “‘Last Dance is coming for you?’ Last Dance is going to another world, you know? Just to another world,” he said. “Last Dance is not going to do anything, I’m telling you right now. They’re not going to do anything against my team. “They can win one game all year, but nothing else. Nothing else.” In a recent interview with ge, FalleN shared more details about the creation of Last Dance and confirmed talks with Brazilian organization Imperial. The ‘Brazilian Godfather of CS’ also admitted that it has been difficult to explain the magnitude of the project to foreign investors and organizations, who, according to him, are merely driven by results. “We are aware that, when we put together a team like this, we will have a horde of fans behind it,” FalleN said. “We will reignite the flame of the Brazilian supporters. “Many times, a foreign [investor] is only thinking about whether the team will enter the top 10 in the rankings or reach the Major. I really don’t agree with that business model.”

s1mple shuts down NAVI CSGO rumors about B1ad3: “Dumb as f**k” BLASTNAVI CSGO star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has categorically dismissed one of the latest rumors about his team. NAVI ended the CS:GO tournament season on a disappointing note, crashing out of the BLAST Paris Major in the Legends Stage — the first time in six years in which the team could not reach the playoff stages of a Major. It is now a year since NAVI won their last CS:GO trophy, at the BLAST Premier 2022 Spring Final in Lisbon, and questions remain about how the team will turn the corner, with Heroic and Vitality clearly a step above them right now. Shortly after NAVI’s final tournament appearance, rumors in the CS:GO scene began to suggest that the organization was looking to remove head coach Andrij ‘B1ad3’ Ghorodensjkyj and young player Andrij ‘npl’ Kukharsjkyj. Questioned on his stream about the B1ad3 rumor, s1mple said: “How can you be so stupid to say that NAVI are kicking B1ad3 or that B1ad3 is leaving? It’s dumb as f**k. “If you know nothing about the game, you will say that NAVI will remove B1ad3, that B1ad3 will leave NAVI, or that we need another coach. B1ad3 is one of the smartest guys I know. If he leaves, it will be his decision. Everyone who makes this rumor is stupid as f**k.” A former professional player, B1ad3 is widely regarded as one of the finest tactical minds in the Counter-Strike franchise. Last year, he won the Esports Coach of the Year award at the Esports Awards. After the player break, NAVI will return to action in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, scheduled for July 13-23. Later that month, the team will attend IEM Cologne 2023, where they will start the tournament in the group stage.

S1mple shows off perfect “backseat gaming” skills in FACEIT CSGO match Counter Strike: Global Offensive phenom Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev did his best to relay crucial information to his FACEIT teammates during a January 11 match, making it an instance where “backseat gaming” was actually appreciated. Nothing is more annoying than a dead teammate in CS:GO muddling up the comms when trying to retake a site – unless that teammate happens to be s1mple, in which case it’s always best to just listen. That was the case when the Ukranian player tried to give his teammates the exact spots of the enemies’ position in English, but some callouts didn’t translate well which is when he had change up his approach. To tie up the game at six rounds on Nuke, s1mple’s teammates had to perform a 3v2 retake on the B-site. Although he died earlier trying to prevent the Secret push, his game sense was still an invaluable resource for his side. While the retake was straightforward enough, the pro had to improvise to communicate with his teammates – with some fans likening the moment as an instance of “backseat gaming.” “Should be Long. Long side, something like this. Left side, ‘aykeN.’ Top left, top left. Yes, you saw him. Ramp, ramp. Shadow! Not Shadow, but this roof on – ramp, ramp!” s1mple said as his teammates were pinching the lower bomb site. His voice comms filled up the audio for the better portion of that retake. But it looks like the teammates didn’t mind since a muddled call from one of the world’s best is still something to pay attention to. Sure enough, once his team processed the calls, the push into B-site revealed the players to be exactly where s1mple had pegged them to be. “How can I say this f**king position? I don’t remember how it’s called in my team,” he said after the successful retake. The streamer noted that there was a mishap trying to nail the correct term for the spot, but the communication breakdown didn’t have too much of an impact since his rapid-fire description still revealed the locations of the foes.

S1mple schools CSGO opponents with insane pistol 4K CS:GO hot-shot, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, has proven why he can mix it with the world’s best with an impressive pistol 4-kill spree, during a FACEIT match captured live on Twitch. Appearing somewhat revitalized since being reunited with duo Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács, s1mple has posted up a series of heroic performances of-late. Fresh off the back of a third-place finish at BLAST Pro Series in Copenhagen, the NaVi superstar has been eager to continue his good form. In a bid to build on NaVi’s flurry of impressive results, s1mple has been filling his days with FACEIT matches and streaming the majority of them to his Twitch channel. Following a solid T-side on Dust 2, s1mple and co. found themselves with a comfortable 11-4 lead at the half. So, in typical s1mple fashion, the Ukrainian stuck it to his opponents and pushed through the middle of the map. After seeing two of his teammates fall in Lower Connector and Middle Catwalk, the NaVi superstar took matters into his own hands. Jammed between the A-bomb site and two opponents, he used his pinpoint accuracy and map awareness to avenge his fallen teammates. After receiving a call that his opponents were making their way up A-Long, s1mple made his move over to Catwalk to aid his teammates. Although the majority of his counterparts had been downed, s1mple made light work of the remaining T-side and secured the 4k in 17 seconds. NaVi have no official matches penciled in, so expect plenty more live streams from their generational superstar, where he will likely be schooling his opponents on a daily basis.

s1mple says electroNic “needs time” to grow into NAVI IGL role João Ferreira/DexertoNAVI star Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has confirmed that Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov has taken over as the team’s new in-game leader ahead of the BLAST Premier Spring Final. The confirmation comes just two weeks after Dexerto revealed that NAVI were considering handing the team’s reins over to electroNic following the removal of Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov from the starting lineup. electroNic will have his first big test as the team’s IGL at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, which NAVI are attending with former Spirit player Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev as a stand-in. Speaking to reporters at a press conference during media day, s1mple stated that electroNic should perform well in the role of in-game leader given his extensive knowledge of the game. He also noted that the team will stick to the system that has been in place for years. “We still have our old setups, we only changed some roles,” s1mple said. “I think electroNic has more ideas [than Boombl4], and his understanding of the game without B1ad3’s help is much better. “But Boombl4 worked with B1ad3 for so many hours and B1ad3 taught him so many things that electroNic doesn’t now. So he needs a bit more time.” With a stand-in that hasn’t played at the highest level in months and a new in-game leader still getting used to the role, NAVI have an uphill task to repeat their grand final appearance from BLAST Pro Series Lisbon 2018. s1mple revealed that the team had just a week’s practice for this event, which he hopes is enough for them to reach the playoffs. “I’m pretty sure the crowd will cheer for NAVI and we will try to win if we make it there.” Future fifth player NAVI’s lineup beyond the BLAST Premier Spring Final is uncertain as the team will be using this event as a measuring stick for the lineup with sdy. According to s1mple, the former Spirit player is “doing a great job in practice”, but they still need to see how he performs in important games – which will determine whether he stays on with the squad. One player who has been earmarked as a potential replacement for Boombl4 is Virtus.pro’s Timur ‘buster’ Tulepov. But one stumbling block to a move for the Kazakhstani player is the fact that NAVI are unwilling to conduct business with Virtus.pro, a Russian organization with alleged ties to the Kremlin. This means that buster would have to figure out a way to be released from his contract, though Virtus.pro have made it clear that they will not let any of their players leave “unless a proper fee is paid”. “I’ve never played with him,” s1mple said of buster. “Perfecto knows him better. The main issue is that NAVI cannot buy a player from a Russian organization because Virtus.pro pays taxes and we know what it means to pay taxes. “We asked buster at the beginning if he could buy himself out of his contract. We’re still deciding who will play [at IEM Cologne].”

S1mple reveals why “no one cared” about CSGO in old Na’Vi roster Counter-Strike: Global Offensive superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev revealed a shocking fact in an interview with Natus Vincere. S1mple is widely regarded as one of the best CS:GO players in the world, having consistently competed against the best teams and preforming incredibly well. He currently represents Natus Vincere, a team that has seen some ups and downs lately as they struggle for form amid some of their biggest roster changes yet. The Ukranian was interviewed by his team on October 29, where he answered numerous questions about the organization, including opinions about the new players, thoughts on Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko’s retirement, and more. He spoke about the team’s preparation, stating that “right now we are more productive because we didn’t know when Zeus would retire.” Zeus’ retirement was complicated for the team as “one day he wanted to quit, then the next he wanted to keep playing.” S1mple then added something rather unexpected, saying “I think the last 3-4 months went wrong in terms of preparation” because players thought of the situation as “the last crusade” and “no one cared” about the team as they could see things massively changing when Zeus finally decided to retire. This showed in their results, as in the few months before Danylo’s retirement, the team only played in a handful of events, placing poorly in most of them, such as a second last place at Blast Pro Series Miami and a 10 place finish at the ESL Pro League Season 9 finals. The Na`Vi’s star then commented on his new teammates Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov and Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács, saying that both are still settling in but are proving very promising, highlighting Boombl4 as a reliable In-Game Leader. He also said that Guardian is working on being more aggressive and that he will AWP alongside him on the Counter-Terrorist side, in an attempt to improve their defense. Finally, he finished with a cheeky jab at his newest teammate, telling him that he needs to work on his Russian a bit, probably because he has been playing with international teams for so long. S1mple and Natus Vincere will next be in action in November at BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen 2019, where fans will be able to see how well he has adjusted to his role, and how much the team has improved.

s1mple reveals shocking CSGO play time ahead of Counter-Strike 2’s expected launch ESLNAVI’s Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev just revealed his staggering CSGO play time ahead of Counter-Strike 2’s expected launch on Wednesday. CS2’s launch has never been closer, with Valve giving major hints at its imminent release, Twitch’s category update seemingly confirming the switch, and a plethora of files being added to the game all at once. Thus, with the evidently imminent launch of CS2, it means players are remembering all the things they did in CSGO, especially some with massive amounts of hours racked up. And s1mple, arguably CSGO’s greatest of all time, gave an update on his total hours spent with the game and it is genuinely staggering. Replying to a tweet by ESL asking players what their final CSGO hours were before CS2’s supposed launch, s1mple got in the mix, showing a screenshot of his hours played. 23,476 hours. That is just slightly above 978 days. This means, that if s1mple were to never stop playing CSGO from the time he started, he would’ve been playing for two years and eight months consecutively. Just for comparison, CSGO launched on August 21, 2012. If he played from the moment CSGO was released, he would’ve racked up his total hours by April 2015. Just for reference as for how much s1mple plays CSGO, back in early 2020, s1mple accidentally revealed that he racked up 16,122 hours by that point in time. That meant, in just two years and seven months, he racked up a further 7,354 hours. Naturally, many replied the only way you can to congratulate one of the greatest of all time’s grind to the game, a goat emoji. However, s1mple does not hold the world record for the most amount of hours played in CSGO. According to Steamladder, Steam user Consuid takes the prize at 87,495. In fact, s1mple’s hours don’t crack the top 250. But of course, what you have to remember is you can rack up thousands of hours by just leaving the game on, whereas s1mple has probably only ever opened CSGO to actually play the game and practice for competitions.

S1mple reveals how he feels about being called CSGO’s greatest superstar BLAST PremierOleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has weighed in on his oft-dubbed title of the “best CSGO player,” and where he stands compared to Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, after a 2–0 win sealed Natus Vincere’s BLAST Premier Spring Group B victory. Na’Vi’s veteran rifler, and the rest of the European squad, climbed past Complexity in the Group B final to clinch a spot in Blast’s new-look 2020 Spring Finals, winning out in a stacked bracket alongside Astralis and Team Vitality. It was an unlikely victory—not over Complexity specifically, but against the full bracket—though s1mple and his team managed to defy the odds in a lower bracket run, edging past Astralis 2–1 before reversing the script to defeat ZywOo’s Vitality 2–0. The triumph in London re-sparked discussions surrounding the Ukrainian’s place atop the totem pole of Counter-Strike, especially after he managed to break past his French rival at the tournament. Many suggested Na’Vi were “back.” According to s1mple, who joined the analyst desk at 3 Mills Studio post-victory, the title, and his endless duel for supremacy with Zyw0o has added a great deal of pressure to his game, but it’s not something he’s shying away from. “I mean, I think people [saying that] gives me extra pressure from it, you know,” he said when asked how he felt about the title, but added he agrees with it. “No, I don’t think ZywOo is better than me, individually at least, no. No one is better, 100%.” The Ukrainian certainly holds a decent level of respect for the 19-year-old superstar who has risen to challenge his throne. Considering what he’s already achieved in his 14-month stint with Vitality, there can be no questioning him. “Achievements-wise, I agree with what they say about ZywOo, and with all the results that they have,” he said. “That said, we’re back now. Now it’s all about Na’Vi getting better form, so we can beat them 16–3, or even better maybe.” https://twitter.com/BLASTPremier/status/1226558291997798400 While the s1mple vs ZywOo battle may be re-sparked at the IEM World Championship in Katowice later this month, the Ukrainian admitted his team is trying to “focus on being the best” rather than becoming embroiled in any ongoing personal contests outside the server. “I think we can be the best team in the world, when we were asked if it was the best roster, I think yes… with this roster, you have a brighter future, with this roster, and the individual skill we have, we can beat any team,” s1mple said. “We have each other’s backs. You know when your teammate is going to be covering each other, when you have no flash he’s there for you, and opposite. It’s a really good feeling. Old roster was on individuals, now we have great structure.” Just as Kostyliev suggested ten months ago when Andrey ’B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy first joined Na’Vi as the team’s esports director, he believes the behind-the-scenes analyst and coach is one of the major reasons behind the CIS team’s revival. “B1ad3 is a big reason for us [succeeding], yeah,” he said, and admitted it was “satisfying” to relink with the Counter-Strike helmsman after s1mple’s notoriously messy exit from FlipSid3 Tactics saw the pair split back in 2015. “I was waiting for this moment for such a long time, we always had problems before majors, and now I understand that we have one of the youngest rosters so it’s all about building. We will get results, soon, or eventually. We will get them.” For mobile readers, the related segment begins at 1:47 in the video below. S1mple and Na’Vi continue to their quest to “become the best” on February 25, when the Katowice event kicks off at the MCK International Congress Centre. The team also has its first chance at a major title in 2020 at the Jeunesse Arena in Rio de Janeiro on May 11. s1mple and his team now also have to prepare for the Blast Premier Finals series, to be held on June 19 in Moscow.

S1mple reveals his biggest weakness ahead of CSGO Berlin Major playoffs StarLadderOleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev spoke about his tournament experience so far and revealed a personal weakness ahead of his match against NRG in the New Champions Stage of the StarLadder Berlin Major. S1mple is a professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player that currently plays for Natus Vincere. He is widely considered to be one of the best players in the world and has been showing it as he helped lead his team to the playoffs of the Berlin Major. On September 5, he was interviewed by StarLadder, where he spoke about the event so far, how he felt in his matches, and unexpectedly revealed one of his biggest weaknesses. The majority of the interview was spent discussing Na`Vi’s games so far and the Ukranian revealed that poor communication was the reason behind their slow start in the New Legends Stage. “We just couldn’t hear each other in the first few games. We had a lot of useless information and we lost a lot of communication with each other” said s1mple. He added that although they had problems to start with, they have now warmed up and feel a lot better about their game, and are happy they have managed to make it to the playoffs as their roster is still fairly new. Na`Vi’s star player also highlighted the match against Cr4zy, stating that it was “especially tough” for him and that he ended up taking more of a support role during the match as he was struggling to find kills. This is also where simple revealed one of his biggest weaknesses, saying he struggles to perform on Inferno, especially on the Terrorist side, and he tends to lose confidence and transitions into a support role on the map. He shared a story as an example of this – his teammate Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov dropped him a weapon on Inferno against Cr4zy, and s1mple said “don’t give me a gun, I probably won’t get a kill”, which absolutely shocked the rest of his team as they had “never heard that from him before.” The team has had a short break to prepare for their quarter-finals match against NRG, which is taking place on September 6, and fans will be hoping they were able to fix their communication issues, and maybe decided to avoid s1mple’s kryptonite.

S1mple pulls off the most effortless 1 v 5 in CS:GO ever Professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev pulled off a match saving 1v5, and made it look incredibly easy. The Natus Vincere star was playing an FPL PUG match on Cache, when he quickly found himself left as the last man standing for his squad, with all five members of the enemy team still alive, and on match point. With the bomb in hand, and a Desert Eagle instead of his trusted AWP, s1mple had a lot of work to do to keep them in the game and secure the round victory for his team. Kostyliev immediately cleaned up an enemy with one single shot to the head, before picking up an AK-47 that was lying on the ground close to him. Switching to the rifle, s1mple quickly one-tapped two enemies in the space of mere seconds, leaving himself in a 1v2 with just over a minute left on the clock. Frantically searching for his final opponents, s1mple spotted a player on the highway and took him out, as his team told him to watch his flank as they prepared for the final gunfight. The ESL Cologne 2018 winner showed incredible patience as he aimed at the door, watching for any enemy movement as the time ticked down. With 50 seconds left and the bomb still not planted, s1mple’s opponent peaked around a corner at A, and was immediately sprayed down to secure the 1v5. S1mple’s teammates were heard laughing and cheering in the background after the Natus Vincere star clutched the round, but the Ukrainian remained remarkably calm considering what he had just accomplished. Kostyliev has seen plenty of success recently, as his Natus Vincere squad recently won the $125,000 BLAST Pro Series tournament in Copenhagen, Denmark.

CS:GO: S1mple pulls off incredibly sneaky 1v4 clutch in FPL match Starladder / valveProfessional CS:GO star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev showed why patience and not being too trigger-happy is vital, wit in an incredible pistol round clutch to kick off an FPL game. S1mple has been widely regarded as one of the best CS:GO players in the world over the last year, consistently putting up high kills and majorly contributing to Na’Vi’s performances at tournaments. The Ukrainian star is no different in pick-up games, however, as s1mple always seems to put on a show when streaming some of his FPL matches on Twitch. After realizing that the enemy team were going to make a play towards the B bombsite on the fan favorite map, Dust 2, s1mple held his nerve while hiding behind a box at the back of the site. Read More: Revamped CS:GO Cache map is finally finished – The Na’Vi pro waited for his chance to strike, despite watching his teammates dropping around him and leaving him in the 1v4 situation. Fortunately for him, his spot was left unchecked and s1mple quickly dispatched of all three opponents near him with quick headshots while the bomb was being planted, turning it into a 1v1, which he handled with ease. This is not the first time that s1mple shocked fans with an incredible play, as he seems to make a habit out of clutching 1v4 situations with only a pistol to work with. S1mple and the rest of the Na’Vi CS:GO roster will be looking to showcase some incredible plays, such as this one, at the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 which takes place on August 23. The Russian/Ukrainian squad will have just over two weeks from now to prepare for the million dollar tournament where they will be looking to secure Natus Vincere their first ever Major trophy.

S1mple dismisses NAVI era talk: “Five months is not a long time” João Ferreira/DexertoNAVI star Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has rejected the notion that his team have started their own era after winning PGL Major Stockholm. NAVI and s1mple finally broke their Major duck earlier in November following a flawless run in Stockholm, further cementing their position as the best team in the world. The CIS side have been at the top of HLTV’s world rankings since July 19 and won their last three international events, two of which held on LAN. In September, they also became only the third team in history to complete the $1 million Intel Grand Slam, joining Astralis and Liquid in achieving the feat. But despite NAVI’s stranglehold on titles in 2021, s1mple believes that his team are still a long way from establishing their own era, pointing to Astralis’ success in 2018 and 2019 as the standard they need to be chasing. “If you compare it to Astralis, we need to stay at the top for at least three, four, five months more to start a strong era like Astralis did,” NAVI told reporters at a media round table. “They won a lot of tournaments. “We have been top 1 in the world for the last five months in HLTV’s ranking, but I want more. Five months is not a long period, if you compare it to Astralis.” Biggest rivals NAVI will have the chance to add to their trophy case this week as they will be attending the BLAST Premier Fall Final, where the Major losing finalists, G2 Esports, and Gambit are the most notable absentees. Heroic captain Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller recently told Dexerto that he believes his team to be the only one capable of beating NAVI, alluding to the recent history of close matches between the two teams. S1mple, for his part, sees other teams above Heroic in the pecking order. “It’s not true,” s1mple said when asked about cadiaN’s remarks. “We’ve had harder games against Vitality and G2 than Heroic. “Their advantage is that they have a similar map pool [to ours]. Our strongest maps are their strongest maps as well. We have won 18 Nukes in a row and some of those games have been very close. Their Nuke is good as well, maybe that’s why they think this. “In terms of individual skill, it’s much harder to play against Gambit. Or for example, Vitality.” The CIS derby between NAVI and Gambit at the Major fell short of expectations as s1mple’s team ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, dropping only 11 rounds throughout the series. It was such a resounding victory that it seemed like a match between two teams from different levels. However, s1mple still sees Gambit as NAVI’s biggest threat. “I’d still say Gambit,” s1mple said when asked about NAVI’s main competitor. “They didn’t play their own game at the Major. We just played our best game and destroyed them mentally. “If they get more experience in front of a crowd – they’re young – they’ll be even better. If they don’t change any players, that is. And NIP as well, I think they can play better. I expected them to be in the Major final, but they lost to G2 in the quarter-finals.”

S1mple or ZywOo? The Battle of CSGO’s generational talents The battle of Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut is akin to Counter-Strike’s version of Lionel Messi vs Cristiano Ronaldo, and we may never see two people of such a high caliber playing CSGO at this level at the same time ever again. Taking the Counter-Strike scene by storm, they undoubtedly stand head and shoulders above everyone else. The Ukrainian powerhouse, S1mple, tears it up for Natus Vincere, and the French phenom, ZywOo, does the same for Team Vitality. Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz believes that while the pair are undoubtedly naturally gifted, they handle and maintain that talent differently. In 2020, however, this age-old debate only got more contentious, starting with Na’Vi’s S1mple looking unbeatable at IEM Katowice; the only LAN-based tournament of the year. As the landscape of competitive CSGO changed — did the lack of LAN tournaments in 2020 keep the team from truly reaching the pinnacle? In November 2020, the stage was set to pit the stars against one another at IEM Beijing in a standoff for the ages – Vitality’s ZywOo stepped into the spotlight once more, beating out s1mple for the top spot on the HLTV Top 20 rankings. His credentials as top dog further bolstered by Vitality claiming the crown not just here, but also at BLAST Fall Finals where they dispatched of Na’Vi as well. That being said, though, there is so much more to the pair’s iconic history – so check out the video above to find out everything you need to make your decision on who’s top dog. For all CSGO news and events, stay tuned over at our dedicated hub.

S1mple opens up ESL One Cologne with a casual round-saving 4k Natus Vincere superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple‘ Kostyliev kicked off ESL One Cologne 2019 in fine form – dishing out a round-saving 4k against mousesports. The sixth edition of ESL One Cologne kicked off on Tuesday, July 2nd with early action from Group A as Team Liquid took down MVP PK and Na’Vi held off mousesports. While both games ended in closely contested 16-14 victories for both the respective favorites, it was arguably the world’s most talented player who stole the show from the get-go – breaking mouz’ hearts in devastating fashion. As the two teams did battle on Train in a best-of-one, Na’Vi fell behind early in the first half as mousesports jumped out to a 6-3 lead. With the European upstarts looking to bag themselves a four round lead, they downed two foes before s1mple’s team even had the chance to respond. Yet, with the situation looking dire, he stepped up. The Ukrainian star sprayed down Frozen and ChrisJ to level things up in a three-on-three before sneaking further towards the outside bombsite. Woxic quickly responded with an AWP kill to give Mouz a slight upper hand but they were unable to press home their advantage as s1mple and Zeus picked up tandem kills – leaving Ropz as the final target. Despite the Estonian star taking down Zeus, s1mple quickly fired back to give his team the round win and another notch in their first-half total. As ever, s1mple’s ability to clutch up propelled Na’Vi to a 16-14 over the new look mousesports lineup as they jumped out to a perfect start in Group A. The Ukrainian superstar completed the game with yet another impressive stat line – racking up 32 kills and only falling to 17 deaths. His +15 K/D was more than double highest of anyone on the server as he put his explosive talent on show for all to see. He’ll need to be in fine form yet again as Na’Vi’s win landed them a date with world #1 Team Liquid in the upper bracket of Group A.

S1mple offers career advice to CSGO prodigy m0NESY NAVI/DexertoNAVI star Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has offered his take on what Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov should do next to further his career. m0NESY, who plies his trade for NAVI’s academy team, called NAVI Junior, is widely regarded as one of CS:GO’s most exciting young prospects. The Russian player joined NAVI’s youth set-up in January 2020 at the age of 14, and just two months later was invited to play in FACEIT Pro League (FPL), the most prestigious matchmaking league in the game. In 2021, m0NESY has been living up to his promise. He is averaging a 1.36 HLTV rating and 1.42 Impact despite NAVI Junior often failing to reach the latter stages of the European tournaments in which they compete. Earlier in November, his explosive power was on full display as he helped NAVI Junior to a runners-up finish at the WePlay Academy League Season 2 Finals with a 1.30 HLTV rating, the second-highest overall. S1mple offers advice Fresh off guiding NAVI to their first Major title, s1mple appeared on the ‘HLTV Confirmed’ podcast on November 15 to discuss the team’s success in 2021 and the dominant run at PGL Major Stockholm. Asked about m0NESY’s current situation and what he needs to do to continue his evolution, s1mple said that the academy player should test himself in a new environment. “I’d recommend him to ask for a one-year loan move because in the future he will definitely deserve to play for NAVI’s main team,” s1mple said. “You never know what will happen in the future. Maybe someone will retire or something like that. “He needs to get some more experience against better teams. In his place, I’d go somewhere for a year and see what happens. His English is okay, it’s not that good. He needs to practice it with people, and talk to them about something other than CS.” S1mple also guaranteed that NAVI will not stand in the way of m0NESY joining another team to continue his development, saying: “It’s NAVI. They always help the players.”

S1mple The Savior: NAVI rely too much on top talent | Richard Lewis reacts @ BLAST Fall Finals Richard Lewis argues that Natus Vincere is relying too much on their star players to make up for a lack of tactics to win games. They’ve had a tough road at BLAST Premier Global Finals, dropping into the Lower Bracket after their opening game. NAVI is lacking in information plays and tactics, but their most impactful players, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov, are pulling them through games. Richard adds, however, that NAVI could still go all the way at BLAST, but it’ll take a lot to overcome Astralis. Today at the penultimate day of the event, NAVI dominated Team Liquid with a 2-0 win, bouncing back into form after previously dropping down into the Lower Bracket. While not a surprise to him after they won Katowice — he even went so far as to say they could be the next Dynasty — Richard finds that the team is cruising through and relying too heavily on its top talent, predominantly s1mple. In the online era, teams have had to deal with playing in an incredibly different way, and the pandemic has undoubtedly affected how NAVI plays. With an incredibly talented roster — especially with the developing skill of player Valeriy ‘B1T’ Vakhovskiy — the team still seems to struggle with pinning down a win at tournaments. For all Counter-Strike news and events, stay tuned over at our dedicated hub.

S1mple ‘leaks’ next CSGO Major location in chat with Neymar Jr Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Natus Vincere star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev may have leaked the location of the next CSGO Major. CSGO Majors are the biggest and most prestigious events of the game, hosted only two times a year and boasting an impressive $1 million prize pool. They are hosted all around the world and always provide an electric atmosphere, with fans jumping at a chance to attend a Major in their home country. Normally, they are revealed by the tournament organizer in a special announcement, but S1mple may just have leaked the next one. Reddit user wellwellsky shared that the Ukranian was broadcasting on his Instagram and popular soccer player Neymar Jr tuned in. He then greeted the player, before sharing that the next Counter-Strike Major will be played in Brazil and that he hopes Neymar will go to watch and enjoy it. Not much has been confirmed about the next Major, however, it is scheduled to be played in May 2020 and with a fairly lengthy qualification process, it is likely that the location has already been chosen and some players may have heard about it. The most recent Major, hosted by StarLadder in Berlin, was announced in February and began in August. S1mple’s ‘leak’ came in November, once again seven months before the start of the event, so it may be more than coincidence. If the next Major is hosted in Brazil, then it will be the first to be hosted in all of South America, as well as only the fourth outside of Europe. No official announcement has been made by Valve or any tournament organizer, but with the scheduled date looming ever closer, it’s only a matter of time until something is revealed. This isn’t the first time that Neymar has been involved in CSGO, the player is known to play the game in his spare time and is close friends with the MiBR squad, playing with them on multiple occasions in recent years. Perhaps he will make a special appearance if the event is hosted in his home country.

s1mple hopeful NAVI will show their “S game” at IEM Katowice João Ferreira/DexertoAleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev dismissed NAVI’s struggles in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups as a bump in the road and said the team should perform much better on LAN in Katowice. The CIS team looked out of form in their first tournament of 2022, the BLAST Premier Spring Groups, but still managed to qualify for the Spring Finals thanks to the competition’s forgiving format. NAVI’s performance was a far cry from their dominant showings in 2021 as they won just two of their five matches in the BLAST competition – even dropping games to relative minnows MIBR and to a struggling Astralis side. As NAVI finish their preparations for IEM Katowice, the first LAN tournament of the year, s1mple explained that the team’s issues in the BLAST tournament were down to a lack of sharpness as the players are still trying to come back to form after a long and demanding season. “It was the first time we had such a long break, and it’s hard to get back to [where we were] when we were winning and crushing everyone,” s1mple told reporters at a press conference. “Of course, we need some time. And it was online. Our team performs better on LAN from game to game, and I think we are reaching better levels of performance.” Better preparation NAVI will play their first match at IEM Katowice only on February 18, taking on one of the last teams coming out of the Play-In stage. Discover more: Pop Flash: Astralis are a MESS! | IEM Katowice Preview – In a way, NAVI will have more margin for error now as all matches in the double-elimination group stage will be played in a best-of-three format. This will give them the chance to iron out the flaws in their game and to improve as the tournament goes on. At IEM Katowice 2020, for example, they dropped down to the lower bracket early and then cruised through the playoffs, beating Astralis, Liquid and G2 Esports without dropping a single map. “I hope so,” he said when asked if NAVI will be closer to full force in Katowice. “We improve during LAN games. In the group stage, we’re going to play like this, and in the quarter-finals, we’re going to play much better. If we get there, of course. “Our preparation for IEM Katowice was much, much better than at the start of the year. We all had vacations, we all forgot some strats. Hopefully, we are going to show our A game or S game.”

s1mple has career-worst CSGO Major as NAVI crash out of BLAST Paris Michal Konkol/BLASTNAVI legend s1mple ended the BLAST Paris Major with his lowest numbers as his team failed to reach the tournament’s playoffs. The Ukrainian team has been sent packing in 9th-11th place after wasting two chances to reach the BLAST Paris Major following defeats to Monte and FaZe Clan. This is the first time since PGL Major Krakow 2017 that NAVI couldn’t qualify for the playoffs of a Major. The only two other times NAVI did not make it to the playoff stage of a Major were at the first Valve-sponsored events, DreamHack Winter 2013 and EMS One Katowice 2014. After a solid start to the tournament, s1mple’s form went off course. He posted a shocking 0.62 HLTV rating in the 0-2 loss to Monte and then finished the series against FaZe with a 1.02 rating. With NAVI eliminated, s1mple leaves Paris with a 1.07 rating overall, the worst of his career at Majors. His previous lowest rating, from DreamHack Winter 2014, was 1.12. Despite the setback, s1mple is still on course to end 2023 as one of the best players in the world. He is averaging a 1.19 rating this year, though he hasn’t been able to add an MVP to his collection as NAVI are still looking to end a trophyless run stretching almost 12 months. NAVI’s next event will be the BLAST Premier Spring Final, which will take place between June 6 and 11 in Washington, D.C. s1mple’s ratings at CSGO Majors BLAST.tv Paris Major: 1.07 – IEM Rio Major 2022: 1.18 – PGL Major Antwerp 2022: 1.20 – PGL Major Stockholm 2021: 1.47 – StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: 1.19 – IEM Katowice 2019: 1.29 – FACEIT Major 2018: 1.34 – ELEAGUE Major 2018: 1.23 – ELEAGUE Major 2018 Challengers Stage: 1.52 – PGL Major Krakow 2017: 1.34 – ELEAGUE Major 2017: 1.19 – ESL One Cologne 2016: 1.18 – MLG Columbus 2016: 1.24 – DreamHack Winter 2014: 1.12 * – Note: * HLTV.org was still using the 1.0 version of its rating in 2014.

s1mple gets new role following Na’Vi CSGO roster change L: StarLadder, R: DreamHackNa’Vi have announced a change to their CS:GO roster, replacing Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács with Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy. The change follows earlier reports that GuardiaN had stopped practicing with the squad, and that they were looking for a young rifler to replace him. Perfecto has most recently been competing for Syman Gaming, who most notably appeared at the StarLadder Berlin Major in September 2019, where they pulled off upset wins over Vitality and North before eventually being eliminated in the Challengers Stage by eventual finalists AVANGAR. The change marks the end of GuardiaN’s short second stint in Na’Vi, having returned to the team in September 2019. The period was largely underwhelming, with GuardiaN putting up some of the weakest performances in his career. The introduction of GuardiaN to the team also came with a switch for star player Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, who gave up the AWP to move into a primary rifling position. While the change was one that s1mple himself stated he had wanted to make, the results weren’t what the team had been hoping for, with Na’Vi failing to see an improvement in performance. With GuardiaN now leaving the team, s1mple will once again be taking up the AWP, with Perfecto filling the vacant rifler position. Fans of both the team and s1mple himself will undoubtedly be pleased to see the change, with many of his best performances historically coming with the sniper in hand. Na’Vi coach Andrii ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskyi cited language barriers as one of the main reasons for the change, with GuardiaN being the sole Slovakian on an otherwise Russian and Ukrainian squad. “Everybody tried very hard and progress was noticeable but in critical moments of the match, we lacked the coherence where we would react to opponent’s actions as a one unit. One of the reasons is the language barrier, which was especially noticeable in the game against tier-1 teams, where quality and speed of communication is of a great importance. That’s why we decided to replace Ladislav, and s1mple returns to the AWP role, because he is simply the best in that field.” Na’Vi are due to make their debut with the new squad in the BLAST Premier Spring group stage, which is taking place from January 31 to February 16. Na’Vi’s new CS:GO roster: Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilev – Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev – Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov – Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov – Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy –

s1mple forgets he’s not on LAN in hilarious CSGO stream fail Counter-Strike: Global Offensive superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev was left red in the face after hilariously confusing his Twitch stream for playing at a LAN tournament. As one of the best, if not the best, Counter-Strike players on the planet, it’s incredibly rare that fans see s1mple make a mistake in-game. The Natus Vincere star is usually leading the charge with his opening kills, taking over rounds singlehandedly, or clutching up to the joy of everyone watching. However, fans finally got to enjoy a ‘lowlight’ as he made a hilarious mistake on-stream – forgetting where he was in the heat of some CS:GO action. During his November 3 stream, the Natus Vincere superstar had been playing games of Faceit Pro League when he hit one enemy with a sniper shot and tried to relay that information to his teammates. He called out the hit and immediately looked to his right, as if he were looking for answers from his Na’Vi teammates on LAN, but as he was at home, he quickly realized his mistake and burst into laughter. “Jesus Christ, I was watching on the right side to say info and see what my teammates were going to do,” S1mple said, explaining the hilarious blunder. “Ahh, too many tournaments right now, too many games.” It’s not exactly a shock that the #1 ranked CS:GO player in the world is so used to speaking to his teammates on LAN. Since October 17, his team has played 11 matches across ESL Pro League in London, StarSeries i-league in Turkey, and BLAST Pro Series in Copenhagen. In those 11 matches, Na’Vi has played 18 maps, with s1mple pulling off his usual heroics in the majority of them – despite the fact they bombed out of the StarSeries event and had to bounce back with a third-place finish at BLAST Pro Series. However, their grueling schedule is now behind them, with Na’Vi currently being scheduled for around a month-long break before they head to the Pro League finals in Odense on December 3rd. Until then, though, s1mple will have to re-adjust to playing by himself and just calling out information to his online teammates – even if his fans might wish for more hilarious mistakes.

s1mple explains why ZywOo is the best AWPer in CSGO StarLadderOleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has opened up on who he believes the best AWPer in the history of CS:GO is, backing French phenom and rival Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut due to his flexible skillset. There is no more explosive gun than the AWP in CS:GO. The green stick has led to many infamous moments in the game’s history, and teams are often built around a strong AWPer who can hold angles on defense while picking apart foes on attack. The discussion for the best AWPer of all time has been rampant throughout CS:GO’s history though. From s1mple to kennyS, dev1ce to ZywOo, there’s plenty of talented players to pick from. That’s what makes s1mple’s pick even more sweet. The Ukrainian star doesn’t dish out praise lightly, and you know it’s coming from arguably the greatest player of all time — period. That’s why his praise of rival Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut as the best AWPer of all-time is extraordinary. Read More: IEM Global Challenge 2020 hub – “For the best AWPer, I’d have to pick ZywOo. First of all, he’s a great player and he knows how to play with the AWP,” he said in an interview with ESL. “He’s really smart, he changes his position, and he knows how [the] enemy plays against him. He can play aggressive if his team needs, he can play passive as well. I would take him.” If there’s one player in the world that knows what it’s like to play against ZywOo, it would be s1mple too. His Na’Vi has faced off against the Frenchman’s Vitality numerous times over the course of 2020, with the two squads practically neck-and-neck in head-to-head. The rest of s1mple’s squad for the best “Prime 6” of all-time had some interesting choices too. He looked close to home for a couple of names — picking Andrii ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskyi as coach, while he firmly believes Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov is a star fans at home underestimate. “This guy is on another level. Me, electronic, and B1ad3 — I think we have the same mindset. Electronic can easily be a star player in any team,” he added. He rounded out the squad with four-time Major winner Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander as IGL, FaZe Clan star Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard as entry, and old Team Liquid teammate Spencer ‘Hiko’ Martin as support. Of course, s1mple could slide into his own “dream team” squad if he really wanted to, but it’s a nice insight into what the best player in the world thinks of his contemporaries.

S1mple explains why some CS:GO pros will never be consistent L: Valve. R: ELeague.Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has revealed why he believes fellow professionals are not improving despite, even after piling time into practice. The Natus Vincere superstar, who is arguably the best player in the world, may not have the recent tournament success to back up his own skills, but there’s no doubt that he dedicates himself to trying to improve rather than just playing for the sake of playing. Like the majority of top players, s1mple commits himself to practice through hours upon hours of playing CS:GO. Yet, not all of them have matched his ability to get better through playing seriously. During his June 14 stream, the Ukrainian had been dabbling in games of FACEIT Pro League alongside a number of fellow pros when viewers questioned his decision to not select upcoming talent ‘D0cC’ for his team. S1mple explained that he wanted players who played the game the right way and not “stupid” in highly intense rounds. “If you’re going to play really stupid in these rounds, then what? Why are you even playing FPL, why you play CS?,” stated S1mple. “Even if FPL, Matchmaking, FACEIT or whatever is for fun you always need to play your hundred percent level.” He continued: “How do you want to be consistent in official games if you don’t know or if you can’t be consistent in any other matches? I don’t understand the question ‘how to be consistent’. Just play at your max level every time.” Will anyone take s1mple’s advice on board? Considering s1mple has seemingly god-given talent to be one of the premier CS:GO professionals around, it’s pretty easy for him to say that you should just play 100% at all times. However, he practices what he preaches and even takes games with his non-pro friends as serious as he would an on-stage match for Natus Vincere. It remains to be seen if any other top-level players take his advice on board and look to propel themselves even further. After all, better competition means that everybody has to raise their own game and s1mple could very well take his skills to the next level as he goes in search of that elusive Major win.

S1mple explains why jasonR should reconsider his career options Dexerto | FragbiteOleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is widely regarded as the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player on earth; if he compliments you on your gameplay, it’s a pretty big deal. Well, Jason ‘jasonR’ Ruchelski received the ultimate compliment during one of his recent Twitch streams. The former professional is best known for his time with Splyce and OpTic Gaming, but he chose to walk away from his playing career and concentrate on streaming halfway though 2017. Since then, he has grown a loyal fanbase that watches him play everything from CS:GO to Fortnite Battle Royale and he currently boasts over 500,000 followers on Twitch. But Natus Vincere’s 20-year-old star, s1mple, is of the opinion that the Canadian streamer walked away from his time as a player far too early, and he made sure to tell him that during a recent game. Read More: OpTic Gaming, North and Heroic make changes to their CS:GO rosters as Danish shuffle begins – “If you become a professional player, you’ll be good,” the Ukrainian stated after joining jasonR’s TeamSpeak channel. “Why are you not playing professional? That’s the question.” Clearly flattered, jasonR estated “I don’t know man, I enjoy just streaming and making content, you know?” But s1mple continued to explain why he should consider making a return to competitive play, saying “I mean, I always watch your stream and I see a replay of you doing some crazy wallbangs, all of this stuff, and I never see any people do this.” Solid praise indeed from the world’s number one player! S1mple is currently currently competing at ESL One New York 2018 with his Na’Vi teammates.

S1mple explains why current Na’Vi CSGO lineup is the “best” ever ESLCounter-Strike: Global Offensive superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has explained why this iteration of Natus Vincere is the “best” one yet. S1mple is widely considered to be the best Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player in the world and joined his dream team, Na`Vi, in 2016, creating a line-up that many thought would dominate the CS scene. However, the team never quite managed to reach the peak and even struggled to do much of anything in 2019, resulting in a few roster changes. Most recently, Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács was removed from the squad to make room for Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy and the team has already shown impressive results, winning their group in the BLAST Spring season. The Na`Vi squad has been battling it out with the best in the world at IEM Katowice 2020 and managed to secure a spot in the playoffs. Things are looking better than ever for the team and s1mple even claimed that this is the best line-up yet in an interview with Dexerto. “I think our individual performance, of all our players, is the best of all [previous Na`Vi] players. If everyone’s on point we can easily win every clutch.” Oleksandr began, with some high praise, before explaining what exactly makes the team so good. “Everyone’s progressing [well] and everyone understands each other. We all understand what we bring to Counter-Strike and what we need to reach 100% of our level.” S1mple also spoke about their next matchup, in which they face off against Team Liquid in Katowice on Feb 28. He claims the team is now “confident” when playing against the North American squad, and seemed extremely calm about the match. There’s no doubt that it will be an exciting one as the two teams battle for a spot in the semi-finals of IEM Katowice 2020, where they will face the current number one team Astralis. The Ukrainian, his team, and CSGO fans are in for an exciting weekend of Counter-Strike action, where we may just see the best Na`Vi squad yet shine.

CSGO star s1mple explains why he’s giving up the AWP StarLadder / ValveNatus Vincere star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has spoken to HLTV about why he’s giving up the AWP and going back to rifling. If there is any player in the world that can easily swap between roles in Counter-Strike, it’s s1mple. Named the best player in the world in 2018, the Ukranian superstar has always shone in bright lights, no matter the team he is on or the weapon in his hands. He’s made a name for himself with his deadly precision with the AWP, but in an interview with HLTV on September 23, he’s described how he’s going to give it all up with the latest rendition of Na`Vi. The Ukranian superstar described the impact of Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács’ return to Na`Vi on the team structure. Read more: The s1mple question – The former AWPer left in 2017 amid rumors of infighting, which forced s1mple onto the AWP for the Ukranian squad. However, with GuardiaN back from his stint on FaZe Clan, s1mple was asked to swap back onto rifles – something he happily obliged in. “With our new coach, B1ad3, he asked me if I want to keep playing with the sniper and I told him, as I always say, if there was going to be a better sniper, a real sniper, of course I was going to give him the AWP,” he said. GuardiaN is considered one of the best in the world in terms of wielding the green stick, having dominated the early days of CSGO on Na`Vi. A pure sniper at heart, he is a more than apt replacement for the Ukranian superstar. “(GuardiaN) knows how to use this weapon, he has the most experience out of anyone,” he said. “So he knows how to win and I’m confident in his sniper skills.” Rifles aren’t new to s1mple. The talented player used to be chucked on the AK-47 and M4A4 on teams gone by, and the role gave him more freedom which he is looking forward to reclaiming. Read more: PashaBiceps overthrows analyst desk – “I feel confident with rifles, I wanted this before, there is more freedom when you play as a rifler,” he said. You can hide in a smoke, you can use all your nades, you can easily trade – I think it is going to work for our team. “Before, I practiced all the weapons, and even when I was the main AWP I was kind of a hybrid player. Now I’m just going to focus on my positions.” s1mple’s role in Na`Vi will shift towards more of a secondary AWPer role, picking it up when the team requires another experienced hand on the gun. “I’m going to play as the secondary sniper so I’m still going to pick it up sometimes,” he said. Na`Vi’s first major event with their new line up will be at DreamHack Masters Malmö, which starts on October 1.

S1mple explains why CS:GO pros should stop complaining after Vertigo update Dexerto/ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has hit out at his fellow professional players for continuing to complain about changes made to the game. Why is Vertigo in CS:GO? The game’s developer, March 29 update – removing Cache, a fan favorite and mainstay in the pool, and replacing it with Vertigo – which has never been in active duty before and is pretty different to other maps. While it’s not as sprawling and open as other maps, the awkwardness of Vertigo makes it difficult to play as players are so used to having space to operate and not being so strangled in with a smaller play area. Since its addition, both fans and players have spoken about the change, criticizing Valve for adding such a strangely laid-out map to the competitive side of the game – with many believing that there is no reason that the map should be included in the active duty pool. However, s1mple is not one of them and wants players to stop complaining about the changes – and simply adapt to the hand they are dealt as they are beholden to Valve and what decisions they make. The Natus Vincere superstar tweeted: “Valve can do whatever they want, it’s their game, they can add any map, they can remove any map, they can change any weapon. Understand this already, please, and instead of crying on social media just keep working hard in any different situation.” Valve can do whatever they want, it’s their game, they can add any map, they can remove any map, they can change any weapon, understand this already please and instead of “”crying”” in social media just keep working hard in any different situation — Sasha (@s1mpleO) March 30, 2019 While not many fans or players backed the Ukrainian’s post, he did get one supportive response from a highly-respected name in the scene. Legendary Swedish player Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund echoed his post, replying a few hours later: “Amen brother, amen.” While pros and the game’s developer have co-ordinated on changes in the past, with Valve taking on feedback at CS:GO Majors, it is true that it is their game and they can make whatever changes they want. Yet, they won’t be deaf to the criticism and if there’s plenty of backlash towards one decision they make, it may not be too long until they revert it.

S1mple embarrasses opponents with “300IQ” clutch in FPL ESLNa’Vi CS:GO star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev left his viewers in awe after a perfect trick outplayed his opponents to clutch a near-impossible 2v4 situation during an FPL match. Since his rise to the top, joining premier CS:GO organization Natus Vincere in 2017, s1mple has always been in the conversation for Player of the Year awards with his consistent performances at the highest level. The Ukrainian has also built a loyal viewer base as a streamer on Twitch, gaining over 1.4 million followers for his always-entertaining and competitive FPL pick-up matches. Towards the end of his April 25 broadcast, s1mple found himself in an incredibly difficult 2v4 situation and despite being on match point with rounds to spare, he was not willing to forfeit the round, reminding fans just why he is among the best in the world. After finding himself trapped inside of Mirage’s B short ladder room, with his opponents watching the exit, little utility, and the bomb in hand, his chances to close out the map were slim. However, s1mple took advantage of CS:GO’s physics by shooting a smoke grenade that was on the floor near him, bouncing it off a wall and around a corner, to his teammate who had also run out of meaningful utility grenades. After realizing what s1mple had done, his teammate instantly threw the smoke on B short, allowing s1mple to pass him the bomb and make his escape. His teammate managed to get the bomb down with only seconds to spare but instead of joining him on the site to make a stand, the Na’Vi pro took a page out of Stewie2K’s book and lurked in the smoke waiting for his enemies to pass. This resulted in the surviving pair picking up the rest of the kills with ease and closing out the final match of his broadcast with a flawless 2v4 clutch. S1mple’s chat exploded after witnessing his quick thinking with many praising him for his “300IQ” tactics in the clutch situation. As many of the upcoming CS:GO LAN events have been canceled or moved to an online format, it is likely that fans will get to witness even more ridiculous outplays from s1mple in the coming weeks, with him having more time to stream than usual.

S1mple & dev1ce hit out at Twitch and YouTube over CSGO scam streams ESLProfessional CSGO players Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz have spoken out on the lack of measures against fake skin giveaway scammers on Twitch and Youtube. Scammers of CSGO personalities such as Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, s1mple and dev1ce have been roaming around streaming platforms with little consequence for a while. The problem reached new heights in late 2019, when s1mple initially started to comment on the situation. The issue of fake streams has started to resurface again, and unsuspecting fans are being cheated out of their Steam inventories. On October 27, the Ukrainian shared an email from a fan expressing their disappointment in having his CSGO inventory stolen after falling prey to a scammer impersonating s1mple on Twitch. https://twitter.com/s1mpleO/status/1321050350007320578 Astralis player Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz also voiced his unhappiness with the lack of action from Youtube, referencing his own problems with impersonators on the Google platform. Same. Contacted @YouTube several times and no help. 😶 https://t.co/briaAb8FPo — Nicolai Reedtz (@dev1ce) October 27, 2020 The way these scammers operate is relatively straight-foward: they create an account pretending to be a famous personality or pro player and use old footage to simulate a live stream. They will then provide links to websites claiming to give free prizes, instead they ask for login details and sometimes more. Richard Lewis has previously covered the issue on Dexerto. S1mple has pointed this issue out multiple times over the last eight months, however it seems that Twitch is unable or unwilling to deal with the growing problem on their platform. Lets all together help Twitch find freelancers, so that they remove at least 1 fake stream per day — Sasha (@s1mpleO) April 13, 2020 Just a couple of days ago, fake streams of shroud and s1mple appeared on the Amazon-owned platform with upwards of 20,000 viewers. These fake streams took over the CSGO section of twitch, claiming a higher percentage of viewers than the regional final of a major CS tournament. While those accounts were eventually deleted, new ones have already taken their place. Twitch and Youtube have so far, failed to keep up with the problem of fake streams and this poses a risk to its users, with today’s one being the most recent example.

s1mple destroys CS:GO pros with deadly 1v4 eco clutch Counter-Strike: Global Offensive superstar Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev once again proved that he is the top dog, by ripping apart a team of his fellow pro players. The Ukrainian is arguably the best CS:GO player in the world as he dominates every game he touches with absurd stats and equally impressive kills. In his downtime, however, he doesn’t usually stray too far away from the Valve title – opting to stream for his fans. That was the case during a recent FACEIT Pro League session, as he wowed viewers with a domination of his fellow pros by using only a Desert Eagle. While clearing out the site, he caught one defender – MODDII – unaware and quickly eliminated him from the round with a swift headshot. After planting the bomb, s1mple retreated to the Bench position to keep a lookout for any counter-terrorists trying to defuse. He didn’t have to wait long as the remaining three players rushed the site at once. He dispatched of Hadji with a few Deagle shots before hitting Mousesports star Ropz with an instant headshot. S1mple was left in a one-on-one with Ropz’ teammate Woxic as the Turkish wonderkid tried to finish him off. However, Woxic fell to the same fate of the others as he was the last player to fall after the Na’Vi star lined him up for a wallbang and hammered home the final kill. The Ukrainian isn’t usually one for over-celebrating kills and clutches, it’s pretty much business as usual for him to do so, but he couldn’t resist giving his viewers a little fist pump. His clutch set his team on their way to a victory over the majority Mousesport line-up as s1mple picked up another win in the FPL and added another outstanding highlight clip to his ever-growing catalog of stream moments. He’ll be looking to replicate his on-stream form for Natus Vincere as they head into LAN action at ESL One Cologne on July 2, looking to defend their crown.

s1mple defends ZywOo after Vitality star flounders against Complexity StarLadderOleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has jumped to Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut’s defense, after the Vitality star posted his worst performance in history at BLAST Premier Spring 2021, dropping only 2-17 on Overpass in their 0-2 explosion against Complexity. ZywOo rarely has an off-day on the server, but that’s exactly what 2020’s number one player had against Complexity. Vitality’s star AWPer posted his worst individual map in history, getting only two kills on Overpass and posting a 0.28 HLTV rating. The Frenchmen ended up falling down 0-2 with the result, with Valentin ‘poizon’ Vasilev and the rest of Complexity running riot on the server. While many were quick to criticize the 20-year-old, his contemporary in s1mple jumped to his defense. The Na’Vi veteran has been there before, and he had some words of encouragement for his younger French protege. “If you see dev1ce or ZywOo, you don’t get to trash talk them, because as you saw, I had the worst game of my career as well [against Vitality in 2019]. It’s not because I played bad, it’s because my team played bad,” he explained on a February 11 stream. Read More: Vitality’s apEX takes break from competing – “If some of us great players play bad, it doesn’t mean we’re going to keep playing bad. You don’t need to hate us. The only bad thing can happen [when] some of these players [have a] bad map is losing confidence for the next map, but they’re actually great players. They always come back.” He asked his fans to stop slamming ZywOo on social media. S1mple claimed at the end of the day, every pro player is there for a reason — and they all have their moments. “I’m just telling everyone to stop hating, stop arguing who’s the better player. Who can argue who’s better, but you don’t need to f**king hate anyone. You don’t need to say they’re doing bad. “Like me or ZywOo or dev1ce or Electronic or any other player, all of us can…show something new for you and each other, and that’s what we need to respect because all of us do a great job of showing some great performances. “That’s the most important; when you play with [stability], with confidence, at a great level — that’s what I respect the most.” ZywOo did manage to bounce back against Evil Geniuses, posting a game-high 1.26 rating in the series. His squad still fell 1-2 to the Americans though, bowing out BLAST Premier Spring 2021 in 10-12th.

s1mple crowned CSGO’s Player of the Decade BLASTs1mple has been crowned the CSGO Player of the Decade. His individual performance across the last 10 years has made him a standout player in every way and earned him the prestigious title. s1mple is one of the most tenured and decorated players in CSGO history. While he may not have the most robust trophy cabinet, only winning his first major with NaVi in 2021, his individual level of skill and numerous MVP awards make him one of the all-time greats. NaVi and s1mple are synonymous at this point. He’s been with the organization since 2016 and has been the franchise player for them through his greatest years as a competitor. This won’t change any time soon considering he’s re-signed with the organization through 2025. In what was a bittersweet announcement for the CSGO superstar, he was crowned Player of the Decade just after being eliminated from IEM Rio. s1mple gets Player of the Decade after crushing IEM defeat s1mple is the AWPer. Sure, he’s great with a rifle, but s1mple has clutched many a round with his trusty sniper. His consistency as an individual player and tenacity to take his first major after several years of competition earned him Player of the Decade. In a broadcast interview, s1mple said that “The game changed my life. I just want to play, play, play.” Even after a decade worth of competition, he still has the drive to improve and remain one of CSGO’s greatest competitors. However, the situation surrounding his achievement has been somewhat controversial. FURIA got the crowd buff in their home country and knocked NaVi out of IEM Rio contention in an incredible upset match. s1mple didn’t take criticism for his performance sitting down. While the award may be bittersweet after NaVi’s loss to FURIA, this tweet encapsulates what allowed s1mple to earn Player of the Decade: His drive to keep fighting and competing no matter what.

s1mple criticizes “pathetic” ESL over treatment of CSGO teams ELEAGUE / ESLNa’Vi superstar s1mple has spoken out against tournament organizer ESL for its handling of teams that lost an earned spot in the ESL Pro League. Between the EPL, the B Site League, and BLAST Premier, there are ample opportunities for CS:GO teams in the very top tiers of the scene to compete for shiny trophies and robust prize pools in 2020. But, members of the game’s community are concerned that chances may be taken from teams sitting just outside the very top tier, and recent actions by ESL have drawn complaints about earned league spots being ripped away from teams. Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields has even completely cut ties with ESL over the announcement. On January 24, ESL announced that they were halving the pool of teams for ESL Pro League, from 48 to 24. In addition, they announced the 24 teams that had been directly invited to compete, but players and personalities took issue with how it was handled. While some zeroed in on the business practice of announcing the invites as a means to put pressure on teams to compete before they had officially agreed to, others focused on the teams that were now losing Pro League spots they had earned, and were being relegated to the lower-tier Mountain Dew League. One of the faces of the competitive scene and one of the game’s best-ever players, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev of Natus Vincere, didn’t hold back his feelings online. Just imagine YOU do qualifiers for spot in TO league then they cancel and send your team home, what a pathetic organizers — Sasha (@s1mpleO) January 25, 2020 Calling the move “pathetic,” the Na’Vi AWPer highlighted the decision of teams being sent home by the organizer of a tournament they had qualified for. Another CS great in Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson retweeted s1mple’s sentiments. Teams like BIG and HellRaisers had previously qualified for Season 11 at the end of Season 10, while other teams like Sprout, HAVU, and Team Spirit didn’t get a chance to compete in Relegation matches to earn a spot. And these are just the teams in Europe losing out. S1mple also called out ESL for their “World Rankings” system, questioning why they would use that while the HLTV world rankings have already been in place for eight years. Just imagine to create your own team rank system when @HLTVorg has own WORLD RANK with 8+ years of their WORK on ranking points — Sasha (@s1mpleO) January 25, 2020 ESL are yet to respond to the community’s complaints. It’s yet to be seen if the response will impact the decisions of teams invited to the Pro League.

S1mple channels inner Dr Disrespect in hilarious response to Twitch ban Starladder / Dr Disrespect Instagram[jwplayer 3EyfiByz]CSGO star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev didn’t take his latest Twitch ban quietly, referencing a handful of the streaming company’s recent controversies dealing with Dr Disrespect, complacency, or lack of transparency. S1mple, and former teammate Danylo ‘Zeus’ Teslenko, were banned from Twitch on July 29. This isn’t the first time that either of the pros have been banned, and, per Twitch policy, the specific reason for the decision remains unknown. Moments after his ban was announced, s1mple gave his audience a brief statement that channeled the Doc’s message when he was banned, even addressing the ‘Champions Club’ for his latest ban. “Champions Club, Twitch has not notified me on the specific reason behind their decision… Firm handshakes to all for the support during this difficult time,” he tweeted. Champions Club, Twitch has not notified me on the specific reason behind their decision… Firm handshakes to all for the support during this difficult time. While I’m enjoying my ban we can all enjoy my other streams with “”great”” giveaways that everyone can “”easily”” win -s1mple— Sasha (@s1mpleO) July 29, 2020 It’s not hard to read between the lines to see the parallels s1mple was trying to make seeing as the reason for his suspension, and the length of it, remain unknown. After Dr Disrespect’s surprise ban, the Two-Time, who had signed an exclusive contract with Twitch months before, was ousted from the platform without a “specific reason behind their decision.” Champions Club, Twitch has not notified me on the specific reason behind their decision… Firm handshakes to all for the support during this difficult time. -Dr Disrespect — Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) June 28, 2020 Capping off his statement, the CS superstar sarcastically invited his audience to “enjoy [his] other streams with ‘great’ giveaways that everyone can ‘easily’ win.” Once again, this hit a soft spot with the community seeing as the CS:GO category on Twitch is riddled with streams that use the names, faces, and content of other people to lure viewers into scam promotions. Phishing streams have used the likeness of everyone from s1mple, Astralis’ Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz, then-Mixer exclusive streamer Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek, Team Liquid’s Jake ‘Stewie2K’ Yip, and more. These channels use blatant view-bots to amass thousands of ‘participants’ but have persisted for months on end, and Twitch audiences have been clamoring for the company to put an end to them. Since this is yet another ban on s1mple’s channel, it’s unknown how long his stream will be down for, but he and his fans are awaiting more information from Twitch.

S1mple continues to break his own impressive CS:GO stats streak Counter-Strike: Global Offensive superstar Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is currently on his way to securing a record-breaking year of performances despite not winning as many titles as he may have deserved. S1mple secures #1 status The Ukrainian star was given the honor of being named as the #1 player in the world for the 2018 season despite his Natus Vincere team falling well behind the dominant Astralis. S1mple’s brilliant form has already transitioned into 2019, helping carry NaVi to a third-place finish at IEM Katowice and a win at StarSeries i-League Season 7. Yet, the most impressive thing about his current run might just be his ability to sustain the individual brilliance. S1mple continues to break his own records With a ton of time still left to go in the 2019 season, s1mple is riding high on a 29 map streak of a 1+ rating from HLTV. HLTV’s 1.0 rating combines a number of different stats to formulate a score for a player’s performance, with 1.0 being the average that a player can fall below or jump above. The stats become even more mind-bogglingly awesome when you realize that s1mple has been able to extend the run-on-year. In 2016, he went 16 maps with a +1 before jumping up to 24 consecutive maps in 2017. He beat his own record in 2018, marching to 28 maps with a positive rating. As impressive as they are, however, he still some way to go to achieving the eclipsing the overall record of 53 set by legendary Ninjas in Pyjamas pro Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg. 600Can s1mple dethrone Astralis? Despite all the stunning personal stats and highlight plays, s1mple won’t be able to lift NaVi to titles and success all by himself – even if that might seem like the team’s gameplan every now and again. The superstar has already revealed how the organization is shaking things up by adding even more structure to the team with the introduction of a dietologist and psychologist. However, they will probably need a bit more than that to be consistently challenging Astralis at the very top of the CS:GO food chain.

S1mple banned again on Twitch for fourth time over “aggression” CS:GO star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev has apparently been banned again on Twitch, for his fourth time in total on the platform. The Ukrainian is the star of Natus Vincere’s CSGO squad and generally considered one of the best CS:GO players in the entire world, but even that isn’t enough to save you from the wrath of Twitch mods. S1mple is no stranger to temporary bans from the site, and it seems he added to his tally again on Oct. 30, with his channel being taken offline out of nowhere. It seems that like in the past, the pro has once again been banned for using a slur while streaming, but this latest episode isn’t quite like the others. ❌ Twitch Partner “”s1mple”” (@s1mpleo) has been banned! ❌https://t.co/yhtBxArv7H#twitch #ban #fourthban #partner #twitchpartner 🔳 — StreamerBans (@StreamerBans) October 30, 2020 Shortly after news of the ban dropped, s1mple Tweeted that he was banned for using a Russian slur, but he claims he only said it because he was upset with another player for saying it on his stream. “It’s funny that I get banned for aggression towards a person that says the word “Pidor” and specifically tries to ban me on the platform,” he wrote. “I try to condemn him for this and say the forbidden word because I have a negative attitude towards it (because of rules).” While s1mple filled fans in on why he was banned, he didn’t mention how long he would be off of the platform for. Looking at his past infractions though, and it’s safe to say he’s probably looking at a 7-day break, at the very least. The site has been known to ban repeat offenders for longer if they continue to get in hot water for the same thing, but considering how big of a name s1mple is and the circumstances surrounding this particular incident, it’s hard to say. It’s funny that I get banned for aggression towards a person that says the word “”Pidor”” and specifically tries to ban me on the platform and I try to condemn him for this and say the forbidden word because I have a negative attitude towards it (because of rules) — Sasha (@s1mpleO) October 30, 2020 A good number of his fans noted that Twitch was quick to ban the Na’Vi pro after he slipped up, but still haven’t taken action against any one of the countless channels that rebroadcast s1mple’s streams to try and steal viewers. Still, the pro doesn’t seem so much bothered by the ban as he does annoyed, which makes sense because he doesn’t really need to stream so to speak, considering all the money he’s made playing CS:GO professionally. That doesn’t really help his fans though, who will have to find someone else to watch while they wait for his return.

s1mple & B1ad3 on NAVI’s battle to reach their potential with new CSGO roster GG.BETNAVI CSGO star s1mple and head coach B1ad3 spoke with Dexerto about the overhaul of the lineup during the off-season and how the team is gelling. NAVI may not have ‘won’ the off-season, but they have surely been one of the most talked about teams of this rostermania. In anticipation of Counter-Strike 2’s release, many big names have pulled the trigger on changes, hoping to build the best possible rosters before the new game takes over. After a trophyless 12 months and an early exit from the BLAST.tv Paris Major, NAVI decided to go in a new direction and turned their team into an international roster — a possibility CEO Yevhen Zolotarov had already alluded to in February. Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev and Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy, as well as head coach Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy, are the only remaining survivors of the NAVI team that won the PGL Major Stockholm in 2021. Taking over the team’s reins is Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen, the former IGL of ENCE, OG, G2 and NIP, with Mihai ‘iM’ Ivan and Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius rounding out the lineup. It’s a lot to process, not just for the fans but also for the players themselves. With the new season just around the corner, questions remain about how long it will take for everyone to be on the same page. “Only God can help him,” s1mple recently said when asked about whether he would give b1t a hand with his English. In this interview, conducted right before the ‘Match of LeGGends’ showmatch against Vitality in Berlin, B1ad3 and s1mple gave their first impressions of the new team and spoke about how the players are gelling. This conversation has been edited for clarity. What are your first impressions of the new roster? Have you already had time to scrim? How are things coming along? s1mple: I would say it’s interesting because it’s something new, but at the same time, it’s pretty hard. In my opinion, it’s hard for me because of new callouts, new info… Everything’s new. And [there are] new players who came from different rosters with a different mentality and play style. We have scrimmed for four days. There’s a lot of work to do in the coming weeks and months. At the same time, for me, it’s very interesting because you get something new from them as well. B1ad3: For me, I see how it’s going and I see what should be an evolving process. And I have also realized that building something is really hard and it only takes one second to ruin something. We had been building the last roster and system for a long time, it took a lot of hard work. A lot of arguments, a lot of ups and downs. People were upset and all this stuff, and we know this. But this is the step that we have taken. We must go international for the future of the organization. And we know that this is the same process as before. This is the rebuilding stage of NAVI’s CS:GO squad. I see the potential, but it will take time. NAVI have famously used numbers for callouts in the past. I guess you’ll be adopting a different style now, with names for different positions. How is that going for you and b1t, and how long do you think it will take to get used to the new callouts? s1mple: We still have some numbers but not a lot like before. Like on Inferno, we have ‘first’, ‘second’ and ‘triple’, but we don’t have ‘seven’, ‘eight’, ‘nine’, ‘ten’. It’s fine, but as I said, we need to get used to new info. How are you finding Aleksib’s calling system? Many people believe that he will bring a lot of structure to the team. How different is the system going to be, compared to what you had with Boombl4 and electroNic? B1ad3: Basically, we’re still building. We have three different players, who came from different teams, with different knowledge. I have said this a lot before. This is like a broken system where you cannot take a player with the specific style you want, with the specific knowledge you need, because there is no philosophy in terms of the system. It means you are trying to build something, then you watch how they adapt and how you can adapt. For example, you’re 23 years old and you have been playing for a long time, building something brick by brick, and then you need to throw it away. It’s a very hurtful process for a person. I think we’ll need to try different things and find a balance. What I think I’ll do now more is try not to pressure them with our stuff a lot. I’ll try to give them more freedom in terms of what they like to do. And then I’ll see the strengths and the weaknesses. Out of this, we will slowly try to find the balance and build something new. You now have the first tournament of the season, the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, and then IEM Cologne. What are your expectations for this season in particular, and how long do you think it will take for the team to be at 100 percent? B1ad3: In terms of schedule, the perfect moment will be Pro League in Malta. We will have a big bootcamp before it. We couldn’t do it before this event because the transfer window was really short. As soon as everyone finished playing, we needed to start negotiating with the players. And this is not a quick process, right? You need at least one month. We are just coming off a break, and the bootcamp will be very short. It’s seven days, believe. I think it would be hard for a team that changed one player to have seven days to prepare, and the same even goes for a team that didn’t change anything, like FaZe. And for us, imagine how much we will change. We are building from scratch. So yeah, it’s a very short period. We need a big bootcamp, and the only chance for that is before EPL. At the end of it, we will see what the future is like. We will have a clear picture of what we should do next. Talking a little bit about the off-season, who do you think made the best changes? What is your opinion about the rumored Cloud9 roster? B1ad3: I think Cloud9 looks good on paper. It looks really good. If the rumors are true, you have sh1ro, Ax1le, Hobbit, Perfecto, electroNic. On paper, it’s kind of perfect, right? But maybe Hobbit will have a hard time playing with electroNic. We don’t know. Or maybe electroNic will have a hard time calling, or the team might have a hard time playing with the way electroNic will call. But the potential is huge. Vitality only made one change. s1mple: I like Vitality. flameZ is from Israel as well. He will have [good] communication with Spinx. They just changed one player. He will take dupreeh’s roles, probably. B1ad3: One change is always nice. We have done it before a lot of times. For example with GuardiaN, then we changed him for Perfecto, then we replaced flamie with b1t. We always made one change at a time, and it’s easy. Even when Boombl4 left, we got sdy and we went to the grand final of Cologne. One change is nice. You can adapt step by step. s1mple, when it comes to your individual level, how do you look back at the previous tournament season? How would you compare your level with the way you played last year? s1mple: It’s not better than it was last year. I don’t want to make excuses. I need to play and find it again. I feel much more comfortable when I know what my teammates do, when we have the structure that we are trying to find now. And we’re going to fix things all the time. As B1ad3 said, we’re going to see what’s working and what isn’t. And we’ll need to find a balance. In 2021, we were on the same page and everything was good. After that, it was a bit hard. So, yeah, looking forward to finding it again. You said in an interview at IEM Katowice, right after a loss to Heroic, that some of your teammates were afraid to make decisions and were shutting down. Are you hopeful that you’ll be able to find your best level with this new team? s1mple: I hope so. The personalities are very different. It’s, like, Europeans, you know? They react to different things differently. So I need to find a balance as well and find a way to give them confidence.

S1mple explains why Astralis are still the world’s best CS:GO team Natus Vincere/AstralisCS:GO professional Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev still believes that Astralis remain the best team in the world, despite back to back losses to FURIA, which saw them eliminated from the ECS Season 7 Finals in London. FURIA Esports have set the Brazilian CS:GO scene on fire, after defeating Danish giants Astralis twice in as many days, to knock them out of the ECS Season 7 Finals. FURIA first beat Astralis 16-14 on June 6, then backed this victory up through a 2-1 BO3 series on June 7, which they took 12-16, 16-10, 16-13. In spite of these defeats, s1mple, who currently plays for Ukrainian organization Natus Vincere, still believes Astralis are the best roster in the world. Astralis, consisting of dev1ce, dupreeh, Xyp9x, gla1ve and Magisk, have been together since February of 2018, and have amassed numerous major tournament wins in that time period, including the IEM Katowice in March 2019. This success and longevity has led to many fans and commentators calling the roster the most dominant in CS:GO history. However, having skipped out on numerous events, and with their struggles versus FURIA, some now argue that their reign as top dogs is over, but s1mple isn’t buying it: “Still the best team in the world @astralisgg, surprised by @furiagg let’s go guys!” Still best team in the world @astralisgg , surprised by @furiagg let’s go guys ! — Sasha (@s1mpleO) June 8, 2019 This led to something of a debate on social media, as many argued Astralis’ supremacy was over. One user argued that they “are still very good… but clearly aren’t [one] step ahead of everyone as it used to be”. S1mple wasn’t convinced, arguing that they need to lose at a major tournament before they can be discounted as the best roster. He said that if they lose 3 “big” tournaments in a row, then they should no longer be considered the best. What kind of stats? Astralis #1 for more then year, they need to lose at major to end their era — Sasha (@s1mpleO) June 8, 2019 S1mple himself is considered one of the best players of all time, but clearly thinks more has to be done to dethrone Astralis’ stellar roster.

Russian org Virtus.pro blames “cancel culture” for ESL Pro League ban Virtus.proRussian CS:GO team Virtus.pro have responded to an announcement by ESL that Russian teams would be barred from Season 15 of the ESL Pro League, calling the decision “a prime example of ‘the cancel culture’”. The ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, which began on February 24, continues to have knock-on effects on the esports industry. Multiple tournament organizers, including Riot Games and BLAST Premier, have announced changes to their CIS tournament operations during the crisis, with some tournaments opting to bar Russian teams from participating altogether. The most recent tournament operator to make this decision was ESL, who announced on March 2 that they would be barring all teams with affiliations with the Russian government from competing in the upcoming ESL Pro League. The only two teams to which these sanctions apply are Russian organizations Virtus.pro and Gambit. Addressing ESL Pro League statement on https://t.co/RghpmPyTHr. pic.twitter.com/sfNliB4rGU — Virtus.pro (@virtuspro) March 4, 2022 While Gambit are yet to respond to the ban, Virtus.pro’s response came on March 4, when they claimed that there were “no rational reasons” that they should be barred from competing in tournaments, and that ESL’s decision was one made on “prejudice and pressure from the outside.” ESL’s inquiry a “mere formality” According to Virtus.pro, they provided a “full and comprehensive response” to ESL’s request for paperwork detailing their ownership group and whether or not their affiliates were subject to sanctions placed on Russian businesses and oligarchs. However, they claim the request was a “mere formality”, and that despite supposedly proving they had “no affiliation” with sanctioned individuals or businesses, they were still banned from the event. Russian state-run insurance company Sogaz has a controlling stake in Virtus.pro’s ownership group VK, and are one of the companies included on the European Union’s sanctions list imposed on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. Despite this, Virtus.pro claim they are “not connected” to the Russian government in any way. In ESL’s statement, both Gambit and Virtus.pro’s teams were offered the opportunity to compete under a “neutral name, without representing their country, organization, or team’s sponsors.” Virtus.pro state that “unlike some tournament operators, we are not ready to invalidate someone else’s efforts”, and that if their current roster chooses to play at the ESL Pro League, the organization will “support their decision”. “ESL refuses to communicate with the club management, preferring to speak directly to the players,” Virtus.pro said. “We are facing a prime example of the ‘cancel culture’. “However, in this case, there are no ultimatums that are supposed to push us towards certain actions. That’s why we won’t respond to this aggression with aggression of our own by forbidding our players from playing in this tournament.”

RpK to step down from Team Vitality CSGO roster after BLAST Premier Showdown ESLFrench Counter-Strike: Global Offensive star Cédric ‘RpK’ Guipouy has announced that he will be stepping down from his role on the Team Vitality roster following the BLAST Premier Showdown. The 31-year-old player has been competing since 2007, but on April 12, 2021, revealed that he will be stepping back from the active roster and taking a break from competing. Team Vitality coach Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam made a statement about RpK’s decision to take a step back from competing, saying that the team “needs to find a new pace” following the difficulties they have faced. He adds that it’s never easy to let a “legendary player” like RpK go, but they’ll “support him in what’s yet to come.” RpK added in his own tweet that he will be “taking some time off to think about what he’ll be doing in the future.” It is not clear whether this means staying on competing in CSGO, be it down the line with Vitality or with another team, or moving on from his professional career. Unfortunately, Blast Premier Showdown will be my last tournament with the team. I’ll give my best this week for the boys and @TeamVitality.After that, I’ll take some time off and think about what I’ll be doing in the future. Thanks all for the support, I’ll keep you updated ❤️ https://t.co/12XlfuuFvJ— Cédric Guipouy – RPK MOTORSPORT (@RpKTANKK) April 12, 2021 RpK replaced by Kyojin Jayson ‘Kyojin’ Nguyen Van is set to replace RpK following his final event with the squad. This will be Kyojin’s first time representing a major organization in CSGO, and could spell the beginning of a big career for the young Frenchman. https://twitter.com/TeamVitality/status/1381586844102619144?s=20 XTQZZZ called Kyojin a “unique player with great untapped talent and tremendous potential,” signalling high expectations for the young gun. The BLAST Premier Showdown takes place between April 13-18. You can find out everything you need to know about the event, including teams, prize pool and schedule, here.

Ropz’s CSGO settings: Config, resolution, viewmodel, DPI, sensitivity & more FaZe ClanThe Estonian equalizer, Robin ‘ropz’ Kool, has long been a headshot machine in CS:GO, making everything from clutches to multikills look effortless. For those who want to play like the FaZe pro, here’s everything you need to know about his viewmodel, config, and mouse settings. It’s not about finding the ‘perfect’ Counter-Strike settings since everyone will have vastly different preferences. But taking inspiration from an elite pro can give people an idea of what the best players look for in their configs. Ropz’s rifle was pivotal for FaZe Clan to secure the IEM Katowice 2022 trophy, making him a prime candidate to mirror your settings off of. If you do copy these CS:GO settings, be sure to tweak them to your preferences if necessary. ropz’s settings for CS:GO Contents Mouse settings – Crosshair – Monitor & Resolution – Video settings – Viewmodel – Equipment – Launch options – ropz’s cfg – ropz’s mouse settings Ropz loads into the server with a Zowie EC2 mouse, with a 400 DPI, and 1.77 sensitivity. This gives ropz a ton of liberty to go for precision shots then readjust to flick on follow-up targets. ropz’s Crosshair Ropz’s crosshair has the general shape of a default reticle but it’s much smaller. The FaZe star is known for how close he sits toward the monitor during games and the crosshair must compliment the posture. To get ropz’s exact crosshair, simply copy these console commands to start changing it up just like him. Here’s how to open the CS:GO console. ropz’s monitor and resolution Ropz has a BENQ XL2546K monitor that he uses to play the game with native scaling, unlike fellow pros who prefer a stretched res. Read More: ZywOo’s CSGO settings – Take a look down below to check out all of ropz’s monitor and resolution configurations to see the game as he does. Video settings Like most CS:GO pros, ropz has most of his video settings at the lowest settings to ensure that the game is running only the essentials. Viewmodel To ensure consistency with smoke and made lineups, CS:GO pros like to tweak viewmodels that control the size of objects like your knife, hands, and guns. Just like before, copy the settings below to replicate ropz’s exact viewmodel by inputting them into the console. ropz’s equipment Launch Options These are ropz’s launch options which can be applied by in CS:GO’s properties tab in the Steam Library. Copy and past these into your launch option: -novid -tickrate 128 ropz’s CS:GO config To get every setting exactly like ropz, download the config to transfer over his keybinds and more into your game. You can download ropz’s config here. To apply the config, you’ll need to take the .cfg file and add it to your Counter-Strike: Global Offensive folder. This is usually located in Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\cfg.

ropz pulls off insane 1v5 CSGO clutch on the eve of StarLadder Legends stage Twitch: @ropz / FACEITLate in the evening before the Legends stage of the StarLadder Berlin major, Robin ‘ropz’ Kool clutched a ridiculous 1v5 against some stellar competition. ‘Twas the night before Legends, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, except a player from mous. With the Legends stage just hours away, the 19-year-old from Estonia was still up fragging away in Faceit Pro League, when he found himself in a 1v5 in just the fourth round of a match on Train. The following is presented for your viewing pleasure: ropz was positioned next to A1 train when he got his first kill, a headshot on İsmailcan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş of the German team BIG. Then popular Twitch streamer Lobanjica pushed A1 train and got sprayed down for his troubles, as did Nils ‘k1to’ Gruhne. Sensing the presence of his former teammates, and with eyes seemingly in the back of his head, ropz whipped around as he started approaching site, and headshotted former mousesports player and ENCE’s newest addition, Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi as he snuck around CT tunnel. Down to a 1v1, ropz showcased his game sense with a well placed molotov at the bottom of the ladder room, and HellRaisers’ Tomáš ‘oskar’ Šťastný could only through a flash and succumb to the flames as ropz got the defuse. ropz could hardly contain a smile after the sick play, and that wasn’t his only highlight from this match: He’ll be looking to carry this momentum into the Legends stage, and not just momentum from highlights like this. ropz has been on a run since the beginning of the EU minor, with his only negatives being a single rough map against G2 Esports in the Challengers stage, and a couple losses to NoChance in the EU minor. He’s been the highest rated player for mousesports during this major, and if you subtract that one bad blowout against G2, his rating would be much higher. But that big loss came against Train, and if this clip is any indication, he’s looking a lot more comfortable on Train.

Ropz interview: The true impact of CSGO’s online era on mousesports Dexerto Robin ‘ropz’ Kool exploded onto Counter-Strike’s professional scene in 2017 as a rookie for mousesports and hasn’t looked back. We spoke with the Estonian to delve into how the ‘online era’ has affected the squad. [jwplayer tDfBatIA] It’s no secret that the online era of CS:GO has had a devastating impact on mousesports’ run of form. Before we entered into a world without offline events, mousesports were cruising in second in the world rankings, bested only by the tour de force that is Astralis. But mere weeks into the online format, and Ropz and co. began to drop from Astralis’ shadow, before eventually hitting a low of 22nd in August 2020, after a string of underwhelming results.But with Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen at the helm, the squad are looking to turn the poor form around. Most recently, they acquired the talents of rising star, Aurimas ‘Bymas’ Pipiras from FaZe Clan — who has shown great promise in FPL and during his short stint with FaZe. We spoke with Ropz to see how the perfect balance of experience and talent will help the European outfit turn things around. Ropz: “It got difficult for us to keep our spirits up…” Q: The online era has been a tricky one for mousesports after such a strong end to last season’s LAN circuit. How do you plan on bouncing back? “In competition, there are always ups and downs. But I agree the last few months were not up to our standards. We now have a little bit of a fresh start with Bymas and will put in the hours to make it work again.” Q: What has been the hardest thing about adjusting to the online CSGO era for your team? “We always had a great atmosphere at live events, so after a while it got difficult for us to keep our spirits up when everyone was playing from home. We always had the ability to turn around games or gain new momentum mid-way through a map — I think that is way harder when you are not at a LAN event.” Q: As you mentioned, you’ve recently replaced w0xic with Bymas on the starting lineup. What does he bring to the roster, and can you see any similarities to your early career when you burst onto the scene in the FPL? “Bymas accepts his role in the team. He really wants to learn and is eager to improve. He definitely has all the tools, but needs some time to adapt. Of course, there are some similarities between us — we are both from the Baltics, started our careers in FPL and then joined mousesports.” Q: You had to fill Niko’s shoes when you joined. How much pressure was that and how do you think your role has evolved over time? “I never thought about filling Niko’s shoes — it was more about showing my worth since I had no background or history. The team also swapped roles around back then and I got my own start, so it was not 1:1 with Niko. “But pressure was there for the other reason mentioned, I put in as much hours as possible to get the best out of it. Over time, I’ve learned a lot and I believe my game sense has become world-class. I have become more vocal about stuff in-game and people believe in me, because they know what I say is going to work.” Q: You were named the tenth best player in the world in 2019 by HLTV, how did that feel? Do you think that was deserved? “Feels good, of course, to be considered Top 10 in the world. The ranking is solely based on measurable numbers, says HLTV, so I guess there is no “deserving” — just earning.” Q: Okay, some quick-fire questions… What is the highlight of your career so far? “Feels like the MVP at ESL Pro League: Season 10. It was a special event altogether and maybe a breakthrough for the team.” Q: Which tournament victory has been your favorite and why? “Our victory at ESL One New York. My whole family was there to watch it. That definitely meant a lot to me.” Q: Which tournament or match do you think has been your own individual best performance? “I think it was at CS_Summit5. I was unstoppable there.” Q: Who do you believe will be the teams and players to watch when we get back on LAN? “I surely hope it’s going to be us!” After bringing on Bymas into the starting five, mousesports will be looking to regain their form from the backend of 2019, which saw them soar to second in the world rankings. Recent results in the ESL Pro League: Season 12 look promising, but only time will tell if they can claw their way back into contention with CS:GO’s top dogs.

Ropz explains why he took a pay cut to join FaZe Clan and turned down G2 FaZe ClanLeaving MOUZ was not a decision Robin ‘ropz’ Kool took lightly, but ultimately the offer could not be turned down when FaZe came knocking – even taking a pay cut to join the roster. Ropz explained his decision to Dexerto, and why he didn’t go to G2 instead. Ropz has been impressing in his new team, back under the leadership of Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, and with proven fraggers around him to back him up, he may now have a roster capable of competing for the top honors in CS:GO. Clearly, this took precedence over his salary, as ropz has confirmed he took a pay cut to join FaZe from MOUZ. But, for a player of Kool’s talents, FaZe were not the only top-tier organization interested in his services. G2 Esports, who had come 2nd in the most recent major, were also looking to improve their roster, and pair NiKo with another star-power player. “I had an offer from G2. We were discussing some things, but we never really got to talk about specific things [with] the team. Read More: The making of ropz – “It was going to be a very tough thing to figure out [with G2],” ropz told Dexerto. “That’s also the main reason I probably went to FaZe in the end. There was going to be so many role changes, and so many confusing things with G2, that if I had joined I think the team would have been really hard to figure out.” Ropz: Taking a pay cut to join FaZe “There were some question marks around some other teams, but I was always sure that, whatever team approaches me, FaZe is always going to be a very safe place for me to be. I fit perfectly in the lineup and I’ve played with karrigan before. “It really reminds me now of old mousesports we had with karrigan, with some better pieces I guess, on paper.” With this strong chemistry and history, his lighter pay packet isn’t a concern. Read More: s1mple: The icon that nearly wasn’t – “The pay cut I took, it’s not that significant. MOUZ pays the players well, it makes sense, it’s the logical thing to do. Coming into a new organization, you’re not going to start from the same place. It doesn’t really affect me, that’s just the way business is, and the fact that my salary might be a little bit smaller doesn’t really affect my performance.” Ropz and co. are currently making a deep run in ESL Pro League Season 15, having defeated NAVI to make it to the semi-finals.

LIVE Esports Betting Now Available for ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals with Rivalry.gg Rivalry.ggYou know your stuff, right? The players, the teams, the esports – you’ve got a good grasp of what’s what, and you can even wield it as a skill to earn some cash by betting on esports. But sometimes – perhaps an understatement – esports descends into chaos. The player of the moment loses form; weeks of team momentum grinds to a halt against the unlikeliest of foes; rival teams risk it all and are rewarded for mindless plays as the team you staked money on crumbles to disorder. So, you want to hold back a bit. Take your time. Assess the present rather than relying on the past – and that’s where Rivalry.gg’s live betting comes in, a new feature launched just in time for the ESL Pro League Season 7 finals. https://www.rivalry.gg/esports-tournaments/csgo/esl-pro-league/season-7-finals?utm_source=dexerto&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=dexerto&utm_content=dexerto-eslpl7 Did you know? Fully regulated and approved of by the Esports Integrity Coalition, Rivalry.gg allows you to bet on all the games that matter: CS:GO, League of Legends, Overwatch, Call of Duty, Dota2, and you can expect more to be added over time. On May 16th, they rolled out living betting much to the delight of CS:GO fans, who’ll be able to take advantage this weekend during the knockout stages of the season finals. Much like in-play betting in other sports, such as soccer, live betting gets your more involved with matches from start to finish, offering the chance to flex your real-time analysis of the economy, Terrorist or Counter Terrorist side bias, and more factors that make up your calculated stakes. “Live betting brings you into the action and intensifies your tournament experience like nothing else. If you’re a huge fan, it’s time to take advantage of your knowledge and put your money where your mouth is.” — Kevin Wimer, CMO, Rivalry.gg With the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals heating up, fans can bet throughout the weekend – beginning from the quarter finals today on March 18.

Rising CS:GO star nexa: Overshadowed and underrated While many have their eyes on Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač and his cousin Nemanja ‘huNter’ Kovač as the biggest CS:GO stars of the Balkan region, there’s another player who shouldn’t be slept on in the least bit. The Balkan Region is home to one of the greatest players to ever grace the game of Counter-Strike in NiKo, which shouldn’t be news nor arguable. Following in his footsteps is his older cousin huNter, who has received increasing levels of praise and hype from the community as of late. As I wrote recently, it is only a matter of time before huNter is freed of his large buyout and shows how impactful he can be. The talent doesn’t end there though, in fact there is another Serbian player on the path to stardom: Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković. You don’t have to look far for nexa because he plays alongside huNter, often providing the second half of their 1-2 punch in the server. This analogy rings true for just about anyone that plays with a Kovač, too. No matter how well nexa might play, huNter will remain as the main talking point. The similar effect has existed around NiKo for years. Nexa doesn’t let that affect him, though, and those close to him reinforced that point when asked about it. Instead, he is quietly and happily bulking his resume as one of the most consistent players in Europe. You’ll be hard pressed to find an event that nexa didn’t play well at in the last year of play, even prior to joining Valiance. While the sample size against top tier competition is limited, he has a history of showing up time and time again. There is no actual statistic that predicts how good a player can be if recruited to a top team, but if there was, nexa would place amongst the highest. The only blemish in his playing history was a brief stint with Renegades when the team was struggling. He just didn’t fit in stylistically nor was he put in comfortable positions to succeed. Outside of that, he has provided everything you could ever ask for if you are looking for consistency and impact. The level of confidence nexa instills in his teammates is one of his greatest qualities. As a site anchor on CT side, he routinely gets two kills while defending a bombsite or if he doesn’t, he stays alive far longer than he should. One of his more unique roles is doing damage on T side pistol, where he often has a p250 and wins rounds single-handedly. As a journalist, I hear complaints about almost every player in the world in one way or another. Nexa isn’t one of those though, everyone has nothing but fantastic things to say about him as a player and a person. It is easy to say that any player with good stats is a potential star, but nexa has something more. He isn’t streaky and is a hell of a teammate. These intangible assets are what separates him from his peers. If he isn’t on a short list of potential recruitments for top European and North American teams, then those teams need new management.

Riot Games sues CSGO team over naming similarity PA Images / Riot Squad, TwitterLeague of Legends developer Counter-Strike organization ‘Riot Squad’ over naming similarities and the use of trademarked words in branding and promotional materials. Riot’s lawsuit details that Riot Squad should be denied the use of the word ‘Riot’ in their media and products. The game development company has also demanded the fledgling esports enterprises reimburse them for “damages for its use.” The League of Legends developer — who owns the trademarks for both ‘Riot’ and ‘Riot Games’ when used in connection to games and esports — has alleged that Riot Squad’s staff and management had “exploited” the company’s brand name for organizational gain. “Riot Squad has unfairly and unlawfully adopted and exploited the RIOT brand name in connection with its marketing, advertising, and promotion of a nascent esports organization that it claims was ‘founded by gamers, for gamers’,” the official document reads. Riot alleged the defendants were hoping and intending to create connotations between themselves and the game developers, in the hopes that “consumers will mistakenly believe that its esports organization is in some manner associated with, sponsored or endorsed by, or otherwise affiliated with Riot and its hugely popular products and services.” The Tencent-owned company also requested a California court order Riot Squad to “deliver up for destruction” all materials and products that use the mark, especially all marketing material prominently branded with the word ‘Riot’. Riot vs Riot Squad on Scribd Despite having a presence in nearly half a dozen esports competitions, Riot Squad has yet to enter into the League of Legends circuits in North America, though this may be because of the limited number of tournaments in the scene due to Riot’s franchise league system. Read more: Fortnite, Apex Legends, PUBG, and Rainbow Six Siege, and boasts Kristin ‘Chibi’ Stein and Taylor ‘THump’ Humphries on its streaming roster. Riot Squad declined to comment after being contacted ahead of publication. Riot Games has not responded to Dexerto’s request before the release of this article. –

Ridiculous knife skin concept is the perfect fit for CS:GO Custom weapon skin concepts are a popular topic among CS:GO fans but a new idea making the rounds might be one of the most unique yet. The knife is the basic melee weapon in Counter-Strike and there are thousands upon thousands of skins available to unlock for it. Now, a new knife skin concept is gaining popularity among CS:GO fans but it might have a tough time becoming an actual, useable skin. It’s multiple knives in one! Reddit user Defoxx posted a photoshopped image of a CS:GO character holding a Swiss Army Knife along with a request to have it added to the game, and it quickly shot to the top of the r/GlobalOffensive subreddit. They also suggested that each time you pull out the weapon, a different tool would appear at random. So you could find yourself dispatching opponents with a tactical corkscrew or something. Even though the skin is great idea, it might have a tough time finding it’s way into the game itself according to a user in the comments. Reddit user GISP pointed out that Victorinox, the company that makes the Swiss Army Knife, doesn’t give permission to use it in any games, movies or other media. The discussion did bring up another favorite knife skin concept, one that isn’t protected by any pesky copyright restrictions – the simple plastic knife. Now that’s a knife The plastic knife concept was cooked up all the way back in March of 2015 by YouTuber sparkwire and it’s not just one little utensil – they even included a whole box along with the weapon. Occasionally the plastic knife will break, and your character pulls out another one from the box – whether spoons and forks can also be utilized is sadly unknown though.

Richard Lewis’s No Majors Club returns for The Bot Major No Majors ClubWith no Major to round off the 2020 CSGO esports calendar, Richard Lewis is bringing back the No Majors Club for a very special substitute – The Bot Major. Starting on November 9 at 8AM PT / 11AM ET / 4PM GMT, Richard Lewis and his No Majors Club collective shall start broadcasting their latest project The Bot Major. Sponsored by CoolerMaster and Rivalry.com, the event aims to run a simulation of the Rio Major that was to take place on the same date until it was canceled due to safety concerns and global travel restrictions. The matches will be streamed on Lewis’s Twitch channel, and the tournament will be organized as if it were the real teams playing – with some logistical adjustments. The Bot Major livestream While the format will not be identical, looking to run approximately eight days in length and with best-of-one matches in the early stages, Lewis hopes that the event will serve up something to fill the void as we wait for the normal LAN circuit to resume. “The No Majors Club started as something fun we could do to offer the community a different type of way to watch the Counter-Strike major tournaments,” said Lewis. “When we’re not working events we are still watching them and generally talking among ourselves on Discord or whatever. Streaming it is a no brainer and lets fans of the game get insight from players and on-air talent that you might not hear on the main broadcast.” Read More: How to watch Flashpoint Season 2 – “We were obviously as saddened as everyone when we heard the Rio Major was canceled, especially given the circumstances. We wanted to ensure that there’d be something for the community to enjoy so we reasoned we’d run a tournament with bots simulating the matches live and broadcast that instead. It obviously can’t live up to the real thing but at a time when people feel like they’re watching the same matches over and over again, we wanted to do something different. It also needs to be acknowledged we’re not the first to do this but we’re hoping our event will be different from those others in the past.” The premise of the event is to take the teams that would be most likely competing at the Rio Major having accumulated enough Major Ranking points, seed them accordingly, and then simulate the games. However, unlike the regular bots you might know from your match-making games, the simulations will use a config file that creates a playing identity for each player assigning them a ranking for aggression, reaction time, teamwork, 1st bullet aim, corrections, and spraying. These are tweaked for both the CT and T sides and bots are assigned loadouts based on real-life preferences. “Obviously the games will be a shitshow and nothing like a quality game of CS but that should be part of the entertainment. We’ve also been working on some additional content to break up the games but for the most part, we’re hoping it’ll just be an opportunity for the community to let off some steam and get to hear some of their favorite voices in a relaxed environment,” Lewis added. While the No Majors Club regularly features the likes of Vince “Vince” Hill, David “DAVEY” Stafford, Dust Mouret, Keith LaFortune, Erik “fl0m” Flom, Jack “Jacky” Peters, and show producer Sam Davies, broadcasts very often feature dozens of guests. A recent live stream on Lewis’s channel featured Matthew “Sadokist” Trivett who suggested he would make an appearance, which would be his first in anything related to Counter-Strike for some time. Other likely guests aren’t known at this time. Disclosure: Richard Lewis currently works as Editor-At-Large at Dexerto.

Richard Lewis: Valve, now is the time to show CS:GO the love ESLAnother week of re-adjusting my sleep schedule, turning up to meetings with eyes like pissholes in the snow. Yes, whatever the timezone the big Counter-Strike tournament is in, I’m there, whether it means early mornings, late nights or foggy limbos. The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by Dexerto. It’d be hard to think of one I’ve missed these past fifteen years. That’s what this game does. Since moving to the US I barely set an alarm to catch the football and when it’s time for the NFL I know I can watch the games on catch-up with all the commercials stripped out. Who would have thought that for most of my adult life it’d be a video game that would be my sporting consistent? When the original designers created the Counter-Strike Half-Life mod they probably didn’t realize just what they’d created. Ignore all the imbalanced and inaccurate weapons that were there at the start and instead focus on the game’s core. An idea so perfect in its simplicity. Two teams of five shooting each other, one team planting a bomb, one team stopping them. Win, and you get more money, potentially snowballing your advantage. Lose and suddenly you’re relying on skill and tactics to dig you out of the hole. This would be enough for a memorable game, a classic in the genre, but one that would fade as new fads came in. Read More: CS:GO Exclusivity Wars: End Game – Why Counter-Strike endures is the layers, that while it can be boiled down to the visceral thrill of shooting someone before they shoot you, the game gives you so much agency and freedom that it is never as easy as the best player wins. You can flank them, you can blind them, you can evade them with smoke, you can use teamwork and communication, you can fool them and if all of that fails the mechanics of the game even allow for a little bit of luck. Different guns, different maps, infinite possibilities. And all this is happening under the surface, there if you want to learn about it but not even necessary to appreciate the adrenaline rush that Counter-Strike delivers. This is why CS is unique among esports. Its format has endured for two decades. It has survived everything from a community split across different versions to global financial crashes. It has outlasted every competitor and killer that has come for its crown. Even now, in the Global Offensive era, it has yet to peak eight years after the game was released. This past week saw it become the number one game on Steam by a huge distance, with over 931,000 players online at once. IEM Katowice, the first real-world championship of 2020, attracted over a million simultaneous viewers, the kind of numbers we usually see reserved for the Valve approved majors. Top streamers and influencers are continuing to pick up and learn the game, admitting what we all know, that it is the greatest competitive FPS game ever created and its not even close. A new contender was revealed this week too and not only is that game a Counter-Strike clone, but their marketing is also a laundry list of long-time CS player complaints. Just know, we will come and dabble, we will grace your counterfeit with our presence but whatever we say we will not leave this game behind. It simply does not happen. Read More: How does Valorant’s economy compare to CSGO? – Safe to say Counter-Strike is my first love in this weird world of esports. It’s in the best place it has been for a long time and signs are that 2020 will only see it improve. I’ve been one of its biggest advocates at every level of esports I’ve operated at, from community meet-ups to corporate boardrooms. Yet, it’s got to be said, the one entity that seems to be decidedly unimpressed with all our achievements is Valve. This piece is really aimed at them. I’d just be preaching to the choir otherwise. Now, don’t get me wrong, finally we’ve seen a shift in Valve’s thought process when it comes to leaving the Counter-Strike fields fallow. The free-to-play, Danger Zone patch came in at the end of 2018 and since then updates have been more frequent. We even got the Shattered Web Operation after two years without one. But let’s be honest here Valve, because I know at least one of you will read this, it’s nowhere near enough content or attention for the game that is now inarguably the flagship title of your company. The latest patches to Dota 2 saw player numbers drop dramatically. One year ago it had over a million peak players, now it is just over 650,000. I appreciate the balancing act for that game, for any MOBA, is insanely difficult. You have to try and create systems that don’t punish experienced players and newcomers, who will often be rubbing shoulders, in a game that takes 1000 hours to even comprehend the broad spread of the basics. If you simplify and streamline you lose the hardcore, if you add complexity you lose players to one of the more accessible replacements on the market. Dota is a gaming proposition like no other and it is a product you can be immensely proud of. Yet the fact you try so hard to do this, having employees glued to subreddits to roll out hotfixes and implement patches, while Counter-Strike waits a year or longer between content, isn’t going unnoticed. I’m sure Dota is a more lucrative game. It’s clearly the one you all prefer playing. We know that Gabe Newell is probably running around as Weaver right now. But the Dota IP is giving you diminishing returns and will continue to do so. Artifact was a disaster, Underlords was a quick way to monetise a flavour of the month genre that is designed for the new generation of people who game on their mobile phones. I doubt it’s going to be anything other than a footnote in your portfolio. I will also say I have a suspicion this will be the first year that the crowdfunded prize pool of The International doesn’t go up. None of these things are probably considered metrics of success for a company that has always been known for their unique approach but just in case they are you do have a solution. There’s an audience full of people that would love to just give you their money. They would love to pay you for a Dota plus style match-making system with unlockable cosmetics and stat-tracking. They would love to part with their money for 128 tick server access and ranking up away from the free-to-play cheater accounts. We are all willing to fork out for new cosmetics and ways to support our favourite esports teams and players with in-game merchandise. And if those things don’t really sound all too interesting to the team, an operation every 3-6 months, like the old days, is definitely something that we’re all just itching to open our wallets for. Now is definitely the time to start just giving us a little bit more attention at least. Not just because we’re number one right now, but because Valorant is round the corner and Riot Games are willing to do more pandering to the CS community than you, the game’s creators. You can’t just keep relying on the fact the game is great to keep people sticking around, even if it probably will work and has worked for twenty years. A commitment to content and development is not just what we want, it’s also what we deserve. And we’ll pay you for it. Our position as black sheep of the family remains baffling given the unwavering loyalty. You won’t see us lobbying the president because we didn’t get a seasonal mod. Hell, we’re grateful when the Twitter account says something. Read More: Who is the new “King of Banana” in CSGO? – It doesn’t need to be a cavalcade of corporate crossovers like Fortnite. You know what we want and you know how to monetize it. You’ve done it with your other games and now it’s our turn. It surely cannot be the case that we love your game more than you do. Maybe it is. We’ll be here playing whatever version exists in ten years. We’ll be watching a new generation of stars earn cheers from stadium crowds. It says something profound about the game that there’s no bitterness that it is transparently obvious you know that too and have used that as a justification for years of indifference. CS:GO has something no other game you make does. I can show it to someone who has never seen it before and make them a fan in two minutes. I know I can do that because I have done that. I spoke to those people when we were taping ELEAGUE on US television, saw the people who brought their kids and expected to be bored in week one, and then saw them rocking a Cloud 9 jersey and screaming their lungs out by week four. I saw fans of other games who had never played an FPS title pick up Counter-Strike and uninstall whatever game they came from. It’s time to reward that loyalty before someone else comes along and does it instead.

Richard Lewis & Thorin dissect the CSPPA vs BLAST CSGO controversy ELEAGUE / BLAST / CSPPAFollowing the CSPPA’s dispute over player recordings at CSGO’s BLAST Premier’s Fall Finals, Richard Lewis and Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields have scrutinized the organization’s efforts. BLAST Premier’s Fall Finals opening match was delayed, after a Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (CSPPA) petition surrounding the use of player voice and video recordings unraveled a slew of issues — with competitive integrity being at the forefront of the organization’s message. The CSPPA issued a collective statement on behalf of the player representatives competing in the BLAST Premier circuit, which voiced their concerns surrounding the handling of said video and voice recordings. But in the wake of the events that unfolded, a team-collective statement was released, stating that the issues raised had already been resolved on November 23. Ill-timed or unwarranted? Richard & Thorin react Episode 138 of ‘By the Numbers’ was a CSPPA special. Richard began by discussing the turmoil surrounding the CSPPA’s actions against BLAST. “Now the CSPPA are attacking leagues, and attacking leagues that just so happen to be the league that don’t pay them money! Like a mafia shakedown…” Thorin went on to draw parallels between the players at the helm of the association and their approach to issues with other tournament organizers, referencing the now infamous coaching bug scandal and how, according to Thorin, they didn’t treat the matter in a similar light. “The fact that they didn’t stand and do strike action against any of these other things (and sometimes didn’t even speak out), actually tells you everything you need to know.” You can watch the full VOD below. BLAST paid the price, but were CSPPA right? While principally, the pair disagree with both the inequality and timing of CSPPA’s intervention, Richard made it clear that he agrees with the sentiment behind the movement. Read More: Valve cancelling 2021 CSGO Major? – “I want to stipulate… I agree with CSPPA’s stance on this 100%,” he said. “There’s a GDPR consideration. If you’re recording motherf**kers — where’s it being stored? How long is it being stored for?” But while Richard expressed a mutual concern regarding data regulation and safety, he remained skeptical of the implication that players and teams are benefiting from BLAST’s recordings, saying: “I don’t believe for a second that someone has taken a team recording and then sold it to another team… That is so insane.” The argument continues on Twitter… While the By The Numbers hosts are among the most vocal critics, they’re far from alone in their concerns about the CSPPA and its actions. A number of ‘tier 2’ coaches and players have also spoken out about the organization, claiming it fails to communicate or show solidarity with players and teams that aren’t at the very top of the CS:GO mountain. “CSPPA never spoke to any of my players or brax the whole time they knew we were about to get our spot stolen,” said Danny ‘fRoD’ Montaner, referencing ESL’s decisions to reduce the number of spots in the EPL. “[As far as I know] the other affected teams were not spoken to either from NA.” Jordan ‘Zellsis’ Montemurro responded: “remember when I had that meeting and I was basically told nothing could be done ever and they have no power whatsoever?” The CSPPA refute these claims, stating that they “have close to 300 members” and “management talk to and assist tier 2 players every day.” We have close to 300 members. Management talk to and assist tier 2 players every day. — Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (@CSPPAgg) December 9, 2020 “Only thing I can confirm is that every team/player I’ve talked to below tier 1, and even teams in tier 1, have never been asked to vote on any decisions or elect representatives,” said former pro David ‘DAVEY’ Stafford. Richard’s call to action: Valve, it’s time to step up Given Counter-Strike’s turbulent year, both in terms being forced into online exclusivity and the numerous player-related scandals, Richard believes Riot’s Valorant poses a very real threat to CS:GO’s global esports presence if Valve don’t act fast. “They are strategizing the success of Valorant, predicating on the failures of Overwatch and Counter-Strike — and that is an unequivocal fact,” he admitted. “It’s a mess, it’s a f**king mess. And unfortunately, for once Valve, you are going to have to come in and clean up the mess…”

Richard Lewis: Sources reveal crisis behind Astralis burnout ELEAGUEThe Astralis Group would appear to outsiders to be one of the most successful organizations in the esports space. They are represented across multiple titles, all under their own unique brands. They have attracted many big names sponsors such as Jack Jones and Audi who haven’t engaged with esports before. They also recently floated on the stock market in a move that was simultaneously heralded as being unexplored territory for the esports industry and also successful. Currently though, especially in regards to Counter-Strike, our sources indicate that that the perception that all is well internally is something of a myth, and that what is being publicized by the organization doesn’t align with the reality of what is happening internally. The Counter-Strike squad are the flagship team for the Astralis Group. Consisting of a core that many consider the greatest of all time, the team had ended 2019 on a high having won IEM Beijing, ECS Season 8 and The Blast Pro Series Global Finals, as well as achieving a semi-final finish at the 10th season of the ESL Pro League. This success came at a significant cost. The team competed at five tournaments across a 43-day span, traveling from Denmark to China, China to the USA, the USA to Denmark, and finally Denmark to Bahrain. Performing so well at these tournaments meant no days off to take in the scenery. As the team jetted around the world lifting trophies, the brand that they were representing was putting into action one of their long-term plans; to float on the stock market and become a publicly-traded company. They had officially applied for admittance to the Nasdaq First Growth Market Denmark on November 14th. By December 9, they had launched their initial public offering (IPO), selling 16,759,777 shares and raising $22 million in the process. These two sets of facts portray a success story few esports teams could boast, one of rude financial health as well as unparalleled success on the server. However, according to our source, the separate pressures – those of the management who now were playing on a very different financial playing field and those of the players who were heading into 2020 absolutely exhausted – were about to collide and start to cause internal friction, which would bring the greatest team CS:GO has ever seen to the brink of collapse. Back to work The rest of December and January saw no tournaments that required the team’s presence, not even online qualifiers, but after the standard break for festivities, the team were back to training and meeting their contractual obligations to the organization. This wasn’t insignificant in ramping up the player’s desire for a real break. Sources internal to the organization tell us that during this time the Astralis Sports Director, Kasper Hvidt, was becoming more hands-on in dealing with the players. Coming from a traditional sports background and being a successful handball player himself, his attitudes and ideas didn’t always align with those of the players and their coach. A source close to some of the players, who requested anonymity, told us: “Kasper is known for his management of fear style and is very rigid in his views. He also happens to be the closest point of contact when players want to talk to upper management. There’s definitely some friction there.” We were also told that the Astralis training regimen is in line with that of a traditional sports team, with players having to deliver between 37-48 hours a week spread between their homes and the facilities. This deliverable is measured “strictly,” according to our source, who also stated that management had annoyed the players with their unwillingness to be inflexible despite them having gone above and beyond this schedule at the end of 2019. The first events of 2020 came around and saw the team travel to London for The Blast Premier Spring Regular Season. They lost both their games – a shocking 2-0 defeat against compLexity and 2-1 at the hands of a resurgent Na’Vi – meaning they would finish dead last and only accrue 400 points towards qualifying for the grand finals. Sources say it was after this the team started to explore their options for taking a holiday. They had been on the road so much of last year and they felt this poor performance was a direct result of not having taken a prolonged break from the game. Unfortunately, management wasn’t necessarily in agreement with this assessment. Having come so close to the festive period, it was more attributed to New Year’s bloat more than genuine burnout, and the players were told that it would take some time to plan a strategy that would enable the players to take their much-needed break. The management had other concerns to factor in. As outlined in the publicly available portfolio, they had entered into contractual agreements with the ESL Pro Series and Blast that would see them obligated to attend a pre-arranged number of tournaments less they forfeit their revenue share. Finding a time when the team could take a significant break from playing without any of those agreements being broken was going to prove difficult. This was also compounded due to the IPO as now any threat to those revenue streams would impact on shareholders. The contracts that players sign when representing Astralis Group properties are decent and in accordance with Danish employment law. As such, players are entitled to take 25 fully-paid days off from performing any duty for the organization. However, these cannot simply be taken at any time. A clause in these contracts stipulates: “The holiday is to be taken at a time or times and for such days during the holiday year as determined by the Team [meaning the organization] but so that (subject any international commitments) the Team shall not unreasonably refuse to permit the Player to take three of such weeks consecutively between 1 May and 30 September. However, holiday shall be held in accordance with the eSport calendar and the Services (including Competitions) planned.” The players were told that a strategy would be put in place so they could take a break and they got back to the business of playing. Traveling to Poland, they competed at IEM Katowice, before being manhandled by Na’Vi and losing in a quick 2-0. It would occur in strange circumstances. Efforts to contain the COVID-19 virus had failed, and countries were taking serious steps to shut down large gatherings. Their runners-up finish took place in a mostly empty stadium. Esports, like the rest of the world, was about to see some serious changes. The pandemic In March, many esports events made the move to hold their tournaments online to avoid unnecessary risks during a time when most of the world was either in lockdown or practicing social distancing. Astralis were one of the 13 teams that had committed to being a partner with ESL in their Pro League and so they were due to attend. The team continued to play throughout March with just five best-of-three series encounters. The pandemic and the subsequent measures had hit the global economy hard, and across the globe there were layoffs and liquidations. Many sizeable companies had to take cost-cutting measures to stay afloat as both productivity and consumption of goods and services nosedived. Many organizations in esports decided to take similar measures, including Astralis. Heading into April, management had told staff and players that they were likely going to have to take a 30% pay cut. Not everyone was on board. A source close to some of the players who requested anonymity explained: “The org hadn’t lost any sponsors and the feeling was that with no travel expenses they were already saving money. No one knows the details but when they said to players that they were going to have to take a cut in pay it was not well received, especially from the players who had been begging for a holiday for months because they were exhausted.” Another source who was familiar with the negotiations also told us the following: “They [the management] can say for sure that they asked but they also made it clear that if everyone said no the teams could be in trouble. There was nothing in the contracts that said anyone had to accept a pay cut under these circumstances, but it was strongly suggested people agreed to it.” We’re told that the League of Legends team that play under the Origen brand, in particular, felt aggrieved with how things developed. It was made clear to the players that the organization had to operate within a strict budget due to the cost of entering into the league and that was going to impact on the type of signings they could make for the squad. Multiple sources from within the organization confirmed that at this time the players were asked to take a reduction in salary so the org could free up the money to sign Elias ‘Upset’ Lipp from FC Schalke Esports, who the players wanted to be part of the squad. This was in November. The management then came back just a few months later asking if players would be willing to take another 30% pay cut due to the pandemic, with a verbal agreement it would be restored later once the economy rebounded. Our source alleges that not all players fought but some brought in legal advisors and agents in order to stop Astralis Group management from simply imposing it. Some got their way. “The premise was that the salaries would be restored once this was all over,” one source familiar with the negotiations told us. “But we know that won’t happen. Some players took the deal because compared to some other European teams they weren’t being as forceful in their efforts.” Similarly, players in the FIFA Squad, called Future FC, have also said to have been being pressured into taking the 30% pay cut. Once again, sources suggest that it had been intimated that if the players didn’t accept the reduction in salary, they might find themselves dropped from the squad. The Counter-Strike players were, of course, also asked to take the 30% pay cut. We’re told that was a genuine cause for grievance among the players who, as they saw it, had played through an unprecedented schedule, exhausting themselves emotionally in the process, only to have requests for a holiday rejected and now were being asked to take less money. Some believed that this, like the League of Legends squad before it, was not an example of financial prudence but rather a management tactic of having the players fund things they need or want by foregoing salary and bonuses. “If you want my opinion on why they were cutting the pay,” said one source from within the organization. “It was how they were going to get the players a holiday. The team had to keep playing in all these tournaments they had agreed to so they figured they could sign a bunch of players who could stand in that don’t expect too high a salary from the money they save on the pay cuts. I think it’s bulls**t.” On April 2, the organization released a statement that most of the staff and players within the Astralis Group had accepted the 30% pay cut. The CEO, Anders Hørsholt, said the following in a press release. “We are fortunate to operate in a digital industry where most activity can be maintained and even increased online, but like everybody else, we are dependent upon a thriving economy in the surrounding society and with our stakeholders. The fundamental strength of esports as a live and broadcast product is obvious, however, the coming months will be a challenge for everybody, and in order to maintain a healthy business, we have decided to reduce operational costs significantly.” New faces On March 22, the world of Counter-Strike was shocked when Astralis announced they would be signing a sixth player. Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen – who the Astralis Group management knew from their previous ownership stint of his team Heroic – was set to join as soon as his current contract expired on July 1. There had been some talk of a buyout, but with the new Heroic management refusing to budge on a reported $800,000 buyout fee, Astralis simply elected to wait out the remaining few months. While substitutes and stand-ins aren’t anything new in the space, it was generally the prescribed wisdom that unless something was wrong it was best to have a team of five playing together as much as possible. Astralis themselves know this from a period in 2017 when star player Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz had to take time off due to prolonged problems with his digestive system. The shock came from a seemingly functional and highly successful team making a change of this nature, especially with a player who not even the most generous esports fan could describe as being in the same caliber of the players he would replace. Stranger yet, the management publicly framing the signing as one that was part of some long term plan, rather than a response to the internal issues of trying to juggle player time off and meeting league commitments. The messaging contained a bizarre back and forth between it being a move designed to facilitate the health of their players, but also that it would be a permanent addition and all players were viable selections for the squad moving forward. In a press release published to their website, Kasper Hvidt explained the move: “Our work with Astralis and all our teams is focused around performance and health. It’s our responsibility as an organization to secure optimal conditions for our employees on all levels, and especially our players, who on a constant basis experience the highest pressure to perform. Increasing the roster size to six players is something we have worked on for a long time with relevant stakeholders in Counter-Strike. This approach is no different than in traditional sports, but it’s new to Counter-Strike, and a change like this will take time to optimize for full advantage. The players, coach and our performance team have been involved in this decision and everybody agrees it is the way to go.” These sentiments were echoed by the team coach Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen who, in an interview with HLTV.org, was quoted as saying, “Es3tag will be a part of the team on equal terms with everybody else. We will have six players on the team, not five and a substitute. Some will play more than others, but we focus on long-term performance and the health of the players, and I do think everybody will sit out a tournament.” In another interview from the same time period, this time with Dot Esports, Sørensen also added that, “We are not speculating in swapping players between maps, but on giving players some much needed breaks and time for recovery – mentally and physically… We will work with the options, and I will certainly not say, it could not be the case on a later stage.” A source with knowledge of the situation explained to us, “The IPO had a big impact on how the management put out the news. They had to make a positive reason for why the squad would be losing the best players in the world and replacing them with players who weren’t as good. No one knew how long the break would last. The org was actually planning to sign five players at this time and had contacted multiple squads looking for Danish players.” They also added: “The players aren’t happy with Kasper, having to fight so hard to get time off or with the money situation on top of that. They said they were going to make sure they got their break and that it was on the org to fix it. There’s no guarantee they even want to re-sign their contracts. A lot has to change.” The CSPPA A crucial component to the situation Astralis have found themselves in is the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association (CSPPA). Announced on June 29, 2018, it was the first official association of its kind in esports, designed to be a unified voice in addressing concerns of professional players when it came to matters such as tournament conditions, working environments and contractual disputes. While it brought together players from all across the world, a significant part of its infrastructure and influence came from amalgamating with the Danish Elite Athletes Association (DEF), who had already started taking Danish esports stars under their umbrella. One of the most high profile names attached to this was Astralis player Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, who would also go on to take a leadership role within the CSPPA as a founding board member. The CSPPA would also make use of the DEF legal advisor Michael Døi, and in January 2020, Mads Øland – who was a director for the Danish Football Association (DBU) – left that role after 23 years to focus on the CSPPA full time. To understand the CSPPA’s role in all of this, it is best to give you a brief history of Øland, who is a both a legendary and divisive figure in Danish sports. A former football player who came into the Danish Players Association in 1990, he quickly established himself as an articulate, passionate, and effective voice for player rights. He became chairman in 1992 and held that position until 1997 where he took on the CEO role that he held until 2020. In 2004, he established himself and the DPA as serious when they stood up to changes over the rules surrounding 23-year-old or younger players that were made by FIFA. The contention was that a third-party simply couldn’t change the rules that Danish players were governed by, and because the Danish players rejected these rules, the members of the DPA went on strike. The timing of this was unfathomably bad for Danish football. Bringing the Danish Superliga to a standstill was one thing but two teams – Brøndby IF and Aalborg BK – were playing in the UEFA Cup. If the strike stood, it meant teams would have to field a combination of retired veterans on short-term contracts, coaching staff and youth players to meet their obligation to complete the match. This disproportionately affected Brøndby, one of the most decorated teams in Danish football, who were heavily fancied to beat the Latvian team they were due to play, FK Ventspils. The strike wasn’t necessarily well-received by all, and huge controversy erupted when legendary Brøndby defender Dan Anton Johansen and team captain Per Nielsen both broke the strike. Some called them scabs, some called them heroes, and in the resulting press melee, an agreement was made between FIFA via the Danish Football Association and the DPA. The damage was done for Brøndby though, who were knocked out the tournament on away goals. Perhaps because of this Øland became viewed as a great union leader to some, but a pariah to others. Regardless, the flag had been planted. It had been made clear that players in Denmark would be willing to strike if anyone tried to introduce rules that the DPA deemed unfair, and it didn’t matter whether you were an international governing body or not. Danish players had a seat at the table. He was instrumental in securing the Danish holiday pay rule of 12.5% of all earnings to not just be bundled into the signing on fee of professional players, but actually applied to the period they took holidays, even if the teams had already paid out the amount upfront. He was a key figure in the push for better pay for women’s footballers, where again the Danish team went on strike for over two months in 2017, something that caused them to miss games and be suspended for four years. He was also a central figure in the push for Danish players to own their own commercial rights, which came to a head in 2018. The Danish international team captain Simon Kjaer had agreed a deal with NordicBet that saw him appear in a number of commercials for the company. The problem? The Danish Football Association had already signed an agreement with a rival betting company, and so they came in with a lawsuit. The DBU wanted to push players into agreeing that their personal sponsors couldn’t conflict with the national team’s sponsors. Needless to say, the players felt this was an overreach. The resulting argument about image rights and players being able to pursue individual sponsorships resulted in more strike action, and Denmark fielding an amateur team in their that would lose 3-0 to Slovakia in an international friendly. The disagreement was resolved in time for the team’s UEFA Nations League match against Wales. So, as this very brief history should make clear, when it came to Danish law as it applied to sports, Mads Øland was notorious as someone who wasn’t someone you wanted to annoy by mistreating players. He was not only a serious representative of player rights, but he was also someone everyone with even a cursory understanding of Danish sports history would know. In 2018, Denmark recognized burnout as an occupational disease, and in 2019, the World Health Organisation also recognized burnout as a medical condition. A source from inside the CSPPA informed us that Højsleth had talked with Øland about the ongoing pressures coming from Astralis management that were being applied to the players. Øland’s reaction was to tell the players that they absolutely had a solid case for burnout, and that they could, under Danish law, force the had of the organization into giving them time off by consulting with a doctor. “When you look at what the players did for the org,” the source said. “No one could argue they had exhausted themselves to do the right thing. When the CSPPA heard about their conditions and them not being able to get time off they told them exactly what they had to do. The pay cut as well was something he didn’t agree with. I think Mads wanted to go a lot further than the players did.” And so it came to pass that the first player who told Astralis they would be taking some time off was the in-game leader Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander. He himself had already experienced a significant series of health problems prior to joining Astralis, having had a collapsed lung on two occasions in 2016. As the leader of the team, and the person who had to put in many extra unmeasured hours to ensure the team functioned properly, he felt he absolutely needed the break. The exact date he told management isn’t clear, but somewhere between March and April was absolutely no more a theoretical proposition. It was now simply a matter of what the organization would do in response to his impending time off. More new faces Tension had started to spread through the Astralis management. Not only were they worried about the involvement of such a prominent figure as Mads Øland, but they also knew that it was no longer an option to simply defer holiday time until it suited them. They were on the clock and had to deliver on this “strategy” that had been promised to the players. When it came to hiring the criteria was simple; be available as soon as possible and willing to take a modest salary. On May 11, the organization announced that they would be signing Jakob ‘JUGi’ Hansen on a free transfer. The move was received with widespread confusion and mockery from fans. Hansen had been released by Danish rivals North after a string of poor performances and hadn’t played in any team since being benched in January. He was, however, known to the management as he was also Heroic alumni and, crucially, he was available immediately. Four days later, Hvidt gave another interview placing a positive spin on the situation. “We do not pick up players, rebuild our facilities, arrange additional bootcamps and team-building sessions if we do not intend to integrate the new players into the team,” he told HLTV. “Will we sell players at some point? Absolutely! We even sold JUGi for a really decent amount a couple of years ago when he was top-performing on Heroic and I can’t say that won’t happen again. Did we sign him or any other player with the aim to sell him? No. We do what we do to create the strongest possible Counter-Strike team now and in the many years to come.” Addressing the already circulating rumours that Rossander was going to be taking a break from the team, he also said, somewhat cryptically, that everyone else on the roster was capable of being an in-game leader. “In Astralis every player has a deep tactical understanding and they all pitch in when it comes to tactics and the playbook. I think everybody would understand I won’t be discussing specific tactics, but we have more potential co-IGLs on the team, should we need to rest Lukas at some point.” The interview also, perhaps unknowingly, addressed a few other points relevant to the current situation in the organization. Hvidt had pointed out that the organization had given players a rest before having missed several tournaments in 2019, namely StarSeries, DreamHack Masters Dallas, and IEM Sydney. While this is true and they did miss those tournaments, it ignores the fact that the players were also attending the Blast events across this time period, which at the time was a tournament series owned and run by the RFRSH group that also owned Astralis. This was widely perceived as not a way to give the team a break but a way to devalue competitors in the space, by not having the world’s number one team in attendance, but there were also rumours of the team looking for appearance fees to attend “lesser tournaments.” These were never confirmed at the time. Missing these tournaments contributed to Astralis losing their number one ranking in the world, allowing Team Liquid to overtake them by attending these tournaments. Similarly the interview responses glossed over the overall impact that this sudden desire for a roster with “two players for every role” would have in regards to potentially qualifying for the upcoming CS:GO Major in Brazil. With the rules in place currently, a squad loses 20% for substituting one player between the Regional qualifiers. Replacing three or more would result in a points reset. Even swapping the original players back would still lead to a significant reduction. There couldn’t be a worse time to try and implement a system like this. On May 19, Rossander announced that he was standing down from the team after consulting with a doctor who had diagnosed him as suffering from symptoms of burnout and stress. He would describe it as the “toughest decision” of his life. His total time off would stretch to three months, a not insignificant period of the Counter-Strike calendar. A few hours later, the CSPPA also released a statement saying they wanted to talk about mental health issues in professional CS:GO, and that they would be reaching out to teams to discuss what measures were being taken to protect players. We need to talk about mental health issues in professional CS:GO and esports#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek2020#MentalHealthAwarenessWeek pic.twitter.com/ZAZf7RHo2P — Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association (@CSPPAgg) May 19, 2020 May 19 was also significant as it was the date that would see the CS:GO team back to competing. The DreamHack Spring Masters, now being played online, started and the team had three series in as many days to complete. Even without Rossander at the helm and with their new player something of a passenger, the team won their first two series before going on to lose to G2. The DreamHack games would take a break until June, but there was still another tournament to come. It was one of the tournaments that Astralis were partnered with and obligated to compete in, the Blast Spring Showdown. The next domino If it was publicly presented that the time off for Rossander was pre-planned, what followed next was going to be a much harder sell. Just a little over a week later, it was reported by CS:GO beat reporter Jarek ‘Dekay’ Lewis that Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth would also be standing down from the team. The following day, May 28, the player confirmed that he too would be standing down from the team for the same reasons as Rossander. While it wasn’t explicitly stated, sources close to the players have also told us that he too consulted with a doctor, was medically signed off, and will be facing a similar length of time off from the team. The organization released a statement explaining that the timing wasn’t ideal, but they were able to find a replacement for their matches at the Blast tournament, Marco ‘snappi’ Pfeiffer, another member of the Heroic alumni. If the JuGi move had been met with confusion and mockery, this move seemed to be met with stronger derision from the fans. It was also a move that came from out of left field. Pfeiffer himself had just signed for a Chinese organisation TIGER, and the move had now devolved into a weird tug of war. TIGER had already paid for the player but had decided, for whatever reason, that they were now going to take the roster in a different direction, and were in the process of asking Heroic if they would take the player back. In this scrum, the Astralis management, desperate for options to field a player now that Højsleth was unavailable, reached out to Pfeiffer due to their previous association. Heroic didn’t want to take the player back having sold the player in good faith, so TIGER, looking to recoup something for a player they now no longer wanted, agreed to loan the player to Astralis. It was pure fortuitous coincidence this all aligned. It was not by design. Astralis were scrambling for players and made inquiries into the availability of others before realising Pfeiffer would be the cheapest and least permanent solution. What unfolded at this tournament was about as bad as you could imagine. Two new players, both below the standard of the players they had replaced, and with no time to even implement the fabled system Hvidt had talked so extensively about, this tournament was an embarrassment for the team. They only won one match at the entire thing, against Portuguese minnows sAw, and only made it out of the group stage by virtue of this victory. Despite a spirited performance against mousesports, it was now clear that the team could miss one piece of the puzzle and still grind out results. Two pieces missing and that Astralis magic was no longer present. They also lost their playoff match at DreamHack Spring to Ninjas In Pyjamas, seeing them crash out the tournament in 9th-12th place. Pfeiffer, having helped Astralis meet their obligations, was now due to move on, a temporary fix to a problem that the management hope will be fixed by the arrival of Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen in July. However, there could still be fresh developments from within the Astralis camp. What next? As the disastrous run at Blast was unfolding, Hvidt released a blog entitled “We Need A Change.” In it he would state it that the organization would like to have a 10-man roster, with the back-up five functioning as an academy team of sorts. “The pressure on a CS:GO player today is inhumane,” he said. “We have done a lot to avoid fatigue and burnouts, including prioritizing tournaments to give the players much needed time to recover and also have a private life. We have worked with mental tools, physical fitness, sleep patterns, and a range of other areas, and had we not done this, we would not have seen Astralis on the top of all charts for as long as they have. “It is not a healthy industry when teams and players are punished for taking breaks and being substituted no matter the reason. It is not healthy for the ecosystem that players are called in as stand-ins only to be under even more pressure in a new environment with new teammates and a different way of playing. It is not healthy that we have leading members of the scene making it a business to call out players with burnouts liars. It’s putting even more pressure on the players as fans buy into the conspiracies and make the players or teams the villains. It is not fair, it is destructive, and we all need to help change this culture.” However, the article fails to address key questions in this saga. The most glaring is that it doesn’t acknowledge that for an organization that is supposedly doing the most to prevent burnout, they are the first high profile example of a team having players require intervention from a doctor to get time off. It doesn’t explain why an organization that cares so much about its players would require them to seek a doctor’s intervention to get time off. It also doesn’t explain how the burnout has taken hold during a time when most squads are having a reduced workload due to a lack of global travel commitments. By the same token, it doesn’t address why an organization so attuned to its players’ needs would ever have put them through the schedule that they endured at the end of 2019. It should be no surprise if people are sceptical, especially coming from an organization that down the years has had a tendency to, at best, bend the truth at times to suit their narratives. In 2017, in regards to ownership of multiple teams, RFRSH said they only “work with” them in a media rights capacity, and that the teams “operate independently which means that we won’t have any influence over matters like what tournaments they play, matches, lineups, etc.” Contracts showed otherwise, and that they did in fact co-own the teams. Over the course of this investigation, one of the sources who I knew to be close to the players and had knowledge of their situation asked me to imagine a hypothetical situation. “Let’s say you were the best players in the world,” he started. “And you had done everything the org asked you to do. Let’s say you had worked through health problems and losing family members. You play here, you don’t play there, the fans laugh at you for missing tournaments. Then let’s say you didn’t like the working conditions, because they are too strict and too much based on real sports. Now you ask for some time off because you are exhausted with it all and the org says you have to wait. Then while you are waiting they ask you to take less money. What would you do?” Dexerto sent Astralis the allegations made in this article, and Astralis Group responded with the following: “We don’t comment on players’ personal matters and/or contracts. This means we cannot comment on a number of the rumours we understand are a part of the article. “What we can say is that our focus is and has always been to create a healthy, competitive environment around our players and teams to secure long term success and results. “Over the past four years, basically, all-new performance concepts and ideas have been discussed thoroughly with the relevant players and the coach. It is very true that not everybody has always agreed to everything from day one, but overall what we’ve accomplished over the years is a result of great team work between players, coach, performance staff and the sports director. “Ultimately, though, it is obviously the sports director’s responsibility to decide on the overall direction and what actions to take. “Our general principle is to provide the players and teams with the best possible tools, facilities and individual programmes. This also goes for physical exercise, and over the past 2-3 years we’re glad to have seen the players taking full advantage and worked out either on their own or together with our physical coach. This has helped them in many ways – just like the dietist, doctor, physio, Body SDS therapist and sports psychologist is always available to all players.”

Richard Lewis says NAVI are “hot favorites” for BLAST Premier CSGO World Final ELEAGUEIn the most recent episode of ‘Pop Flash’, hosts Richard Lewis and Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields explained how the only team currently capable of taking down NAVI is NAVI themselves. It’s been a red-letter year for Natus Vincere. In the latest episode of ‘Pop Flash’, the Dexerto-produced show covering all things Counter-strike, Richard Lewis, Thorin and co-host Auguste ‘Semmler’ Massonnat previewed the 2021 BLAST Premier World Final. The trio quickly got round to the discussion of the tournament favorites – and all three unanimously agreed that NAVI are the team to beat. The event, which will take place from December 14-19, will be NAVI’s final chance to cap off a year of incredible success. The roster has gone from strength to strength throughout 2021, becoming the first team in CS:GO history to win a Major without dropping a map at PGL Stockholm and, more recently, smashing Astralis’ record for most prize money won in a calendar year. No breaks for NAVI Lewis explained that, in his opinion, NAVI have reached a point where their only real opponent is their own mentality and work ethic. “The only way I can see this lineup not dominating all of 2022”, he explained, “is if they do something stupid like take a month-long break.” The nature of breaks in Counter-Strike has been a hotly-discussed issue throughout its lengthy history. The international calendar for Counter-Strike is undoubtedly one of the busiest in esports. It offers very little time for players to take any kind of extended break. Lewis explained that taking breaks can often be at a detriment to a roster’s performance, citing Team Liquid’s 2019 Intel Grand Slam victory as the result of consistent tournament attendance. “Once you take that long break, it can really seriously affect you- you might never get back to that equilibrium that you’re in when you’re at your best.” NAVI took a break after the BLAST Fall Final, with coach Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy highlighting the need for players to reset for “7 to 10 days” because of the system in place. But does that mean that there will be some rust to sand off? “NAVI are hot favorites to win this,” Richard Lewis said. “Personally, if I were BLAST, I’d save money and cut them the cheque. “But maybe a two-week break is enough to disrupt their flow. I don’t think it will be, but anything is possible.” NAVI’s only real opponents are themselves The ‘Pop Flash’ trio were quick to predict a finals spot for NAVI, and Thorin went on to explain that these matches are the only time the team look like they can lose- but not for the reasons you might expect. “The only matches that actually look close are when NAVI is in the final, and they’re essentially playing themselves,” argued Thorin. “In these finals, the nerves and the pressure start to creep in for NAVI. They’ve been so incredibly dominant in 2021 that this nervousness is the closest we’ve seen to a real opponent for the team.” DJ Esports’ BLAST World Final first-round odds:: NAVI 1.089 to Liquid 6.589 – Gambit 1.457 to Heroic 2.603 – G2 1.456 to NIP 2.609 – Vitality 1.522 to Astralis 2.421 – NAVI will begin their BLAST Premier World Final campaign against Team Liquid, a “dead team” that will undergo multiple roster changes at the end of the year. Be sure to catch up on all the results of the BLAST event with our official hub. Odds correct at the time of writing.

Richard Lewis reveals ‘game-breaking’ CSGO exploit that ignores smokes via Xenio YouTube[jwplayer aSfMGDlF]There is an exploit in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive that lets players ignore smokes, which could pose as a massive vulnerability for the competitive state of the game, according to prominent esports journalist Richard Lewis. Lewis caught wind of the glitch and found that it was incredibly simple to recreate in game; a worrying part of the exploit since it doesn’t trigger VAC – Valve anti-cheat – to flag anyone who takes advantage of the bug. “It’s not only is it unbelievably easy to do, it’s unbelievably effective,” Lewis said. “As you can see from this footage, it completely removes smokes unless you are sat in the smokes.” The clip he played showed someone in practice mode buying then throwing a smoke near their position, but when the utility popped, its normal plume of gas didn’t appear. Instead, the sound queue and even the shockwave that naturally emanate from the grenade, go off without a hitch. But the element that is specifically meant to cut off sight lines isn’t appearing after the Smoke Grenade bursts. Lewis said that he already passed off the exploit to the right people at Valve to take a look into a fix, while adding that he made the information public in hopes of getting the problem addressed much quicker. To that effect, he didn’t explain how to recreate the exploit since it could lead to people adopting the bug as a strategy until it’s properly sorted by the devs. “This is something that, I’m going to guess, a significant number of amateur players have figured out how to do just based on the mechanics of it,” he said. “It’s been in the game, by my estimation, the last three-four patches, probably longer.” As any casual player or curious observer can tell, this bug leaves a major window of opportunity for someone to abuse in game without detection. “If you’ve been playing the game and seen someone consistently hitting headshots through smokes but maybe not doing anything else weird,” Lewis said. “Well now you know about the existence of this and should probably put them into the report system.” It’ll be interesting to see how quickly Valve approaches a fix for this exploit since it has the potential to disrupt everything from normal matchmaking to online esports environments.

Richard Lewis: MiBR’s legacy will be one of petulance not excellence (Part 2) BLASTThe second part of an exploration into MiBR’s legacy and their core players who were once the unquestioned faces of competitive CS:GO, but had their prestige eroded by skirting conflicts of interest, consistently poor performances, and more. (You can read the full first part of this post here) The views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by Dexerto. Where we left off last time we were about to segue into another reason why the MiBR core had gone on to become so disliked by common fans; and that was their litany of excuses they come up with to explain away defeats. However, in the few days between publishing this second and final piece, something extraordinary happened. The team’s long-standing coach and manager, Ricardo ‘dead’ Sinigaglia, was given a six-month ban from participating in ESL competitions for using an in-game bug to ascertain information about the opposite team. The offense, ESL said, took place during the Road to Rio competition places the violation squarely in the same timeframe as the team went off the deep end with public allegations made against Chaos and their young players, going into an apoplexy that ruined the reputation and compromised the safety of two young and upcoming players. Of course, Singaglia went down the predictable route of feigned confusion and denial, claiming he had been sent a clip from the CS Summit 6 event that showed the bug in action against Triumph. The clip he made public was, of course, edited to make it look like it was a simple error that garnered them no advantage at all. When the full clip was posted it showed Singaglia not only following Triumph players around on a crucial pistol round but also his teammates then lying about the coach being AFK after the round was won. MiBR – Triumph, Dead’s perspective, in full pic.twitter.com/5PVyKBZXzW — Ryan Friend (@RyanAtDust2) September 1, 2020 Beyond The Summit took the decision to ban Singaglia from the next two of their events and retroactively disqualify MiBR from the event. Valve have also subsequently stripped them of all Regional Major Ranking points, which is less of a punishment as CS:GO Majors have been canceled for the foreseeable future. With these latest sanctions issued against MiBR they are the only professional team in CS:GO history to have been caught and punished three times for cheating at major events. The timing of these revelations is too perfect and underlines everything stated in the first part: these players think rules do not apply to them while publicly masquerading as the only honest competitors in a rotten scene. Conflict Of Interest Violations Speaking candidly I was surprised that ESL took action at all given that there was an even more egregious violation of competitive rules enacted by the Brazilians. On the 23rd of April 2020, in the North American Road To Rio competition for the Valve sanctioned CS:GO Major, MiBR took on another Brazilian team simply called “Yeah.” The brand name is another throwback to Counter-Strike 1.6 and thanks to some investors they were resurrected at the start of 2018. Now here for the potential to play in the biggest tournament in the CS:GO calendar, they were taking on MiBR for the first time since their return to action. This sounds like a great story, right? Well, if you look a little closer you’ll find plenty that will make you realize that this match should never have happened and would not have happened in any other professional sport. Let’s start with those investors. Can you guess who they are? As the kids say “it’s ya boi” Epitácio ‘TACO’ de Melo and the aforementioned and freshly banned Singaglia. Both of them are in for a 25% share each, giving them essentially a controlling influence in the team through direct ownership alone. You might recall that back in November of 2019 Valve said they were going to have a big clampdown on conflict of interests in the competitive CS:GO space. This came after years of work from beat journalists, myself included, having to catch multiple moneymen with their hands all the way in the monopolistic cookie jar. I’ve been doing it for years and at great cost to my bank balance, sanity and hairline (still not insisting broadcasts allow me to wear a hat yet though.) “Finally,” I thought reading this blog, “I have dented the financial membrane of Valve and got them to care about the thing that matters most to any competitive pursuit; its integrity.” I must have temporarily forgotten I was referring to a game developer, which is easily done with Valve at times. In the grand scheme of priorities, the top three of which are all variations of “add gold to the hoard,” the matter of allowing player-owned teams to compete against the players that own those teams are so way down it’d give you vertigo to look at them. Combine that with the usual lack of communication (Valve’s philosophy is “we’ll tell you when something happens we don’t like or if it upsets China.”) Incredibly this game was scheduled despite the fact that the players had disclosed ownership in writing prior to the competition. And to be fair, it was no secret to begin with. Yet there is something beyond distasteful about a team who have spent so much time complaining about how they are victimized by big tournament organizers seemingly oblivious to just what was being ignored here. Oh, and it gets worse. The parent company of MiBR, the Immortals Gaming Club, are such suckers for all things Brazilian they’ve either bought all the businesses their players own or created working business relationships with them. So it is that the parent company of MiBR pays an annual fee to Yeah that enables them to buy any two players they wish from the organization at “an agreed-upon price.” This means that Yeah is in essence the academy team for MiBR. And they played against them in a qualifier. For the Major. Incredibly the result still stands to this day and neither team has been disqualified. Valve completely bottled the issue when, in a statement to HLTV.org, they went back on their previous stance and instead said: “The sole requirement for ESL One: Road to Rio was that participating teams disclose existing conflicts of interest and that those disclosures be made public so that the community can have an opportunity to discuss them.” I’ve been covering Counter-Strike now for over fifteen years. I’m qualified to say this. The average fan doesn’t even understand what a conflict of interest is, let alone grasp why it matters within the context of a tournament. While there was discussion in the CSGO community, these were punctuated with the usual moronic arguments; “why does it matter” or “are you saying that Yeah would throw a game just because they were told” or “But Yeah are so bad they can’t beat MiBR anyway.” That last one becomes especially hilarious when you consider their recent defeat against the team ranked 64th in the world Wisla Krakow. So, even though there are multiple pathways in which a match between these two teams could be compromised, the “resolution” was for Valve and ESL to come to an agreement that as long as MiBR divest themselves before the Major itself in November (which, let’s be real, isn’t happening anyway) it is perfectly fine for any matches prior to that, such as qualifiers for that tournament, to be compromised. Man, people really do pick on those MiBR guys, don’t they? Why Does Everybody Pick On The MiBR Guys? There are few groups of players as humorless as the core of MiBR who’ve shown themselves to be over their careers. Despite the numerous examples of clearly preferential treatment they have received over their careers they seem to remain utterly convinced that everyone is out to get them. The record shows them to be some of the most widely praised players in the history of the game, their dominant era seeing them rightly showered with plaudits. By the same token, there is a significant blind spot in the community when it comes to behavior that would see other entities “canceled” in the current environment. I won’t get into the fact that the players have openly supported Jair Bolsonaro because, frankly, we should all be tired of playing the very American ‘gotcha game’ that the Twitterati have made a national pastime. However, there are some actions that usually carry consequences. Following the death of George Floyd while in police custody, the Black Lives Matter movement gained significant momentum in carrying its message to a much wider global audience. This brought with it a wave of corporate statements keen to capitalize on positive messaging at this time. MiBR were no different. On the 1st of June they posted a message to their official Twitter account in both Portuguese and English. It read: “No to fascism. Yes to respect. No to racism. Yes to diversity. Killing? Just in a game. In real life, just life. The only acceptable supremacy is respect for our differences. The differences unite us, and the respect doesn’t separate us.” Não ao fascismo. Sim ao respeito. Não ao racismo. Sim à pluralidade. Matar? Só no jogo. Na vida, só vida.A única supremacia aceitável é a do respeito às diferenças. A diferença nos une, o respeito não nos separa.#BlackLivesMatter #VidasNegrasImportam pic.twitter.com/GwOUXwC9af— MADE IN BRAZIL. (@MIBR) June 1, 2020 Fernando ‘Fer’ Alvarenga streams on Twitch regularly by professional player standards. During a broadcast just two days after MiBR’s statement about respecting differences and rejecting notions of supremacy, Alvarenga made comments to a viewer that his straight hair was “good” and that the viewer’s Afro-textured hair was making them angry. This also has significant cultural overtones given Brazil’s long-standing history of racism towards the country’s population that are of African descent, including a period in their history where they implemented eugenics to increase the European descended population. The message in and of itself is horrendous with this analysis but the timing of it, the way it actively contradicted MiBR’s public stance, meant that it would be almost impossible to ignore. Almost. MiBR’s response was to put out an apology only in Portuguese, one would assume to avoid the wider world noticing their acknowledgment of the player’s culpability. There was nothing directly from Alvarenga. As is the usual strategy for the organization their statement went to great lengths to explain how words can sometimes be divorced from intent. “We all know, sometimes, language or phrases have, if taken to the extreme, a set of implications or meanings disconnected from the speaker’s intention” their apology read. “However, it cannot be an excuse to hide behind it. Fer knows and recognizes this type of language feeds a narrative that is wrong and deeply damaging. Instead of hiding, he faced the problem and apologized.” The story did the rounds but, despite it being the worst possible thing to say at the worst possible time, nothing really came of it. Weird, given the extreme amount of bias and hostility that the players believe they face. So, I’ll just state it plainly: had this been someone from any other team, broadcast or media company, they would have been fired and on an indefinite vacation. Inflammatory, racially dividing statements at a time when people were addressing systemic racial inequality would have been, rightly, viewed as inappropriate for any other professional. When you factor in that Alvarenga had been banned from Twitch previously for using racial epithets to describe who he was playing within America it’s hard to fathom how MiBR players think they have anything other than an incredibly privileged position in the esports landscape. Despite MiBR’s claims that the player had been fined and warned it doesn’t seem that the player learned any significant lessons about expressing bigotry on his platform. The same month, following the aforementioned dispute with Furia, Alvarenga went on a tirade about the Furia players that made some charged comments about “taking it in the ass” and “not being a man.” This was ignored by all parties. kNg – The Law Unto Himself Vito ‘kNg’ Giuseppe is a relative newcomer to top tier Counter-Strike. He has, however, wasted no time in establishing himself as belonging squarely in the company of his fellow teammates when it comes to both talent and consistently unprofessional behavior. There isn’t a single person in the Counter-Strike scene who isn’t aware of his meltdown at DreamHack Montreal while representing Immortals but I’ll provide a summary. The Brazilian roster, then a top ten team in the world, was late to a competitive match against CLG. The admins gave them a warning but took no further action. They won the match and made it to the final where they would face North. Having a few hours of downtime between matches they went back to their hotel rooms and somehow managed to sleep through the call time. This being their second late showing the admins made them forfeit the first map. They would go on to lose to the Danes. Now, as a point of information, it was widely stated by many attendees at the event that three of the players from the squad, Giuseppe being one of them, had been seen out drinking late the night before. The sheer volume of people claiming this never gave me cause to doubt it as being true but if you harbor any doubts in your mind the team captain at the time, Lucas ‘steel’ Lopes, said that while he didn’t think they were partying hard or that they went to a club, he said they were at the hotel bar late the night before. As always what was fed back across the internet was likely an exaggerated version of the truth. Equally, these players, despite claiming it was jet lag that made them late, clearly weren’t feeling those effects bad enough to have an early night before must-win matches. Anyway, CLG’s in-game leader Pujan ‘FNS’ Mehta tweeted a joke that it sucked to lose to players who were hungover and Giuseppe lost his mind. In a tweet that has now gone down in Counter-Strike history, he resorted immediately to death threats. “You’ll prove it or I’ll kill you” he said. It would transpire this wasn’t a quaint turn of phrase. Giuseppe was actively seen trying to find Mehta with the intent to assault him. The CLG captain had to avoid being in the hotel while people actively tried to calm down the Brazilian and even in the aftermath he stated he would never apologize for what he did. While this ultimately set of a chain of events, that not only saw him removed from Immortals but also ended up having a huge negative impact on the upcoming Major, there was never any formal action from DreamHack. For a company that is on the record publicly as having stated that everyone must feel safe at their events, when a competitor tried to assault another one they took absolutely no action nor even addressed the matter publicly. Of course, if they were being consistent, the player would have been banned from attending their events for a period of time and, in line with the code of conduct guidelines in the handbook, would have forfeited a percentage of his winnings. Instead, he was issued with zero penalty from the tournament he disgraced. Hello Violence My Old Friend We can all agree that there is no place for violence spilling over from what should be a spirited competition. Giuseppe’s Montreal incident is widely regarded as the worst of its kind, although Singaglia and de Melo threatening Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev’s life over a throwaway in-game knife could just as easily be brought to the discussion. However, what isn’t talked about as much publicly is when one of the Brazilian entourage that was brought to the PGL Major in Krakow actually assaulted a professional player at the event’s after-party. Although I wasn’t personally in attendance the story has been told to me many times by those who were. It has mostly been covered up due to the combination of embarrassment and obviously the fact that there should carry some form of reprisals. Removing any embellishments from the story, here are the consistent facts that all present parties have repeated independently. Esports after-parties generally tend to take place before the event has finished because it’s cheaper to do so. In this case, the event took place the day before the final, which featured the Brazilian team Immortals taking on the Kazakhstanis of Gambit. Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye, then playing for Astralis who had beaten the other Brazilian team of SK Gaming 2-0 in the quarter-finals, approached the group of Brazilian players from both teams who were together. He made some seemingly disparaging comments that downplayed the likelihood of Immortals playing in many more finals in their careers, a comment that is often paraphrased as “enjoy the final you probably won’t play in many more” and a fracas ensued where one of the group assaulted the Danish player. This is widely accepted as a brother of one of the SK Gaming’s squad, although in the subsequent squabble it seemed even Kjærbye himself was unsure of who had done it. It is also worth noting that depending on who you ask the assault varies from a full-blown punch to the face or a finger being poked close to the eye of the player. A now-deleted tweet from Kjærbye confirms the incident as having taken place, although due to his reputed intoxication it seems he aimed the tweet at a German racing driver. Fellow Dane Mathias ‘MSL’ Lauridsen also made light of the incident with a tweet at the time, with some fans who claimed to have witnessed the incident responding to him. When it comes down to how I should view this incident, I am conflicted. I’ve been around sports my entire life and I’ve seen how quickly adults can behave like children when emotions are running high. Mix alcohol in with that and we all know what it can lead to. I was raised on legends from the Welsh rugby team tours of the 80s and 90s, the insane antics of American wrestlers, and the rivalries of the golden age of the Premier League. As such, a part of me wants to file this story away on a mental shelf next to all of these, something to be saved for an esports speaking tour or a book. Yet by the same token, I know that violence is completely inexcusable and has no place at an event. Competitors shouldn’t need to worry about being assaulted over trash talk or banter, which Counter-Strike fans agree is a part of what makes our esport stand out from the more sanitized, developer-controlled ones out there. It also cannot escape my attention that the most notable incident of an assault at a sizable Counter-Strike event just so happened to involve players who have actively threatened to assault other players. The fact that everyone with knowledge of the incident has a silent agreement to essentially never speak of it again may very well show a sensible maturity, but what would we say if another incident were to happen involving the same figures? We’d probably ask why they hadn’t been banned. The answer to that is simple. We have collectively agreed to treat those with a certain level of status in our scene preferentially. As I can attest to personally, as someone who has been publicly smeared and castigated for five years over an act of self-defense, not all of us get to feel that benefit. Excuses By The Bucketload Another thing happened while I was working on this article. I was sent a thread from the forums of CS:GO’s leading coverage site HLTV.org. It was an update of an earlier thread that hadn’t attained much notoriety entitled “MiBR excuse list.” While I had planned to address some of the excuses as another example of how the players had tarnished their own legacy, this thread did include a few that even I had forgotten about. Sure, the thread does include some unsourced claims that I wouldn’t take as being the gospel truth but it shows that the fans are becoming increasingly cognizant of the lack of accountability the players display. After the latest round of drama, the thread has now been updated an additional five or six times. Rather than rehash a forum thread here let me simply select some of the choice examples that have come from the team’s in-game leader Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo. Like a lot of great former champions, he seems to have fallen into the trap of believing in his mind that there are always explanations for losses that go beyond simply understanding that you weren’t good enough. Right now, you would hope that they would be waking up to that reality as, at the time of writing this, the team has lost matches to rosters that fall outside of the top fifty ranked teams in the world. This includes a loss to Copenhagen Flames who are ranked #75. Few excuses have been forthcoming lately but let’s take a look at some of Toledo’s greatest hits. There’s the obligatory reminder that he claimed players were cheating when they lost to Chaos worth repeating as his fans peddle the lie he never directly accused anyone. At the 2018 Boston Eleague CS:GO Major, the schedule meant one team would have to play twice in one day. It was randomly attributed to his team. He peddled a conspiracy intimating that Eleague had somehow been biased towards his team, relating it to their disqualification for moving organizations partway through the inaugural season. Fun fact: 2nd time eleague major we have to play 2 same day. Lost both. Who knows…. — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) January 28, 2018 When they lost to Astralis at IEM Katowice 2018, it was because the PCs were randomly tabbing out in-game. At the same tournament, he said the headsets were so uncomfortable it was unplayable. After having gone on a poor run of losing pistol rounds around this time he publicly said that one pistol in particular, the CZ, was too overpowered and should be removed from the game. Even though there was nothing stopping them from using it too, it wasn’t a gun that their squad naturally gravitated towards. Just a coincidence. Ggwp astralis sick second match, unfortunately PCS were randomly alttabing and opening prompt come window and last round it happened to cold in the clutch situation. 0-2 we play gambit or tyloo tomorrow — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) February 27, 2018 Cz has to leave CS. Or should it stay? 🤔 no rounds are for granted with that weapon in the game — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) March 4, 2018 During the FACEIT Major in London, where they had an early scare by losing against TyLoo, he complained about the tournament PCs not performing well despite the spec being in line with what most tournaments use. When they lost to TyLoo at the Asian Championships in 2019 it would be the flu, not PCs, that was to blame. Oh, and most recently, when they failed to beat Mad Lions after they choked in the finals of the Flashpoint League earlier this year, the reason they lost was that the tournament system didn’t give them more of an advantage for having been undefeated prior to that point. This is especially hilarious given the caliber of the team in the league and the fact that it was the easiest lay-up in the world for them to take the title. How can a 1080 + i7 7700 3.6ghz have a bad performance and 220fps or less during encounters? The feeling is just awful. Hopefully the tournament real pcs will be performing better — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) September 11, 2018 Ggwp Tyloo, 0-2 jogos pertos, acordei gripado hoje e me atrapalhou um pouco. Espero melhorar rápido pras quartas no sábado. Vamos que vamos! — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) November 21, 2019 We need better advantage for winner bracket team on finals. Second tournament we play there is barely no advantage. I have seen on the past: bo5 where winner bracket team has 1 map advantage, bo3 of bo3 (lower team needs 2 bo3 wins), map pick before veto. — Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) June 22, 2020 This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means and only spans the last two years. It is also only Toledo’s excuses and, take it from me, the other players on the roster have all learned from the best when it comes to explaining away defeats as being circumstances beyond their control. It’s good to see the wider community recognizing it for what it is. No sports fan likes competitors that can’t be gracious and humble in defeat. This is because in many ways it is the ultimate insult to the victor, a way to strip their moment of its luster and make it about yourself. Whatever you do though, don’t ever criticize them publicly about this or imply they might have lost their hunger. A Fundamental Inability To Accept Criticism As a public figure, criticism will come your way. Not all criticism is valid. A lot of it is coming from people that aren’t in any position to offer informed critiques because they are profoundly ignorant as to what they are talking about. Think the sports fan who is absolutely adamant about how they can fix the team they support without knowing anything about how the players train or interact with each other. They express themselves as you’d expect… Red-faced morons whose ignorance is only eclipsed by the confidence that they are right. You’ll have to hear those people, but you don’t have to listen to them. However, in sports, there are those whose job it is to critique what you do. Many players feel these people are as equally clueless as the angry fans, and that is true in some cases, but certainly not the majority. Commentators, analysts, pundits and journalists religiously watch the games and are also privy to information shared behind the scenes. We know when a team is breaking down due to in-fighting. We know when in-game leaders are looking for someone new to add to the squad. We know when contracts are expiring and when players want to get a better deal. We know when orgs are shopping around a star player they can no longer afford. All of this gives insight and perspective that players sometimes don’t take into consideration when it comes to putting out an opinion. Most players do understand that it is part of the business though. The MiBR guys have consistently lashed out at anyone either criticizing them or even making lighthearted jokes at their expense. It was this behavior towards Chaos, a team containing a young player whose reputation has been ruined by their claims, that was the last straw for me. The MiBR core enjoy an unbelievably privileged position in the esports landscape. They are, seemingly regardless of how badly they act, national heroes. They bring huge viewing numbers whenever they play, meaning tournament organizers and broadcasters will look to accommodate them in ways that other teams do not have the luxury of. They are paid a huge salary, one of the largest in Counter-Strike, without even the expectation to achieve results commensurate to their reputation and ranking. There is no oversight when they step out of line. Their coach is a lifelong friend and business partner. Their employer is also in business with them on several projects. They are completely untouchable and can act with impunity. Because of all this, it leaves an especially bad taste in the mouth when you lash out at a young social media manager for implying that, due to bad results, you might be missing a legendary former member of your squad. It is beyond petty to take to Twitter to lash out at a broadcaster who says that you appear to have lost the hunger you had in 2016 (which would be an understandable reality by the way) and whine endlessly about how hard you work. The truly mean-spirited would point out if you’re working so hard and failing so consistently it might be time to quit. There were no such suggestions here because people still remember the Brazilian core of old. Easy to come with smack talk and say we lost hunger and that is why you don’t see us succeeding anymore, as said today by @OnFireSemmler on a interview. You have no idea how much we work and how much we invest ourselves on trying to be the best.— Gabriel Toledo (@FalleNCS) January 28, 2020 We remember the team that came from nowhere to shock the world and win the country’s first CS:GO Major. We remember the style and swagger, the never-say-die attitude that meant until 16 rounds were on the board you could never be counted out of a match. We allowed the gamesmanship because it came alongside a healthy dose of showmanship. And we remember the gestures of giving back to the scene such as streaming to raise money for South African team Bravado because of their desire to come from a scene hampered by a lack of economic opportunity but go on to be among the best mirrored your own journey. Since joining MiBR this has become a distant memory. Now what remains is a group of players too egotistical to see their own faults and labor under the delusion that everything else has changed while they remained the same. You’ve shown spite to your fellow pros, including youngsters who aspire to be like you. You’ve cheated while accusing the innocent of cheating themselves. You’ve diminished the achievements of teams that right now are better than you. In doing all of this you have taken a brand that should be a source of national pride and turned it into a bad joke, one that will never recover from the reputational damage you have all done to it. When your old colleague Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau said “if MiBR comes back it will be a joke in my humble opinion, they will ruin a name that was once well represented” he couldn’t have known how right he would be. Regardless of whether or not this farce is allowed to continue by the people that sign the checks after two years, it is too late to change what you’ve turned your legacy in to. It could have been one of the greatest stories esports had ever seen. Instead, it has become the all too typical one about unchecked power, ego and greed, and we had plenty of those already.

Richard Lewis: Leaked email suggests relationship between Astralis and RFRSH had broken down, talks of developing a CS:GO league RFRSH Entertainment / AstralisOn the 12th July, HLTV published a story that announced that hugely successful Danish CS:GO team Astralis would be splitting from their parent company RFRSH. The announcement came after a long period of public criticism in regards to the nature of the relationship between company and team. Many felt that the parent company’s insistence on having the team attend their own events, The Blast, which have a more casual format than most CS:GO tournaments on the circuit, had contributed to Astralis slipping from being the undisputed number one team in the world down to a questionable third place. Now an internal email obtained by Dexerto suggests that this situation had led to a breakdown in the relationship between players and that they had been keen to part ways with the organisation for some time. While the report on HLTV.org seemed to draw quotes from the email, this was because they were sent only specific details by RFRSH rather than the full email itself. The email, sent company wide just prior to the report on HLTV, was signed by Nikolaj Nyholm, the founder and CEO of RFRSH. Astralis and RFRSH had been looking to part ways for a while. “We must also recognize that the promise we gave two years ago – to, after a build-up phase, separate ownership of competition and team – is about ripe. The Astralis players have, as you all know, felt this on their social media streams and I have no doubt that it has affected them since Miami.” it reads. The email also explicitly stated that this decision comes after Astralis had extended their contracts until 2021. Any investors would be acquiring the “majority shareholding” held by RFRSH, which suggests that the players will still retain the piece of equity that they currently hold. The split came after Astralis had extended their contracts to 2021, but the email suggests players can keep any shares they have. Also contained within the email was RFRSH’s intent to create their own league in 2020. It’s not clear from the scarce details contained within the document whether this will be in addition to The Blast or another project that run alongside it but this isn’t the first time RFRSH have talked about such a project. Previous reporting suggests that prior to the creation of The Blast tournament circuit the original plan was to create a league with multiple teams that were all under the RFRSH umbrella, with players holding small amounts of equity in each of the teams by way of an incentive to come aboard. Finally, the email implies that RFRSH believe that the people who have raised conflict of interest concerns or been critical of the way that the Astralis team has been leveraged to add extra value to The Blast events are “trolls.” The email states that they will be working with the endemic press to put these supposed “trolls” “to rest.” There are talks of RFRSH creating its own league next year. The email in full Dear colleagues, Yesterday we extended the contracts through 2021 with the five Astralis players and coach Danny. Thank you Nick, Kasper and Jakob for leading these negotiations during an exhausting five months, and Leo for being a sanity stop gap on the commercial terms. We can all be proud to have created a world-class team with a truly unique infrastructure around it! As part of these signatures, we are also committing to separating Astralis and BLAST further. As we look to 2020 and the possible development of a league, we must also recognize that the promise we gave two years ago – to, after a build-up phase, separate ownership of competition and team – is about ripe. The Astralis players have, as you all know, felt this on their social media streams and I have no doubt that it has affected them since Miami. This of course will over time mean a larger separation of roles internally, as discussed at standups and town halls in the past months. The BLAST and Teams product/performance teams are already fully separated, but we will during the next months be taking steps to make other roles clearer and dedicated to either BLAST or the teams. No decisions have been taken and we will be working with those of you holding dual roles in after the vacations to make this a seamless exercise. Furthermore, this also means that we have started the first conversations with interested investors to acquire the majority shareholding of Astralis currently held by those also involved in BLAST, thus completing our committed separation at a shareholder level as well. Steen and I will also start addressing this commitment actively in the media, initially in the endemic landscape, hopefully, at least for a while, putting the trolls to rest. We have created something very special in esports across BLAST, Astralis and Origen, and we should be proud of this ahead of the separation – and the parallel – futures that each of these businesses will see. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions. Good luck to all those in LA! Best, Nikolaj

Richard Lewis Is Confident That There Isn’t a Cheating Problem in Professional CS:GO Despite the Recent Norwegian Scandal ELEAGUERichard Lewis has released a video discussing the CS:GO cheating scandal that saw a handful of Norwegian players get exposed. The scandal in question originally came to light when Christoffer ‘hEllberg’ Andersen exposed some of the players that had been on the Entelechy Gaming Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster with him. It was revealed that Saidonz, iNTERP, zealot, and Zame had used cheats in numerous online competitions, like the King of Nordic cups, and even at BYOC LAN events- using hardware cheats and other advanced methods of gaining an advantage. Richard Lewis has now released a video on the subject where he states that methods like the ones the Norwegians used are not totally new. However, he does admit that some of it is more advanced than anything he has seen in the past. Luckily, Lewis does not believe that such scandals are likely to be seen in the upper levels of professional CS:GO as the hardware components in tournament computers are strictly controlled by the organizers. He also believes that it is much easier to get away with cheating at the lower levels of scene as players and teams are under much less scrutiny and surveillance. He closes by reassuring fans that there isn’t a cheating epidemic in pro CS and that people that do cheat will always be caught in the long run. “Don’t worry too much about it guys, I don’t really think it’s gonna be a big problem out there. There is no wave of cheats at all levels – it’s just cheats are out there, people are gonna do it. In the end, the moral of the story is: no matter how sophisticated your software, no matter how sophisticated your hardware, no matter how disciplined you are as a unit, you will get caught.” CS:GO fans have been concerned about the possibility of professional players using cheats for many years and the infamous banning of Titan’s Hovik “KQLY” Tovmassian in 2014 only served to fuel those fears. There have been no scandals at the highest level since that time but some players, like Fnatic’s Robin “flusha” Rönnquist, have been the subjects of a great deal of suspicion. Read More: Qualification for the FACEIT London Major is Heating Up as All Minor Teams Have Been Decided – It is reassuring to know that a long serving community member like Richard Lewis is confident in the belief that top tier CS:GO is still a level playing field where skill, strategy, and teamwork are the determining factors. His full video on the subject can be found below.

Richard Lewis gives a damning verdict on OpTic and Infinite’s recent layoffs Infinite Esports, the parent company of OpTic Gaming, has had a string of bad press in October, just one year after a major investment. Richard Lewis provided his insight into the recent Infinite issues, including layoffs and unethical negotiations, during a video that focused on OpTic India’s cheating troubles in a recent LAN event. “Holy fucking shit has it been a real rough month for … Infinite Esports,” the video begins. “It’s another classic example of people from outside of esports thinking their supposed expertise will naturally translate across to esports.” The company’s reason for the layoffs was that it “grew too fast,” and Lewis thinks that was obvious to people paying attention. “No shit, people on the outside looking in could have told you you were growing too fast and were throwing enough shit at a wall to see what would stick,” Lewis says in the video before moving into a more in-depth breakdown of the CS:GO player from OpTic India who was caught cheating. By now most have heard of Nikhil ‘Forsaken’ Kumawat, the player who got caught using PC hacks at a LAN tournament and was immediately released from OpTic’s Indian CS:GO team. Lewis dives into Forsaken’s past history in competitive CS:GO including a ban for account trading that was reduced from two years to six months. Forsaken’s cheating was so brazen that he went as far as trying to block an admin and push him away when the admin came to investigate Forsaken’s PC. The moment forsaken cheating had been caught at Extremesland .Gg forsaken lol :satisfied::satisfied::satisfied::satisfied:trying to del the cheating files. pic.twitter.com/Qx92DkBhpJ — 翟羽佳 (@winter_still) October 19, 2018 As a result of his cheating, the entire OpTic India roster was released, even though OpTic denied that other members of the team were aware of his cheating.

Richard Lewis: CSPPA Respond To Leaked Details Of Flashpoint Partnership FLASHPOINT[jwplayer o9fRcL4b]Last week Dexerto published leaked documents from the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association (CSPPA) that detailed how they would be entering into an agreement with the newly formed Flashpoint League. The documents detailed the conditions expected from the players in exchange for their participation in the league, including the league paying for an insurance plan in the case of a player suddenly having to retire for health reasons. In addition to this, the document also stated that the CSPPA and the league would enter into a financial agreement that would see an undisclosed sum of money annually paid by Flashpoint to the CSPPA for operational costs. While it was publicly available knowledge that the CSPPA had entered into similar agreements with the MTG owned properties of ESL and DreamHack, without any details of the amounts paid being known, it raised questions as to whether certain leagues might be shown favoritism by the CSPPA. Multiple sources from within the CSPPA had also shared that they were not asked to vote on this agreement. We sent questions about these concerns to the CSPPA who sent us the following response from their player representation. Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski, Co-chairman of the CSPPA board, offered the following statement on behalf of the CSPPA board of players: “The document mentioned in the article is a confidential internal summary sent to the CSPPA membership in confidence. Public disclosure of the contents of the agreement will require the involvement of B Site. In case such involvement is given the CSPPA is open to providing further information. The CSPPA enters into collective agreements with tournament organizers and teams in order to improve working conditions for players. This is a key part of the work that the CSPPA does. Such collective agreements are in line with similar collective agreements entered into by players’ associations in sport across the world. In the US such collective agreements between a league/teams and a players’ association are actually required by to meet standards of anti-trust laws and labor laws in many cases depending on the setup of the league.” Addressing the issue of membership voting, Jablonowski added the following: “Any decisions on matters such as collective agreements are made by the CSPPA board of players after consulting with the membership in accordance with the CSPPA Articles of Association. The CSPPA engage with the membership on a daily basis. During the past year we have had multiple calls and in-person meetings with the players of more than 40 different teams. In addition, we have set up a group of currently 51 “player representatives” (which we are expanding) who are tasked with giving input to the CSPPA on behalf of themselves and their teammates and be involved in all areas of the work that the CSPPA does. With regards to certain tournaments the CSPPA has also set up player representative groups with players from each team competing in the tournament in order to handle any issues that might arise in a specific tournament. This is how the CSPPA involves the membership on a day to day basis including regarding issues of collective bargaining. I can tell you that we have a lot of discussions with our membership before we players in the board decides to enter into an agreement.” Speaking in regards to the amount of money received by the CSPPA, board member Epitacio ‘TACO’ Pessoa stated: “Regarding funding we are not able to comment on this specifically. However license agreements between a players’ association and a league/teams are common practice in players’ associations across the world. In fact, it is how most of the big players’ associations are operating today, e.g. NFLPA or MLBPA. None of the tournament organizers who have entered into an agreement with us has any say in how the CSPPA spends its funds or operates. It is entirely up to the CSPPA board and ultimately the CSPPA membership to decide. Any funds will be spend in accordance with the overall purpose of the CSPPA which is to improve conditions for players in professional CS:GO. I can confirm that I have been a CSPPA player representative along with Adam “friberg” Friberg in the Flashpoint Board of Governors since before season 1 of Flashpoint. I am very happy to be able to represent the players in this role.” While these answers managed to circumnavigate the specifics of the deals in place it also seems to make clear that voting on each deal isn’t necessarily how the organization operates, despite member expectations. It also seems likely that, moving forward, leagues and tournaments that aren’t willing to enter into these agreements with the CSPPA could find themselves unable to attract big name teams to their tournaments as a result of the standards set by partners competitions.

Richard Lewis’ Bot Major final placements & recap No Majors ClubAfter a week of quality bot-on-bot action, The Bot Major has concluded, with Gambit beating Heroic 2-0 in the grand final of the most unique CSGO tournament of the year. Organized by Richard Lewis and Sam Davies, The Bot Major seeks to simulate what a 2020 Major could have looked like. The only difference is that every team participating is composed of aimbots, each dialed-in to resemble their real-life counterparts. The tournament included all 24 teams that should have qualified for the Major after the last RMR event on the 25th of October. Started by Lewis during the London FaceIT major in 2018, the No Majors Club has since become a fun staple of the CSGO scene. “The No Majors Club started as something fun we could do to offer the community a different type of way to watch the Counter-Strike major tournaments,” the CSGO personality explained. Bot Major recap The event provided days of meta-breaking Counter-Strike, with revolutionary tactics such as “grouping up and rushing Mid on Dust 2” or “getting stuck in the Inferno B fountain instead of planting the bomb.” According to CSGO tradition, the tournament started with 2 Swiss-System group stages before the single-elimination, knock-out rounds. Matches were best-of-one until the BO3 semi-finals, with a few of the matches in the group stages being simulated off-air. Read More: How to watch Flashpoint Season 2 – The mysterious coding behind the bots in CSGO made for some hilarious moments as the artificial players constantly aimed their guns way too low and often straight-up ignored each other. Heroic and Gambit surprised everyone by being the two teams to eventually reach the final, instead of favorites such as Astralis, NaVi, or G2 Esports. BOT Hobbit with the play of the BOT Major helped propel Gambit into the final. The last day gets underway in under two hours. Highlights are in association with @CoolerMaster . pic.twitter.com/023CHqBXtm — Richard Lewis (@RLewisReports) November 15, 2020 BOT S1mple was once again denied a Major final as NaVi failed to overcome Heroic after a nail-biting game on Train, with BOT niko performing at a simply incredible level. The Grand Final would be one-way traffic though, as Gambit recreated another major miracle, brushing Heroic aside on both Overpass and Inferno to take the crown. Finally, BOT Hobbit would be the lucky piece of code to claim the MVP award after some incredible performances in the finals. You can read the full results of the BOT Major below: Champions Stage results Quarter-Final Semi-Final Final

Richard Lewis reacts at BLAST Global Finals: “I would have disqualified Team Vitality” Richard Lewis reacts to the alleged stream sniping controversy at the BLAST Premier Global Finals, as concerns were raised after Team Vitality appeared to have a stream of the event playing in their tournament room. While it’s probably an accident on Vitality’s front, Richard believes that he’d have disqualified them to prove a point to all CS:GO organizations that there’s a zero-tolerance policy on stream sniping. He adds that it’s important not to point the finger at ESIC, because BLAST should have dealt with the situation straight away. Lewis is of the opinion that keeping those who are allowed into the room during play at a minimum is vital, as it keeps foul play at bay. With swarms of fans all over the world and a player that was recently crowned as the best player within the scene, he believes that there’s a lot of deflecting. Read More: Team Liquid right to ditch Twistzz – Many are stating that the stream wasn’t even of their game, but Richard rebuts this as misinformation, stating that while the stream is delayed by a few minutes, it still allows information to come through into how the opposition is performing. Being featured on the front page of Reddit, Lewis believes that BLAST should have taken a stand. All this being said, though, he isn’t saying that they have cheated, even going so far as to say, “I’m sure it’s just an accident,” but maintains that as the stand-out, high profile team, Vitality taking a penalty would have shown the seriousness of this offense, accidental or not: “No joke, I would have disqualified Vitality, I would have.” For all Counter-Strike news and events, make sure to check out our dedicated hub.

RFRSH Entertainment agree sale of Astralis and Origin to new ownership group L: Dexerto, R: Riot GamesRFRSH Entertainment have reportedly agreed the sale of Astralis to a new ownership group featuring Danish sports and businesspeople. According to a report by dr.dk, both Astralis and League of Legends team Origin, who are also currently owned by RFRSH, will become part of a newly-formed ‘Astralis Group’ company. The news comes just a few weeks after it was announced on July 12 that the teams would be separating from RFRSH, which would instead be focusing on developing the BLAST Pro Series. RFRSH CEO Nikolaj Nyholm will be stepping down from RFSRH to move to the Astralis Group as CEO, while RFRSH co-founder Jacob Lund Kristensen, Director of Sports Kasper Hvidt, and VP of Communications & Brand Steen Laursen will also be moving to the new company. Regarding his decision to move with the teams rather than remain at RFRSH, Nyholm told dr.dk: “I am really proud of what we have achieved, but at some point one must also make a choice, and my heart is close to Astralis and Origen. We also do this in order to separate ownership between RFRSH and the teams, so that nothing is squeezed.” The price of the sale has not been publicly announced, but according to TV 2 Sport it will be between 10 and 15 million euros ($11-16.5 million). The move comes after a period of public criticism for RFRSH in part focused on the conflict between owning both a team and a tournament organizer hosting events in which that team competes. Read more: StarLadder Berlin Major teams confirmed – Astralis were accused by many of prioritizing BLAST events over a period between March and July which saw them absent from several premier tournaments, which also contributed to the team finally losing their previously unbreakable grip on the number one ranking. A report by Dexerto revealed an internal RFRSH email in which Nyholm suggested that the criticism on social media affected the players, and played a part in the organization’s decision to separate the two entities at this point. Astralis will next compete at the StarLadder Berlin Major, where despite being dethroned by Team Liquid in recent months they will have a chance at becoming the first team in CS:GO history to claim three Majors back-to-back.

CSGO: New updated Cache revealed at ESL One New York ValveCS veterans and map creators Sal ‘Volcano’ Garozzo and Shawn ‘FMPONE’ Snelling joined the broadcast team at ESL One NY to reveal the reworked Cache map prior to the show match. The long-awaited rework of the Cache map is finally here, and its map creators took to the Barclay Center stage to show off its new overgrown, Chernobyl-esque visuals as well as new spots for utility usage and holding spots. A fan-favorite map for years, it will be back in map rotation once it has been more thoroughly tested. NEW CACHE :lovestruck::lovestruck::lovestruck: #ESLOne pic.twitter.com/ckc626fuQt — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 29, 2019 Two teams of pros will be playing in a showmatch in the reworked Cache’s debut. Team Toxic (stewie2k, nitr0, Ethan, steel, JaCkz) takes on Team Squeaky (EliGE, kennyS, tarik, k0nfig, Twistzz). Cache was removed from the active duty map pool and replaced with Inferno back in March of this year. It is expected to be released back into the active pool later in October after the creators respond to feedback here at its debut. No. We will process feedback from the event first before public release. Release date will be shortly after New York — FMPONE :cityscape::statue_of_liberty: (@FMPONE) September 9, 2019 Cache will presumably re-enter the competitive map pool now too, but it’s unclear if another map will be removed to make way. Noticably missing from new Cache is the famous s1mple graffiti from his no-scoped dropping double AWP play from ESL One Cologne 2016. Lots of fans are calling on the creators to return it, but s1mple has said it’s “time to get a new one” anyways. The creators sat down with ESL to discuss the process of re-making the map. We sat down with @SalGarozzo & @FMPONE to talk through the making of the new Cache! pic.twitter.com/LevZoY6tZL — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 29, 2019 Garazzo admitted that the map is inherently more T-sided, and said that was addressed in the rework by helping CTs cut down on long rotation times. You can keep up with all the action at ESL One New York with our coverage hub.

Revamped CS:GO Cache map is finally finished epic gamesPatience might have been tested for members of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive online community, but Valve have finally revealed that their overhaul of the Cache map is finally complete. Map creator FMPONE has been working on the project since the original map was removed from the game in March 2019, posting continuous updates on how the project is coming along. The news everybody was waiting for finally landed on August 1 as the official ESLCS Twitter account revealed the overhead view of the design, covered in big check marks. Of course, some CS:GO fans will have seen this graphic before the official green light was given by the developers. FMPONE posted a very similar image to Twitter on July 25, but it did show that some sections weren’t exactly polished off just yet. Thankfully for fans tracking the progress of the new Cache map, though, it is ready and shouldn’t be long before we get a look at what the final design looks like. FMPONE posted a video to YouTube, and Twitter, announcing that fans will get a first glimpse of the completed work on September 29. “We’re pretty much done. Little announcement, we’re going to be showing off the project for the very first time at ESL One New York. There’s going to be a show match before the grand finals,” he revealed. There had previously been suggestions that the release of the map would come sometime after the StarLadder Berlin Major, which takes place on September 8, and the official announcement here confirms that much.

Reports: FaZe CSGO in talks with MIBR’s Coldzera and ENCE’s Aleksib ESL/DremhackBrazilian CS:GO star Marcelo ‘Coldzera’ David has been linked with a move to FaZe Clan once the StarLadder Berlin Major has concluded, claims 1PV’s neLendirekt, and that might not be the only change for the multi-national roster. The StarLadder Berlin Major is in full flow, but that hasn’t stopped Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams from thinking about their immediate futures. Complexity Gaming were dumped out of the Challengers Stage by Grayhound Gaming, prompting founder Jason Lake to confirm that an overhaul was being considered. However, the biggest shake-up in the scene could come in the form of FaZe Clan, who may finally be taking the step up to pair Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač with MIBR’s Coldzera. According to French CSGO insider neLdirekt, MIBR and FaZe Clan are set to begin negotiations over a move for Coldzera once the StarLadder Berlin Major has concluded. NeL also noted that the former Major winner could even be willing to pay a part of his own buyout from MIBR in order to play for FaZe. The French Insider also confirmed a rumor that Cold has been living in Serbia – the home nation of FaZe coach Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović. Some extra info that I couldn’t really confirm or that is too touchy to be right : price talked about is around 1 million. Also, cold was in Serbia for a while, do what you want with that 🙂 — neL (@neLendirekt) August 30, 2019 That wasn’t all, though, with NeL stating that FaZe could also fix their long-term IGL problem in one fell swoop. Since the departure of Finn ‘Karrigan’ Andersen, the in-game leader role for FaZe has been left in the hands of multiple players – with superstar NiKo taking the reigns at one point. Legendary Polish star Filip ‘NEO’ Kubski has been leading the way for the international team but is apparently set to depart following the Major to open up a spot for Coldzera to take. According to NeL, FaZe could hand the IGL role to ENCE leader Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen if “certain conditions” are met, which would likely include a disappointing showing at the Major. AleksiB is set to depart his Finnish counterparts once their run at the event is over, with the team announcing that Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi will be his replacement. Whether these moves happen or not remain to be seen, but neL’s information is usually reliable so it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see them pulled off. The StarLadder Berlin Major concludes on September 8, meaning that it won’t take long for the traditional post-Major shuffle to get underway.

CSGO veteran steel quitting to become full-time Valorant streamer Beyond the SummitLongtime CSGO pro Joshua “steel” Nissan will be retiring from CS:GO to pursue a career in professional Valorant. Update 8/31: Chaos Esports has officially parted ways with steel via Twitter, who they say is stepping away from professional CS:GO to stream Valorant full time. “Coming off of our recent success, Josh “steel” Nissan will be transitioning to streaming full-time as a content creator focused on Valorant within the organization,” Chaos wrote. “In his time with us Josh has helped build something special with our CS:GO roster, and we want to honor his wishes to let him take time to figure out what is next for him in his competitive career.” The org promised fans they would have an announcement on September 1 regarding his replacement on the team. There was some speculation about where steel could be headed to play Valorant professionally, but it seems he’s sticking with Chaos for the time being. Original story continues below: Steel has been active as a pro player since 2009, playing for teams like Dignitas, Ghost, and Chaos – his current home at the time of writing this article. In 2015, he received a ban from Valve-sponsored events for his involvement in the North American match-fixing scandal, along with his teammates on iBuyPower at the time. According to Jarek “Dekay” Lewis of DBLTAP “multiple sources with knowledge of his decision” have confirmed that steel is set to retire from professional CS:GO and Chaos to go pro in Valorant. The report goes on to claim that Mexican pro Edgar “MarKE” Maldonado will be brought in to take steel’s place on Chaos once he retires, but doesn’t specify when we could see the move take place. Steel joined Chaos in November 2019, after returning to CS:GO in 2017 after he was unbanned from ESL events following the fallout from the match-fixing scandal. Read More: Can NBK Work His CSGO Magic AGAIN in OG? – The British-Canadian has led Chaos some pretty decent results recently, helping them to a semifinals berth in ESL One: Cologne North America, and a first-place finish in Season 34 of ESEA Premier North America earlier in 2020. Besides not knowing the exact details on when steel could be making his departure, we also don’t know which team’s roster he’ll be joining. Possible candidates could be 100 Thieves, who don’t have a full roster yet, or Dignitas, who have an open fifth spot and were one of steel’s past orgs in CS:GO. In any case, the veteran has certainly been playing more Valorant on his Twitch stream than CS:GO as of late. Whether the reports will pan out remains to be seen, but there seems like a good chance steel could be joining a good number of his fellow pros in making the jump to Riot’s hot new FPS.

Report: Valve cancel upcoming 2021 CSGO Major ESL / Helena KristianssonCS:GO publishers Valve have scrapped plans for the game’s next Major tournament, which was set for May 2021, according to an email sent out to organizers. According to a report from HLTV, the Major that was due to take place May 10-23 will no longer go ahead, presumably due to the global health crisis and travel restrictions, with Valve expecting impacts to still be felt in six months. This was also why the previous Major, ESL One Rio 2020, which was meant to have taken place in September, was canceled. In the announcement from ESL, they stated “While Valve is currently not able to say when and how Majors will return, as soon as they do we’ll work to bring the Major to Rio.” In the email to organizers, Valve explained their plans in more detail, including confirming a Major to be held in Europe later in 2021 has been agreed with a partner and venue. CSGO Major in 2021 “We are still disentangling our prior commitments,” Valve said, “and currently have both a partner and an EU venue designated for a Major later in 2021. “Assuming it makes sense to proceed, the event will take place October 25-November 7 with a potential play-in event October 23-24.” The last Major was StarLadder Berlin, which concluded with Astralis’ victory in September 2019. That means that it could be a full two years since the previous Major before we see another. With plans for it to take place in Europe, it means that all of the last four Majors will have been held in the continent. In the email sent to tournament organizers and obtained by HLTV, Valve added that it “doesn’t have any new information about the Regional Major Ranking (RMR)” system, but welcomed feedback from the recipients. At least in the meantime, while there are no Majors, CS:GO just launched it’s new Operation, Broken Fang, after much anticipation, adding a wealth of new content and features.

Jamppi to Valorant? VAC banned CSGO pro considering switch following legal proceedings ENCE/Riot GamesA new report from a Finnish newspaper has suggested that VAC banned CSGO pro Elias ‘Jamppi’ Olkkonen is considering a switch to Valorant as he steps down from ENCE. For a few year, Jamppi has been considered as one of Counter-Strike’s biggest rising stars. The 19-year-old was set to join the OG roster following their step into CS:GO, however, that move fell through. The problem is, the Finnish star has a VAC ban to his name, so, he can’t play in CS:GO’s premier events – the Majors – even though a number of tournament organizers have allowed him to play in their own events. With him and his family contesting the ban, Jamppi joined ENCE in the hopes that, at some point, he’d be able to play at Majors. However, there have been a few missteps in his argument, and he hasn’t come any closer to having the VAC ban taken away. That, alongside some roster turmoil with ENCE, has got him seemingly considering his options. According to a report from the Finnish newspaper Ilta-Sanomat, the 19-year-old is apparently considering a switch to VALORANT as ENCE considers a number of roster moves. It comes after a report from DBLTap’s Jarek ‘DeKay’ Lewis stated that ENCE were in discussions with Danish duo Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer and Thomas ‘TMB’ Bundsbæk about joining up with their active lineup alongside Aleksi ‘allu’ Jalli, Joonas ‘doto’ Forss, and Tuomas ‘SADDYX’ Louhimaa. That, ultimately, leaves Jamppi without a spot as the CS:GO 2021 season starts to ramp up in preparation for the PGL Stockholm Major in October. If he decides to go to VALORANT, as IS reports, Jamppi would join a list of other CS:GO pros who have been banned from playing at a Major – including Joshua ‘steel’ Nissan and Braxton ‘Swag’ Pierce. As for where he could go, well, there are a few teams who would certainly make space for the 19-year-old – especially if he could show as much promise in the Riot Games shooter as he does in CS:GO. So, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Report: Source 2 version of CSGO set for release with Counter-Strike 2 beta “very soon” ValveA new version of Counter-Strike, named Counter-Strike 2, is set to be released soon, sources told veteran esports journalist Richard Lewis. The release of a beta is expected as early as March 2023. Following years of leaks and rumors about a version of CS:GO on the source engine, files from an NVIDIA driver update at the end of February showed a ‘csgos2’ executable. This was the first concrete indication of a Source 2 upgrade for Counter-Strike, with the latest entry in the series, Global Offensive, released back in 2012. The beta for Counter-Strike 2, using the updated Source 2 engine is due to release as early as this month, according to Lewis’ sources. Counter-Strike 2 beta release Counter-Strike 2 is apparently “ready to go”, with a beta version due for release in March 2023, with April 1 at the latest. Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources with knowledge of the game’s development told Richard Lewis that the Source 2 version of Counter-Strike had been a priority at Valve, with one quoted as saying: “The big priority is getting this out and then polishing it, fixing any bugs and bringing it up to the level people expect from CS.” The Source 2 version of Counter-Strike will apparently boast 128 tick servers at launch, a feature heavily requested from CSGO players. Additionally, an improved matchmaking system is planned to lessen the need for ‘third-party’ matchmakers like FACEIT and ESEA. A group of professional players have already tested the game at Valve’s headquarters in Seattle, sources said. Will Counter-Strike 2 replace CS:GO? What remains unclear, Lewis reports, is how the new release will be integrated with the hyper-competitive top level of CS:GO, and how it might impact the current skin economy. Whether the new game will continue to exist separately from CS:GO, as with previous iterations of CS did, or if we will see a merger similar to Dota2’s Source 2 version, is unknown. Valve leaker ‘Gabe Follower’ followed up to Lewis’ report later on March 5, stating that the new game will not in fact be ‘Counter-Strike 2’, or rebranded at all. Rather, the final product will just be CS:GO running on the Source 2 engine. For many players, there will also be concerns about the future of the CS:GO skin economy, with potentially billions of dollars of value collectively held in players’ accounts and on trading websites. Skin aficionados and Gabe Follower have both downplayed the threat to existing items like skins and stickers. Case openings and Steam market activity for CS:GO are a major revenue source for Valve, who will no doubt be considering the impact of Counter-Strike 2 on this economy.

Report: MIBR set to reunite all-Brazilian SK roster According to new reports, CS:GO team MIBR is about to reassemble an all-Brazilian roster that dominated during the 2017 season. The organization, also known as Made in Brazil, is about to live up to their name by trading American Jake ‘Stewie2k’ Yip to Team Liquid in exchange for Brazilian Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo. MIBR might be having trouble finding a home for the other American on the roster, Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik, who may simply be benched in favor a new player. That rumored new player is is sure to excite fans of the old SK roster. Brazilian CS:GO site Draft5 is reporting that MIBR is set to pull João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos from INTZ. Read More: CS:GO: Shroud and OGC forced to forfeit their IEM Katowice Major dreams – The information is not yet confirmed and MIBR may also be looking at Kaike ‘kscerato’ Cerato to fill Tarik’s spot, but is running into buyout issues with Furia Esports. Finally, another Brazilian in Vito ‘kNgV-’ Giuseppe is also rumored to be on MiBR’s radar. If MIBR does manage to get felps and TACO, it would reunite one of the most successful CS:GO teams in recent memory. Under the SK Gaming banner, felps, TACO, FalleN, fer and coldzera won five tournaments in just a three month stretch in 2017. SK won two smaller events,, cs_summit and Dreamhack Summer 2017, and three premier events: Intel Extreme Masters Sydney, ECS Season 3 and ESL One Cologne. The wins would stop coming, and felps left SK as FalleN and crew pursued a more veteran option.

Report claims entire CSGO tournament created just to fix matches RundskrivYouTuber Jake Lucky’s channel Esports Talk has investigated suggestions that an ongoing online CSGO tournament may have been “put on just for the fix.” The event in question is the LEGENDS.BET L33T CUP, an ongoing online minor CSGO tournament with a prize pool of $20,000. Strange matches, unknown teams being invited, and suspicious sponsors of the competition all seem to suggest that there’s something not right, Esports Talk asserted in the video. Lucky’s first piece of evidence was a match between Na’Vi’s academy side and a Bulgarian team called the Skin Ogres on January 30. Na’Vi Jr. were the favorites against the unknown Skin Ogres squad and took the first round as everyone expected. But in the second round, the Skin Ogres came out on top and beat Na’Vi Jr. after a 1m Ruble ($15,000) bet was apparently placed on them for the second round, and only the second round. “Skin Ogres suspiciously take Map 2, then we go to Map 3 where Na’Vi dominate yet again,” the YouTuber explained. “When it comes time for in-game gameplay, it seems like Skin Ogres didn’t want to win, Na’Vi Academy take your series, but you have a suspicious bet placed on Map 2 where the underdogs take it in very, very weird fashion.” https://twitter.com/Innvandrer_/status/1222919320617046016 The “superior” evidence for Lucky’s theory, as he put it, involved some of the teams and even tournament sponsors at the L33T CUP. A lot of the teams invited were your standard minor CSGO tournament fare – the Copenhagen Flames, Na’Vi’s academy side, HellRaisers, and others. But two of the invited teams – Skin Ogres and Axis – set off alarm bells for Lucky. “How did Team Axis, without even a team profile picture, and a team known as the ‘Skin Ogres’ get placed in the event, right?” Lucky asked. “You gotta question that.” Furthermore, the sponsors for the tournament themselves also seemed a little suspect to the YouTuber, especially L33T and Overman, who have almost no active following on Twitter. The main title sponsor of the event, Legends.bet, is a CSGO skin-betting website, or was, as Lucky pointed out the site is no longer active. “Super weird right? Three of your primary sponsors … are just dead accounts,” Lucky said “Not even an active site (Legends.bet) which put up the prize pool.” Axis, one of Lucky’s suspicious teams, was actually disqualified from the tournament on January 23 due to “sufficient evidence” that one of their players wasn’t competing fairly. “This is all based on speculation, none of this can be fully confirmed as of right now,” Lucky added in the video. “I’m not trying to call anyone out, I’m simply trying to point out the obvious evidence out there that this entire event could have been hosted just for the fix.” Match-fixing scandals are nothing new in competitive CSGO, but holding an entire tournament just for one bet (if that’s really what happened) is a whole other level.

CSGO: Renegades’ Jkaem reveals main reason for success at Berlin Major StarLadderAfter their 2-0 upset over ENCE, Joakim ‘jkaem’ Myrbostad and coach Aleksandar ‘kassad’ Trifunović of Renegades spoke to Dexerto about their keys to victory and what they’re looking forward to at the rest of the StarLadder Berlin CSGO major. Yeah the boys. The unofficial motto for the Australian sensations is back as the unofficial darlings of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive world busted brackets with their quarterfinals upset over ENCE. Following the AVANGAR upset over Team Vitality, Renegades are in prime position to make a grand finals appearance in their second straight major playoffs. Following their win over ENCE, jkaem and coach kassad spoke to the Dexerto crew about their victory, and they had plenty of complimentary things to say about each other. :speaking_head_in_silhouette: @jkaemGO of @Renegades on whether ENCE’s roster issues gave them an advantage, and what it means to make the semi-finals of the #BerlinMajor. Powered by @TeamRazer | #ThisIsEsports pic.twitter.com/VtqCvbqseD — DEXERTO.COM @ Berlin Major (@Dexerto) September 5, 2019 “He’s a really good coach,” jkaem said of kassad. “He has a lot of CS knowledge. So when he looks at ENCE, for example, and we do preparation, we know what to expect in which rounds. He has a really big brain, one of the smartest I’ve ever worked with.” When speaking to Dexerto, kassad had nothing but praise in return for jkaem. When asked about jkaem’s return to form, his coach said it was because he started enjoying the game again like he was in 2015, at his natural entry role. “We win. Simple as that.” After eliminating ENCE, @Renegades coach @kassadCSGO talks about a potential final with @astralisgg at the #BerlinMajor Powered by @TeamRazer | #ThisIsEsports pic.twitter.com/vqFsEeyUg5 — DEXERTO.COM @ Berlin Major (@Dexerto) September 5, 2019 “He’s doing a hell of a job,” kassad said. “He’s a really good teammate, it’s really good to have him.” Once viewed as a breakout star with Copenhagen Wolves and G2 Esports, jkaem’s quality of play drastically declined after joining FaZe Clan years ago. He spoke publicly about his fight with depression while with Dignitas, and a few months later, he joined Renegades. After adding some young talent in Jay ‘Liazz’ Tregillgas and Sean ‘Gratisfaction’ Kaiwai, and adding coach kassad, the boys started stringing together good results, including now two straight Champions stage appearances. And jkaem has been playing his best Counter-Strike in years. Kassad shared his hope of meeting Astralis in the grand finals, and the coach made it clear the boys would step up when asked how he expects that matchup to go: “We win, simple as that.” Renegades will have a day off as they watch the rest of the quarterfinals, but shouldn’t look ahead to the grand finals while they still have AVANGAR to face in the semis.

Renegades defeat Cloud9 CSGO team despite teammate’s broken mic RenegadesThe Renegades’ Counter-Strike roster from Australia delivered a massive uppercut to the surging Cloud 9 team in the first round of DreamHack Master Leipzig, and all while their teammate Liam ‘malta’ Schembri played with a broken microphone. There’s nothing more frustrating or disappointing for a CSGO player trying to win a game than a teammate who won’t talk. At the pro level, communication isn’t just key to victory, it’s absolutely vital. So for a team to have a player’s ability to communicate down, that puts them at a massive disadvantage, especially when facing another roster that’s come into a tournament with a lot of confidence. The Renegades faced off against Cloud 9 in their opening match. Both sets of players are relatively new to their respective organizations, with the ATK team joining C9 in January, and the Grayhound players signing with Renegades in December after the previous roster left for 100 Thieves. RNG emerged victorious over Cloud9, and even dominated the first half against the North American/South African side. Malta had a quiet game at 18 kills and 19 deaths, as teammates Chris ‘dexter’ Nong and Joshua ‘INS’ Potter led the way with big performances, but that wasn’t as quiet as he himself was on the comms. After the win, he tweeted that his microphone wasn’t working “the whole game,” forcing his teammates to watch him “run around on the radar like a [matchmaking] teammate.” First win up against @Cloud9, my mic didn’t work the whole game so the boys had to watch me run around on the radar like a mm teammate 🙄 @BIGCLANgg up next, hopefully I get to comm this time 😍 — Liam Schembri (@malta_CS) January 24, 2020 FACEIT director and CS commentator James Bardolph asked the Australian lurker why he would play without a working mic, and malta replied that they went through a new PC, a new headset, and an attempt to fix settings in TeamSpeak, and still weren’t able to get it working. He also said that his teammates could hear him a little if he yelled during pauses or quiet moments. Couldn’t find a fix, tried everything including new PC and headset + TS settings. If I yelled in freezetime or quiet parts of rounds they could hear me a little — Liam Schembri (@malta_CS) January 24, 2020 The boys from Australia were also playing with a relatively new signing in Jordan ‘Hatz’ Bajic, who joined the team less than two weeks before DreamHack after Oliver ‘DickStacy’ Tierney was forced to step down due to an eye condition. To win with a new teammate and with another one muted is even more impressive when you consider the roll that Cloud 9 has been on heading into the event, with successful qualification runs for this tournament and IEM Katowice coming in the same week. Renegades would subsequently fall to BIG in the Group A Winners’ game, meaning they may end up facing Cloud 9 again if they can defeat Virtus.Pro in the Elimination match.

Renegades CS:GO star Gratisfaction gives ‘fans’ the finger for ghosting during StarSeries Shanghai playoffs StarSeriesRenegades Counter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Sean ‘Gratisfaction’ Kaiwai was caught flipping off a fan who had tried to ‘ghost’ during a quarter-finals match at StarSeries Shanghai. What is Ghosting in CS:GO? Ghosting in CS:GO is when information from dead players or spectators is relayed to players who are still alive and engaged in a late-game situation. At StarSeries, one fan had tried to help out the Ninjas in Pyjamas squad, who found themselves behind to Renegades in their quarter-final match-up, but only felt the wrath of Gratisfaction who let the crowd know how he felt. Locked in a tense one-on-one after plant situation, the New Zeland pro was situated in the Sandwich position on Mirage’s A bomb site, waiting for information. As the round end clock began to count down, he moved out of his position and gunned down F0rest who had been situated to the left of connector. However, the play was overshadowed by a voice from the crowd trying to help F0rest by calling out Gratifisaction’s position, screaming: “Sandwich, Sandwich, Sandwich.” Seemingly infuriated by what had happened, the New Zealander immediately flipped the bird towards the rogue fan before the next round got underway. Gratisfaction responds post-game Once the game was over, the Renegades pro acknowledged the situation on Twitter and made it clear that his actions couldn’t be construed as being towards his opponents, but towards the fan who had tried to spoil the game. He posted: “Wasn’t pulling the fingers towards @NiPGaming. Nothing but love for those players. It was to the dickheads in the crowd screaming out my position.” Wasn’t pulling the fingers towards @NiPGaming Nothin but love for those players. It was to the dickheads in the crowd screaming out my position :reversed_hand_with_middle_finger_extended:— Sean Kaiwai (@GratisfactionNZ) April 5, 2019 However, the Gratifisaction situation wasn’t the only example of fans trying to help players. Throughout the match, other voices in the crowd called out other key points of information – including player positions and when they had backed away from a bomb site in a bid to save their weaponry. One fan asked Renegade manager Chris ‘GoMeZ’ Orfanellis via Reddit if the fans had been kicked out, to which he responded and revealed that tournament officials had ‘dealt’ with the situation. While players do have noise-canceling headphones to prevent such situations happening, noise can break through at times due to a number of different reasons.

Release date for CS:GO’s Cache remake revealed Valve Corporation – Counter-StrikeOne of the all-time fan-favorite maps in Counter-Strike is getting a fresh coat of paint and the release date has finally been locked in. Having been removed from the competitive map pool in March of 2019, Cache was controversially replaced with Vertigo. Ever since, the community has been heavily anticipating the re-release of the popular map and to see just which changes the map designers had in store. Announced and showcased at the ESL One New York 2019 event, the much-anticipated re-work of Cache was finally unveiled and the CS community was given its first glimpse at the map in action. Following the conclusion of the grand final series between Astralis and Evil Geniuses, it was confirmed that Cache would be made available on October 10. 10.10.2019 Save the date. pic.twitter.com/EKmW9Or4cL — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 30, 2019 The map will presumably re-enter the Active Duty lineup following some initial testing, however it remains to be seen which map Cache would replace in rotation. The creators of the Cache re-make sat down with ESL to discuss the process and highlight just what has been tweaked in the time since it was removed from competitive play. We sat down with @SalGarozzo & @FMPONE to talk through the making of the new Cache! pic.twitter.com/LevZoY6tZL — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 29, 2019 Among the minor tweaks in visuals, comes the removal of the famous s1mple graffiti from his no-scoped dropping double AWP play from ESL One Cologne 2016. Commenting on the matter, s1mple stated that it’s “time to get a new one” anyways. Evil Geniuses had a rock-solid showing against the recent 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major Champions in Astralis, toppling the giants 3-1 in the Grand Finals at ESL One New York 2019. You can test the freshly re-designed map for yourself when it makes its way back into the CS:GO conversation on October 10.

Refrezh’s insane 1v5 clutch sends Heroic to ESL Season 14 Semifinals Heroic/Valve/ESLHeroic CS:GO star Ismail ‘refrezh’ Ali managed to pull off one of the most insane plays we’ve seen during ESL Pro League Season 14. By clutching an impossible 1v5 he managed to keep Heroic alive in the playoffs. We’re coming up on the final weekend of the ESL Pro League Season 14 playoffs, and it seems Heroic and Liquid both had something special in store for fans. These two teams would leave it all on the table during their quarterfinals match on September 10. First it was Liquid’s Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski caught a nasty 4K in Round 29 of Map 3 that seemed like it would wrap things up and send Liquid to the semis. THROUGH THE SMOKE ARE YOU SERIOUS? @EliGE#ESLProLeague pic.twitter.com/X43oxAktHR — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) September 10, 2021 By the next round it looked like Heroic were well on their way out of the tournament. Finding himself up against match point, with a 1v5 on the table, most people were writing off refrezh. However, they didn’t account for him absolutely popping off, producing what might be the best play of ESL Pro League Season 14 — so far at least. The first to fall is (ironically enough) FalleN, followed quickly by EliGE, who dies to refrezh’s spray as well. 1v3 is still a tall order, but apparently the 23-year-old Dane apparently came ready to serve. After navigating over the fountain on Inferno’s B site, refrezh quickly dispatched both Stewie2K and NAF to even things out. Grim, the final Liquid member left alive, entered into a cat-and-mouse game to try and clutch things up, but Heroic’s hero drew him out with a bomb plant, and the rest will go down in CS:GO history. Emotions were running high after this godlike play reached it’s conclusion. Heroic, who were on the cusp of being eliminated, absolutely freaked out after forcing a second OT. Just take a look at cadiaN’s reaction for how every Heroic fan was probably feeling after that play. Not only did he take out one of the studio backdrops, but he also tossed a chair across the room in pure euphoria. It was reminiscent of his own play from ESL Pro League Season 13, where cadiaN clutched a 1v4 eco to beat Gambit 3-2 in the Grand Final. Liquid were shook, to say the least, after being absolutely dismantled by refrezh. Heroic would go on to wrap things up with a final score of 19-16 on Inferno, and secure a semifinals match against NAVI on September 11. It remains to be seen how Heroic will fare in the remainder of the playoffs, but one thing’s for sure: If refrezh keeps playing like this they might be a very tough squad to take down.

Real Madrid’s Casemiro explains why CSGO is more nerve-wracking than football Casemiro/Instagram/ValveReal Madrid’s Casemiro might just be one of the most famous footballers in the world today, but surprisingly enough, playing CSGO makes the pro sweat more than being on the pitch. The 29-year-old Brazilian has been a fixture for Real Madrid on the field since joining in 2013, but apart from football it’s no secret Casemiro also likes to spend his free time perfecting those CSGO skills. That’s no surprise seeing as how Valve’s shooter is massive in Brazil, and Miro even has his own esports org for the game. What is surprising though is that Casemiro has claimed in a new interview he gets more nervous streaming CSGO matches than he does playing football in front of thousands of screaming fans. In a new interview with Spanish football site MARCA, Casemiro claimed that playing CSGO on stream for viewers made him more nervous than playing a match at the 80,000+ seat Bernabéu (Real’s home grounds). “Without a doubt, people are much closer and when I fail, there are some insults,” The pro explained with a laugh. “When I play Counter-Strike I get a lot more nervous there than playing at the Bernabéu. I feel more pressure with people watching me play video games live than football.” Casemiro also drew interesting comparisons between CSGO and football, saying that he finds most success when he plays similar to his IRL position on the field, instead of a straight-up offensive one. “I’m one of those that if I go in to play, I don’t like to lose. I’ve tried to play like a striker or winger [in CSGO] and my score has been very low,” he explained. “I know that my position is defensive midfielder and I have to help my teammates. What I am in real life, I also am in video games.” https://youtu.be/UcvcfkJpfYg While he might not be rushing B and popping off like S1mple, the Brazilian international thinks he manages quite well with his favorite weapon the AWP, and on his favorite map — Inferno — which he called “my Berbabéu.” He also admitted that despite owning a CSGO team, he doesn’t think he quite has what it takes to play professionally. That’s quite alright though, as he can always fall back on that multi-million dollar football career.

Rain: “We know how to counter BIG” | BLAST Premier interview DexertoFaZe’s Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard spoke to Dexerto after the 2-0 win over BIG about the match against the German side and the upcoming series against Astralis. FaZe put on a show on their return to action in front of a crowd as they dispatched BIG to set up a match against hometown favorites Astralis in the second round of the lower bracket. After the match, Dexerto caught up with rain to discuss the victory against BIG and whether or not the players felt the pressure to perform after the early exit at the Major. The Norwegian player, who put in a series-high 1.40 HLTV rating, also commented on Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen hilariously walking on stage wearing a Batman mask.

Rain Reveals What It’ll Take for FaZe Clan to Recruit Cromen Full Time We spoke to FaZe Clan’s Håvard ‘rain’ Nygaard at ESL One: Cologne 2018 about the team’s preparation for the tournament, their biggest rival for the title, and the possibility of Jørgen ‘cromen’ Robertsen becoming a permanent member. FaZe Clan’s CS:GO team had the perfect start to their ESL One: Cologne campaign, defeating all of their Group Stage opponents to skip the quarter-finals and advance directly to the semi-finals on July 7th. Read More: Na’Vi and Fnatic Lock Horns in Intense Quarter-Final Match at ESL One: Cologne – Match Report and Highlights – Speaking to Dexerto on the team’s day off before the semi-finals get underway, the Norwegian star made it clear that Cromen fits in well with the team both in game and out: “Cromen came into the team and there was like instantly a hit. He’s a really good guy outside of the game, he’s really chilled, he’s really calm, so he fit into the team pretty good […] We like to hang around each other, and then go out to eat, go and have lunch, whatever it is, so we need to have a guy that’s not socially awkward,” He goes on to reveal that the team has not been practicing since ECS Season 5. Instead, the players have been concentrating on their individual levels and Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen is calling on the fly from there! When asked whether he will ever try to use the FaZe branding to begin a career on Twitch or YouTube, the talented player reveals that YouTube is not for him but he is not ruling out the possibility of a streaming career in the future. The full interview can be found below. WATCH: @FaZe_rainCS on his team’s unconventional tournament preparation and a possible life as a Twitch streamer. Brought to you by @RivalryGLHF // Free $1.50 sign-up, no deposit: https://t.co/Ac4WplXb3t pic.twitter.com/0Yf4XHA8nW — Dexerto.com (@Dexerto) July 6, 2018

Qualifying for the FACEIT London CS:GO Major Was an Incredibly Emotional Moment for NiP twitch.tv/faceittvNinjas in Pyjamas’ players have qualified for a CS:GO Major for the first time in two years and it clearly means the world to them. Only two members of the team that played at that ESL One Cologne 2016 Major now remain on the roster: Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg and Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund. However, the pain of failing to qualify for every major since has had an impact on all of the current players and their coach, as was evident in their reaction to making it through the European Minor and qualifying for the FACEIT London Major in September. GeT_RiGhT and Faruk ‘pita’ Pita can be seen embracing, close to tears, after NiP defeated a strong ENCE team in the losers bracket final, securing the very last spot at the New Challengers Stage of the $1,000,000 event which will run from September 5 – 23. Pita coached NiP to their one and only Major title at ESL One Cologne 2014 but left the team in 2015 to pursue other opportunities. He returned to his old role in February of 2018 and seems determined to help the Ninjas get back on top. GeT_RiGhT, one of the most dedicated players in any esport, shared an image on Instagram after the crucial win captioned with “Emotions”. After going through one of the biggest slumps of his career, both as an individual and as a team, it is easy to understand why it means so much for the NiP legend to make it back to the biggest stage in Counter-Strike. With the win over ENCE and the pressure of qualification being lifted, NiP moved on to the Grand Final and comfortably defeated OpTic Gaming in two straight maps. The star performer in that particular series was NiP’s newest member, and in-game leader, Jonas ‘Lekr0’ Olofsson. NiP will compete against the likes of Astralis, Team Liquid, Gambit and OpTic Gaming for one of the last 16 spots at the Major. Waiting for them there will be Cloud9, FaZe, Na’Vi, MiBR, Mousesports, Winstrike, G2 and Fnatic.