Author: Nik Ranger

How ChrisJ Became the Loyal Heart of Mousesports Throughout multiple eras, mousesports has experimented with changes to their CSGO roster, playstyle, identity, and more. Eventually, Chris ‘chrisJ’ de Jong would become a constant force behind the org to propel it as a world title contender. Counter-strike fans will remember chrisJ’s iconic Ace-AWP clutches throughout the years or impressive IGL calls that led to nail-biting rounds. ChrisJ has been synonymous with mousesports since their come up, slotting into different positions that the team needed of him. In his early campaigns with mouse, the Dutch AWPer made a career of nailing insane shots or pulling out improbable Scout rounds against all odds. Unfortunately, he was labeled as an ‘onliner,’ as he had trouble putting solid performances on LAN early on. Even as he got noticeably better as time went on, he was still known to have those hit-or-miss events when he would be a monster on-stage then go unnoticed in a following matchup. Mousesports would eventually bring on Robin ‘ropz’ Kool and Miikka ‘suNny’ Kemppi to bolster their lineup, and soon after, ChrisJ would spend some time on the bench during the 2019 toss up of talent. Though that wouldn’t last long, as he would be a force to be reckoned with in the team’s most dangerous lineup in years that included IGL Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen, David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský, Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker, ropz, and chrisJ. Through the thick of it, chrisJ would become the heartbeat of an organization that had struggled for years to find its identity in the CSGO competitive landscape.

How chopper is building his CSGO reputation as the leader of Spirit’s young guns Helena Kristiansson/ESL Gaming via ESPATAt the age of 25, Leonid ‘chopper’ Vishnyakov is thriving as the in-game leader of Team Spirit, the youngest squad in attendance at the IEM Rio Major. For everything that he has accomplished in his career, chopper is still trying to carve his name in the CS:GO scene. He was rarely mentioned in the same breath as Nikolay ‘mir’ Bityukov during their time together on Vega Squadron, the vibrant Russian team that built its reputation as an upset specialist between 2016 and 2018. Despite often being in positions that allowed him to stand out, it was his teammate who frequently captured the spotlight. Several years later, chopper, 25, is enjoying the best period of his career as the leader of a young, talented Spirit team that earlier in 2022 came close to a Major final. Yet you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would mention his name if asked about the best Russian in-game leaders right now. “When I was younger I thought about it a little bit,” chopper told Dexerto, through a translator, when asked about the perceived lack of recognition. “Because of pride, a little bit out of envy. But the more I played, the more I understood that everything is deserved.” It was in the summer of 2019, six months after joining Team Spirit, that chopper transitioned to the in-game leader role upon suggestion from his then coach, Nikolay ‘Certus’ Poluyanov. He had tried calling the shots before, while on Vega Squadron, but the role did not feel natural to him at the time. The experience lasted only a couple of weeks, and for a while, being a captain was the last thing on his mind. chopper counts former Vega Squadron teammate Dmitriy ‘jR’ Chervak, Astralis’ Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander, Certus and his current coach, Sergey ‘hally’ Shavaev, among his biggest influences as an in-game leader. OG’s Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković was the type of captain he tried to emulate earlier in his career, but as he transitioned to a more aggressive type of IGL, he began following players like Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov, Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov, and Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan instead. chopper is also fascinated by Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov, who recently took over NAVI’s reins. “His individual level and the way he thinks the game are top notch.” One curious aspect of chopper’s current success is how close it came to not happening. After over two years of middling results, he found himself cut from Spirit’s team as part of a teardown-style rebuild that aimed to give the project a new direction, based on young talent. But in the end, despite negotiating with a number of candidates for the vacant skipper position, Spirit opted to give chopper another shot. That decision paid quick dividends as he led the team to a surprising semi-final run at PGL Major Antwerp. Even without the support of hally, who was suspended shortly before the event due to encountering the spectator bug in a competition, Spirit played with a maturity beyond their years (their average age of 20.7 years was the lowest of the tournament), beating teams like Astralis, FURIA, and Heroic before being stopped in their tracks by FaZe, the eventual champions. The results in Antwerp came as an invaluable boost to the players, who weeks earlier had relocated to Serbia because of the war in Ukraine. They had built a strong bond through having to figure out together how to adapt to a new reality, away from family and friends, and worked tirelessly towards a common goal. “I was a bit surprised,” chopper said about the Major run. “But at the same time, it was a combination of several factors. Hard circumstances unite people. We worked a lot, we all lived and breathed CS. “The other thing is that NAVI and FaZe were obviously the favorites to win the Major and were ready to play. But some of the other teams didn’t come as prepared or they had some issues. They weren’t in their best shape for the Major. “On the other hand, our players were on the rise. And we didn’t have our coach with us. At a first glance, it’s a bad thing. But it united us more. When the games were starting we’d say, ‘For hally!’ It was like us against the world. During the playoffs, we felt we were ready to win the tournament. We just believed in it so much.” Replacing degster Shortly after returning from the Major, Spirit were brought back to earth by star player Abdul ‘degster’ Gasanov’s request to seek a move elsewhere. The Russian AWPer had grown tired of living abroad and wished to join a team that could allow him to stay in Russia. degster is widely regarded as one of the best AWPers in the world, someone who could turn “a bunch of top 10 teams” into Major contenders next year, journalist and analyst Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields recently said. Still, chopper said that it was “a relief of sorts” when degster decided to leave. Regardless of his immense talent, degster had allegedly become so distant from the rest of the squad that it started having a negative impact on the team — a problem that became even more pronounced after the Major. “If we’re thinking about the team composition, losing Abdul was a big blow because he is a big-game player,” chopper said. “He’s quite experienced, he can make a difference on the server and take over games. “But outside of the server, it was a relief of sorts. Abdul was behaving like a superstar without fulfilling the duties of a superstar. The job of a superstar is to help the team to improve, but he did not do that because he was sort of a hermit. The four of us talked a lot and communicated a lot, while Abdul was on his own all the time. “That became more apparent after the Major because he thought of himself as someone who was better than some of his teammates, which is obviously not productive. Outside of the server, it was a relief.” To replace degster, Spirit signed Ukrainian rookie Igor ‘w0nderful’ Zhdanov, bringing the average age of the squad further down, to 20.5 years. The young AWPer still looks very raw, but chopper is excited with what he has seen from the player In the short time he has been with the team. [Editor’s note: The interview was conducted before Team Spirit announced that they were investigating match-fixing allegations involving w0nderful.] “He’s really young but he has the ability to turn the round on its head and to take initiative in the game. Even though he wasn’t like that at the start, maybe because he was a bit shy, he is now taking responsibility. Sometimes, he will call for someone to play for him or to flash for him, for example. “He has ‘the young skill’. This means that there are some situations that young players like him, players of the generation, will play differently from players from the older generations. He will be one of the best with time.” Still an underdog Spirit qualified for the IEM Rio Major almost unscathed, only dropping a game to Sprout. Of the four teams that they defeated en route to a Legends spot, three — GamerLegion, Bad News Eagles and Cloud9 — also made it to Rio, which speaks to the difficulty of the task they had. There weren’t any pushovers. Weeks later, the team came out on top of the Flow FiReLEAGUE 2022 Global Finals, held at Camp Nou, the stadium of Spanish football club Barcelona. It was a small tournament that lacked the luster that large-scale international events can be counted on to provide, but it was still an important moment for a Spirit team that is trying to find its place among the game’s greats. Heading into the Major, they are ranked 13th in the world, eight places down from their peak ranking of fifth after Antwerp. It will be hard for Spirit to repeat what they accomplished in Belgium. They have lost their best player, and the surprise factor is gone. At the same time, the field is much more stacked than it was a few months ago, with a number of teams, rather than just FaZe and NAVI, looking capable of mounting a serious title challenge in Rio. Looking back, does chopper think that Antwerp was his best chance to win a Major? “A hundred percent no,” he said with assurance. “The current roster is very young. If we play with the same dedication and stay united, more will come. For sure.” Spirit are once again the youngest team at the Major, with chopper the elder statesman in the squad. He is five years older than the next-oldest player, Pavel ‘s1ren’ Ogloblin, who just turned 20. Still, chopper doesn’t see himself as a father figure. “Everyone in the team is equal,” he said. “Our team dynamic is not like that. hally is the main guy. I have a lot of responsibility because I’m the caller, but that does not mean that I’m superior to the other players. “It’s a pleasure working with young players. As I said about w0nderful, they have a slightly different logic inside the game. And it’s cool to exchange opinions and learn something new. Unlike some of the old players, the young ones are more open to my opinions. They are willing to adapt and so I am. Together, we are always coming to conclusions together. And that was not always the case with some of the older players.” IEM Rio will be much tougher than Antwerp, but chopper still believes that his team can once again fly under the radar and reach the playoffs. “In many situations, we will be the underdogs, and we feel comfortable in that position because the pressure will be on the opponent,” he said. The Brazilian Major will be more than just the chance for Spirit to prove that the Antwerp run was no fluke; it will also offer chopper the opportunity to continue to cement his reputation in the scene. “Many Russian in-game leaders have better results than me,” he said. “nafany, Boombl4, and Jame all have the results to back up their claim. I don’t have as many great results. I need to prove that I deserve it and win more. “After Antwerp, many people praised me in private messages. The more I accomplish, the more that will happen. It’s only natural.”

How Anubis made it into CSGO’s Active Duty map pool ValveDexerto picked the brains of Anubis’ creators to find out more about the development of the CS:GO map, which has been added to Valve’s Active Duty pool. Roald could hardly believe what he was reading. As he opened his email inbox on September 10, he found a message from Valve, who wished to purchase the rights to Anubis, the CS:GO map that he had co-created in 2020. He instantly reached out to the other two creators, Jakuza and jd40, asking if they had received the same email with Valve’s offer to take over the map and put it on the Active Duty pool. “It was unreal,” Roald tells Dexerto. “I thought it was maybe some kind of scam.” After reaching an agreement with Valve, the trio kept the news to themselves, perhaps afraid that they might jinx it. What followed was a long and agonizing wait for the big reveal to happen. It was only on November 18 that Valve finally announced that Anubis would be added to the Active Duty map pool — the official set of maps selected by the developer for esports competitions — as a replacement for Dust2, the most iconic map in FPS history. It is only the second community-made map that has made it into the Active Duty map pool after Cache, created by Salvatore ‘Volcano’ Garozzo (now a lead game designer for Valorant at Riot Games), Shawn ‘FMPONE’ Snelling and Lenz ‘penE’ Monath. Roald went through a range of emotions when the update hit the game. There was joy, of course, but at the same time a creeping sense of dread. “Pro teams will play it and you don’t know how it will be received,” he explained. “As a level designer, I still feel responsible for the map and that people enjoy it and like it. You still have this worry. Like, ‘I hope it will be good’. “But it’s mostly a positive feeling. I’m really excited that pros are going to play the map and excited to see what they can do with it, what strategies they come up with.” How Anubis came together The development of Anubis began in June 2019, shortly after Mapcore and FACEIT announced an exotic mapping contest for CS:GO with $15,000 on offer. Roald had prior experience with the theme after working on the map Desertruin for ‘Pirates, Vikings & Knights II’, a multiplayer team-based first-person action video game. “You have so much freedom because structures can be broken,” he says of the exotic motif. “You don’t really need that much logic.” He started doing research on Ancient Egypt, using Ubisoft’s 2017 hit game, ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’, as the key concept for the map. He originally thought about doing it all by himself, but very early on in development, he was joined by Jakuza, who began creating assets for the map, like models and textures. A short time later, the team grew again as they brought in jd40, who had won the 2017 mapping contest with Biome. That map made it into CS:GO in October 2018. “It was a huge relief that everyone had something to work on at all times,” Jakuza says. “We knew the ball was always heading in the right direction.” This was not the first rodeo for any of the three creators, but it was still a demanding undertaking, especially because they could only work on the map in their free time. Back then, Roald was working as a cook. Jakuza, he explains, was “doing something completely different”. And jd40 is a software engineer. The development journey can be followed on Mapcore’s forum, where Roald posted regular updates about the project, including early layouts and textureless screenshots, and asked fellow map creators for input. On January 30, 2020, Anubis was officially released and added to CS:GO’s workshop for players to download. In March, it was announced as the winner of the Exotic Places Mapping Contest, netting the trio of creators a cheque for $7,500. “I didn’t know we had a gem on our hands,” Jakuza says. Before the end of the month, Anubis was officially introduced to the game, though only in Scrimmage mode (unranked matchmaking games). That changed less than two weeks later, when it was moved from Scrimmage to Competitive after only ten days in the game. It ended up staying there for over a year. “I would not say I had [big] expectations because for me it was the first map that was added to the game,” Roald says. “But I did know that we had done something very solid.” Work on Anubis never stopped. As more players got their hands on the map, bug reports kept coming in. At the same time, the creators started revisiting the layout based on feedback. One of the biggest changes was made to the entrance of the B site. “It was more like a 90-degree angle into the site and you had to check so many corners,” he says. “I did not like the flow. I thought, ‘I want to use this chance to make bigger changes and see how they will play out and what effect they will have on a larger scale, with more people playing. “So we changed the entrance of the B site and jd40 had to redo the whole art there.” Instantly, the other two creators burst into laughter. “I’m sorry for that,” Roald adds. “I know there is still trauma.” As excited as they were that Anubis was being played by thousands across the globe on a daily basis, the developers still wanted to know what the pros had to say about the map. Roald reached out to a number of community figures but only heard back from NIP’s Fredrik ‘REZ’ Sterner and [then-head coach] Björn ‘THREAT’ Pers. “They didn’t play it on matchmaking, but they played it for fun, 3v3,” he explains. “They both said that A [site] was too hard for Ts and gave other suggestions. I made some changes based on their input.” Coincidentally, NIP took part in what is considered to be the first match between two professional teams on Anubis, in January 2021. The Swedish team hammered BIG 16-4 as part of a best-of-five showmatch organized by Betway. “I think someone on Discord messaged me saying, ‘They’re playing your map!’” Roald recalls. “I missed the start of the match but it was really cool. “The coaches were casting the match together with Mauisnake. I know that BIG was losing hard and the coach was really complaining about the map. And I was like, ‘Oh, f**k. They hate it. It’s so bad’. It was really cool but for me, it induced a bit of anxiety.” Revamping the map pool In 2020, there were already rumors that Anubis could be added to the Active Duty map pool one day. That speculation only intensified as the map remained in Competitive mode for months on end, only being removed from the game in May 2021. That was the end of it, the trio of creators thought. But the rumor mill started whirring again in August 2022, when Anubis was re-added to CS:GO (together with Breach and Tuscan) as part of the update that came out ahead of the game’s tenth anniversary. “The map survived multiple rotations of community maps,” Roald says. “And you think, ‘So what’s the deal?’ You get some hope. But then after 13 months, they removed the map and you’re like, ‘Aww, all hope for nothing. It was just another rotation’. “And then it’s back in. I thought it would stay in the rotation for a few months and then get removed again. At this time, I think there were rumors that one of the three maps would make it [into the Active Duty pool]. “And then we got the email from Valve.” Jakuza recalls an enigmatic October 5 tweet by the popular caster and Mapcore contest judge James Bardolph, who called on Valve to consider Anubis for the Active Duty map pool. By then, he and the other two creators were already in talks with Valve about selling Anubis. “He must have had a premonition,” Jakuza says, laughing. “Or he has an inside source.” Bardolph explains that his tweet stemmed from a discussion on Reddit about how unlikely it seemed that a community-made map would be part of the Active Duty map pool again. “I know Valve’s devs observe what we say, so I wanted to push the conversation on a map like Anubis,” he tells Dexerto. “In terms of something that’s accessible to the casual player, it was one of the best options we had to go into the map pool. “I like to spam them with my opinions on what I would like to see!” The addition of Anubis to the Active Duty pool has reignited the discussion about the staleness of some CS:GO maps that are used in competitions. Dust2 had long run its course when it was removed, but the same can be said, for example, of Mirage, which has featured in all CS:GO Majors. Will Valve’s acquisition of Anubis signal the start of a new era for competitive CS:GO, with more community-made maps being featured in competitions? For Anubis’ creators, that is an unlikely prospect. “I’d love it if Valve became more open with this stuff and even did a mapping contest,” jd40 says. “These days, there aren’t many reasons to create maps. Maybe you can do a Wingman [2v2 game mode] map, which pays the same as a Defuse map. There is not much reason to do a 5v5 map. I think Anubis is going to be the exception.” Jakuza adds: “I hope not, but I have a gut feeling that it will stay the same”. If that is indeed the case, then Roald, Jakuza and jd40 can consider themselves lucky. The trio cannot reveal how much they made from Anubis’ sale, but they all stress that it was not life-changing money. “I can buy a lot more stupid things,” jd40 says. Jakuza, who starts chuckling, adds: “Same deal over here. It’s just a really nice bonus, basically.” “For me, it’s kind of a safety net,” Roald says. “It’s nice to have it in the bank account. I’m not as tempted to buy stupid sh*t so I’ll keep it there. If I lose my job I’ll still be able to provide, and if I want to buy a house in the future it’s for the down payment. But it’s not life-changing, let’s put it that way.” Saying goodbye to Anubis After a three-year journey on Anubis, there was not so much as a hint of sadness from the trio of creators about letting go of the map and relinquishing control to Valve. “It was kind of a relief,” Jakuza says, laughing. “It’s just great to know that you’re putting it in the right hands and that they’re going to take care of it for you.” Roald adds that he is at the same time scared and excited to see where Valve will take the map in the future. “As a level designer, you have thought about all the little pieces and think, ‘Oh sh*t. I hope that the big picture will remain as it is’. But on the other hand, I’m really tired of the map. At some point, you’re just done. It’s good that there are some fresh eyes and fresh hands working on it. “I have a lot of trust that they will do the right thing, that they will deal with feedback and statistics and push the map in a better direction. They are able to make bigger changes that can improve the map. I was a little bit stuck. I have this feeling that there are things to improve but I didn’t know what to do. I tried some stuff in the editor but it just wasn’t coming. I think I did all I could do.” Community reaction to Anubis has been mixed, even among pro players, some of whom criticized the map even before even giving it a try. Traditionally, players are resistant to change, and their feelings about Anubis might be influenced by how strong a pick Dust2 was for their teams. Heroic coach Richard ‘Xizt’ Landström, for example, said that Anubis’ addition was “good” for his team, which had Dust2 as a permanent ban. At the same time, the map seems to have grown on some pro players in recent weeks. “It’s Dust2 and people complain,” Roald says. “But if it were Inferno or Mirage, the people who love those maps would complain while the others would be silent. I think there’s always something to complain about. I think Valve doesn’t care too much about that. They have a vision of what they want. People just have to accept it and deal with it. “Some people really want new maps, while others are fine with what they have, especially if their map might be getting thrown out. For me, change is good because it will bring something new to watch and new challenges for players.” The BLAST Premier World Final will be the first opportunity to see Anubis in a tier-one LAN setting. The tournament will feature eight of the best teams in the world, who will be duking it out for a $1 million prize pool. It will be interesting to see which teams will embrace Anubis right off the bat, as well as whether it will be the most T-sided map in the pool — a trend that has developed in matchmaking games. Asked which teams they think will be dominant on Anubis, the creators don’t really know how to answer. It turns out that they aren’t really big esports fans. (For example, IEM Rio was the first CS:GO Major that Roald watched.) But they all said that they are likely to tune in to a stream and watch a game if they see that Anubis is being played, especially if it’s a big match, like the grand final of a Major. “I will watch it with interest and just be proud,” says Roald, who is now working as a junior level designer for a video game developer. “If it’s a grand final, I think it will be a great moment and something we can be proud of.”

How an unlikely CSGO captain went from outcast to champion CadiaN undoubtedly took the long route on his way to becoming Heroic’s IGL. After already climbing the Counter-Strike ladder once before, the Danish international had to do it again to prove he didn’t peak too early. The Dane qualified for his first CSGO’s Major back at Dreamhack Winter 2013 on XAPSD, with the team beating the likes of Mousesports, and was at the forefront of experimenting with weapons in-game. However, a period of uncertainty followed. This was further compounded by Danish teams shuffling things around often, and he rarely stayed put on any team longer than two months. CadiaN’s following events with the likes of the team that he previously beat, Mousesports, all landed him in the bottom tier, eventually seeing him moving into an analyst for tournaments. After a slew of moves and an extended period of time with Rogue, Casper has now landed firmly on Heroic as an IGL, and they’re on an impressive run. Rising to top two in the world, they took it one step further when Heroic and Team Vitality battled it out for the top spot, nabbing the win with crafty plays that kept their opposition on their toes. With a 1.2 rating, and continuing to blitz through their opposition and land themselves with impressive wins, the future for CadiaN and Heroic is undoubtedly bright as they try to reclaim that top spot following Hunden’s exit as coach due to a meta bug exploit. For all CSGO news and events, stay tuned over at our dedicated main page.

Hero Hobbit: Gambit’s Star Man POPS OFF vs VP | Richard Lewis Reacts @ IEM Katowice The IEM Katowice 2021 Grand Finals surprised everyone with Gambit Esports and Virtus.pro facing off for the top spot. But at the end of the day, it was Abay ‘Hobbit’ Khasenov who stole the show as Gambit reverse-swept VP. A Grand Final like this was a long time coming for Richard Lewis, who’s seeing the talent gap across the CS:GO landscape narrow. With a ton of potential in the CIS region, IEM Katowice was great display of how CS can evolve from here. At the center of Gambit’s really young core is Hobbit, 25, who put on an incredible display while reminding everyone why he was a Major winner in 2017. Since the PGL Kraków Major, Hobbit’s name has been predominantly missing from many big tournaments, but made a resounding impression in his latest IEM campaign. Hobbit was an absolute monster against VP and in Gambit’s overall run at IEM Katowice. While he had a slow start in the first two maps of the Grand Finals, the Kazakh international turned it up to secure the club’s biggest trophy in nearly four years. Read more: CIS Are DOMINANT Force in World CS – With a 1.40 rating by going +25 in the best of five series against VP, Hobbit led the entire field with the most kills and highest ADR of 106. Even when Hobbit would falter, the rest of Gambit was primed and ready to pick up the slack. IEM was an all around masterclass showing from the CIS team, and CSGO fans will be look forward to their next performance.

HLTV reveals which CS:GO pros narrowly missed out on Top 20 of 2018 list With HLTV in the midst of counting down the best players of 2018 in their yearly Top 20 list, it’s a perfect time to look at which players fell sort of receiving the special honor. HLTV’s Top 20 list, while not affiliated with Valve, is often seen as the definitive ranking of CS:GO players year after year. With so much CS:GO talent out there, though, there’s no way to include everyone which means there will always be some notable exclusions from the list. Now that the list has reached its halfway point, HLTV co-owner Petar Milovanovic decided it was time to let fans know which players just missed out on the Top 20 this time around. While Milovanovic listed a total of nine players who came the closest to cracking into the prestigious list, there were two who came the absolute closest. NRG Esports’ Ethan ‘nahtE’ Arnold and Natus Vincere’s Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev came in at 21st and 22nd, respectively, after both performing incredibly well throughout the season. Since we’ve reached the halfway point of the Top 20 series, it’s time to reveal who ended up on the cusp of the list: #21 :usa: nahtE (very very close to valde) #22 :ru: flamieand then in a looser order: :flag-bg: CeRq :flag-br: FalleN :usa: tarik :usa: Brehze :flag-de: tabseN :flag-br: fer :usa: Stewie2K— Petar Milovanovic (@Tgwri1s) January 10, 2019 Perhaps the biggest surprise came with the revelation that MIBR’s Tarik ‘tarik’ Celik was not one of the remaining 10 players on the list. The exclusion comes despite tarik having won the Major MVP for his performance with Cloud9 at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, making this the first time a Major MVP winner has not made the HLTV Top 20 list in that same year. Other notable exclusions include MIBR stars Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo and Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga, along with Team Liquid’s Jacky ‘Stewie2k’ Yip. With 10 players left to go on the countdown, there will no doubt be even more surprises along the way.

Hilarious CSGO “cheat” software messes with hackers in the most satisfying way Valve[jwplayer nxSzVfCN] CSGO player and YouTuber ScriptKid has released a new set of fake hacks for the game, and just like his software back in January, this one screws around with the hackers in an extremely satisfying way. While the majority of players in online video games are decent, honorable people, there are some that choose to download and install software that lets them cheat. While some titles do have anti-cheat software in place to prevent these types of things, others do not, which can cause them to be plagued by these hackers. One fan has been determined to do something about these players in CSGO. In July 2020, he released a fake software that was labeled as a cheat but actually messed with the wannabe hacker and caused them to kill themselves in-game. Now, he’s back. YouTuber ScriptKid has released an entirely new set of fake cheats for the FPS, and just like his first round of software, watching these players fail so spectacularly is extremely satisfying. Just like before, ScriptKid uploaded this software online, disguised as real cheating software, in order to trick players into downloading it. One of the more hilarious fake cheats he made this time around is called MindControl. With it, when a player enters a certain portion of the map, they are flashed by a grenade, lose control for a couple of seconds, and then the game forces them to do something they don’t want to do. These actions can be as simple as throwing the weapons outside of the map to something as hilarious as forcing the player to walk off the side to their death. Another hilarious troll is that of the KnockKnockWhosThere “cheat.” When it is is installed, the hacker won’t be able to open doors and a knocking sound will play whenever they try to open one. In would be an understatement to say that watching people get trolled by these cheats is extremely satisfying. Here’s hoping he creates more of these for other games in the future.

Hilarious CS:GO bug allows players to buy snowballs in competitive matches L: Valve / R: ALLEN DONIKOWSKICounter-Strike: Global Offensive players have figured out a way to buy snowballs in competitive matchmaking games, giving a silly twist to otherwise serious matches. Snowballs were added to the game in December 2018 as part of Counter-Strike’s winter season celebrations. Players could pick up snowballs on certain maps and throw them at their opponents, doing a slight bit of damage and covering their screen with snow for a few seconds. They were removed in January 2019 as the winter celebrations came to an end, and that was it for everyone’s snowball fights. However, they seem to have made a miraculous summer-time comeback. On July 17, Global Offensive streamer Mocmolde showed off a console command that allowed him to purchase a snowball in his competitive match on Cache. The command is very simple: “buy x 31” where “x” can be any word or letter. This command gives a player one snowball in their grenade slot. After Mocmolde made use of this command his match turned from competitive to outright hilarious, with his team attempting to defeat their enemies with snowballs while being attacked by fully automatic weapons. The exact details of this bug are not yet known, however, it seems that it is possible to buy snowballs on most maps in Counter-Strike’s matchmaking. Although they are only available on either the Counter-Terrorist or Terrorist side depending on the map, and never on both. Snowballs can be used as a silly tool to spice up games, but, are likely to be removed soon as they block vision and can be a fairly powerful utility tool.

Highly popular map Tuscan finally gets full CSGO release Brute & CatfoodThe iconic Counter-Strike 1.6 map Tuscan has been released in its full version on the CS:GO workshop. On Twitter, community map creator ‘Catfood’ revealed that a full version of Tuscan, one of CS 1.6’s most popular maps, was finally available for download on the Steam Workshop. Catfood crafted the map together with Colin ‘Brute’ Volrath, Tuscan’s original creator. It can already be selected for custom games, and fans will hope that it’s only a matter of time before it’s added to official matchmaking and eventually the active duty map pool — which contains the seven maps that are played in competitive CS:GO. The last change to the active map pool came in May 2021, when Ancient replaced Train. Mirage is the only map that has been ever-present in the pool since CS:GO’s release. This was not Brute’s first attempt to bring the map back to CS:GO. In 2014, he released a much more basic version of Tuscan on the CS:GO workshop with the same layout as the original map, but he ended up shelving the project a year later. In 2016, he wrote on Reddit that he was looking for artists to bring Tuscan “up to CS:GO standards”. He then partnered with Catfood, who designed the community map Ruby. In 2021, the pair released a ‘work-in-progress’ version of Tuscan on the CS:GO Steam Workshop, to the delight of players worldwide. Counter-Strike fans have already had a taste of what the map will look like in competition. In October 2021, NIP, G2, FURIA and MIBR took part in Battle of Betway, an exhibition tournament that was played on legacy maps, including Tuscan. At the recent BLAST Premier Spring Final in Lisbon, a star-studded mix team faced a team made up of Portuguese players on Tuscan. There’s no telling if Valve has plans to bring Tuscan to the active map pool, but it’s clear that the map has a special place for CS:GO players, even among pros. Last year, NAVI coach Andrey ‘B1ad3’ Gorodenskiy, Heroic captain Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller and Cloud9 in-game leader Vladislav ‘nafany’ Gorshkov all spoke in favor of playing the map competitively.

Heroic taking legal action against former coach Hunden for leaking sensitive team info DreamHackHeroic have announced that they have parted ways with head coach Nicolai ‘Hunden’ Petersen, alleging that he leaked sensitive information to a “major competitor” ahead of IEM Cologne 2021, at which Heroic placed 7-8th. Hunden is no stranger to controversy in esports, having also been implicated in the infamous CSGO coaching bug. Now, Heroic have released him from the team and made some damning statements, clarifying the situation and explaining why they had no choice but to move him on from their head coaching role. In a statement posted by Heroic, they said they felt it necessary to explain why exactly he had been removed. They cited the following reasons: Prior to IEM Cologne 2021 in early July, the Heroic team unanimously decided that Mr. Petersen would not participate in the tournament due to severe trust issues. – Following this, Mr. Petersen blocked the team members’ access to the team strategy folder. – Investigations revealed that Mr. Petersen had shared confidential and sensitive information from our strategy folder with a key individual at a major competitor prior to the tournament. – This was done without the knowledge of anyone at Heroic, and would obviously not have been approved. – Heroic considers this a clear breach of Mr. Petersen’s contract. – A legal process is ongoing in Denmark. Two courts have independently found sufficient grounds for evidence collection, which has been carried out. – The issue has been reported to ESL and ESIC. – Mr. Petersen’s contract has been terminated by Heroic. – Heroic also added that “In order to preserve the integrity of the sport in the eyes of fans and everyone involved, it has to be made clear that such behavior is unacceptable and will have severe consequences.” Read More: Astralis pick up Lucky for CSGO roster – Hunden himself categorically denied the “rumors” that he shared strats with opponents, in a statement posted to Twitter on July 28. https://twitter.com/hundencsgo/status/1420367122782429192?s=20 As Heroic revealed, there is an “ongoing legal process” in Denmark, with two courts finding “sufficient grounds for evidence collection.” ESIC releases statement on Hunden After both Heroic and Hunden made their own statements, the Esports Integrity Coalition (ESIC) spoke up, saying that they had been made aware of the situation and also informed ESL. ESIC Statement Regarding Nicolai “HUNDEN” Petersen ESIC has elected to make a statement regarding the events related to Mr. Petersen’s statement in the public’s interest and to remove the need for speculation. Read: https://t.co/xkhCEcCPpw pic.twitter.com/LtHXfR1zih — ESIC (@ESIC_Official) July 29, 2021 The statement read: “ESIC’s preliminary findings, on the evidence available, were that while Mr. Petersen did engage in behavior that could constitute a breach of the ESIC Integrity Program, the consequences of his behavior had not impacted the tournament integrity of IEM Cologne… “As this matter is still ongoing and under investigation, ESIC will reserve further comment on the outcomes arrived at and any potential sanctions to be issued until the finalization of its investigation.”

Heroic supports HUNDEN ESIC CSGO ban for leaking strategic documents DreamhackCSGO org Heroic has come out in support of ESIC’s decision to ban former coach Nicolai ‘Hunden’ Petersen for two years for leaking the team’s “strategy documents.” After ESIC announced that the former Heroic coach would be banned for two years for a breach of its integrity program, the team put out a statement apparently supporting the move on August 27. If you want more background on the details leading up to ESIC’s decision, Heroic parted ways with Hunden back in July of 2021. At the time they claimed that investigations had revealed Petersen had shared “confidential and sensitive information” from the team’s strategy folder with a “key individual” of a major competitor prior to IEM Cologne 2021. Now, with the former coach banned from competition for two years, Heroic released a statement backing up ESIC for their decision. “The content of the documents reveals what our team look for, how we think, and how we outplay our opponents,” Heroic said. “In aggregate, this provides a lot of information about how we think as a team. The documents cover far more more than where opponents like to stand and what setups they use.” Heroic also touched on the fact Hunden allegedly restricted access to the files from players, calling it a “deliberate action” that hampered the team during IEM Cologne 2021. “Our players also highlight the impact of Mr. Petersen restricting access to their own folder,” the org wrote. “A deliberate action which limited their ability to prepare and hence our chance to perform our best during this year’s IEM Cologne.” On top of that, Heroic also added that “investigations are still ongoing” in regards to further misconduct, so this might not be the last we see of this story after all. Heroic have yet to sign another coach to replace Hunden following the termination of his contract. Dexerto will continue to follow this story and bring you more details as soon as they come out.

Heroic sign Astralis legend dupreeh for the start of CS2 João Ferreira for PGLHeroic has announced the signing of Astralis legend Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen to replace the benched Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller for the start of CS2. Heroic benched their long-time IGL cadiaN on October 4, ahead of the team’s first CS2 match, and have announced his replacement almost 20 days later. Danish legend dupreeh has been signed on to play for the squad to round out the 2023 season. The former Astralis player has been inactive on the Team Vitality roster since June 22, 2023 after signing for the French organization in early 2022. With Vitality, dupreeh won the Paris 2023 Major and ESL Pro League Season 16 and IEM Masters Rio 2023. The 30-year-old player was rumored to be potentially following his former coach’s footsteps, Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen, and joining Team Falcons but that seems to have not come to fruition. The veteran Counter-Strike player should add some leadership to the young Danish squad, but he is not expected to replace cadiaN in the IGL role. Heroic bring in dupreeh ahead of CS2 debut dupreeh has mainly stuck to rifling and AWPing for most of his career and his time with Heroic should be no different. The veteran player was replaced on Team Vitality by Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan in an attempt by the organization to build toward the future. That future also revolves around the new title, Counter-Strike 2. The veteran player has some of the most accolades in CS:GO history and has more prize money than almost any other player in the esport. However, whether players like durpeeh can transition to playing CS2 and stay at that level of skill has yet to be seen, and Vitality went with youth over experience for the new title. Heroic and dupreeh have yet to record an official match in the new game and will debut in the Valve title on October 24 against Aurora in the Roobet Cup. The organization has not put an end date on dupreeh’s contract, but the announcement says he will be on the squad till the end of 2023.

Heroic players give emotional account of events after HUNDEN’s accusation HeroicHeroic’s players have given an emotional account of the strain they were under following disgruntled coach Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Petersen’s accusation that they were aware of his actions. In a 35-minute long video, Heroic’s players and former team member Johannes ‘b0RUP’ Borup spoke out for the first time about being entangled in the spectator bug scandal after HUNDEN backtracked on his first comments that he had acted alone, without the knowledge of the squad. The video was released just a day after the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) said that it had been “unable to find anywhere near enough evidence” linking Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller, René ‘TeSeS’ Madsen, Martin ‘stavn’ Lund, and b0RUP with HUNDEN’s actions. The esports watchdog found Nikolaj ‘niko’ Kristensen, another former Heroic player, guilty of breaching its code of conduct. The Danish rifler, who is currently playing for OG, received a lenient punishment as a result of an admission of guilt and “special circumstances” relating to his medical conditions – he has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Asperger’s Syndrome. Learning about the bug In the video, cadiaN revealed that he was “shocked” when niko told him and stavn on TeamSpeak after the 19 May 2020 DreamHack Masters Spring series against Astralis that HUNDEN had used the bug. “We really gave our opinion and said that under no circumstance should this bug be used, and that it was stupid,” he said, adding that they didn’t share this information with TeSeS or b0RUP. “Looking back, we should have. We should have had a team meeting and said, ‘What the f*ck is going on here?’” stavn claimed that he and cadiaN made it clear to HUNDEN that he was never to use the bug again. “I felt confident that this would never happen again,” he said. However, HUNDEN ended up exploiting the bug once again just five days later, in a Home Sweet Home Cup 5 match against Spirit. Personal struggles cadiaN explained that the players remained silent despite the barrage of abuse hurled at them following HUNDEN’s claims that they were aware of his actions as they waited for ESIC to finish its investigation. “I don’t need to respond to everyone who is coming out with a false claim about me,” cadiaN said. “I need to talk to the people who are judging this.” According to stavn, the players, convinced of their innocence, felt “at peace” throughout ESIC’s probe. However, as large sections of the community turned against the team, the accusations took their toll on the day-to-day life of certain players. “The time when I realized that we had to say something was when we had this talk with the team called ’empty the backpack’ and Martin [stavn] said that he didn’t want to have a night out with his brothers and friends because he was scared that someone would come to him and say that he was a cheater,” cadiaN said, before bursting into tears. “When he said that, I knew we had to talk about it and explain our side of it.” That is one of the many moments throughout the video when tears stream down the players’ faces. The first was when cadiaN, the team captain and most senior player in the squad, explained how difficult it was for stavn and TeSes, who are 19 and 20 years old respectively, to deal with the vicious online abuse that came their way. “I think it’s been very difficult to see the young players being accused of something they didn’t do, knowing that they’re innocent and knowing the pressure they have received from the community,” he said. “I have a bit more experience under my belt and I’m used to a shitstorm or people talking a lot, but it’s been difficult to not say anything when you know you have such a strong case. “I’m just proud that they handled it like this and that they’re still fighting the way they are and that we’ve been able to stick together as a team through this.” cadiaN also commented on the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) created by Heroic to prevent the team from speaking about the alleged cheating allegations. According to him, HUNDEN wanted to sign the document even though the players were against it. “HUNDEN wanted this NDA signed but I was fighting against it,” he explained. “I even remember there was an argument about it, but I was very strong in my belief that this NDA should not be signed, and that’s why it wasn’t.” Feeling betrayed Perhaps the most vivid account came from TeSeS, who was mentioned by HUNDEN as having helped him use the bug in the Dust2 game against Spirit. The Danish coach stated that his claim of player complicity could be proven with server logs. However, this material shows only that TeSeS was on the server with HUNDEN, not that he was boosting the coach for the purpose of using the bug. In an October 18 article, Dexerto’s Editor-at-Large, Richard Lewis, explained that the expert testimony in TV2.dk’s report was misrepresented by the Danish outlet. TeSes said that, while he did boost HUNDEN in warmup upon request, he did not know what it was for since he was not aware that the coach had used the bug against Astralis. “I was treated immensely badly by HUNDEN,” TeSes said about the coach’s accusations. “He has f**ked my whole reputation, which I have worked for my whole life. All of a sudden, the whole community is after me for something I didn’t do. I have sacrificed so much to be where I am today. It definitely hurt and still hurts me that HUNDEN accused me of something I didn’t do. “I have never come to a conclusion why he would betray me because I trusted this guy. He was my coach and I thought he was my friend. It’s not fair at all.” Looking ahead Heroic’s players are aiming to put this ordeal past them as they turn their attention towards PGL Major Stockholm, which is just around the corner. But according to cadiaN, there were valuable lessons to be learned from this experience. When asked about comments made by experts and analysts in the scene, the Danish captain said that he lost his “fair share of respect” for some people. “It surprised me a lot that so many people in the community were buying into his [HUNDEN’s] story,” he admitted. Currently ranked fifth in the world, Heroic will get their Major campaign started with a match against TYLOO on October 26. The players hope that this event can mark the start of a new chapter as they look to replicate the success that they enjoyed during the online era caused by the global health crisis. “The next goal for us is to win a tournament on LAN, hopefully with a crowd and maybe some confetti when we lift the trophy,” cadiaN said. “We tried to celebrate apart, we tried to do it at a bootcamp. Now it’s time to do it on LAN.”

Heroic deserve more respect | Richard Lewis reacts Reaching the Grand Finals of ESL Pro League Season 13, Heroic has perhaps surprised many fans, but their performances show they’re more than worthy of their spot. Richard Lewis believes they deserve more respect than they’re currently getting, as potentially the best Danish team. With their most recent win against Gambit, this statement continues to hold true. Heroic are arguably one of the most tactical teams within the scene right now outside of the CiS region. No longer relying on firepower, the team is utilizing each map with top-tier strats. Previously anti-stratting FURIA was also incredibly impressive, proving that they’d done their homework on their opposition. Read More: NAVI drop flamie – They were able to win rounds even just by having a good understanding of timings, how to rotate, and how to cut off the map. IGL Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller is able to roll with the punches that are thrown at him, adapting and overcoming situations with razor-sharp thinking. Giving themselves over to this tactical style, their prowess, and deep map pool allows them to shine. Their CT setup is undeniably strong, too, alongside flawless T-side executes. As the CS scene is rocked by the likes of Astralis losing their spot, and NAVI’s internal problems, Lewis believes that Heroic will continue to take full advantage of what’s going on. Teams have had to adjust to what’s going on with our online era, and it’s clear that Heroic means business. For all CSGO news and events, keep it locked over at our dedicated main page.

Heroic acquire BLAST Premier member slot from Immortals Gaming Club Michal Konkol/BLASTBLAST has announced that Heroic have joined its BLAST Premier circuit following the acquisition of the slot that belonged to the Immortals Gaming Club (IGC), the owner of MIBR. Heroic will replace MIBR as a partner member of the BLAST circuit after IGC decided to put their slot up for sale, resulting in “a highly competitive and in-depth bidding process”, according to BLAST. IGC has not provided a reason for selling their BLAST Premier member slot. MIBR had competed in the tournament circuit since its creation in February 2020, attending ten events during this time. Heroic boast one of the best CS:GO teams in the scene, currently ranked fifth in the world according to HLTV.org. They are one of the 16 teams already qualified for PGL Major Antwerp after winning the EU RMR A tournament. Originally established in Denmark, Heroic were purchased in February 2021 by Omaken Sports, a Norwegian company founded by YouTube star Joachim ‘NoobworK’ Haraldsen. Later that year, it was announced that Heroic, along with FURIA and BIG, would become a partner team of the ESL Pro League – though the start of Heroic’s membership is slated for the second half of 2022 due to the disruption caused by ESIC’s investigation. BIG NEWS: Heroic is entering @BLASTPremier as an official member team! 🤩🎉 We are excited to contribute to further developing this amazing tournament circuit and to bringing more Heroic action to the big stage.🏆 👉 https://t.co/zeMENbxSZS#BLASTPremiere #BeHeroic #esports pic.twitter.com/ADyg2HBLGH — HEROIC (@heroicgg) April 21, 2022 The announcement represents the second change to BLAST Premier’s 12-team membership. In January 2021, German organization BIG became a member team after acquiring a slot from 100 Thieves, who left CS:GO. BLAST Premier member teams: Astralis – NIP – G2 Esports – OG – Team Vitality – NAVI – FaZe Clan – Complexity – Team Liquid – Evil Geniuses – BIG – Heroic –

Here’s why CS:GO fans think ScreaM finally has a new team DreamHack / Adela SznajderAdil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom is one of the most popular Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players on the planet, but he hasn’t been a permanent member of a professional team since June of 2018. The 24-year-old has spent the majority of his Counter-Strike career playing for some of the top French teams, but found himself on the outside looking in as the likes of G2 and Vitality made roster changes in the second half of 2018. However, fans of the ‘Headshot Machine’ are convinced that his time away from the professional scene is coming to an end after a handful of hints began to surface. For starters, the Belgian star Tweeted about wanting to play some Counter-Strike on January 6 and soon got responses from Cloud9’s Fabien ‘kioShiMa’ Fiey and Vitality’s Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt that suggest they have information about an upcoming move. “I heard you will be playing soon,” said Kio, who played alongside ScreaM on Team Envy’s 2018 French roster. “Same,” said NBK. This alone is hardly enough to base a comeback theory upon, especially given the fact that pro CS:GO players regularly drop hints and teasers on Twitter that are nothing more than banter. However, a report from playzone.cz on January 7 fed into the speculation when they announced that the 16-year-old Slovakian up-and-comer David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský has replaced ScreaM on the NoChance roster. NoChance is a pick-up European mix team that also includes the likes of former NiP star Mikail ‘maikelele’ Bill and German veteran Kevin ‘kRYSTAL’ Amend. ScreaM has been playing on the roster since December but, if the playzone report is correct, appears to have now stepped down. If ScreaM is indeed on the brink of a return to professional CS:GO, there are a few teams that seem like obvious options. Most notably, 3DMAX and LDLC both have openings. The two French teams have lost some of their biggest hitters to the likes of G2 and Vitality in recent months, and someone with the firepower of ScreaM could be just what they need. Given the fact that François ‘AmaNEk’ Delauney recently left LDLC, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him and ScreaM join forces to complete the 3DMAX roster. ScreaM has been a professional Counter-Strike player for nine years, originally in Source and later in Global Offensive. The Belgian star is best known for his incredible headshot percentage and ‘one tap’ kills. In fact, he still boasts the best headshot percentage on HLTV.org by a significant margin despite a less-than-stellar 2018 season.

Here’s how the confusing 2019 IEM Katowice CS:GO Major format works ESL have officially announced the format and seeding system will work at the 2019 IEM Katowice CS:GO Major. The event held in Katowice, Poland will be the first Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major event of 2019, and will see the return of the Swiss format used at the FACEIT Major for the New Challengers and New Legends stages. However, ESL have confirmed that a best-of-three format will be used for all progression and elimination rounds in Katowice, instead of just in fifth round matches at the tournament. This means the Swiss stages will now feature 20 more best-of-three contests than were seen at the FACEIT Major. The event will see the return of the ‘Player-Selected Seeding’ method used at IEM Chicago, which sees teams taking part in the tournament rank each other, with the scores added together to create the rankings. IEM Katowice will also see the introduction of live seeding at the end of each Swiss round, with an ELO rating system replacing the Buchholz system that was used in London. After the original seeding takes place, teams will be given ELO ratings to match their given seed. Team’s ELO ratings will be adjusted after every match, with winners taking some of the loser ELO points. The IEM Katowice Major will officially kick off on Wednesday, February 13 at the New Challengers Stage, with the New Legends stage starting on February 20. A number of teams competing in the New Challengers Stage have already been confirmed with the conclusion of the CIS and European Minors, with the Americas Minor beginning on Tuesday, January 22.

HenryG leaves Cloud9 after end of “Colossus” CSGO roster DreamHackFollowing the end of Cloud9’s ‘Colossus’ CS:GO experiment, caster Henry ‘HenryG’ Grier, who was brought on to lead the project, has left the organization. HenryG joined Cloud9 in September 2020, taking the role of General Manager. He was joined by coach Aleksandar ‘kassad’ Trifunović. At the time, Grier told Dexerto: “My plans for this team are certainly ambitious.” He explained that he had been given full control of Cloud9’s CS:GO operation. “C9 have entrusted me with their entire CS:GO dynasty and, honestly, I think that’s one of the boldest moves any org has made in a long time.” Unfortunately, the bold move didn’t pan out as planned, as external factors and poor performances from the star lineup lead to its demise. On March 26, Cloud9 confirmed they were exiting CS:GO for the time being. Cloud9 CEO Jack Etienne cited “undue stress and difficulties in providing bootcamps, housing, and the mental health of the players,” largely due to the global health crisis. HenryG parts ways with Cloud9 This spelled the end for HenryG’s time with C9 also, as he confirmed on April 6. He too cites “mitigating circumstances” which prevented his ambition from panning out as intended. While the space is in this strange transition period I have decided to take a sabbatical and enjoy some of the normality that life has to offer. It’s certainly been a while. I will be back eventually when the right opportunity arises. Be good to each other. RIP Cobain. — HenryG (@HenryGcsgo) April 6, 2021 HenryG will not immediately return to working in esports, and rather will take a sabbatical and “be back eventually when the right opportunity arises.” Whether this is in team management, a return to casting, or another role within esports, remains to be seen.

HenryG & Kassad To Rebuild Cloud9 CS:GO Squad HenryG / 100 ThievesCloud9 have unveiled the two figureheads that will be in charge of rebuilding their Counter-Strike team: former player turned commentator Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer and highly respected coach Aleksandar ‘kassad’ Trifunović. The move comes following the September 6 announcement that they would be cutting their current roster comprised of North American and South African players and would be looking to build a new team. Greer, who’s coming on board as a General Manager, will be overseeing that project while the new players will find themselves working directly with Trifunović, considered by many to be one of the most talented Counter-Strike coaches in the world. “My plans for this team are certainly ambitious,” Greer told Dexerto.” I wouldn’t be involved in any sort of General Manager role unless I had absolute full control of the roster and direction we plan to head. C9 have entrusted me with their entire CS:GO dynasty and, honestly, I think that’s one of the boldest moves any org has made in a long time. The Cloud9 Brand speaks for itself, it is one of the absolute cornerstones of the esports landscape. I’m aware there is a certain level of expectation going forward now. Failure simply isn’t an option.” Today we near the end of #C9CSGO’s current chapter as we enter a rebuilding phase. During this process, our current team will continue as Cloud9 while we evaluate new opportunities for them. 📰 Read more: https://t.co/PSXdIlSlep 📺 Watch Full: https://t.co/Zmn61guobc pic.twitter.com/CvEB0piFae— Cloud9 (@Cloud9) September 6, 2020 Currently, the former commentator has been in the process of holding talks with several high profile targets but nothing has been finalized yet. The timing seems to be right as there are a number of experienced and talented players in free agency, not to mention, with November’s CS:GO Major looking uncertain, plenty of time for a new team to gel. “When approaching a challenge such as building a CS:GO team from scratch, there are countless compromises and caveats that come with the territory, especially if your primary objective is to forge a world-class squad in a very limited window of time,” Greer continued. “I’ll be honest and say, I haven’t had a huge amount of respect for the methodology used in other ‘ground floor’ projects so far. The focus is always around ‘big’ names that are available and then attempting to crowbar others into roles they aren’t really suited for, resulting in a one-year journey to even reach their initial goals. Kassad and I are only focused on following our specific blueprint for a world-class CS unit that can challenge for the trophies. I think you’ll all be very excited with what we’ve put together so far. We have the resources, staff and connections to create the best possible opportunities for pro CS:GO players, right now.” Trifunović has been without a team since leaving 100 Thieves in April but there wasn’t a scarcity of interest in securing his services. Understandable, given his proven record of improving teams, especially across his period with Renegades. This is the first time in his career he has committed to a project without knowing who he will be working with but he still feels that Cloud9’s commitment was something he couldn’t say no to. “I think this is going to be one great project,” the Serbian told us. “To be super honest with you, I was feeling a bit disappointed these last few months because of the fact that I couldn’t really find the organization and the people that share the same vision about building a team as me. After just a couple of conversations with Cloud9 and Henry, I realized that we see things the same way. He is super enthusiastic, focused and energetic about this and it really lit the spark that I thought I had lost in the last couple of months. Cloud9 is one of the most respectable orgs in esports and we are going to make sure we put in everything we have to build the CSGO team they deserve.” Fans will be curious to understand how these two roles will synergize with each other. Currently, CS:GO coaches seem to act as de facto spokespeople for their teams, especially the ones that have broadcast experience. Here, Henry has made it clear that he wants the coach’s input as one of the many factors under consideration when making potential signings. “I don’t want to sign any players to appease my own or anyone else’s agenda,” he said. “I’m aware there will be plenty of decisions down the line that will be difficult to call. I don’t plan for roster direction to be one of them. So far, players have not been a topic that Kassad and I have disagreed on at any point. I trust his judgment and his body of work and experience speaks for itself. He is regarded as one of the absolute best coaches in the industry. We are working together to achieve our goals and have a very similar approach to building our dream.” Trifunović echoed these sentiments: “As he mentioned, we have a very specific plan on how to do everything in the right, healthy and efficient way to build a team with a strong system and structure that is going to create a winning culture. The biggest and one of the most important things for me right now is the fact that there is absolute trust between C9, Henry and me. I feel like that’s a very good foundation.” For Cloud9 the move shows a return to championship ambitions for CS:GO. Since making history with their 2018 Major win in Boston the team has gone through mixed fortunes. The most recent roster was seen as something of a wildcard pick up after they lost the core of their North American roster when it was bought out by Gen.G. While they initially shocked the scene by managing to qualify for DreamHack Leipzig and IEM Katowice, the subsequent finishes at those events showed how far the team had to go in order to compete against the very best in the world. Now it is clear they are ready to invest a significant amount of resources into a new roster, starting with the backroom staff they hope will spearhead a new dynasty.

HenryG explains Cloud9’s CSGO player salaries after $400k floppy deal DreamHackCloud9 have now confirmed that Ricky ‘floppy’ Kemery is the fourth player of their self-proclaimed CS:GO “colossus” roster, in a deal worth over $400,000, bringing their total to around $4 million in player contracts, with another two players still to go. [jwplayer uAaXRrFw] Floppy joined Cloud9 from ATK in January, and is now transitioning to the new ‘colossus’ roster alongside ALEX, mezii, and woxic. The colossus began with the signing of ALEX from Vitality, whose deal is worth $1.65 million. He was joined by fellow brit Mezii on a $426,000 deal. Then, woxic was added from mousesports, in another deal surpassing the $1m mark, at $1,365,000. This latest deal for floppy takes the total value of this 4-man squad to $3.87 million, and with two players to go (GM Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer has plans for a six-player roster), is set to surpass the $4 million mark. Cloud9 CS:GO present the devastating Turkish left hook of the Colossus 🇹🇷 🔹Player: Özgür “”woxic”” Eker 🔹Role: AWP / Star Player 🔥 🔹Contract length: 3 year deal (Starting 09/19/2020) 🔹Deal Value: $1,365,000🔹Press: https://t.co/APb3KTSdRS#C9WIN Statement: pic.twitter.com/Kvhnm4uQHz — HenryG (@HenryGcsgo) September 19, 2020 Since HenryG’s move from casting into a management role at C9, he has aimed to shake-up the traditionally opaque nature of esports transfer dealings. In each of the four signings, Greer has confirmed the length of the player’s contract, and it’s total value over that period. All four players announced so far have been signed to three-year deals. After the floppy announcement, Greer clarified on Twitter that despite the lower total value of deals for floppy and Mezii (compared to ALEX and woxic), each player’s deal is negotiated on an individual basis. I’m sure this will spark another Esports ‘hot topic’ with the disparity in the salaries. I sign each player and negotiate their deals on an individual basis. Ricky has received a pay increase from his previous contract and that will be reviewed each year of his stay. — HenryG (@HenryGcsgo) October 7, 2020 “Ricky has received a pay increase from his previous contract and that will be reviewed each year of his stay,” he concludes. Presumably, salaries could increase based on performance metrics or other value added to the brand by the player, or as thanks for loyalty to the team. You would be surprised to hear there are still some teams that operate with all 5 getting paid the same. That’s fine and I have no real opinion on it. It’s just not what I’m doing in this project. https://t.co/GF43IFE3zE — HenryG (@HenryGcsgo) October 7, 2020 After he was confirmed as the GM of Cloud9, Greer told Dexerto: “My plans for this team are certainly ambitious. I wouldn’t be involved in any sort of General Manager role unless I had absolute full control of the roster and direction we plan to head. “C9 have entrusted me with their entire CS:GO dynasty and, honestly, I think that’s one of the boldest moves any org has made in a long time.” HenryG and Cloud9’s new approach to player deals could very well set off a new trend in CS:GO and esports generally, though for now, they remain on solitary ground.

HenryG slams up-and-coming UK CS:GO player for his poor attitude after ASUS ROG event Dreamhack / ASUSCounter-Strike: Global Offensive caster Henry ‘HenryG’ Greer has called out a young player for his attitude. The former professional player was taking part in the ASUS ROG Join The Republic Challenge, an exhibition tournament that provides upcoming talent an opportunity to gain some notoriety in the scene. HenryG was captaining Team UK alongside Jak3y, Russ, TUDSON and isk, with the team making it all the way to the finals of the tournament, where they fell to Team Poland. In the aftermath of their defeat, Yaroslav ‘isk’ Issakov began to tweet about the tournament, stating that the tournament helped him understand that his “future is never going to be with a UK team,” saying that the “culture and mentality is way different,” and that he spent most of his time talking to Team Russia. Greer was unimpressed with isk’s tweets, and called out the player’s attitude towards a tournament that was geared to help him. “I’m very disappointed in your petulant finger pointing,” wrote HenryG. “This was supposed to be a fun experience where you guys could get exposure and show team spirit. I wish you the best, but you have a lot to learn in becoming a man.“ I’m very disappointed in your petulant finger pointing. This was supposed to be a fun experience where you guys could get exposure and show team spirit. You have a lot to learn in becoming a man. I wish you the very best but the fact you call out Russ actually pisses me off. — HenryG (@HenryGcsgo) January 8, 2019 Issakov went on to remove his tweet, however many CS:GO fans were able to screenshot the post before he deleted it. Team UK’s second place finish in Stockholm saw them finish just behind Piotr ‘izak’ Skowyrski’s Team Poland, but well ahead of Chad ‘SPUNJ’ Burchill’s Team Australia who finished 7-8th.

headtr1ck in NAVI bootcamp as s1mple is doubtful for BLAST Premier Fall Groups BLAST/NAVINAVI Junior player Daniil ‘headtr1ck’ Valitov will bootcamp with the main team ahead of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups as Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev is in doubt for the tournament, Dexerto has learned. The 18-year-old is traveling to the team’s bootcamp location and will step in for s1mple if needed as the two-time CS:GO player of the year could miss the BLAST Premier Fall Groups due to personal reasons. Earlier on August 13, s1mple teased fans with an Instagram story that contained the following message: “Big announcement soon”. headtr1ck is no stranger to NAVI’s main team. Earlier this year, he played three matches for NAVI at ESL Pro League Season 15 as a replacement for Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov, who had returned a positive test ahead of the event. He averaged a 0.97 HLTV rating as NAVI beat AGO, Evil Geniuses and Complexity in the group stage of the tournament. headtr1ck is one of the two academy players that NAVI have registered as substitutes for the BLAST Premier Fall Groups alongside Andrii ‘nipl’ Kukharskyi. He was a standout player in NAVI Junior’s 5th-6th place run in WePlay Academy League Season 5 with a team-high 1.24 HLTV rating. NAVI have been placed in Group B of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, alongside Complexity, G2 and Team Liquid. The tournament will run from August 19 to August 28, with six spots at the Fall Final up for grabs.

Hastr0 suggests G2 CSGO players want to “jump ship” Envy Gaming / G2 EsportsEnvy Gaming Owner, Mike ‘hastr0’ Rufail, has claimed that G2’s Counter-Strike roster are “already trying to jump ship” during a back and forth with the organization’s founder, Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodríguez. G2 Esports and Envy are both titans of the esports realm. Both organizations have fielded world championship-caliber teams in numerous titles. Envy has been around for seven years more than G2, but both teams have welcomed success from different areas of the esports world. While Envy’s seeds are deep-rooted in Call of Duty, G2 has built its legacy off the back of success in League of Legends and CS:GO. And it is G2’s CS:GO outfit which hastr0 claims are ready to “jump ship,” despite being regarded as one of the best teams in the world. Hastr0 and Ocelote lock horns After hastr0 detailed that his Envy organization had been involved in four out of seven previous Call of Duty World Championship Grand Finals (now five out of eight following Dallas Empire’s win), Ocelote Tweeted a laughing emoji in response to a sentiment which dubbed the Envy Owner as the “best general management and talent mind in all of esports.” https://twitter.com/CarlosR/status/1299709508143517697 Following a short back and forth — where Carlos compared G2 to “3 Michelin Star, fusion cuisine high-profile restaurant” and Envy to a “3 Yelp Star family bakery store” — Rufail responded with claims that the G2 lineup is ready to fly the banner of another organization. “Well, seeing as how your CS players are already trying to jump ship, not sure that comparison makes sense,” hastr0 began. “You might want to check on your cooks in the kitchen.” https://twitter.com/CarlosR/status/1299718333869232130 The G2 Owner was having none of it and replied suggesting that Rufail had been “finessed,” while also claiming that Envy is an “old, dying dinosaur” — it’s worth noting that Envy was founded in 2007, while G2 (formerly Gamers2) was established in 2014. https://twitter.com/CarlosR/status/1299719558811582465 G2 made their mark in CS:GO in 2016, after building what was dubbed to be a ‘world-beating’ roster featuring the likes of Richard ‘shox’ Papillon and Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom… The latter of which was ironically traded to, you guessed it, Team Envy. However, Team Envy also has its legacy in CS:GO secure, becoming Major winners at Cluj-Napoca 2015. Of course, the Twitter exchange between the pair was mostly light-hearted, but there may also be a shred of truth mixed in there too.

Iconic Happy Deagle ace named best CSGO play of the decade DreamhackAlmost 80,000 members of the CS:GO community had their say, and the decision is final — Vincent ‘Happy’ Cervoni Schopenhauer’s Deagle ace on Inferno has been named the best CS:GO play of the decade. Valve’s popular first-person shooter franchise Counter-Strike celebrated its 20-year anniversary in 2019, and with a legacy that long comes some iconic plays. From the 1.6 days to Global Offensive, there’s a lot to choose from. However, over the last 10 years in Source and Global Offensive, there’s been a few plays that have stood out from the rest. To cap off the last decade, Valve put to the community the question — what was the best CS:GO play of the decade — and the answer was resounding. The results are in and we have our finalists! Cast your vote below for CS:GO’s play of the decade. The poll will remain open for 24 hours. — CS2 (@CounterStrike) December 31, 2019 With choices between Happy’s Desert Eagle ace on Inferno, Jacky ‘Stewie2k’ Yip’s Inferno B-site hold to secure overtime at the Boston Major, Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson’s game-breaking Overpass boost, and Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David’s jumping AWP on Mirage, it was tough. Happy ended up taking home the accolades, securing 35.6% of the 79,161 votes to be named the player behind CS:GO’s best play of the decade. It’s with good reason too. French squad EnVyUs were up against Team SoloMid, the squad to eventually become Astralis, with a lacklustre buy on their side. However, all Happy needed was a Deagle and a dream, taking the heads of all five players with him to secure the round. Three of the shots were blind peeks through smoke, which made the play even more remarkable. It was so good it was immortalized with a graffiti by the corner he was firing from, and was one of the first plays to be honored in that way. Olofmeister’s Overpass boost against LDLC in 2014, which allowed Fnatic to stage a 13-round comeback against the French squad, came in second at 26.1%. Coldzera’s flashy jumping AWP on Mirage was named the favorite by 21.6% of fans, while Stewie’s B-site hold in Boston racked up the final 16.6% of the vote. Happy is still competing in Counter-Strike with LDLC, most recently playing in the French National Championships and the WESG West Europe qualifiers. The French veteran will be hoping for more highlight reel plays in 2020 and beyond, with the 28-year-old still got some fire left in him.

Hackers are “abusing” CSGO’s Overwatch system to manipulate bans Valve / ESL[jwplayer 3EyfiByz]The CSGO hacking community has been using a way to manipulate Overwatch cases to avoid getting banned or, in some cases, grief banning innocent people through private cheating services. Overwatch is a self-regulation system in Global Offensive that lets community members weed out suspicious players by letting people review gameplay demos to identify if cheats were being used. CSGO YouTuber ‘Sparkles’ talked with a hacker to expose a system that abuses reports filed against a person. Hackers built a few tools that can target a specific in-game ID to either keep them from getting banned or attempt to influence Overwatch to take actions against them, according to ‘Kessie,’ the cheater who came forward against the rest of the title’s malicious players. In some cases, this has led to false Overwatch results that can ban ‘legits,’ how Kessie calls honest players who don’t implement cheats in CSGO. In tweeting out Sparkles’ video, ‘DonHaci’ noted this was how Jacob ‘Pimp’ Winneche and Erik ‘fl0m’ Flom were given their 30-day grief ban. https://twitter.com/DonHaci/status/1294677527047397376 But another troubling aspect is that hackers can similarly use this method to keep Overwatch from striking their accounts. “I don’t wake up in the morning wondering if I’m going to get banned,” Kessie said. “Even after really cheeky couple games cause at this point I can’t see how I’m going to get banned.” CSGO hackers blacklist their names from these Overwatch bots so they don’t get banned themselves. The effectiveness and prevalence of this system essentially negates meaningful tools the CSGO devs have to combat hackers. This is helped by the fact that Overwatch cases, that rely on anonymity to promote a neutral decision-making process, don’t really hide the names of players. By using a third-party network traffic app, you can easily get a direct link to Overwatch case downloads that has every player’s name in the lobby on full display. Valve has implemented features like Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC), Prime matchmaking, and Overwatch, in hopes that it would get rid of, or at least stymie, the presence of cheaters in CSGO. After the inclusion of Trusted mode, an update feature that blocks third-party files from interacting with the CSGO, players reported encountering even more hackers in matchmaking. Kessie agreed that a meaningful first step to combat the many CSGO hackers is to make Overwatch cases truly anonymous. Though that would only be the initial adaptation Valve would have to make to really solve the problem with Counter-Strike’s hackers.

Hacker who stole $6 million in CSGO skins identified by CS.MONEY CSMONEYCS:GO skin trading website CS.MONEY has provided an update on the major hack that saw countless valuable in-game items stolen, confirming that they have identified the hacker, the method used, and recovered half of the stolen items. Weapon skins, knives, and other items like stickers, gloves and cases in CS:GO can fetch some eye-watering prices, with a market worth in the hundreds of millions. In order to exchange items for real-world currency, skin traders and investors must use third-party websites, such as CS.MONEY. Although the world of skin trading has been cleaned up considerably since the wild-west of 2014-18, there are still risks involved. Thankfully, CS.MONEY has provided a promising update on the status of the stolen items, as well as the nature of the hack and its culprit. CS.MONEY returning stolen skins after hack On August 12, a breach of CS.MONEY’s platform led to an estimated $6 million worth (according to CS.MONEY) of items being stolen. Quickly after the hack took place, the majority of skin trading websites blocked any of the stolen items from being listed on their platforms. On August 22, Timofey Sobolevsky, the Chief Communications Officer at EX CORP, the parent of CS.MONEY, confirmed that half of the stolen items had been recovered. “We have managed to return half of the stolen skins back to our accounts,” he wrote. “Which means that in less than a week, once the trade lock on them expires, these skins, ours and user-owned alike, will again become available on our site.” While CS.MONEY will endeavor to retrieve everything that was stolen, any items that are not recovered will be subject to compensation. “However, we can already tell you that we have found the one who hacked us,” Sobolevsky continued, “and we’ve learned how exactly it was done. While we were at it, we regained control over the accounts used to store the stolen skins.” EX CORP had offered $100,000 to anyone who could assist “in understanding how exactly the perpetrators accessed our MA files.” Now that the method used is known, it will be shared with other skin trading websites to prevent similar future attacks.

H3CZ explains what’s wrong with CSGO esports and how it can be improved Hector Rodriguez / Team LiquidThe CS:GO scene. One of the most prominent members in the rich history of OpTic Gaming, H3CZ recently parted ways with the organization to Call of Duty franchise in the process With a litany of experience in the Counter-Strike scene as well, his opinion on the esport as a whole bears a great deal of weight, and he holds some strong arguments on how to vastly improve the competitive structure of the Valve Corporation title. In a September 26 episode his ‘The Eavesdrop Podcast’, H3CZ sat down with Scott Smith, otherwise known as Sir Scoots, the former COO at Evil Geniuses. As veterans of the esports industry, the conversation covered numerous fascinating topics but a central discussion revolved around the current state of competitive CSGO. To preface his argument, H3CZ started by saying that “the problem with Counter-Strike right now is the amount of f*cking games.” With 24 S-Tier competitions run throughout 2018 alone, he believes that “it’s difficult and tough for the players. Weekend after weekend after weekend. What kind of lifestyle is that for a player?” Read More: Rush set to join Complexity CS:GO – Throwing the question to his guest on the podcast, Sir Scoots stated that players need to “have agency over where they go. They have started to naturally figure out that look, if we go to every frickin event, we’re not gonna win any of them.” Highlighting Astralis as a “prime example,” he explained how they “started skipping events” and “they started winning the events they showed up to.” Most recently Astralis made history with their win at the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major. With too many tournament organizers hosting events in the scene according to the two veterans, the conversation drifted to the potential for a franchise-based system no different to the Overwatch League or the upcoming Call of Duty league. “I don’t think we’re ever gonna get a 24 team franchise model and that’s the only teams in Counter-Strike,” Sir Scoots claims. “I don’t think Valve would ever close the door like a Overwatch but you never know.” Hecz counters, stating that “I think in the Valve situation, it would make perfect sense because then you can really have the storylines throughout a season. You already have the best spectator esport, all you need is to plan out when and how often not to play.” The discussion begins at the 51:40 mark for mobile users However, while H3CZ and SirScoots are pondering ways to improve CSGO esports, the scene is currently in the midst of a very busy period. Numerous top teams are currently battling it out at the ESL One New York 2019 tournament for a share of the $200,000 prize pool, while prominent esports org Evil Geniuses just announced their re-entry into competitive CS:GO by acquiring the NRG roster. Disclaimer: Hector ‘H3CZ’ Rodriguez is a minority shareholder in Dexerto Ltd.

Beckham-backed Guild tap Thorin to build new CSGO roster ESL/GuildDavid Beckham-backed organization Guild Esports have appointed Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields to build their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster. [jwplayer WGyDcVLl] The British brand announced their intentions to compete in Counter-Strike as one of their first four titles when they launched. Thorin is best known as an analyst and content creator, predominantly in Valve’s long-spanning FPS franchise. Guild Esports will lean on Thorin to construct a roster, which he stated will be “a better team than Cloud9’s.” As well as creating YouTube content and working as broadcast talent at events, Thorin serves as the creative director for Flashpoint — a team-owned league that’s funded by Cloud9, c0ntact Gaming, Dignitas, Team Envy, Gen.G, MAD Lions, MIBR, and FunPlus Phoenix. “Guild Esports made a splash with their initial announcement and I’m pleased to announce that as they look to enter the Counter-Strike space, where I have been deeply embedded for decades, I have agreed to a consulting partnership with them,” said Thorin. “I will help them develop their model for building the team and advise on players and staff I think appropriate to aid them in establishing themselves as a significant force in this part of the industry and move towards accomplishing their ambitious goals.” Guild Esports currently compete in started out competing in Fortnite and Rocket League, though they announced the signing of a VALORANT roster in October 2020. I will be advising them to build a better team than Cloud9’s. Yes. — Thorin (@Thorin) November 5, 2020 Dexerto spoke with the organization’s executive chairman Carleton Curtis in October 2020, touching on topics such as Beckham’s involvement, the reception they received when entering the industry, and their future plans. “Esports is no longer a space where it’s appropriate for either the players themselves to make all of the decisions surrounding who they play with or the business leaders who pay them,” Thorin added. “As we move into a phase more closely resembling a traditional sports structure with proper coaching staff it is only logical that General Managers in the space build teams to their vision with the help and expertise of those who know the scene and the players they will select from.”

Guild CEO on entering CS:GO: “Our interest has been pulled in other areas but we’re still considering it” Guild Esports/CS:GOBritish esports organization Guild are in some of esports’ biggest titles and, in November 2020, they revealed that they were looking into Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as their next game of choice. Almost a year has passed since then and, as fans of the David Beckham-owned org will know, they’ve yet to sign a roster and start competing in the Valve title. Guild even signed analyst and journalist Duncan ‘Thorin’ Shields as a consultant to ensure that they entered CS:GO in a strong manner. At the time of the announcement, he said that he would help the org “develop their model for the team and advise on players and staff.” As part of an exclusive interview spanning all facets of the British team with Dexerto, Guild Esports’ CEO, Kal Hourd, revealed where they currently stand on officially entering the first-person shooter. “We announced that we were looking into CS:GO, we had an interest in entering and still do, but there’s been a lot of changes on the CS:GO front and our attention has been pulled in other areas,” Hourd told Dexerto in an in-depth interview. “We promised our shareholders that we were going to make smart decisions and we were going to enter titles that made sense. There are some other titles that we’re excited about but we’re still considering CS:GO.” Read More: Guild reveal £4.3m loss over six months – Guild was the first esports organization to list themselves on the London Stock Exchange, meaning they’re a public company that allows retail investors — everyday people who want to put some cash into companies they believe in — to own a piece of them. They’re beholden to their investors, like any company, and thus have to make decisions that seem sound and sensible for shareholder confidence and their stock price to move in the right direction. While CS:GO isn’t off the agenda for Guild, their CEO elaborated on the fact there are other titles that may have caught their eyes in a more serious way since the announcement last November. They currently field competitors in CS competitor Valorant, Rocket League, FIFA, and Fortnite. I’m entering a consulting partnership with @guildesports as they enter the CS:GO space. pic.twitter.com/hW8nTPnaKd — Thorin (@Thorin) November 5, 2020 “I can’t really divulge that but I can say we’re interested in EA and Riot Games, and some titles that are popular in other countries as well,” Hourd revealed to Dexerto. “There are opportunities to expand outside the UK.” Outside of Valorant, Riot Games’ other titles include League of Legends — which has a well-fleshed-out competitive system — auto battler Teamfight Tactics, collectible card game Legends of Runeterra, and mobile game League of Legends: Wild Rift. On the EA front, it has plenty of games but not many of them have well-established competitive scenes. Outside of FIFA, their prominent esports titles are battle royale Apex Legends and American football game Madden. So, while there hasn’t been any discernible progress on Guild signing a CS:GO roster of their own, they’ve not yet given up on the possibility of it happening should the right decision present itself in the future.

Gucci and FACEIT unveil Gucci Gaming Academy Gucci/FACEITLuxury brand Gucci and FACEIT have announced a new joint venture to develop the next generation of esports stars: the Gucci Gaming Academy. Announced during the Grand Finals of the PGL Antwerp Major 2022, the Gucci Gaming Academy will provide individual in-game, psychological, and physical coaching, hardware, access to the vast Gucci and FACEIT esports networks to select players. Promising CS:GO players have already been handpicked from FPL to take part, and their training is well under way, according to a release from Gucci and FACEIT Who is in the Gucci Gaming Academy? The first wave of prospects who have been selected by Gucci and FACEIT are as follows: Lukasz “mwlky” Pachucki (Poland) – Mārtiņš “shadiyy” Gūtmani (Latvia) – Brajan “DGL” Lemecha (Poland) – Rokas “EspiranTo” Milasauskas (Lithuania) – EspiranTo is also the highest active member on FACEIT out of the four. Beginning with these four rising stars, the Gucci Gaming Academy aims to continue to grow the program, selecting future candidates based on in-game performance, and several other factors. In addition, commentator James Bardolph, CS:GO legend Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and Stephanie “missharvey” Harvey will act as ambassadors for the Academy. According to a release, players will “acquire the expertise and tools that will ultimately lead them to be scouted by an esports organization and pursue a professional career.” Once this happens, they will move on from the program, and a new crop of players will start. How to qualify for the Gucci Gaming Academy All players selected for the Gucci Gaming Academy will come from FPL, FACEIT’s solo-queue environment. The Gucci Gaming Academy will act as a next step to FPL, provide support and enhance “soft skills,” and help the next generation of esports stars navigate the mental and physical issues coming from the pressure of in-game performance and online scrutiny. The Gucci Gaming Academy will also provide players with access to individual and group psychological support and will see Gucci and FACEIT work with the World Health Organization as well. Read More: Sources: NiP in dispute with CSGO players over sticker money “We are dedicated to supporting the up-and-coming generations of players to help manage the challenges they may face as a result of participating in esports,” Nicolas Oudinot, Gucci VAULT CEO said. “Understanding the issues that are relevant to them and learning about these from the people they affect are at the core of this collaboration.” With a massive amount of resources being provided, it will be extremely interesting to see where the players from the first class of the Gucci Gaming Academy end up, and if we’ll be seeing them at major tournaments in the future.

GuardiaN reportedly on his way out of Na’VI CSGO roster ESL / Na’ViA new report from 1pv indicates that Natus Vincere veteran AWPer Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács could be on his way out of the active CSGO roster, with star player Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev considering taking on the sniper role, himself. It appears that GuardiaN’s reunion with tour with Natus Vincere is going to be short-lived, following some less than stellar results. The Slovakian veteran re-joined with Na’Vi in September 2019 after his two-year stint with FaZe Clan. According to information provided to CSGO news site 1pv, GuardiaN is on the verge of “being pushed out of Natus Vincere,” and is not taking part in team practices. The report also alleges that s1mple is considering a return to the primary AWPing role, meaning the team would seek out a new rifler instead of a new sniper. Rodion “fear” Smyk, from the Natus Vincere Junior roster, has allegedly been filling in for GuardiaN during practices – but there has been no indication whether or not he is being considered for permanent replacement. The report indicates that it “does not appear” that fear will be the permanent addition, but this has not been confirmed. 1pv also states that Na’Vi will be looking for a “young rifler from the CIS scene.” GuardiaN officially re-joined Natus Vincere in September, after a playoffs elimination at the Berlin major and a disappointing fifth-place finish at in-game leader Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko’s final event, BLAST Moscow. The 5th/8th place finish at Berlin marked a slide in performance at majors for Na’Vi, who made the grand finals of FACEIT London and the semifinals of IEM Katowice before StarLadder. Unfortunately for the iconic CIS team, the return of GuardiaN didn’t produce the desired results, as they are in the midst of a trophy drought that has lasted since April 2019, when they won StarSeries Season 7. This current drought is the team’s longest since their horrendous 2017 campaign, which led to GuardiaN’s first departure from the team. Read more: Stuchiu: The Two Holes in Na`Vi’s Death Star – Upon his first exit from Na’Vi, the Slovkian AWPer found instant success with his new teammates at FaZe, winning the ELEAGUE CSGO Premier and ESL One NY in his first month there, closing out the year with an ECS Season 4 victory. While the Na’Vi duo of s1mple and Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov has continued to thrive, the fall off of GuardiaN’s performance since returning of the team has limited its success at events. While s1mple is only 22, Na’Vi don’t appear interested in squandering any more of his prime, and the right addition to this roster could propel the team from fringe contenders to consistent tournament favorites. Na’Vi are scheduled to compete at BLAST Premier Spring and the ICE Challenge 2020 at the beginning of February. They also have a Current Legends spot at the ESL One Rio major in May.

GuardiaN joins Dignitas on loan for Flashpoint after Hallzerk visa issues StarLadderAfter being benched by Natus Vincere, Ladislav ‘GuardiaN’ Kovács is donning a yellow-and-black of a different kind, joining Dignitas for Flashpoint after Håkon ‘hallzerk’ Fjærli was denied entry into the United States. GuardiaN is looking to re-establish himself at the top of CS:GO, rejoining an active lineup after being benched at Natus Vincere. He will be helping out Dignitas, who will be without the services of AWPer hallzerk for the start of the upcoming Flashpoint season in the United States. Announcement: @guardiancsgo will play for DIG CS:GO during @Flashpoint, on loan from @natusvincere. @hallzerk will not participate until his Visa is sorted. pic.twitter.com/3A36q9sD5Q — Dignitas (@dignitas) March 9, 2020 Dignitas announced the roster swap on March 9, less than a week out from the start of Flashpoint, after failing to secure a visa for the Norwegian rookie on time. “Guardian will play for Dignitas CS:GO during Flashpoint, on loan from Natus Vincere,” the organization said. “Hallzerk will not participate until his visa is sorted.” “Thank you for this amazing opportunity,” GuardiaN added. “Always wanted to play with these CS legends, finally I can experience it for a few games.” Hallzerk, Dignitas’ rookie AWPer, has been making waves since joining some of CS:GO’s most experienced players on the Swedish roster. However, for now, he will be watching on from the sidelines while his visa hangs in limbo. “Sucks not being able help the guys in the new Flashpoint league,” said Hallzerk. “Hopefully the visa issues can be sorted out ASAP. Thanks to GuardiaN for helping on such a short notice.” GuardiaN was benched by Na`Vi in January after a string of poor performances since rejoining the Ukrainian team. After swapping the Slovakian AWPer for Ilya ‘Perfecto’ Zalutskiy, the team has seen success, winning IEM Katowice and topping their BLAST Premier group. The veteran AWPer slotting in with the four former members of Ninjas in Pyjamas at Dignitas is a throwback to an era gone by. It will be a treat for long-time CS:GO fans, even if it’s just for one event. Sucks not being able help the guys in the new @Flashpoint league. Hopefully the visa issues can be sorted out asap👨🏽💻 https://t.co/CdguqknYWc — hallzerk (@hallzerk) March 9, 2020 Dignitas are one of 12 teams in Flashpoint, who have established themselves as a competitor to ESL’s Pro League setup. Cloud9, c0ntact, Gen.G, MAD Lions, MIBR, Envy, BIG, and Orgless are participating, alongside three unnamed teams. Flashpoint begins on March 13.

GuardiaN column: My Major curse and why I’m ready to return to CSGO StarLadder[jwplayer 8nZM6rf4] I have unfinished business in Counter-Strike. After a string of poor personal performances following my return to Natus Vincere in September 2019, I knew that I needed to take a step back from competing at the highest level. My game-to-game rating was on a steady decline and I wasn’t comfortable with my impact inside the server. So at the backend of January, both the team and I made the decision to move me into an inactive role on the bench. Perfecto was the perfect replacement, in the sense that it freed up s1mple to step-up the role of Primary AWPer — and everyone knows what he can do with that weapon in his hands! After all, there’s a reason his iconic AWP play from 2016’s ESL One Cologne has been memorialized as graffiti on Cache. Since then, I’ve been working on my individual game non-stop. On a personal level, I’ve been striving to achieve the same individual form that I was hitting during my first tenure with NaVi. While most of this has been a psychological battle, the freedom of being able to grind FPL — and working to feel ‘comfortable’ with an AWP in my hands once again — has been a blessing. If I was to compare how I feel right now to my previous form, the Boston Major/Katowice era would be a fair reflection. So with that being said, I’m ready… Why I’m ready to return to CS:GO I’m ready to return to competing in CS:GO at the highest level. People might say that I’m old, but I think that age is just a number in CS. When I stood in for Dignitas during Flashpoint, there were glimpses of my old self, I felt it. But, as you’d guess, consistency was lacking. While I believe that even then, I could have slotted into a top-tier roster and still go toe-to-toe with the very best, I also think that the timing wasn’t right. Fast-forward some months, and after watching the ‘online era’ of Counter-Strike unfold before me, I’m seeing mistakes being made at the highest level. Mistakes that I know I wouldn’t make. Saying that, I’m not expecting to come back and be the most consistent fragger on a team. But with the right team, I know that I can fill the void as a top-tier AWPer and grind to become one of the best snipers in CS:GO again. If my months grinding FPL have taught me one thing, it’s that adapting your style to make yourself more unpredictable (i.e., aggressively peeking an unexpected angle) will generally work in my favor. In my opinion, playing FPL is much harder than against a team. Of course, in FPL, there’s nothing to lose, so players are willing to experiment and make plays they typically wouldn’t in a more structured, team-based setting. As an AWPer, this is often very difficult to play against. Especially with my approach — which is largely based on anticipating what my opposite number will do, and then put myself in a favorable position to do as much damage as possible. I’ve been playing CS:GO every day for the past six months, and individually speaking, I’m there. As I said, I feel like I’m getting back in my stride (comparable to my peak with FaZe). So for now, I’m just waiting for the right opportunity to arise which will allow me to be the right asset for my team. Breaking my ‘Major curse’ Let’s address the elephant in the room… My Major ‘curse.’ During Cluj-Napoca, we just weren’t ready. Envy were our kryptonite during that tournament, and we just weren’t equipped to counter kennyS — especially on Cobblestone. During Columbus, I felt like there was next to nothing I could do to help my team perform when it mattered most. Nursing an injury meant that I was playing on a mouse sensitivity that threw everything out of the window. While our road to the Grand Final was smooth enough, when the Brazilians were firing on all cylinders, we were put under a level of pressure that we were unaccustomed to. Then there was the infamous Boston Major. Under FaZe, I rediscovered my groove. As a squad, we peaked at the perfect time. It felt like we did everything right. And after Cloud9 dismantled FalleN and co. in the Semifinals, I finally felt like it was time to clinch my first Major… Turns out, the third time isn’t a charm after all. After we both traded map picks, the notorious double-overtime Inferno was a map I’d prefer to leave as a distant memory. At 15-11, we thought that we had it in the bag. But as C9 gained momentum, we began to seize up. The one-versus-two clutch to take the match to double-overtime was one of the most euphoric moments of my Counter-Strike career. But it wasn’t enough. Again, we failed at the last hurdle. I failed. For the third time in a row, I watched another team lift the Major trophy. But this one stung. It was almost like we wanted to win too much, and we felt that pressure. And that’s exactly what shouldn’t happen in a situation like that. So, moving forward, if I’m lucky enough to find a team that soars to the pinnacle of CS:GO once again, I want to find teammates that will be able to stick to the game plan and take each round as it comes. That’s easier said than done, of course. But if I’ve learned one thing from my brief stint away from CS, it’s that the difference between becoming a Major winner or a runner-up is dictated by the finest of margins… And often, that can be something as trivial as staying head-strong in the face of adversity. To understand the exact way a team should work, I always look to OG’s Dota 2 squad during the Grand Final of 2018’s ‘The International.’ Down 1-2 to PSG.LGD, they were getting destroyed and their fate appeared to be sealed. Yet they showed resilience, with the likes of Ceb remaining calm and collected, while N0tail continued to call the shots. And that’s exactly how a team should function in high-pressure situations like that. They shouldn’t fall apart like we did in the pivotal moments of a game, and ultimately, that’s what led OG to bag their legacy by winning two consecutive Internationals. So I’m not just coming back to CS:GO to tick a box and earn a paycheck. It’s much, much more than that. I’m hungrier than ever; and I feel like with the right team, I can finally claim the elusive Major trophy and it will no longer be a case of ‘one that got away.’

Groups Announced for Stacked DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 Event DreamHack has announced the groups for the DreamHack Masters Stockholm CS:GO tournament, which is due to begin on August 29. The current number one team, Astralis, will head up Group A alongside another Danish side, North, as well as Grayhound and TyLoo. Group B will feature Na’Vi, NRG, NiP and Ghost Gaming. Group C will be home to two more Danish teams in the form of OpTic Gaming and Heroic alongside the Swedes of Fnatic and the international stars of FaZe. Finally, Group D will include Mousesports, MiBR, HellRaisers and Gambit. This will be MiBR’s first event since adding Janko ‘YNk’ Paunović as a coach. With one of the most stacked lineups in recent memory, all four groups promise to produce some incredible matches. The group stage for the $250,000 event will feature a double-elimination GSL style format with the opening matches being best-of-one and all subsequent matches being best-of-three. The top two teams from each group will advance to a single-elimination playoff bracket with all knockout matches being best-of-threes. DreamHack Masters Stockholm will conclude on September 2. If recent form is anything to go on, the Astralis players will go into the tournament as the clear favorites while teams like FaZe Clan and Natus Vincere will be seen as potential spoilers of the Danish party. The groups for DreamHack Masters Stockholm 2018 are:

Incredible custom grenades would be perfect in CSGO First it was weapon skins, then gloves and character models, but now Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players can get excited over grenade skins, with one player devising an awesome customization concept for the explosives. Skins have rapidly grown in CS:GO over the last couple of years. While weapon skins and stickers have been a mainstay since the game’s release, Valve has expanded skins to gloves, in-game graffiti, music kits, and even character models in-game. While some thought that almost everything had been covered, there was one thing people forgot about — grenades. The explosives aren’t really conducive to having a painted design, but one player rethought the concept of what a skin was in CS:GO to show off some amazing customizable grenade pins. The grenade pin skins are similar to Rainbow Six’s charms, which dangle off the side of your weapon when equipped. They hang off the back of the grenade, getting pulled off every time you get ready to launch them. They were designed by Sebastian Haglund, an industrial designer by trade, and a CS:GO fan at heart. The designer said he’s had the idea for around “two to three years” before forgetting about them after he stopped playing. Having started back up again, he took the concept he once adored and modeled it up, much to the delight of the community. I’ve had this idea of customizable grenade pins/keychains to #CSGO for a while. Basically #skins for the grenades, with the possibility of buying team editions to support teams when a CS:GO Major comes around. What do you guys think? @valvesoftware @CSGO @astralisgg #gaming pic.twitter.com/WaCenVFcoj — Sebastian Haglund (@Seb_Haglund) December 18, 2019 There’s plenty of options to take the customization even further than just default pins. Haglund added that having “the possibility of buying team editions to support teams when a CS:GO Major comes around” would be a great idea as well. Reddit user ‘2ez4babushka’ even suggested a StatTrak model of the grenade skin, allowing players to count how many nades they’ve thrown. Read more: CSGO pros slam “unfair” Vertigo – “Make them also StatTrak so every pin you remove gets counted as Valve count our money,” they said. Comment byu/Styr0x from discussion inGlobalOffensive Haglund suggested that the pins be put in a capsule and distributed, much like how stickers work in CS:GO. “I don’t think it should be priced as highly as a full weapon skin box due to the item being smaller and less complex to make,” he said. If grenade pins eventually make their way into the game, you will not only be able to throw your utility like Astralis, but throw it with them as well. Now, the only thing left to customize in CS:GO is the humble Zeus, and then you can run out onto Dust II looking a million bucks no matter what’s equipped.

Golden’s ace versus Vitality perfectly sums up Fnatic CSGO resurgence The ace from Counter-Strike match at StarSeries Season 8 was a backbreaker for the French side, and an indicator of Fnatic’s recent return to form. The rare ace in a CSGO match is a testament to individual skill and strategy. But one player wiping out an entire team in one round is an even rarer occurrence when it comes from a team’s master strategist, the in-game leader. While in-game leaders in CSGO are no slouches when it comes to collecting kills and clutching rounds, a five kill performance from the team’s IGL is an indicator that the team is firing on all cylinders. And in the eighth round of the Inferno map that pitted Fnatic against Team Vitality, Golden made quick work of the French team’s attempt to take the B bombsite. None of Vitality’s smoke or flash grenades did anything to get Golden out of the corner, as he used his Krieg to notch all five kills with a mix of scoped and non-scoped frags. That ace tied the map at 4-4, and Vitality could barely do anything to gain any momentum for the rest of the map, falling 16-7 against a rolling Fnatic. Since returning to the Fnatic lineup on loan from Cloud 9, while he sits on the inactive bench of the North American organization, Golden has experienced a return to form when it comes to leadership and fragging. His stats have improved over the course of Fnatic’s DreamHack Malmo and StarSeries 8 runs. Read more: TenZ reveals why Cloud9 CSGO benched him – Even on maps when he’s not having the best statistical game, his leadership shines through the server, as Fnatic as a whole look crisp, while their individuals excel. Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist looks refreshed after returning to Fnatic after a half year’s break. The young Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin is living up to his potential. Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson is as consistent as he’s always been. And Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell is playing some of his best CSGO in a while. Once upon a time, in 2015, Fnatic were a ruthless Counter-Strike machine. The core of JW, KRIMZ, and flusha, alongside Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer Gustafsson and Markus ‘pronax’ Wallsten, won two majors that year along with a slew of other impressive victories and performances. Since then, the successful results became more sparse and the roster changes became more frequent, until this past August when they failed to qualify for a major for the first time in their illustrious history. But since the loan acquisition of Golden and the return of flusha, Fnatic have experienced a resurgence, with an impressive and gritty performance at DreamHack Malmo, where they had to play through lower brackets in group stage and playoffs on their way to an amazing three map series against Vitality to win the title in front of their home crowd. With this recent victory over Vitality yet again, Fnatic have secured a semifinals spot in StarSeries 8, and look confident enough to make a second straight championship run. Keep track of all the action at StarSeries Season 8 with our coverage hub.

GoFundMe for Mother and Daughter Killed in Crash by CS:GO YouTuber McSkillet Surpasses Target A GoFundMe setup to raise money for the family of a mother and daughter who were killed in a collision with CS:GO YouTuber McSkillet has raised over five times its original goal. Reports claim that the YouTuber, who had over 800,000 subscribers and was best known for CS:GO content and skins gambling, drove his McLaren supercar down the wrong side of a California highway at speeds of over 100mph. McSkillet, real name Trevor Heitmann, eventually collided with a Hyundai SUV travelling in the opposite direction, killing himself as well as the driver and passenger of the SUV. The victims were a 43 year old mother and her daughter, aged 12. The names of the victims have not been officially released, but are named in the GoFundMe as Aileen and Aryana. Within only 13 hours of going live, the campaign has raised over $26,000, quickly surpassing the original aim of $5,000. The campaign was given a boost by prominent community members, many of whom became aware of the incident through their knowledge of McSkillet as a YouTuber. Former professional Counter-Strike player Jordan “n0thing” Gilbert posted the link for the GoFundMe to his Twitter followers. “They’ve already hit the goal, but you cant put a price on losing family members.” The crash on the highway was so destructive that the McLaren, estimated to cost around $460,000 new, completely “disintegrated”, and the SUV was so badly burned in the fiery accident, that investigators could not determine if seat belts had been in place.

GODSENT leak their own CS:GO roster with TACO on job listing GODSENT/StarLadderSwedish esports organization GODSENT have confirmed their new Counter-Strike roster, featuring Epitácio ‘TACO’ de Melo – with a job listing for someone to edit their reveal video. Roster and player announcements have become big business in esports, especially at the highest level. A lot of time and effort goes into getting everything right – sometimes even weeks before the actual announcements are made. Organizations will, at times, drop hints about what moves they’re making, especially if an insider – or even a player – manages to accidentally reveal things ahead of time. However, this time, it wasn’t an insider or new player who dropped the ball on an announcement, but rather the organization themselves. The Swedish organization, which has typically had European Counter-Strike rosters, uploaded the files for their roster announcement to a job listing. They were asking for someone to edit the videos, removing the green screen behind their new players. Front and center of the video is former SK Gaming and MiBR star TACO, who had been rumored to be leading the new GODSENT project. He’s flanked by former teammate João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos, Bruno ‘latto’ Rebelatto, Eduardo ‘dumau’ Wolkmer, and Bruno ‘b4rtiN’ Câmara. Twitter user NoOne_CSGO spotted the video totally revealing the whole roster on January 16, which went under the radar before RushBMedia’s Ryan Friend boosted it. It appears that GODSENT has made a job posting on https://t.co/yAvRjo8arO seeking video editors for their new roster announcement scheduled for tomorrow. Within the Drive folder are videos of the rumored TACO project in GODSENT apparel. pic.twitter.com/CMIFlgv265 — Ryan Friend (@RyanAtDust2) January 17, 2021 After the hilarious ‘leak’ made the rounds on Twitter, the listing was removed from the Upwork website, and the videos were taken down. However, GODSENT and Taco decided to have a little fun with things. “FAKE NEWS,” they tweeted, while Taco claimed “it’s not me,” in the videos. Before it was removed, the listing asked for the work to be completed by 6PM on Monday, January 18, pointing at an announcement coming soon. Seeing as they’ve now taken it down, and quite a decent number of CS:GO fans have seen the videos, GODSENT might move that forward and announce their new line-up sooner. It’s either a spectacular blunder that will be talked about while the lineup is together, or a superb piece of hype-building.

GODSENT announces new CSGO roster led by TACO and felps GODSENTSwedish esports organization GODSENT have confirmed their new CSGO lineup, featuring former MiBR players Epitácio ‘TACO’ de Melo and João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos. GODSENT’s new lineupe was accidentally leaked by the team themselves early – Former MiBR coach Ricardo ‘dead’ Sinigaglia is team manager – Olavo ‘cky’ Napoleão will be the team’s coach – After inadvertently leaking the roster through a job listing, GODSENT have now confirmed the full lineup of Brazilian players. TACO and felps reunited Filling out the roster is young talents Eduardo ‘dumau‘ Wolkmer, Bruno ‘latto’ Rebelatto, Bruno ‘b4rtiN’ Câmara – ages 17, 18, and 19 respectively. 24 and 25-year-olds felps and TACO will be the experienced players, expected to lead this lineup of rising Brazilian talents, and hope to rival the top-performing Brazilian side currently, FURIA. It’s official! @GODSENTgg have announced their Brazilian CSGO lineup! 🇧🇷 🔸 @TACOCS 🔸 @felperaa 🔸 @dumaucs 🔸 @lattofps 🔸 @b4rtiN 🔸 @OLAchucky (coach)https://t.co/uzEVW3gogn— Dexerto (@Dexerto) January 21, 2021 Dead: We’ve got Brazil’s top prospects Speaking to Dexerto, team manager dead said “We wanted to build the perfect fit since the beginning, and we’ve managed to get the top prospects in Brazil — where we’ve tried to mix experience with young players. “We’re here for the long run — I think both the players and organization knows that. After practicing for 5/6 days, they’ve really impressed me early on… I think we have all the ingredients to get to the top!’ Read More: Cloud9 CSGO terminates woxic’s contract – GODSENT’s CEO Henrik ‘Heinrich’ Denebrandt said, ” We are very honored and excited for this new project and for everything it will bring to our fans, organization & brand growth. 2020 was a really good year for us and now the future looks even more exciting. It’s a big investment and a long-term play that we are very comfortable to get into. GODSENT CS:GO roster Epitácio ‘TACO’ de Melo – João ‘felps’ Vasconcellos – Eduardo ‘dumau’ Wolkmer – Bruno ‘latto’ Rebelatto – Bruno ‘b4rtiN’ Câmara – Olavo ‘cky’ Napoleão (Coach) – Ricardo ‘dead’ Sinigaglia (Manager) –

GODSENT CEOs on Brazilian CSGO gamble: “We understood their value immediately” Twitter: GODSENTSwedish esports organization GODSENT invested in the Brazilian market on 21 January 2021, when they signed a CS:GO roster led by two-time Major champion Epitácio “TACO” de Melo. Fast forward to the first CS:GO Major in two years and their “long-term project” is already proving to be a solid squad, sitting at No.23 in the world and competing in the Challengers Stage at the PGL Major in Stockholm. While we’re seeing more and more esports organizations plant their flag in new regions as they embark upon the lofty task of a “global expansion” — a topic Dexerto recently spoke about with TSM’s vice president of operations — it’s an expensive, unproven strategy. There aren’t many solid ties between Swedish esports teams and Brazilian esports fans on paper but GODSENT, through their CS:GO team and previous explorations into mobile competitive gaming, are looking to break down the barriers while on their quest to become a global powerhouse. GODSENT co-CEOs Henrik Denebrandt and Ludwig Sandgren signed their Brazilian roster for three years and then built a strategy around the team as they got settled in, through a global health crisis no less. They sat down with Dexerto to explain the decision, how their presence in Brazil has treated the org so far, and what the future holds for GODSENT. Building in Brazil It’s been clear from the start that the TACO-led squad is a work-in-progress. Described as a “long-term project” in their official announcement, the team comprises a mix of “experienced champions” and “promising young Brazilian talent”. At first glance, it doesn’t make much sense that they would be signed by a Swedish organization. “Especially with such a young team, we knew it was going to take time for them to mesh together,” Denebrandt said regarding the three-year contracts the team signed. “Many of them had never played together at all. Look at Gambit and what they have done by committing over time.” “We didn’t necessarily have a strategy in place with a Brazilian focus per se, it was more that this opportunity showed itself when we were in a transitional period and were about to release our previous roster to FPX,” added Sandgren. “We had some different ideas, we explored other options as we were more of a European organization, but then this opportunity showed itself and we understood immediately that there was a lot of value to it.” As Brazilian org LOUD’s co-founder Matthew Ho told Dexerto into August 2021, “In emerging markets, there’s no infrastructure at all so there are just so many more opportunities.” South America may not be on par with Europe and North America when it comes to infrastructure and support, but they have a passionate community, and those who build up the ecosystem will be rewarded generously. “Brazil has 200 million people and one of the biggest communities, if not the biggest community, in Counter-Strike, I think it’s the fastest-growing gaming country in the world by a lot of metrics,” Denebrandt said. “Then you take a look at the competition in Europe. For example, tier two and even tier three are very competitive so this was also more of a brand decision. We instantly fell in love with the Brazilian community and we want to make a bigger impact than just on the HLTV ranking or the ESL World Ranking.” Many of the biggest esports organizations are yet to develop a business model that makes complete sense. They’re oftentimes propped up massively by sponsorship and partnership revenue, and even those opportunities vary wildly depending on the markets they’re targetting. While Brazil has the eyeballs and the passion, it realistically doesn’t have high advertising revenues or lucrative, $210m partnership opportunities like more established nations and regions. “The majority of our partnerships are still in Europe and the Nordics,” Denebrandt told Dexerto. “We’re in a two-front war here where we want to keep growing in South America and in Europe, and expand even further as well. The numbers are not the same when it comes to partnership revenue in Brazil compared to Europe yet but there are other ways to form good partnerships based on other metrics that we look at as well. For example, I think we have one of the highest engaging teams in the world in Counter-Strike, this adds a lot of value to the brand and to our partners.” “The purchasing power of Brazilian fans is much lower, they may not have not as much money as the average European fan,” explained Sandgren. “This affects the pricing of things like match jerseys. However, the numbers can make up for the change in pricing because there can be tens of thousands of orders if you do really well. Our aim is to be the best in the world with a Brazilian team but we hope to utilize the team to be interesting for fans all over the planet, regardless of nationality.” “Compare the top 10 teams in Europe and how many jerseys they sell to what we can accomplish in South America,” Denebrandt added. “We won’t disclose numbers but we recently allowed fans to reserve jerseys and many, many thousands of jerseys were reserved. There was more demand than we could supply.” Entering new regions While esports is often considered a “global” industry due to it being digital in nature, work still has to be done to authentically approach regional audiences and effectively engage local fan bases. Even logistical factors like timezones and cultural norms play a huge part in ensuring you’re making the most of having a particular regional focus. GODSENT are fully aware of the challenges they face. “We have an office now in Sweden for Europe and one in Mexico for South and North America, but we definitely want boots on the ground in other regions, like Asia,” Denebrandt said of their international activities and plans. “That’s part of our expansion plans down the road. It’s very important to have boots on the ground in the areas you’re participating in. Hopefully, we can get something set up in Brazil as well, whether it’s a gaming center or a joint venture where we can interact more with fans.” Over the last six years, South American teams have often found themselves mixed in with rosters from North America to create an interesting blend of regional play. GODSENT are no exception, having spent the majority of the year in Monterrey, Mexico, competing against the best teams in the region. Whether their North American focus was planned or not, GODSENT’s co-CEOs have become inspired by some of the larger, more influencer-based organizations in the esports industry. “We are very inspired by the very successful lifestyle organizations like FaZe Clan and 100 Thieves and how they package and run their businesses,” Sandgren said. “We believe we have a brand that, even though it’s very young, has the capacity to be a lifestyle brand. That is definitely something we talk about on the top-down strategic level as something that we want to move towards.” While the perceived success of orgs like FaZe and 100T is inspiring for many owners and executives, it has to be stated that they’ve had a lot of money piled into them over the years. Esports is in a period of intense venture capital-fueled investment, which almost seems like a necessity if these companies want to build something grand and meaningful in an industry inundated with competing brands. “On the business side, we’re growing super fast,” Denebrandt concluded. “The last three years for us have been incredible when it comes to adding new partners and increasing revenue without almost any external funding. I think we are one of the best Moneyball examples in this industry that you can look at. We have accomplished a lot of organic growth over the last three years and it would shock a lot of the organizations out there.” We’re almost a year into GODSENT’s Brazilian CS:GO gamble and, judging by their presence at the PGL Major, it’s going pretty well thus far. The gap between being the 23rd best team or the team lifting the biggest trophies is large, however, and it seems the Swedish org have a lot of ambition that goes far beyond competitive success.

Gla1ve steps down from Astralis CSGO team due to illness ESLProfessional CSGO player Lukas ‘Gla1ve’ Rossander has announced that he is stepping down from the starting lineup of Astralis temporarily, due to ongoing stress and burnout, handing a ‘sick note’ to the organization. The Danish CS legend revealed in a Twitlonger on May 19 that he has been suffering from symptoms related to stress for a “longer period of time” and that along with his doctor, has decided he needs a break. He has said that his time away from the team will last at least three months, until he feels ready and prepared to return to the fold and compete at the highest level again. He has been starring alongside the renowned Astralis lineup since 2016, having won four CS:GO Majors in that time, including an unprecedented run of three Major victories in a row. But the time, effort and dedication required to dominate at the top is capable of taking its toll on anyone, even a seasoned professional like Gla1ve. Toughest decision of my life. Read: https://t.co/iO61jvOMzV — Łukasz Rossander (@gla1ve_csgo) May 19, 2020 Gla1ve thanked his teammates for understanding his decision. He explained that he had found it hard to put his health first, but knew it was the right decision. Astralis have recently been recruiting more players to their roster, with Jakob ‘JUGi’ Hansen joining the team earlier in May. Magisk may now be expected to take over the role of in-game leader for the squad in Gla1ve’s absence. The organization has confirmed that JUGi will be taking his place in the starting lineup starting with DreamHack Masters Spring 2020, which begins on May 19. Patrick “es3tag” Hansen will also join the organization from Heroic when his contract expires on July 1. Coach Danny ‘zonic’ Sørensen said “You might not see it from the outside but there are so many tasks on a CS-team and many players are pressured beyond what is healthy.” He also explained that helping players through this had been a “focus” for them, but that there is “still a need for improvement.” He also reassured fans that they had been preparing for this decision from Gla1ve, and knew “for a while” that he would not be taking part in DreamHack Masters Spring “Spirits are high, and even though it can be a big task to include a new player, we are entering the tournament with the ambition to win it,” Zonic said.

Gla1ve reveals only CS:GO events Astralis will attend for remainder of season as BLAST criticism continues L: DreamHack, R: Blast Pro SeriesAstralis in-game leader Lukas ‘Gla1ve’ Rossander has responded to criticism of the team’s recent tournament schedule by revealing which CS:GO events they will be attending in the coming months. Astralis have come under fire for their tournament schedule, which has seen them absent from premier events in favor of BLAST Pro Series tournaments, which In response to the criticism, Gla1ve has assured fans that the team will in fact be challenging for upcoming premier titles, sarcastically announcing: “I understand that you want us to play at every BLAST event, but I am sad to tell you that our last 3 tournaments before summer break is: ECS Finals, ESL Pro League Finals and ESL One Cologne.” Unfortunately, the announcement doesn’t seem to have gone down well with a lot of fans. Though they will undoubtedly be pleased to see Astralis in attendance at the remaining premier events before the player break, it seems many do not appreciate Gla1ve making light of their concerns. “Glaive trying to pull the positive PR switcheroo while ignoring the fact that because of this Blast bullshit it’s just their time in the rotation to go play elsewhere while Cologne gets devalued without Liquid in attendance,” u/Cigs77 said in the top-rated comment on the topic in the GlobalOffensive subreddit. “It’s just a rotation so we never get to see the best teams at the same LAN.” A lot of people have been asking about our upcomming events. I understand that you want us to play at every BLAST event, but I am sad to tell you that our last 3 tournaments before summer break is: ECS Finals, ESL Pro League Finals and ESL One Cologne. I hope its ok. — Lukas Rossander (@gla1ve_csgo) May 12, 2019 Why are fans angry at Astralis and BLAST Pro Series? Both Astralis and BLAST Pro Series – both of which are owned by RFRSH Entertainment – have come under heavy criticism in recent weeks. BLAST have been accused of pushing towards a “soft exclusivity” tournament circuit by tying top teams into multi-event contracts and allegedly positioning tournaments such that some of those teams miss other large events, resulting in fewer events other than BLAST themselves featuring all of the top squads. Reports have suggested that Team Liquid are set to miss ESL One Cologne in favor of attending a BLAST Pro Series event in Los Angeles, and BLAST are reportedly currently at odds with ESL over event dates in December. While the CS:GO community has historically been vehemently against any form of exclusivity, BLAST has also come under fire for what many have described as one of the worst competitive formats CS:GO has seen for a “premium” event, with a best-of-one single round-robin group stage feeding directly into a best-of-three final. In the instance of Astralis, fans have been frustrated to see the current number one team, and perhaps the greatest team of all time, missing large tournaments apparently in favor of participating in the less-prestigious BLAST Pro Series. Astralis’ last three offline events have all been BLAST tournaments, during which time they’ve passed on StarLadder i-League Season 7 and IEM Sydney, both of which feature much more rigorous formats, and are due to miss DreamHack Masters Dallas, another event which counts towards the Intel Grand Slam.

Gla1ve returns to Astralis starting lineup ahead of PGL Major Astralis have announced that Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander has been reintegrated into their starting lineup as the team step up preparations for PGL Major Stockholm. The Danish captain returns from paternity leave to lead the team at the biggest event of the year after sitting out BLAST Premier Fall Groups and IEM Fall Europe. Lucas ‘Bubzkji’ Andersen will be the team’s backup player at PGL Major Stockholm after Astralis chose the starting lineup that they believe “has the best chances to go all the way”, according to Kasper Hvidt, Astralis’ Director of Sports. On Twitter, Bubzkji admitted to being “devastated” to have been left out of the starting lineup for the event in Stockholm, which would have marked his first Major appearance. I am devastated to be left out, after being there to qualify. Losing out on my first major and not being able to play in front of a “”home”” crowd hurts. But sadly there’s only 5 spots. I felt things individually was moving in the right direction towards the end. https://t.co/oMuNz0iC4F — Bubzkji (@Bubzkji) October 13, 2021 “It is never easy to take a player out of the starting line-up and with Lucas, it can seem a bit unfair as, no matter the circumstances, he has been a true professional and always delivered his best on and off the server,” Hvidt added. “Danny and I had a good talk with Lucas about the decision. He is disappointed, but he also knows he is a big part of the team, and he will give his best to help out.” Gla1ve makes return Dexerto revealed on September 7 that gla1ve would be away from action for some time after being granted paternity leave. His spot was taken by Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth, who had been left out of the lineup for ESL Pro League Season 14. With gla1ve announcing on October 9 the birth of his son, Astralis’ fans expected his return to the lineup for the Major, though it remained unclear which player he would replace. According to Hvidt, the Danish in-game leader continued to “observe the team, competition, and the development of the game” during his time away from competition. “He is back with a lot of new energy and ideas, and with 14 days to go, gla1ve, Danny, and the team have time to prepare and once again to raise their game for the biggest tournament out there,” the Astralis director said. The Astralis PGL Major Squad. ⭐ @dupreeh ⭐ @Luckyv1CSGO ⭐ @gla1ve_csgo ⭐ @MagiskCS ⭐ @Xyp9x#ToTheStars— Astralis Counter-Strike (@AstralisCS) October 13, 2021 Astralis are one of the 16 teams that will compete at the Major in the first stage, called Challengers Stage, which will kick off on October 26. The top eight sides will progress to the Legends Stage, where they will join eight other teams. Astralis’ PGL Major starting lineup Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander – Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen – Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth – Emil ‘Magisk’ Reif – Philip ‘Lucky’ Ewald –

Gla1ve & Pimp call on CSGO devs to copy Valorant’s round format Riot Games / DreamHackAstralis CS:GO star Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and caster Jacob ‘Pimp’ Winneche have led a chorus of pros calling on Valve to copy Valorant’s “MR12” round format to cut down game length and make the economy more balanced. Some of Counter-Strike’s most historic matches have been built on long, arduous battles. Games going down to the final round of regulation, or even overtime, just for one team to mount a comeback. One could argue that those games are the spirit of CS:GO. However, some pros have called on Valve to change the system to make games shorter. Currently, CS:GO games run with MR15. “MR15” stands for max rounds 15, outlining the maximum rounds in a half. CS:GO has evolved over the years where rounds have gotten longer, but the number has stayed consistent. Bomb timers, freeze time, and round times themselves have gone up over the years, adding 20 seconds to every round. While this seems insignificant, over the course of 30 rounds, this adds another 10 minutes to play. That’s not even accounting for MR6 overtimes, which can see some maps extend for hours on end. “With the economy system at it is right now we see a lot of close games, which is of course great, but also makes the games very long,” Astralis star Gla1ve said on Twitter. This. Early days csgo 30 rounds would last for about 45 minutes, today it is atleast an hour i believe. Reasons: – Bombtimer changed from 40 to 45 – Freezetime changed from 15 to 20 – Roundtime changed from 1 minute and 45 to 1 minute and 55 i believe. – Timeouts https://t.co/SILDIJUtrz— Lukas Rossander (@gla1ve_csgo) May 14, 2020 He’s one of many people in the professional CS:GO community calling on Valve to copy Valorant’s MR12 format. Riot’s FPS title, a direct competitor to CS, uses shorter halves and only one round overtimes to keep game times consistent. One game of Valorant will usually cap out at around 45 minutes. This is a drastic cut on some CS:GO games, where a professional best of three can last for more than five hours. The more I watch professional Counter Strike, the more convinced I get that mr12 is more than enough to determine the better team. Mr15 with the current money system ain’t needed… Thoughts? — Jacob “Pimp” Winneche (@Pimp_CSGO) May 13, 2020 “The more I watch professional Counter Strike, the more convinced I get that mr12 is more than enough to determine the better team,” said caster Pimp. “MR15 with the current money system ain’t needed.” While some pros are skeptical, like Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo bringing up the point of pistol rounds being OP, most players have heralded the calls of gla1ve. i can agree but winning pistol rounds would also become a huge advantage on MR12! what could we do about it? — Epitacio de Melo (@TACOCS) May 14, 2020 MR15 is something that hasn’t been touched in the 20 year history of Counter-Strike, and purists might argue that it’s against the spirit of the game. However, it’s clear that some members of the community want some change, and it’s up to Valve to look at implementing it.

Gla1ve explains why G2 are CSGO’s “dark horse” after IEM Katowice run ESLLukas “gla1ve” Rossander might be looking down the barrel of another title at IEM Katowice 2020, but the Astralis star is keeping his eyes on G2 Esports after the French team made an outstanding “dark horse” run in groups. Astralis have gotten through the IEM Katowice draw with minimal complaints so far. The Danish kings of Counter-Strike are yet to drop a map in Poland, running through Cloud9, Vitality, and fnatic with relative ease. However, as they start to approach the pointy end of the event, they’ve got their eyes on one team in particular making a surprising run — G2 Esports. “I see [G2] as a big dark horse,” the Danish star said in an interview with HLTV at IEM Katowice. “They have been doing really well. It’s crazy to see that when they got two new players in nexa and huNter-, even though they don’t speak French the team dynamic just changed completely.” G2 was an all-French roster before the Serbian IGL and Bosnian rifler joined the team, but while a language barrier might have arisen, it brought the team back to life. They had a similar run to Astralis, running through Group B with surprise wins over 100 Thieves, mousesports, and Team Liquid to get to the semi-finals of Katowice, only dropping one map on the way. IS YOUR WRIST OKAY? @G2kennyS #IEM https://t.co/JCaCtOeg6K pic.twitter.com/7TNlr9DHRn — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) February 27, 2020 While they’ve been flying under the radar for most, Astralis and gla1ve have been taking notice of the team’s rise since picking up nexa and huNter-, and are looking forward to hopefully facing them in the final. “JaCkz was was pretty good before, I think, but you see a player like kennyS who is just getting much better now that he has a really good, understanding in-game leader, it seems like. Read more: How to watch IEM Katowice 2020 – “I feel really happy for them that they’re getting some success again, and, hopefully, we’ll play them this tournament.” Astralis won’t be back in action at IEM Katowice until February 29, when they’ll play the winner of Natus Vincere and Team Liquid in the semi-final of the event. Be sure to keep up with all the action, including interviews with the best players and results as soon as they happen on our IEM Katowice hub.

gla1ve explains why Astralis’ six-man roster experiment failed João Ferreira/DexertoAstralis captain Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander has all but rejected the possibility of his team going back to a setup with backup players. The Danish organization looked intent on challenging the status quo in the CS:GO scene in 2020 when it experimented with different lineups after gla1ve and Andreas ‘Xyp9x’ Højsleth took time off due to showing symptoms of burnout and exhaustion during the online era. At one point, Astralis had seven players in their CS:GO lineup, and the goal was to continue to add to the roster until they had “a full 10-player setup with an academy team, like in the pro League of Legends leagues”, according to sports director Kasper Hvidt, a former handball professional player. Those comments were met with skepticism in the CS:GO community, and justifiably so: Soon, it became clear that the team would stick to a traditional five-man lineup. Backup option Lucas ‘Bubzkji’ Andersen began falling further and further down the pecking order, initially brought in for Nuke games only, and then for no games at all. Questioned about the change in strategy, gla1ve made no secret that he thinks working with extra players is detrimental to a team’s preparation. “Yes, I think so,” he told Dexerto when asked if six-man lineups take away from preparation. “I don’t think six-man lineups are the best, not the way we are doing right now, with a 100% reserve. “It needs to be a guy who doesn’t want to play as much, maybe [someone] who likes to sit and watch, and who can come up with other things to the team. “I think a five-man lineup is the future of Astralis.” Astralis currently have only five players in their CS:GO lineup following the departure of Bubzkji, who spoke to Dexerto in January about his struggles in the team and his future plans. The Danish team will be in attendance at IEM Katowice 2022, the next big event in the CS:GO calendar. The tournament will give Astralis a chance for redemption after an underwhelming run of results that stretches back to the end of the 2021 season.

Gfinity Elite Series Australia (Season One) Coverage Hub – Stream, Schedule, Results, Standings and More! The Gfinity Elite Series will debut in Australia with Season One, where six franchises will compete over seven weeks for a share of $225,000 in prize money. After success in the UK, the Elite Series has now headed down under, with tournaments in Counter-Strike, Rocket League and Street Fighter V. The following hub will feature all the details you need to keep up with the Gfinity Elite Series Australia Season One Championship! Stream Week Seven Results (Grand Finals) CS:GO Rocket League Street Fighter V Week Six Results (Semi-Finals) Week Five Results Week Two Results About Gfinity Elite Series Australia Season One is a seven-week tournament, with $225,000 up for grabs — one of the biggest in Australian esports history. Season One features six clubs, each fielding teams over three esports titles: Counter Strike: Global Offensive (5v5), Rocket League (3v3), Street Fighter V (3v3 — played as 1v1 games). The regular season will take place for the first five weeks, with the playoffs then lasting two weeks. The Elite Series has attracted some of the biggest names in Australian esports, as the hugely popular British organizer expands its league down under. Prize Money Broadcast Schedule Thanks to a partnership with commercial television network, Network 10, the Gfinity Elite Series Australia Season One Rocket League matches will also be broadcast on free-to-air TV channel, ONE. The Clubs Melbourne Avant Gaming Base: Melbourne, VIC Counter-Strike Roster: jhd, breakerr, fakedaN, zeph, urbz, hazr, Danz, MoeyCQ, pecks Rocket League Roster: ZeN, Sammy, Hectic, yeatzy, blu3y, Plitz Street Fighter Roster: Sythe, dailou, Spaceghost, RumoursOfGhosts, AwildLLAMA, Likeross Melbourne Order Base: Melbourne, VIC Counter-Strike Roster: spookr, Swede, towski, hatz, emagine, liazz, Nikkez, Sico, aliStair, Raz, Sonic, Mizu Rocket League Roster: Shadey, Dumbo, aoe_emp, express, Golde, Enigma Street Fighter Roster: BurnoutFighter, Zed, Bug, Travis Styles, ROF, MiM Sydney Chiefs Base: Sydney, NSW Counter-Strike Roster: tama, Dizzy, Doom, iyen, bURNRUOk, Flickz, ap0c, ins, lushbadger, Hazz, Pili, Busta Rocket League Roster: Drippay, Jake, Torsos, CJM, Tulendeena, Limm Street Fighter Roster: bksama, Somniac, ZG, pahnda, Falco, Robsux Perth Ground Zero Base: Perth, WA Counter-Strike Roster: willyKS, InJect, xeL, xtinct, apocdud, Dissonance, Waffe, Kaotik Rocket League Roster: Addzey, Daisu, cyrix, Siki, Delusion, Montyconnor Street Fighter Roster: Staticz, Schenkhan, Syo, Rupps, DookyT, Caesura Sydney Roar Base: Sydney NSW Counter-Strike Roster: Havoc, iNSanity, Destiny, Dezibel, TopguN, wizard, Chuch, iNfrequent Rocket League Roster: Change, Bullet, justicerobo, Cobbo, Ghost, Potatoe Street Fighter Roster: BEN$, FREESER, AcrylicSaint, Cadzow, 1kmodem, Dale Brisbane Deceptors Base: Brisbane, QLD Counter-Strike Roster: konii, YetiBacon, JD, m0nt, Raizy, Artemis, gotz, Mattcd, Peachy, Riv Rocket League Roster: Cruzza, coop0, Smiths, SlurpeeMonster, Le Mon, Curt0h Street Fighter Roster: GhostChips, robbiesla, m0nt, Bao Special, Camzace, Rimey Attending Gfinity Elite Series Australia You can watch the Gfinity Elite Series Australia live, from the HOYTS Entertainment Quarter in Sydney! Click here to purchase your tickets: here

GeT_RiGhT reveals how Friberg convinced him to join Dignitas’ CSGO revival ESLChristopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund defected from Ninjas in Pyjamas for the first time in his CSGO career to rejoin old friends at Dignitas, although the 15-year veteran almost decided to hang up the mouse & keyboard after a rough 2019. The new Dignitas roster is one of the most hyped prospects of 2020 in CS:GO, and for good reason. The team is a throwback to the early days when Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic reigned supreme, with Dignitas hoping to roll back the clock in 2020 to do just that. The roster is spearheaded by NiP great GeT_RiGhT, who has gotten back together with Adam ‘Friberg’ Friberg, Richard ‘Xizt’ Landstrom, and Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg after taking a break from pro play at the end of last year. GeT_RiGhT’s return wasn’t always a done-deal though. The Swedish veteran did a lot of soul searching through his six-month break, taking a step back from the game itself to reevaluate his journey. It took him on a path to reconnecting with old souls — from the glorious NiP roster of 2012-2014 — and getting to know his former teammates even better than before. “I’ve been talking to Friberg a little bit back-and-forth during 2019,” he said in an interview with Dignitas. “We started becoming closer friends again than we were before.” While they knew each other as teammates, and drifted apart as the tides went out, both GeT_RiGhT and Friberg were able to bond over each other as just people when talking over the year. “Even though we played for a long time together, we didn’t really feel like we did during previous years and it was nice to finally get him back into my life. “He was asking me a little bit about how I felt in NiP, what I wanted to do, if I felt comfortable playing there, those kind of things, which is understandable and pretty cool if you ask me.” Friberg, who found himself teamless at around the same time after leaving Heroic, started to put the wheels in motion to get the old gang back together, although GeT_RiGhT felt a sense of loyalty to NiP that he needed to repay. However, as his spot on the team became contested, the veteran decided the time was right to leave, and looked to adjust his focus. “I had a lot of problems outside of playing in 2019 which I never really spoke about because I wanted to at least have some sort of privacy,” he said. “I wasn’t performing well, I wasn’t feeling well and…I’ve always been a person that’s able to handle negative things around me pretty well [but] I think this time it actually took a bigger toll on me than what I would’ve wanted, so I didn’t really cope with it as well as I did before.” Now with his “brothers” once again, GTR is feeling “really motivated” to prove to the world that he’s still one of the best Counter-Strike players in the world. “A lot of people have been saying that this seems like people are just getting paychecks, but if you ask me personally, you’ll know that it’s never about that, at least for us, because we want to show and prove something. “I don’t want to be a guy that’s remembered for just taking up a paycheck for free and that’s never been my thing so I just want to prove to myself, specifically, and to the guys in the team that I belong in the top.” GeT_RiGhT and Dignitas are gearing up for a big 2020, which includes a spot in Flashpoint’s inaugural season and a possible chance of qualifying for the Rio Major in May. The closed qualifier for the Major continues on March 7.

GeT_RiGhT’s future in doubt as NiP confirm CS:GO roster changes Ninjas in PyjamasThe Ninjas in Pyjamas are one of the most storied franchises in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history, but a shakeup with the roster has left doubt for the future of longtime team fixture Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund. While teams are loading up their rosters with young talent to stay competitive for years to come, that could spell doom for fan-favorite players as orgs are restructuring. There’s been murmurings of the restructuring of Ninjas in Pyjamas for some time and the org cleared up any sort of speculation with a resounding message of the changes to come. On June 19, NiP announced the addition of up-and-coming talent Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora who will soon replace Dennis ‘dennis’ Edman on the active roster, while signaling a similar fate for GeT_RiGhT’s position on the team. “We have started talks with GeT_RiGhT regarding his future as an active CS:GO player,” NiP said. “Together with him and the team, we have decided that he will continue competing with us until after the StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, as we start looking for a suitable long-term replacement to take his place on the active roster.” The org made sure to let fans know that the change would not happen until they “find the best replacement for him and the team, with the goal of transitioning (GeT_RiGhT) to a different role within NiP.” News of GeT_RiGhT sitting out any roster iteration will surely come as a shock to diehard fans. But it’s not all gloom as it seems like the legendary player’s influence on the team might still be felt, only this time outside of the CS:GO servers. GeT_RiGhT’s legendary CS:GO career From winning the IEM III Global Finals in 2009 with Fnatic to an inspiring run with NiP at Intel Extreme Masters XI – Oakland in 2016, GeT_RiGhT has been one of Counter-Strike’s most complete players of all time. Read more: CS:GO update finally nerfs AUG, adds bizarre sticker kit for Counter-Strike’s 20th birthday – There aren’t many accolades that GeT_RiGhT hasn’t achieved in his time with the Ninjas, and is on the shortlist of players to have a spot on a map colloquially named after them. Even though GeT_RiGhT’s time on the NiP lineup will soon be coming to an end, his impact on the team and the CS:GO scene will not soon be forgotten. Ninjas in Pyjamas’ new roster: Patrik ‘f0rest‘ Lindberg – Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT‘ Alesund – Fredrik ‘REZ‘ Sterner – Jonas ‘Lekr0‘ Olofsson – Nicolas ‘Plopski‘ Gonzalez Zamora –

GeT RiGhT: From CSGO God To Twitch Star Don’t count out Counter-Strike legend Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund. Although he’s taking an extended break from his esports career, fans won’t have to wait long to see what his next chapter will bring. For legacy CS fans, there’s no name that rings as loudly as GeT_RiGhT’s in almost every era of Valve’s shooter through the past two decades. But the Swedish sensation is temporarily moving on from competitive play. This was a heartbreak for an industry that’s gotten used to seeing the star pop off at will throughout events, an experience that will have to wait for now. Instead, the 30-year-old is excited to commit himself to the world of content creation and Twitch streaming to experience a “competition on another level for a person that loves competition,” GeT_RiGhT said. “I love games,” he said. “At the end of the day I’m a gamer… CS is not the complete story of GeT_RiGhT.” Although he has plenty of surprises in store for his fanbase, he made a note to say that this stage of his career will only mean he’ll be more active in games like Valorant, Call of Duty, and even maybe some League of Legends. Still, GeT_RiGhT didn’t go so far as to rule out coming back to pro level play in the future, although he’s not holding out for a return soon. For the time being, people can get excited to see a heavy presence from the Swede on Twitch, playing multiple titles as well as, of course, CS:GO.

GeT_RiGhT shares emotional message to fans following NiP’s elimination at ESL Cologne ESL TwitchEmotions both seering and somber filled the LANXESS Arena after the Counter-Strike event ever since they took the top honors during their epic run in 2014. Even though the team hasn’t always put up a memorable performance at ESL One, simply seeing the likes of Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg or GeT_RiGhT in front of the crowded Cologne stadium is enough to conjure nostalgia among NiP fans and the broader CS:GO community. Emotions filled the LANXESS Arena The culmination of those feelings erupted within GeT_RiGhT and the audience after his longtime club were ousted at Cologne in a competitive but ultimately fruitless 2-0 loss to Natus Vincere in the Quarterfinals. While the 29-year-old Swedish player has already been heavily vocal that his time with the Ninjas might be nearing its end, words were hardly needed to convey his sentiments in the aftermath of his team’s elimination. “I’ve played this game for 20 years, lived and breathed this game for such a long time,” GeT_RiGhT said as the emotions were starting to take hold. “It means the world to me to just be standing here. I can’t really get out the words to express how I’m feeling right now, I’m just super happy to be here still.” The esports legend was beside himself as he delivered a gut-wrenching final thought to potentially wrap up his time wearing the NiP crest at the LANXESS Arena. “I didn’t know this would be so painful for me,” GeT_RiGhT said. “But I’m just very happy that there’s still people that are supporting me and supporting NiP and…” Almost in sync with his loss for words, the crowd emulated the electric atmosphere that GeT_RiGhT has long delivered while representing his club throughout the years by voraciously cheering “let’s go GeT_RiGhT.” What’s next for NiP and GeT_RiGhT While the Ukranian org led by CS:GO phenom Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev advance to the semifinals to meet with World #1 Team Liquid, GeT_RiGhT will look to the Berlin Major as his potential swan song with NiP. The revered CS:GO figure made it clear to his fans that 2019 would not be the last year he plays in Cologne, as questions still loom of how NiP will look to improve in the future. Plans which both club and player suggest will soon exclude the services of GeT_RiGhT.

GeT RiGhT: A CSGO legend’s greatest moments Known for his incredible raw aim and incredible lurks, GeT_RiGhT is a Counter-Strike future hall of famer. With a career that began in 2007, the star has done it all from leading the charge in Ninjas in Pyjamas’ record-breaking win streak, to his long-awaited Major triumph. The Swede’s career is brimming with great moments. It’s tough to whittle it down, but we’ve compiled the very best moments from GeT_RiGhT’s time in CS:GO. Shooting up the rankings in Counter-Strike to become one of the best players in the world is no easy feat, and our list proves precisely how much talent the player possesses. To find out exactly what we consider to be the star’s very best peak performances of GeT_RiGhT’s career, make sure to check out the video above for a full run-down of the what’s what. For all CSGO news and events, make sure to stay tuned right here at Dexerto by checking out our dedicated hub.

GeT_RiGhT and f0rest react to first CS match apart in over 10 years L BLAST, R: ESLChristopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund and Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg reacted to their first official Counter-Strike match apart in over 10 years. Ninjas in Pyjamas’ first match at DreamHack Masters Malmo on October 1 marked the first time the pair have not competed on the same team for more than a decade, with GeT_RiGhT having officially left the active line-up on September 26. Despite no longer competing on the team together, GeT_RiGhT still wished his long-time teammate luck in f0rest’s first match without him. After the game had concluded, f0rest replied that it “felt really weird not hearing your voice” during the match. Felt really weird not hearing your voice while playing :heart:️ — Patrik Lindberg (@f0rest) October 1, 2019 The pair first teamed up in Counter-Strike 1.6, when GeT_RiGhT joined Fnatic in January of 2009. There they won numerous championships, before moving together to SK Gaming at the start of 2011 and picking up further titles over the rest of the game’s lifespan. Most modern fans, however, will likely best remember f0rest and GeT_RiGhT as the driving force behind innumerable victories for Ninjas in Pyjamas throughout CS:GO. The duo were at the core of the legendary 87-0 run at the start of the new game’s competitive scene, and were the only two remaining members of that line-up prior to the latter’s departure. GeT_RiGhT also noted that it has been even longer since he last watched Ninjas in Pyjamas play in Counter-Strike. While he spent many years representing different teams in CS 1.6, he actually competed in the final NiP line-up before the organization departed the game in 2007, and has played for them since their return for CS:GO until now. So last time I watched a NiP game was around.. 2007? 😐 I played in the last 1.6 lineup as well, dafuq is this sh*t — Christopher Alesund (@GeT_RiGhT) October 1, 2019 NiP’s debut at DreamHack Malmo did prove successful, with the team securing a win over Mousesports in their opening group stage match. They will face Grayhound Gaming for a guaranteed spot in the playoffs.

German CS:GO Player tiziaN Hits One of the Most Ridiculous Pistol Kills Ever at FACEIT London Major BIG ClanBIG Clan player Tizian “tiziaN” Feldbusch pulled off such a ridiculous pistol kill at the FACEIT London Major, the casters couldn’t actually believe it had happened. In the main qualifying stage of the London Major, BIG Clan were facing Australian team Renegades in their opening match, and tiziaN started it off with a bang. In the opening round of the match, played on Overpass, all players started with the basic pistol set up, and tiziaN and co. were all equipped with the silenced USP, used on the CT side. tiziaN immediately got to the spot behind barrel’s at the B site, and proceeded to duck up and down while dispatching of opponents with lightning quick speed. Casting duo James “JZFB” Bardolph and Daniel “DDK” Kapadia didn’t even immediately notice that tiziaN had in fact got a kill in the engagement, as his flick shot was so insanely fast but masterfully accurate. In an interview with HLTV following the match, tiziaN explained that he had in fact practiced the shot, so it wasn’t just blind luck. “I have actually practiced it, I don’t know, three or four times, but I wasn’t planning on doing that shot, you know. But I guess that it’s easier for me to land the hard shots.” A replay shows the kill in slow motion, but even then it still looks fast – and the casters are still in disbelief. It was a very strong start for the team that surprised at ESL One Cologne, where they made it to the grand final in front of a passionate home crowd, although they were ultimately defeated by Na’Vi. They took the match against Renegades 16-6, and although Johannes “tabseN” Wodarz and Fatih “gob b” Dayik were the standout players for BIG, tiziaN’s kill was undoubtedly the highlight play of not only the match, but the entire Major so far. They will need to find themselves amongst the top eight teams in the New Challengers Stage, which will secure them a spot in the New Legends Stage, starting on September 12.

German CS:GO caster breaks himself after insane Deagle one tap German Counter-Strike: Global Offensive caster Fabian ‘V3n0m’ Doellert left onlookers with a hilarious highlight as he lost his voice during a recent game. Aside from the insane plays and incredibly skilled pros, competitive CS:GO relies upon its casters. Almost every game has, whether it be a Major final or regional online match-up, some sort of commentary – good or bad – and their hype moments can send a game hurtling towards the history books. Historic calls across CS:GO and previous Counter-Strike games ring out to fans and can be as memorable as an event itself. Yet, some are remembered for entirely different reasons – including when a caster loses all control and just shouts out whatever comes to mind, even if it’s not actually a word. During a 99Damage Liga Saison game between PANTHERS Gaming and Euronics on Overpass, V3m0n might have joined those ranks with a memorable call. After René ‘RENE’ Folkmer pushed through a Molotov at the sandbags spot, and was able to take down one enemy with relative ease, he opened up space for teammate Lukas ‘ecFN’ Kauer. The young German quickly jumped from the vacated position, utilized the corner of the surf wall and unloaded a crisp one tap into the head of Peter ‘seeeya’ Gortschakow. V3m0n let himself go and began screaming wildly – making zero sense at all. While viewers were left mind blown, the caster couldn’t speak for a few moments – needing a chesty cough to open up his vocal cords. The hilarious moment didn’t seem to cause any harm outside of the brief moment where the caster needed to step away, as he continued with the commentating over the game for a little while longer. Despite the temporary blip, fans will be hoping that he can pull off an iconic call at the StarLadder Berlin Major which kicks off on August 23. V3m0n will be doing the German language casting from the usual 99Damage Twitch channel, so any more moments will go down over there.

German CS icon Roman R. named BIG’s Chief of CSGO BIGRoman ‘Roman R.’ Reinhardt, one of the most successful German Counter-Strike players of the 2000s, will take charge of BIG’s CS:GO division moving forward. The 38-year-old won multiple German titles and attended some of the most prestigious CS 1.6 international events during his time competing for mousesports, a-Losers and ALTERNATE aTTaX, between 2003 and 2012. After almost a year working mostly in BIG’s merchandise department, Roman R. has now been handed the reins of the CS:GO division. As the Chief of CS:GO, he will be working closely with Christian Lenz, BIG’s Chief Gaming Officer, as well as with the players and coaches of both the main team and the academy squad as the German organization continue to strive for greatness. These are exciting times for BIG, who made headlines at the end of 2021 with the signing of Sprout star Josef ‘faveN’ Baumann in a German-record transfer deal. The 21-year-old rifler will provide additional firepower to the BIG squad, which was often found lacking in the fragging department during Nicklas ‘gade’ Gade’s five-month tenure with the team. Meanwhile, BIG’s academy squad seems to be flourishing after replacing three players at the start of 2022. They have qualified for the WePlay Academy League Season 3 LAN Finals after topping a tough group that also included Young Ninjas, NAVI Junior, Fnatic Rising and Astralis Talent. “Roman Reinhardt had a significant impact on German Esports during his career as a professional player,” BIG CEO Daniel Finkler said in a statement. “Due to his exceptional knowledge and his close connection to [co-founder] Yilmaz Ozan, he has been an important part of BIG for many months now. “In the future, Roman will contribute his vast experience as Head of CS:GO and, together with CGO Christian Lenz, he will be responsible for the development of our CS:GO department, including the talent division. “In this position, Roman Reinhardt will work very closely with the coaching staff, team management, players and talent at our headquarters in Berlin to ensure the best possible development of our CS:GO division in the coming years.”

Gen.G Esports announce new CSGO roster, featuring former C9 core Gen.G Esports are breaking into the Counter-Strike scene with a new North American roster, and have announced the first three players in Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta, Damian ‘daps’ Steele, and Kenneth ‘koosta’ Suen. All three players depart from the Cloud9 organization. One chapter closes while another begins in the story of North American CSGO. Gen.G has officially acquired the autimatic/daps/koosta trio from Cloud9, and confirmed on Twitter that the two remaining additions will be added in the coming weeks. This confirms reports from weeks ago that Gen.G were interested in the C9 core. We are honored to join the CS:GO community and welcome three veteran players as the core of our CS roster. Two more players will be announced in the coming weeks. Our goal is to bring home another Major to North America #WeAreGenG pic.twitter.com/uHELzido7q — Gen.G Esports (@GenG) December 6, 2019 Gen.G billed their new additions as a ‘veteran core’ and have already set a daunting long-term goal of bring home another major to North America. The Gen.G roster will compete in a top-heavy NA scene currently dominated by Team Liquid and Evil Geniuses. Only a couple of years have passed since Cloud9 were at the top of the CSGO world, not just the North American region. In January of 2018, Cloud9 claimed the first and only major for a North American team, on home soil at the ELEAGUE Boston major. Within half a year, the bulk of that roster moved on. Stewie2K and tarik both left for SK Gaming/MIBR before each finding a respective spot with Liquid and NRG/EG. Skadoodle retired. Only RUSH and autimatic remained until this past July, when RUSH was moved to the bench before moving on to Complexity. Now, autimatic moves on from C9, the last member of the Boston roster, after a 3+ year stint with the flagship organization. In the video announcement, the organization made special mention of thanking Timothy for his extensive service. In that same announcement, Cloud9 coach James “JamezIRL’ Macaulay revealed that both autimatic and daps asked to be moved off of Cloud9, and were thus transferred to Gen.G. There was no mention of whether or not koosta asked to be transferred. Coach Macaulay said this transfer gives the C9 organization an “opportunity to build a team from new, “ indicating that C9 does very much intend to remain in the competitive CSGO scene. Gen.G is a relatively new esports organization when compared to Cloud 9, having formed in 2017 as a collaboration between Silicon Valley investors and Seoul, Korea. They compete in the League of Legends’ LCK and in the Overwatch League as Seoul Dynasty. Their PUBG team most recently won the PUBG Global Championship. #GenGPUBG are your 2019 PUBG Global Championship CHAMPIONS! 🏆🏆🏆 Celebrate a #GenGWin in style:https://t.co/9ZGn1GIhku pic.twitter.com/qTxzxpNzVm — Gen.G Esports (@GenG) November 25, 2019 There are no strangers to first-person shooters and North American rosters, having fielded a Call of Duty Black Ops 4 team this past year that finished second in the CWL Pro League playoffs. Most of that roster has gone onto various franchised teams in the upcoming Call of Duty League. Dexerto will keep you updated when the remainder of the Gen.G CSGO roster is announced, as well as what Cloud9’s plans for CSGO are.

Gen.G reportedly in discussions to sign multiple Cloud9 CSGO players Counter-Strike roster, as well as Bulgarian star Georgi ‘SHiPZ’ Grigorov, as the North American organization looks to make its first move into the scene. According to a report from DBLTAP, Timothy ‘autimatic’ Ta and Damian ’daps’ Steele are key targets for Gen.G in the ongoing discussions, while the org’s interest in Oscar ‘mixwell’ Cañellas, Kenneth ‘koosta’ Suen, and Yassine ‘Subroza’ Taoufik has not been confirmed. The NA duo would likely be the corner-piece of Gen.G’s first foray into CSGO, with rumors suggesting the dual-signings would be bolstered by the pickup of CR4ZY’s rifler SHiPZ. Cloud9’s roster has struggled to make an impact in international competitions of late, with the team’s struggles bookended by a last-placed finish in ESL Pro League Season 10 that has dropped them into the upcoming relegation tournament. The team also finished last at the most recent BLAST Pro Series in Copenhagen, and 13-16th at DreamHack Dallas. Their last major run also ended prematurely, after they were bundled out of Katowice’s New Legends stage with losses to Astralis, Team Vitality, and FaZe Clan. The organization then forfeit their guaranteed slot for Berlin after a number of roster changes, and the organization failed to re-earn a place at the Verti Music Hall after falling to two unsigned rosters 2-1 and 2-0 in straight sets. Gen.G’s other reported transfer target, Bulgarian star SHiPZ, has only been with his current organization CR4ZY for the past month. The squad won their first event at DreamHack Open Rotterdam with a 2-1 victory over Heroic, earning $50,000 in the process. The potential departures from C9’s roster may go some distance to explaining the “team troubles” reported by VPEsports, which saw the organization pull out of the DreamHack Atlanta Open despite a $100,000 prize pool for the event. If Gen.G’s moves in the signing market aren’t completed by November 15, however, SHiPZ will appear with CR4ZY at Rotterdam, where they will face teams like INTZ eSports and Heroic. Gen.G have never competed in Counter-Strike before, and the signings of these players would mark the first time the NA organization had joined the circuit. The organization has previously competed in Call of Duty, operates League of Legends scene with the purchase of world championship roster Samsung Galaxy in the LCK in 2018.

Gaules sets insane viewership record watching CSGO Major Retired Counter-Strike pro Alexandre ‘Gaules’ Borba has set an insane viewership record for his Twitch channel while watching the 2022 CSGO Major. The first CSGO Major of 2022 is finally here and millions of esports fans are ready for the action. The 17th PGL Major Antwerp is well underway and teams from across the globe are battling it out for $1million. Day 3 of the Legends Stage event saw renowned organizations take the stage such as FaZe Clan, G2 Esports, and Cloud 9. But the day was also a legendary event for former CS Pro and Twitch streamer Gaules. Gaules has been watching the CSGO Major on his stream since it kicked off on May 9th. While he’s no stranger to tens of thousands of viewers, his viewership would skyrocket as soon as his coverage of the event started. Gaules sets viewer record during CSGO Major While watching the Major, Gaules has seen an astronomical number of viewers each day. Seven of the past eight days, Gaules has peaked at over 100k viewers and reached a staggering 437k concurrent viewers on May 15. Read More: Match-fixing report: CSGO whistleblower implicates Major winner HObbit and other CIS players – But on May 16, during an intense match between Cloud 9 and Imperial, Gaules would set a new record for his channel with 707k concurrent viewers. That’s several hundreds of thousands of people watching Gaules watch esports. At the time of reporting, Gaules is live spectating the Major once again with his viewers already reaching back into the 300k range. His ability to pull viewers stems from his non-stop commentary and knowledge of the game, having been a part of the pro scene. The PGL Major Antwerp will run until May 22 giving Gaules plenty of time to break his record yet again. Regardless, his stream on May 16 was one for the books. For more CSGO news, check out the viral Smoke Mirage bug Valve decided to patch during the Major, and stay tuned for more!

Sean Gares explains why StarLadder Berlin Major has been “excellent” even with DMCA drama StarLadder / HLTVCounter-Strike event amid public outcry over recent DMCA takedowns from the tournament organizers and associated streaming services. StarLadder came under heavy fire in recent weeks after issuing DMCA takedowns to various Twitch streamers that resulted in their channels being flagged or banned. Now former Cloud9 player turned desk analyst Gares has stepped in to explain why, despite the copyright strikes drama swirling around StarLadder’s first major, the tournament organizers have provided great equipment, interesting seeding formats, and more. “If you’re one of the people still hating on this major, just realize StarLadder provided the best computers possible for players, used excellent seeding format, hired talent the community requested, hired a top tier observer mid-event, (and has) little to no delays,” he said. That wasn’t all that Gares believed StarLadder had done right at the German-based premier event. “(They also) provided the most thrilling legends stage I can remember, had two best of threes per day for champion stage, had a ridiculous venue for the legends stage and even allowed fans to attend, (and) they have been here since day fucking one.” If you’re one of the people still hating on this major, just realize that Starladder… :white_check_mark:Provided the best computers possible for players :white_check_mark:Used excellent seeding format :white_check_mark:Hired talent the community requested :white_check_mark:Hired a top tier observer mid event :white_check_mark:Little to no delays — Sean Gares (@seangares) September 2, 2019 There were many who disagreed with the stance, including CSGO streamer Erik ‘fl0m’ Flom, who was one of the content creators slapped with a DMCA notice for streaming the event via the GOTV version of the coverage found inside the game. “Bruh. DMCA’d streamers without warning, had to hire an observer mid-tournament because they put themselves in a situation where they had to, hired all the best talent after trying to leave out the best talent from the major,” the Mythic star said. :white_check_mark:DMCA’d streamers without warning. :white_check_mark:had to hire an observer mid tournament because they put themselves in a situation where they had to. :white_check_mark:hired all the best talent after trying to leave out the best talent from the major. (anders and moses if im not mistaken)— fl0m (@fl0mtv) September 2, 2019 Despite fl0m’s outrage, Gares was positive about StarLadder’s response to the recent dramas, and reminded those still angry at the Ukrainian-based organizers that they were “not the only TO to threaten such measures when it comes to majors.” Read more: NiKo apologizes for performance in Berlin – “Do you think StarLadder has access to shut down your stream? Why not partially blame Twitch? The issue is very complex. The DMCA thing is weird, and has so many variables that I don’t understand. We definitely need some clarification from Valve on that.” While the DMCA issues and other production problems have sparked outcries from the community, in-game the Berlin Major has been one of the most exciting in recent times. G2 and mousesports were eliminated on the final day, while expected favorites Team Liquid barely scraped into the final eight. Astralis-CR4ZY also broke the major record for most rounds played with a hefty 60 on Dust II. The quarter-finals of the StarLadder Berlin Major begin from 9.30am PT on Thursday, September 5. Keep up-to-date with all the action from the Mercedes-Benz Arena via our StarLadder Major hub.

GamerLegion unveil new CSGO roster. Finally. WePlayIn an announcement that wasn’t the least bit surprising, GamerLegion confirmed their new CSGO lineup, which has been playing for the German organization for several weeks already. GamerLegion confirmed on September 16 the signings of Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand, Kamil ‘siuhy’ Szkaradek and Nicolas ‘Keoz’ Dgus to its CS:GO team, rounded out by longtime members Mihai ‘iM’ Ivan and Isak ‘isak’ Fahlén. The timing of the announcement feels long overdue. The trio began playing for GamerLegion in August in the IEM Road to Rio open qualifiers, with the team booking one of the final spots in the upcoming European RMR A tournament — a qualifying event for the IEM Rio Major. That success was unexpected to many, including the GamerLegion organization itself, which couldn’t help but poke fun at the lateness of an announcement that already feels like old news. The new team is the result of a long rebuilding process that began in June, when GamerLegion benched Sean ‘eraa’ Knutsson. The Berlin-based organization then also moved on from Alfred ‘RuStY’ Karlsson and Patrik ‘Zero’ Žúdel, having felt that the roster had peaked when it reached the European RMR leading to PGL Major Antwerp. “For us, it was always clear that we wanted to be better than that,” Julian ‘morxzas’ Miculcy, Head of Operations at GamerLegion, told Dexerto. “We want progress. A big goal for us will always be [reaching] a Major.” GamerLegion landed on the current roster after talking to — and testing — “a lot of players” over a number of weeks, morxzas said. Some of their targets ended up being snatched by other teams, but he is happy with how the squad has shaped up. “I would say now, after the trials and everything, that it would have been bad if we had got anyone else,” he said. Putting the pieces together GamerLegion’s new squad feels like a clear improvement on the previous roster, even if it still does not generate the type of frenzy that came with the organization’s first team in 2019, which featured Kévin ‘Ex6TenZ’ Droolans, Adil ‘ScreaM’ Benrlitom, and Hampus ‘hampus’ Poser. morxzas explained that GamerLegion refrained from signing a swath of big names as they sought to preserve their identity. This means continuing to support young talent, and no one represents this better than siuhy, who earned a reputation as an in-game leader on the rise during his time with MOUZ’s academy team, the winner of four of the first five editions of the WePlay Academy League. “He hasn’t played at the highest level but he already has a lot of the qualities a leader should have,” morxzas said of the Polish player. “I don’t think this [lack of experience] is going to be a problem. You can quote me later if I’m wrong, but I think he can be the next karrigan.” Keoz, who hails from Belgium, will be hoping to reignite a career that has stalled in recent years after he was part of the Syman team that surprisingly reached the StarLadder Berlin Major in 2019. But probably the biggest question marks revolve around acoR and whether he can be a difference-maker for GamerLegion. His year on MOUZ was punctuated by uninspiring performances, which led to his removal from the team at the start of 2022 and a seven-month journey on the bench. The early signs seem to be positive, with the Danish AWPer averaging a 1.29 HLTV rating and a 1.38 Impact. (though the low level of some of the opposition provides a contextual element to these numbers.) morxzas believes that acoR is rediscovering himself with the team and can once again be the AWPer that shined during his time with MAD Lions in 2020. “acoR has a lot of drive,” he said. “He was out of the game for a long time, and now he has got this new chance. He has a lot to show and a lot to prove. “I feel like he is the right guy for this. I have a good feeling about him.” With the RMR less than three weeks away, preparations for the tournament in Malta are in full swing with a bootcamp in GamerLegion’s facilities in Berlin. The team will have a baptism of fire on LAN against the world No.1 and reigning Major champions FaZe. It’s hard not to view this matchup as a David vs. Goliath affair, but there could also be a little bit of destiny at play here, if siuhy goes on, as morxzas expects, to build the sort of reputation that FaZe’s Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen enjoys. When they put this roster together, GamerLegion did not expect the team to deliver results instantly, hence the self-deprecating joke about how the organization managed to qualify for the RMR without even officially having a full roster. The CS:GO community at large is also bound to feel unmoved by today’s announcement. Such criticism aside, one thing is clear: GamerLegion built this team with an eye on the future, hoping that it will succeed where the others — some laden with marquee names, others not so much — failed. “I want these five players to succeed,” morxzas said. “I think we are going to be top 30. But in the future, I want us to be top 20, top 15, and play in the big tournaments. “We are going to have a good start playing against FaZe. This will be one of our biggest matches.”

GamerLegion reached the Paris CSGO Major final. Now what? Michal Konkol/BLASTDexerto spoke with GamerLegion’s Director of Esports to know what lies ahead after their team’s surprise second place at the BLAST Paris Major. After the frenzy of the Major was over and the emotions died down, GamerLegion immediately began mapping out the next course of action. The team exceeded even the wildest of expectations in Paris, reaching the grand final of what was a strange and upset-filled final CS:GO Major. In a scene where the gulf between the partner teams and the rest is palpable for most of the calendar, the Major once again served as the great leveler. GamerLegion jumped 20 places in the world rankings to a record seventh after the Major. Recovering from a 0-2 start to the Challengers Stage, GamerLegion beat teams like MOUZ, OG, Fnatic and Heroic en route to the final before suffering a 0-2 defeat to hometown favorites Vitality. “Now it’s the time for us to take the next step to stay in the tier-one scene,” Julian ‘morxzas’ Miculcy, GamerLegion’s Director of Esports, told Dexerto. “We are in our highest ranking on HLTV and ESL and we want to stay there. We want to play the big tournaments and not be in the lower tiers all the time. “The last days have been spent working on that, how we can build on this.” Over the course of CS:GO’s rich history, there have been many cases of teams falling apart after Cinderella stories at Majors. The most famous example was the Cloud9 team that collapsed shortly after winning the ELEAGUE Boston Major in 2018, knowing that it would be impossible to live up to the lofty standards set by that miracle tournament run. Several of GamerLegion’s players drew considerable interest during the Paris Major. There’s Kamil ‘siuhy’ Szkaradek, widely regarded as one of the most promising in-game leaders in the scene. (In September, morxzas told Dexerto that he believes siuhy can be “the next karrigan.“) Star player Mihai ‘iM’ Ivan was in the running for the MVP award until the final, and AWPer Frederik ‘acoR’ Gyldstrand continued to show why MOUZ were wrong to ditch him without ever really giving him the resources to shine. As the summer season approaches and the rumor mill kicks into life, GamerLegion’s players are being earmarked as improvements for a number of teams, from G2 and Fnatic to Team Liquid and MOUZ. With the big names expected to encircle their players like sharks, is there any hope that GamerLegion will be able to fend off all this interest? “I feel like there are obviously organizations who will have interest,” morxzas said. “But if we want to stay in tier one, we need to keep the team together, and I feel we have a great chance of doing that.” GamerLegion’s future The polarization in the CS:GO scene is something that has been talked about for some time, with the BLAST Premier circuit and, to a lesser degree, the ESL Pro Tour offering few opportunities for non-partner teams, who have to go through an endless cycle of qualifiers to get into the main tournaments. At the same time, venture-capital-backed organizations possess a financial muscle that allows them to pry top talent away from smaller teams. During the Major, acoR notably said that if a tier-one team offers a player seven times his current salary and the chance to play all of the best tournaments, “there’s no one who can say no to that.” The lure of entering the CS:GO elite may be too hard to pass up for some, but morxzas insisted there are merits to staying in a project like GamerLegion. “I feel like if you’re an up-and-coming player and if you join, for example, FaZe, and things aren’t working out, you get thrown on the bench and you will be forgotten,” he said. “Nobody will think about you anymore because you tried to be a tier-one player and you didn’t succeed, so your career is basically over. “I feel like we have a good chance to have the environment for players to grow, to stay with us and get better and better. And then eventually, maybe in one or two years, we will also have to make changes, and this can be the opportunity for them to make the jump to FaZe or something. “But maybe in one or two years, we are the next FaZe. You never know. And I don’t think our players are really money driven. I think we have a lot of things to offer that maybe other organizations have forgotten about.” A week after the Major, rumors began surfacing about G2 Esports’ interest in signing siuhy as their new in-game leader to replace Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen. This prompted a scathing response from morxzas himself, who accused the source of the rumor of attempting to “exploit hyped players.” Questioned about all this frenzy of speculation, morxzas said: “I feel like the rumors are way bigger than the actual interest. People have been creating rumors when there has been no actual interest.” GamerLegion currently has only one tournament lined up, Gamers8, but the massive leap in the world rankings is bound to lead to invites to IEM Cologne and ESL Pro League 18. For CS:GO teams like GamerLegion, Monte, and Apeks, the work never stops. It’s a constant grind to stay at the top in order to earn invites to more events and keep having tournament opportunities. One slip-up and any of these teams could be back playing multiple tier-two online competitions simultaneously and spending months without a LAN event. morxzas hopes that the team’s story will diverge from what appears to be a Sisyphean fate. But whatever comes next, he believes that the against-all-odds Paris run is proof of concept of the organization’s doctrine and sets it up for a promising future, one that could take it to other games, like Valorant. “We took a good route and now we’re getting success out of it,” he said. “People are seeing that what we are doing is the proper way. “It’s not just, ‘I pay two million to buy five players and let’s go’. It’s more about developing talent and trying to make it as good as possible. This is what we proved and that’s why people are interested in us.”

Game-breaking CSGO MAC-10 bug is unexpectedly crashing players’ matches ValveFebruary 25 update: A hotfix released on CS:GO servers on February 25 has rectified the MAC-10 bug. Original article continues below. Players are urged to not buy the MAC-10 in-game after February 24’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive update after a game-breaking bug involving the weapon is crashing players out of their matches. The latest CS:GO update has shipped changes to the in-game shop, although players have to be wary of using it, especially if they are avid MAC-10 fans. A new bug has appeared after the February 24 patch which is unexpectedly crashing players out of their matches when they buy the T-sided SMG. The bug, reported first on Reddit by user ‘Naschpitz’, appeared after February 24’s game update. “With this new patch, if you use [a] skin [on] your MAC-10 and you buy it in-game, CS:GO will close,” they said. “Remove your MAC-10 skin from your inventory for now and wait for a patch to fix it.” The bug has a 100% replication rate, but only if you have a skin equipped to your MAC-10. While it doesn’t crash the server for everyone, your game will close and you’ll be kicked out of your lobby, which could lead to competitive bans if you crash multiple times. There is a way of getting around the bug by purchasing the weapon right at the start of a round before the load-in animation is finished, but it’s unrealistic to pull this off every time. The bug doesn’t seem to be impacting any other gun in the game, but all MAC-10 skins, regardless of Souvenir or StatTrak status, are affected by the glitch. Read more: How to watch IEM Katowice 2020 – Valve is yet to comment on the bug, but a bug should be shipped in the coming hours, given just how game-breaking it is. Today we’re shipping a visual update to the Buy Menu, a new setting to edit and share crosshairs, and Patches for Agents. Here’s today’s “”Patch””… Notes: https://t.co/8To9IjVVCv pic.twitter.com/cTfQGVfxfr — CS2 (@CounterStrike) February 24, 2020 It comes after the February 24 update pushed a visual update to the in-game shop, which now shows player models holding their weapon of choice. Other changes shipped include sharing codes for crosshairs, a new patch system for agent skins, and fixes for Breach and Studio. The best course of action is to try to avoid using the MAC-10 on T-side, although if you do have to buy one, make sure that there’s no skin equipped to the weapon. Else, you might just find yourself out of more than just $1050 in-game.

Game breaking CS:GO exploit gives players control of smoke grenades Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players have been left puzzled by a new in-game command that allows players to alter the shape of bloomed smoke grenades. CS:GO has been the leader in the PC shooter market since its release back in August 2012. Valve’s popular title has gone from strength to strength with regular updates and changes to keep the game, and its esports scene, relatively fresh without upsetting the balance too much. Yet, that could all be under threat after players unearthed a new in-game command that allows them to change how smoke and fire grenades work when they have been thrown, including changing shape and even disappearing off the screen completely. Popular CS:GO community member DonHaci posted the findings to Twitter, such as a video showing off just how “game breaking” the uncovered command appeared to be, as players could alter grenades in each round of the match until it was over. DonHaci dropped a smoke grenade and allowed it to pop, before moving left and right, making sure that their crosshair touched the edge of the bloomed smoke grenade. After a few seconds, the smoke cloud immediately began changing shape depending on It wasn’t just the one occurrence, either. The Twitter user followed up with another smoke grenade on the Dust 2 map, showing that players with the command could – in theory – keep moving until they created the perfect one-way smoke, having a huge advantage over their opponents. What the fuck????? There is a command that lets you “”reset”” the shape of smokes?? It works without sv_cheats 0 and on Valve servers this is game breaking holy shit pic.twitter.com/z1ydIAd7eN — DonHaci (@DonHaci) May 19, 2019 Is it just smoke grenades? The command also appeared to work, to a much lesser extent, with spreading fire as it disappeared for a split second before returning back on screen. While the flames didn’t disappear long enough for a player to burst through them completely, it would give a rushing opponent a significant advantage in maneuvering past the inferno and taking up better angles in matches. LMAOOOOOOO IT COMPLETELY MAKES FIRE DISAPPEAR FOR ~0.5 SECONDS pic.twitter.com/XqrYAxrzll — DonHaci (@DonHaci) May 19, 2019 Fans ultimately figured out that the command allowed the grenades to change so much because they are still reliant on the client side of the game, meaning they will appear differently for each player based on how they are thrown. Tested it more in an empty server with someone: it’s still all client-sided meaning the smoke/fire only changes for you In some cases (think this is for Faceit/ESEA and retake/execute servers) it only works once per round (1 smoke change shape only) per round. pic.twitter.com/RUuhpa92TJ — DonHaci (@DonHaci) May 19, 2019 Will Valve push out an update? Valve have yet to respond to the exploit-like findings, despite calls from the community for them to make a swift change – especially when it comes to making grenade outcomes server-side and not client-side. While no one has had the ability to test the new discovery on a LAN server just yet, if the command does work there, the developers would have to spring into action so that it doesn’t have an effect on the competitive scene.

Counter-Strike 211 most expensive CS2 skins in 2024: Knives, AK-47, AWP & more in Counter-Strike 2Calum Patterson

Gade on joining BIG: “It means a lot to be playing against top-tier teams again” In his first interview since joining BIG, Nicklas ‘gade’ Gade opens up about the long wait to find a new home following North’s disbandment. “I definitely knew that I wasn’t done with competing,” he says. The Danish player was unveiled by BIG last month, taking Ismailcan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş’ spot in the German team’s starting lineup. The signing caught many by surprise, especially considering that gade had only represented Danish teams and had never publicly spoken about the possibility of one day playing in Germany. What many don’t know is that this was a move three years in the making. The first talks with the German organization happened in 2018, when gade was still representing North Academy. Nothing came of it at the time and he wound up going in a different direction, but the seed was planted. “I had some talks with [BIG manager] Christian Lenz at the time, we discussed a lot of stuff that we had the same thoughts about,” gade tells Dexerto. “I think we just came to the conclusion that this could be a good fit [for everyone] but I chose to go with OpTic. I was not sure what was going to happen with their team, but we clicked really well. “Then, this time around, I talked to tabseN, shot my shot with him, and said that if anything was going to happen in the team, he could reach out. Ever since I had that talk with Christian Lenz it was in the back of my head that one day it could be an opportunity, and I’m just happy that it happened now.” After a seven-month loan with OpTic, gade returned to North to join the organization’s main squad, which often came under scrutiny for poor international performances. In February 2021, the Danish organization ceased all operations, citing the global health crisis’ impact on the esports industry as the reason to pull the plug on the project. gade went on to assemble HYENAS, a motley group of Danish players, all looking for a fresh start. But the team never clicked and ended up disbanding after only a handful of tournament appearances. One of HYENAS’ players, Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye, a Major winner with Astralis in 2017, has since retired from professional CS. These are uncertain times in the Counter-Strike scene for many who, for one reason or another, are not at the very top, but gade says he never feared that he wouldn’t be able to find a new team. “As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait,” he says. “I was just being patient, keeping myself warm. I was still active in the scene, talking to people and just playing a lot of FACEIT. I could just feel not being done with CS, not at all. I definitely knew that I wasn’t done with competing. “I think I also showed pretty good form in the HYENAS project, where I was also managing players and leading, which was a good challenge. “The project was definitely not a waste, I think it was a good thing to do. We also had the chance to join some organizations but it never came to any conclusion.” New challenge In a video posted on Twitter, gade announced his new home in almost fluent German, leaving many dumbfounded. He had studied the language in school for several years, and even though he admits that finding the right words can be challenging at times, he says that communication inside the game “is not a problem.” “Outside of the game, when we’re talking, sometimes I lack a few words, but the other players are really great and speak fluent English,” gade says. “German is a challenge for me, but I’m always down for a challenge. I’m eager to learn. I had some classes during my holiday, and just speaking the language now on a daily basis will help me improve even more.” His desire to learn and improve will be key as BIG prepare for their first challenge of the new season. They have been placed in a tough group in ESL Pro League Season 14 that includes NAVI, mousesports, the new-look fnatic, and Evil Geniuses. The German team will be determined to get the new campaign off to a great start after falling short of expectations during the first seven months of the year, when they won just one title (FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final). By this time last year, they already had three titles to their name and were sitting at the top of the world rankings. In announcing the new player, BIG praised gade’s ability to help in-game leader Johannes ‘tabseN’ Wodarz inside and outside of the game due to his past experience as a shot-caller. Questioned about his role, the Danish player stresses that there are no plans for him to take the mantle from tabseN. “He’s doing a great job with that and I’m going to leave that to him,” gade notes. “I’d like to be the secondary voice in the team and have a lot of impact with mid-round calling, but I’m not trying to change anything. “I’m just trying to come into the team, see how everything works, and then slowly adapt and find my own way of contributing.” Sticking to the grind To some BIG fans, gade represents an underwhelming acquisition. He wasn’t really a standout player for North (1.01 HLTV rating) yet here he is, replacing XANTARES, a player hailed for his mechanical prowess. However, gade is unworried about having big shoes to fill. “For my own sake, I wouldn’t say there is a drop in firepower, but we’ll see how it goes,” he says. “I know XANTARES is a great player, super skilled. You can’t take that away from him. “But I think I have other assets to add to the team.” After the uncertainty that followed North’s disbandment, gade can’t help but seize the moment. He is finding joy again in a stable environment and wants to repay the trust put in him by the organization and the team. “I’m just happy to be back in a team that is contending for titles,” he says. “It means a lot to be playing against top-tier teams, in top-tier tournaments again. I’m taking one match at a time and learning from them. “I want to improve myself and the team. Hopefully, we will bring BIG back to the top five very quickly.”

G2’s NiKo explains FaZe Clan exit: “I just couldn’t take it anymore” Twitter: @G2esportsBosnian CSGO superstar Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač, the newest addition to the G2 Esports team was interviewed by Dexerto and answered questions about his complicated departure from FaZe Clan, his new role within G2, and how his new team will move forward. NiKo is confident that he will not only reach his old levels of individual play but that he can do even better: “I believe that I can do even much better than I did 2 or 3 tears ago”. He explained how his recent experience as IGL has improved his tactical knowledge, saying it will help him in-game. “”The goal is to bring the old NiKo back…””@G2NiKo is gunning for @ZywOo’s #1 spot after leaving @FaZeClan.#BLASTPremier | w/ @GFuelEnergy pic.twitter.com/Y2bTuSupKl — Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 4, 2020 The 23-year old had been acting as the In-Game Leader of FaZe clan on and off since the London FaceIT Major in late 2018. He took the reins from Finn ‘karrigan’ Andersen and oversaw an unstable period of FaZe Clan in which the team failed to perform up to expectations even after several roster changes. Being “free” from the IGL role means that NiKo will be able to focus more on his individual performance as he stated: “I’m just going to be sitting on the side and just do my thing”. “…The goal is to bring that old NiKo back”. The new G2 player also believes that thanks to his experience in the past two years he will be able to help his new IGL Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković. “”We wanted to get ALEX, but the deal didn’t go through…””@G2NiKo reveals the breaking point behind leaving @FaZeClan.#BLASTPremier | w/ @GFuelEnergy pic.twitter.com/GhABxXe7Kg — Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 3, 2020 Opening up about his departure from FaZe Clan, NiKo mentions the team’s struggles at the beginning of the new season in August, in particular at EASL One Cologne and ESL Pro League where he finished 9-12th and 13th-14th respectively. He states how the trash talk on social media and HLTV.org forums had a negative effect on him: “I just couldn’t take it anymore”. More importantly, NiKo mentions the team’s inability to acquire the players they were targeting. Alex ‘ALEX’ McMeekin, previously the IGL for Vitality, was reportedly very close to joining FaZe but the deal quickly collapsed, with FaZe announcing the signing of Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjaerbye shortly afterward. “…We wanted to get ALEX but that deal did not go through…” These factors, combined with his desire to play alongside his cousin Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač prompted him to leave FaZe Clan. “”I just couldn’t take it anymore…””@G2NiKo opens up on his switch to @G2Esports from @FaZeClan.#BLASTPremier | Presented by @GFuelEnergy pic.twitter.com/TASakebZHR — Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 2, 2020 He follows up by saying his decision to leave FaZe for G2 had been made before the team had even started to play at IEM: New York at the beginning of October. FaZe were the eventual winners of the tournament, after a clean sweep of OG in the final series of the tournament. G2, on the other hand, finished in last place alongside Heroic. Immediately after FaZe’s victory at IEM New York, the mother of Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David asked NiKo to “rethink some decisions” – referencing his rumored move to G2. NiKo himself stated he never reconsidered his position after letting the team know: “So the win at IEM NY didn’t really matter too much. “”I want to be the playmaker.””@G2NiKo delves into his new role on @G2Esports.#BLAST Premier | w/ @GFuelEnergy. pic.twitter.com/nyXJa1yhyo — Dexerto (@Dexerto) November 3, 2020 NiKo explicitly states that G2 currently has no intention of fielding a 6-man roster and that they will be looking to see which player out of François “AmaNEk” Delaunay or Audric “JaCkz” Jug better fits their system. “…we want to have a set 5-man roster from the beginning of next year.” G2 Esports have completed their campaign at , topping their group while playing with AmaNEk, who had a stellar tournament displaying significantly improved stats to his previous three months. We have yet to see JaCkz compete in the new line-up. After a truly stellar debut in G2 colors, NiKo and his French-Balkan teammates are getting ready to compete at IEM Beijing-Haidian 2020 Europe. Their first match against young and exciting NiP is almost certain to produce some great and entertaining Counter-Strike.

G2’s m0NESY unfazed by potential clash with s1mple: “Not scared of NAVI” ESLG2 Esports’ rising CS:GO star, Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, has said that he is unconcerned about the possibility of meeting NAVI’s Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev in the semi-finals of IEM Katowice. G2 secured the final spot in the IEM Katowice playoffs after moving past Astralis in Group B’s lower bracket final. They will take on Virtus.pro in the first round of the knockout stages, with the winner going on to face NAVI in the semi-finals. That would put m0NESY up against s1mple for the first time since the 16-year-old left NAVI’s youth setup to join G2 Esports in a reported $600,000 move. Because of his playstyle and the region he hails from, m0NESY has often earned comparisons with s1mple, even among professional players. In a press conference ahead of the playoffs, Virtus.pro captain Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali labeled the G2 youngster the “new s1mple” – a form of validation but at the same time a significant source of pressure. But none of that seems to bother m0NESY. Questioned about the possibility of meeting NAVI in the semi-finals, the Russian wonderkid said that he’s looking forward to testing himself against the defending Major champions – and singled out his former NAVI Academy teammate Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy as the player he wants to face the most. “I’m not scared of playing against strong opponents,” he told reporters. “I always want to learn something. It will be tough, but I’m not scared to face this team [NAVI]. “I want to play against them. I want to play against b1t.” Adapting to a new type of CS M0NESY’s transfer from NAVI’s academy program to G2 Esports, a team with aspirations of winning Major titles, was a considerable step up, but the 16-year-old has managed to hold his own. Read more: Who is m0NESY, G2 CSGO’s new AWP prodigy? – He is averaging a 1.15 HLTV rating in Katowice heading into the playoffs, proving that he has adapted to his new surroundings quickly. “They play CS a bit differently,” he said when asked about the difference in level between academy and top-tier CS. “In tier 3 or tier 4, you just need to kill. You just need to use your skill.”

G2 under fire for promoting CSGO gambling sponsor with pro player m0NESY days after turning 18 G2Esports organization G2 is under fire for promoting a new partnership with a CSGO gambling site, using their star player Illya “m0nesy” Osipov in their announcement video just days after he turned 18. CSGO has had a very long and troubled history with gambling. Due to the nature of its skins, how we can obtain them through cases, and the open marketplace in place to sell them, it has been long mired in gambling scandals. From 2016 to 2017, a number of gambling websites using CS skins as currency were shut down due to various controversies involving content creators not disclosing their ownership stakes while promoting them. Eventually, throughout 2018 to 2019, various EU governments cracked down on CSGO’s gambling problem, claiming Valve had been promoting gambling to underage players. Though the gambling sites which have spawned from it all still remain largely unregulated. Despite all the drama surrounding CSGO gambling, it never stopped teams and tournament organizers from partnering up with gambling sponsors in the field. On May 3, G2 announced its newest sponsored partner, CSGORoll. And to reveal the news, they created a video, featuring their recently turned 18 star player, m0NESY. Not shying away from his age, the org even publicly wished the young gun a happy 18th days prior on their Twitter account. The CSGO community did not react kindly to the nature of this announcement, one involving a young individual only just legally allowed to gamble. OhnePixel, a CS YouTuber who has been long critical of external CS gambling sites, commented, “rare G2 L”. The Twitter account for BitSkins, a skin trading website, commented in response, “Why are you promoting unregulated (skin) gambling to [your] underage fanbase?” They continue, “This is a huge problem in the Counter-Strike/Esports community and the team behind G2 Esports should know better.” CptnKraken, a skins trader, wrote, “This sets a really dangerous precedent in my opinion. I have so many friends and family members who have had their lives destroyed by gambling.” He further added that gambling addiction is a problem and if anybody is struggling with it to reach out. And various commenters pointed out that m0NESY, who is the face of the announcement, had only reached the legal age to gamble just two days prior.

G2 sign CSGO prodigy m0NESY from NAVI G2/YouTube: NAVI JuniorG2 Esports have reached an agreement to sign 16-year-old AWPer Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov from NAVI, where he played for their academy team, the org announced on January 3, 2022. Following a report from Dexerto’s own Luís Mira in November that revealed Russian org NAVI were open to offers for their prodigy m0NESY, the AWPer has now officially closed in on his new home. Despite achieving second place at the recent PGL Major in Stockholm, it’s clear G2 aren’t happy with the result and are aiming to knock NAVI off of the top spot. M0NESY is now officially a member of the Berlin-based org, with G2 CEO Carlos ‘ocelote’ Rodríguez announcing the signing via a tweet. https://twitter.com/CarlosR/status/1478036733161787393 G2 are in a transitional period with their team. Long-time coach Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel departed the squad in November with Jan ‘Swani’ Müller filling in on a temporary basis, and it’s rumored that they’re also interested in OG’s Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen. A report from 1pv on December 10 states that the agreement between G2 and NAVI saw approximately $600,000 exchange hands, with clauses and bonuses bolstering the price tag. It’s not yet known who m0NESY has replaced on the G2 roster, though the most likely candidates are either François ‘AmaNEk’ Delaunay or Audric ‘JaCKz’ Jug. The Russian player is averaging a 1.36 HLTV rating and 1.42 Impact in 2021, and helping NAVI Junior to a second-place result at the WePlay Academy League Season 2 Finals only increased the demand for him among the top tier of the esport. His stock only rised further after he helped NAVI Junior to a runner-up finish at the WePlay Academy League Season 2 Finals, which were held on LAN.

G2 Reportedly Sets Staggering Buyout Price for Benched CS:GO Stars DreamHack / Adela SznajderNew reports have surfaced claiming that G2 Esports has set a staggering buyout price of around $800,000 each for Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt and Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire. NBK- and apEX were benched by G2 Esports in June of 2018 after an unsuccessful stint with NBK- as the French team’s in-game leader. As a result of the disappointing results, G2 decided to bring Richard ‘shox’ Papillon back to the team and allow him to assemble his proposed team with Kevin ‘Ex6TenZ’ Droolans and Edouard ‘SmithZz’ Dubourdeaux. Rumors about where NBK- or apEX would play next soon started to circulate, with NBK- being heavily linked with a potential move to Cloud9 and reportedly even playing with them on a trial basis. Read More: Former SK Gaming CS:GO Roster Officially Move to ‘Made in Brazil’ (MiBR), Partner with Tinder and Betway – However, those talks seem to have stalled and Cloud9 is now supposedly looking at using Óscar ‘mixwell’ Cañellas as a stand-in for ESL One: Cologne and ELEAGUE Premier 2018. Rumors about NBK- heading to Cloud9 seem to have gone quiet. If a recent report from flickshot.fr is to be believed, the reason for neither of the French players having a new home yet may well be due to a staggering $800,000 price tag per player that G2 has supposedly set for buyouts. “according to our information, the buyouts in the G2 Esports contracts would amount to $800,000 per player. This amount would have been a deal breaker in certain opportunities for the two french players and it seems that they should not move unless a large organization buys them out.” This information seems to suggest that G2 is hoping is not as certain about the current lineup of shox, Ex6TenZ, Smithzz, Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub, and Alexandre ‘bodyy’ Pianaro as some might believe. If the organization can keep hold of NBK- and apEX, it will have the opportunity to backtrack yet again if shox’s new roster is not as successful as they originally hoped. With the reported $800,000 price tag, G2 Esports will either make a great deal of cash from selling one, or both, players, or be able to hold onto them until a final decision is made about the direction of the roster.

G2 quietly removes skin gambling company CSGORoll from list of partners G2 EsportsG2 Esports appears to be distancing itself from CSGORoll just three months after announcing a controversial partnership with the skins gambling website. The Berlin-based esports organization partnered with CSGORoll on May 2, announcing the deal through a promotional video featuring their CS:GO star Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov in a casino setting. The announcement was met with intense criticism in the CS:GO community, not only because CSGORoll has been accused of offering unregulated gambling of CS:GO skins (it has been banned in Australia for breaching the country’s gambling laws), but also because m0NESY had turned 18 the day before the announcement video was released. Moreover, G2 came under fire for the wording of their announcement. The organization stated that “skins = wins” and labeled CSGORoll “a CS:GO Skins trading market”, when, in reality, it is a skins casino website offering a wide variety of games, from Plinko to dice rolls. Three months into the partnership, G2 seems to have been quietly erasing evidence of its ties to CSGORoll. The gambling website is no longer listed as a partner by G2, and its logo has been removed from the banners on the players’ social media pages. G2 has also taken down announcements of the partnership from its website and Twitter. The controversial promotional video has been made private on YouTube. Meanwhile, CSGORoll’s logo was blurred out in the latest VLOG posted by G2 on YouTube. The video, recorded during IEM Cologne (when CSGORoll’s logo was still visible on the players’ jerseys), was the first in which the description text does not mention the gambling company as a partner. Despite all this, CSGORoll’s website continues to display a banner showing that it is an “official partner” of G2 Esports. G2 Esports did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

CSGO: G2 and North eliminated in upsets by ATK at ESL Pro League finals Both North and G2 Esports found themselves on the brink of elimination at the ESL Pro League Finals, sitting in the lower bracket of their group stage. Surprisingly, both top-tier teams were sent packing by a surprising opponent in ATK. But who is ATK? In esports, teams sometimes only need one tournament to make a strong case for why they should be in the upper echelon. For North and G2, their aspirations of proving to the world that they should be championship contenders right now fell flat, at the hands of a relatively unknown roster trying to leave their own impression. Both ATK and North found themselves in the lower bracket of their group early, following losses to mousesports and Team Liquid respectively. But ATK would earn another shot at mousesports by first dispatching North in only two maps. Ian ‘motm’ Hardy, Aran ‘Sonic’ Groesbeek, and Ricky ‘floppy’ Kemery all played extremely well against the Danes, and limited the performances of North star Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye and the returning René ‘cajunb’ Borg. For ATK, they faced adversity right after their success; getting blasted by G2 in game one on Vertigo, losing 16-4 as they couldn’t stop the G2 T-side and couldn’t even get a bomb plant down in the second half. They found themselves trailing on Train as well, but on the brink of elimination, rallied from a 12-5 deficit with a magnificent T-side half, taking 11 of the final 12 rounds to steal Train away 16-13. With that momentum, they blew away G2 on Inferno in a reverse of the first map, with ATK dominating on both sides, and the same trio stepping up against G2 as they did against North. Who is ATK? Of the original former Denial roster, only Sonic and Johnny ‘JT’ Theodosiou remain, and Sonic only recently re-joined in September after leaving for Envy in June. ATK has since supplemented the South African duo with a trio of promising American talent in motm, floppy, and Joshua ‘oSee’ Ohm. They came excruciatingly close to qualifying for the ECS Season 8 finals in just their first couple of months together. They won one of the ECS North American series, but unfortunately not the one that rewarded an automatic Finals spot. During that ECS run, they impressed with a win over MIBR and an incredibly close series against Team Liquid. No matter how ATK does in their rematch against mousesports, they’ve already guaranteed their largest cash prize at a single event ever, and can guarantee a spot at WESG in China if they win just one best-of-three against Canadian team LiViD Gaming on December 7. The players are excited about the outlook of the team. BEAT @G2esports 2-1 IN EPL FINALS. GG PROUD OF THE PROGRESS AND FORTITUDE THE TEAM HAS BEEN SHOWING — iaN MOTM (@6motm) December 5, 2019 For North, they’ll try to end 2019 with some momentum as they aim to qualify for WESG themselves and compete at DreamHack Open Sevilla. It’s been a string of poor results for them since the Berlin major. G2 are still adjusting to their new additions from CR4ZY, and will meet a familiar face at cs_summit 5 when they see Nathan ‘NBK-’ Schmitt and the new OG roster.

G2 Nexa explains decision to bench kennyS: “It was something he needed” BLAST / StarLadderG2 Esports captain Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković explained how the decision to bench CSGO legend Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub was good for both parties, and why he believes the French AWPer will “come back stronger than ever” soon. Nexa and his G2 men will soon face the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown 2021 gauntlet in hopes to make it to the main stage in June. With the likes of Team Liquid and Astralis on their side of the bracket, it would seem like the wrong time to off-load proven talent. G2 shocked fans when they benched the AWP legend from their CSGO lineup. But Nexa described to Dexerto how this move was “best for both the team and for Kenny” as they’re likely heading their separate ways. KennyS needed a ‘mental reset’ Nexa and kennyS became good friends since the Serbian enlisted in the G2 Army back in 2019. It was a hard decision to move Kenny out of the team, but something that Nexa said was needed. “We’ve been good friends and have been playing together for over a year,” Nexa explained. “But I think this decision, it had to come it was something he needed as well, time off, time for himself to reset his mind.” Kenny was always known as an incredibly aggressive, creative AWPer. But the 2020 campaign started to show signs of wear for the Frenchman and bad results were piling for the team. Since G2 still hadn’t figured out how they wanted to play with superstar Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač and with big events on the horizon, a change had to be made. That’s when they reintroduced Audric ‘JaCkz’ Jug into the active lineup at the expense of Kenny’s starting role. It was a disheartening sign to see a longtime fixture of CS relegated to the bench. But this was something that Nexa believes was a necessary step, not only for G2, but for Kenny’s outlook. “I’m sure [kennyS will] come back stronger than ever after this,” Nexa told Dexerto. “I’m not just saying that, I know he really needed a mental reset. I also think our team needed something fresh as well to refresh ourselves.” What’s next for kennyS and G2? Nexa fully expects Kenny to return to form. While he thinks Kenny’s buyout might be a bit too high for a lot of teams at the moment, he sees the 25-year-old being a strong addition for one of the new player-led lineups that have been forming in CSGO. As for G2, they’re hoping they can get back to their winning ways, starting with the BLAST Premier: Spring Showdown. “I think maybe we’ve found the winning combination,” Nexa said, excited that G2 may have “solved the puzzle” for how to make the talent on the team shine. “I think we’re going to stick with what we have for quite some time.” G2 Esports starts their BLAST Showdown campaign against Endpoint on April 13. If they win, they’ll await the winner of Astralis vs OG Esports on April 16. Dexerto’s Matt Porter contributed to this report.

G2 kennyS explains why he “doesn’t like” CSGO’s latest AWP update ESLG2 Esports star Kenny ‘kennyS’ Schrub has revealed his thoughts on the latest CSGO AWP updates which arrived in the FPS title’s February 24 patch, and the French marksman is less than pleased with Valve’s tweaks. Counter-Strike’s hefty February 24 patch may have been mainly focused on a UI refresh for the title, well as a series of agent skins patches for players wanting to spice up their characters, but hiding in the miscellaneous changes was a big tweak. Far from the headlines of the 600mb update lay a seemingly small swap to AWP crouching acceleration. While the change — which sees acceleration no longer spike after firing a shot — doesn’t seem big, it may have far-reaching effects. According to the long-standing G2 Esports star, who is renowned for being one of the FPS title’s most eagle-eyed AWPers, the tweak is going to have a big impact on anyone wielding the must-have Magnum Sniper Rifle in-game. In particular, many pro stars won’t be rushing in while armed with the $4,750 weapon option, but will spend most rounds creeping around — often crouched. Slowing down that option may change the way AWPers play, kennyS said. Read more: Gen.G stun FURIA to win DreamHack Anaheim – “After trying that new update [on Feb 24] I don’t like it. Here is my feedback: Valve just want to make it slower all the time, the crouching movement was a pretty usual thing to do for an AWPer, definitely a big change,” he said on Twitter. After trying that new update, I don’t like it. Here was my feedback 😂 Tbh they just want to make it slower all the time, crouching movement was a pretty usual thing to do for an AWPer, definitely a big change — kennyS (@kennyS_) February 25, 2020 kennyS also agreed with the suggestion it feels “extremely weird” balancing the stop-start movement of the AWPer after the patch, and joked that wielding the game’s heavy machine gun option the Negev is “much faster.” The Frenchman also joked the next step was for Valve to “remove the scope,” after another of his fans said they believe the Counter-Strike devs are constantly trying to nerf the sniper rifle after watching kennyS’ highlight reels from his time on Titan. Whether or not it’s a targeted ban — it’s unlikely CSGO’s balance team is still trying to mitigate Schrub’s impact from when he was popping off five years ago — it is still a strange change for AWPers across the game, and may take some getting used to. kennyS did get one last chance to see out the old AWP crouch movement in style as G2 Esports ran over 100 Thieves 16-3, 16-2 to book a second-round battle with mousesports and bump the Australian roster into a lower-bracket scrap. The Frenchman clocked up a game-high 17 AWP kills across the two-map series, and added 29 eliminations to the pile overall. It was Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovač who shone brightest in the opener though, piling the hurt on 100T with 41 kills. The European squad’s marksman wasn’t without his own personal highlights either, however, and he reminded the world why he’s considering so deadly with the AWP as he nailed three struggling 100T members on Mirage. G2 Esports next take on European rivals mousesports on Wednesday evening, before potentially stepping into a heavyweight battle with the winner of Team Liquid vs Evil Geniuses, to be played just hours later. Read the full CSGO Feb 24 Patch here, and keep track of all the ongoing action at the IEM World Championship in Katowice with Dexerto’s dedicated coverage hub, which includes everything from streams, to highlights, and more.

G2 HooXi responds to IEM Katowice controversy over Ukraine flag Helena Kristiansson/ESLG2 Esports captain Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen has provided an explanation for his team’s refusal to take a picture with a fan holding up a Ukrainian flag at IEM Katowice. G2’s CS:GO team became the target of criticism on social media on February 13 after it was revealed that the players had refused to take a picture next to a Ukrainian flag that had been brought by Denys ‘d3str0’ Zabarnyi, a Ukrainian CS:GO and Valorant caster, during a signing session with fans. The incident came just two months after G2’s team made headlines for taking a picture with a fan holding up a Russian flag during the BLAST Premier World Final, in Abu Dhabi. The episode drew harsh criticism, including from NAVI star Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev, who said he did not understand why the team had allowed the photo to be taken. This prompted a reaction from Julius Ylänne, G2’s Head of Esports, who explained that the photo was taken before the players realized that the fan was holding up a Russian flag. He insisted that it did not mean the players supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. G2 HooXi responds to controversy In a Twitlonger post, HooXi shared his side of the Katowice story and explained that the team refused to take a picture next to a Ukrainian flag because of the lessons learned from the earlier incident in Abu Dhabi. “This time being at a signing session and having learned from the first episode, we were a bit more aware and I took the decision to not take any chances with flags or any other kind of symbols that could indicate a political opinion,” HooXi said. “I politely told him the situation and told him he could get a picture without the flag if he so desired. “We had a lot of people waiting in line so I helped him by placing the flag on a desk right next to us while taking the photo. I didn’t think much of it and I still don’t think anyone did anything wrong in the situation. Now posting it after in the fashion it was done, trying to put me and my teammates in a bad light once again is a different story.” HooXi also urged the esports community to “stop going after” Russians and Ukrainians who are seen taking pictures together at events. This came after his teammate Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, who is Russian, took a picture next to Valeriy ‘b1t’ Vakhovskiy, a Ukrainian player for NAVI. m0NESY and b1t played together on NAVI Academy and became close friends, but that did not stop the Ukrainian player from becoming the target of much ire on social media. “They have nothing to do with what’s going on and if anything I think it shows faith in humanity that we can see beyond that as normal human beings and still have a good relationship,” HooXi said. G2’s CS:GO team recently reached the No.1 spot in the world rankings after winning IEM Katowice — their second international title in the space of two months. Later this week, the team will compete in the closed qualifier for the Europe RMR, the qualifying event for the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

G2 Esports sign two new players to their CS:GO team Spanish professional esports organization G2 Esports have signed two new players to their CounterStrike: Global Offensive team. French players Audric ‘JaCkz’ Jug and Lucas ‘Lucky’ Chastang have officially joined the roster on November 26, keeping intact the all-French squad that also features longtime G2 players Richard ‘shox’ Papillon, Alexandre ‘bodyy’ Pianaro, and Kenny ‘KennyS’ Shrub. The two new players come in as replacements for ‘SmithZz’ and ‘Ex6TenZ,’ both of whom were placed on the inactive list as they presumably look to move elsewhere. Lead by our King @G2shox, our Ace @G2kennyS & the veteran number @G2bodyy, we will fight for the CS:GO throne! Today, the #Reshuffle begins. Welcome to the #G2ARMY @LuckyCSGO_ & @JACKZ_CSGO! pic.twitter.com/94CUol2vke — G2 Esports (@G2esports) November 26, 2018 Lucky and JaCkz both join after having been members of the same team 3DMax, with whom they placed first at the ESEA Season 28: Premier Division – Europe minor tournament. The pair has 13 first place finishes between them, including JaCkz’s victory with Team EnVyus at the Gfinity Elite Series UK – Season 2 Major in December 2017. Read More: Tarik opens up about recent struggles following MiBR’s heartbreaking ECS loss to Astralis – G2 will hope that the arrival of these two teammates will rejuvenate a squad that hasn’t featured in a competition since placing 5-6th at the Finals of the Esports Championship Series Season 5 back in early June. As far as roster moves go, G2 have not made many in the past two years. In fact, they had only made two moves since February of 2017, which was to sign SmithZz and E6TenZ in June after ‘NBK-‘ and ‘apEX’ were placed on the inactive list. In addition to the player reshuffle, the org made one more move on November 26, assigning Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel as coach of the active squad while former coach ‘NiaK’ stepped down from the position earlier in the day.

G2 sign jks and HooXi to CSGO team G2 EsportsG2 Esports have confirmed the additions of Justin ‘jks’ Savage and Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen to their CS:GO team, as reported by Dexerto last month. The pair will fill the slots left vacated by Audric ‘JACKZ’ Jug’s departure to HEET and Aleksi ‘Aleksib’ Virolainen’s benching following a disappointing season that did not yield any trophies. jks joins G2 after spending the last eight months on Complexity’s bench after the Texas-based organization pulled the plug on the ‘Juggernaut’ project before eventually signing a North American lineup. In March, jks played for FaZe as a stand-in and helped the team to win the trophy following a 3-0 sweep of G2 in the final. In doing so, jks, who filled in for two different players in the tournament, became the first Australian to win a tier-one CS:GO competition. HooXi was part of the Copenhagen Flames roster that attended the recent Majors in Stockholm and Antwerp and that at one point was inside the top 10 in the world rankings. He was the last player from that team to find a new home in the off-season: Jakob ‘jabbi’ Nygaard moved to Heroic, Nico ‘nicoodoz’ Tamjidi and Fredrik ‘roeJ’ Jørgensen joined Fnatic, and Rasmus ‘Zyphon’ Nordfoss signed with Sprout. The Danish player, who takes over as in-game leader, was linked with a move to Evil Geniuses earlier in the summer before the organization signed Sanzhar ‘neaLaN’ Iskhakov from K23. Critics of HooXi’s signing have pointed to his individual struggles and lack of international experience as concerns. The 27-year-old averages a worrying 0.84 HLTV rating against top-10 opposition on LAN (Aleksib, by comparison, averages a 0.93 rating) and has only attended three tournaments classified as ‘Big Events’ — the two PGL Majors and IEM Katowice 2022. The new G2 lineup will be put to the test in just a few days as it will compete in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups. The team has been placed in Group B alongside NAVI, Complexity and Team Liquid. G2 CS:GO roster: Nemanja ‘huNter-‘ Kovač – Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač – Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov – Justin ‘jks’ Savage – Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen – Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam (coach) –

G2 Esports drops CSGO legend kennyS BLASTG2 Esports and CSGO legend Kenny ’kennyS’ Schrub will part ways as the org makes bigger changes within its roster to facilitate star player Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač. KennyS ends his four-year tenure with G2 Esports CSGO. – NiKo will move to a hybrid rifler/AWP, JACKZ rejoins the team. – KennyS to sign with a new team soon. – G2 Esports drops kennyS G2 Esports have decided to move on from veteran AWPer kennyS, who is now expected to sign with a new team shortly after getting dropped from his longtime org. “We feel that, though difficult, a new home for him will be a great opportunity to remain at the top,” G2 coach Damien ‘maLeK’ Marcel said. “Although bittersweet, we are confident these changes will bring back some great CS by G2 to the server.” A few months after signing former FaZe Clan superstar NiKo, the club is digging into its bench to reinstitute Audric ‘JACKZ’ Jug into the starting five. What’s next for kennyS? The 9-year CS pro expressed his appreciation to the G2 fans who supported him, while saying that his next signing will soon be announced. I loved the day, thanks for being there ! More to come soon… For those are waiting for signing it’ll come today or tomorrow! 🤎 — kennyS (@kennyS_) March 4, 2021 “I loved the day, thanks for being there ! More to come soon… For those are waiting for signing it’ll come today or tomorrow!” he said. What’s next for G2 Esports? The roster will still be working with a strong sense of synergy since they’re promoting JACKZ to a familiar role before he was benched for NiKo. There’s been a heavy reliance on the Bosnian pro since he came onto the team. Still, there’s room to improve as the team has struggled to secure top finishes for months. Read more: Top 10 moments from IEM Katowice 2021 – G2 Esports are set to play in Group B at the ESL Pro League Season 13 on March 13. Shortly after, they’ll play in the BLAST Premier Showdown on April 13, which will be their last chance to qualify for the $425,000 Spring Finals.

G2 CSGO continues shakeup after IEM Rio Major failure João Ferreira/DexertoG2 Esports have announced further changes to their CS:GO backroom staff following the team’s failure to qualify for the IEM Rio Major. The winds of change continue to blow at G2 Esports. While the CS:GO scene’s attention is turned to the action in Rio de Janeiro, G2, just 12 months removed from a grand final run at PGL Major Stockholm, must reflect on what has gone wrong and what needs to be done now. It is difficult to play down the severity of the situation. IEM Rio is the first CS:GO Major that G2 miss since 2015. They are still nowhere near the dominant side many expected them to be when they landed Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, one of the biggest talents in the CS:GO scene, and questions remain about the direction in which they’re heading after the surprise addition of Rasmus ‘HooXi’ Nielsen (a player criticized for his lack of firepower) as in-game leader. For now, G2’s lineup remains unchanged, but there has been a series of staff changes, starting with the departure of head coach Rémy ‘XTQZZZ’ Quoniam. In a live stream, XTQZZZ, who had joined G2 at the beginning of the year, shared his frustration with his tenure and admitted that he was not able to imprint his philosophy on the squad. On November 1, G2 waved goodbye to longtime team manager Jérôme ‘NiaK’ Sudries, who had been with the organization since 2016. At the same time, they have announced that European Esports Manager Petar ‘peca’ Marković will transition to CS:GO General Manager, a new (and presumably more prominent than just manager) role within the team’s structure. peca, who joined G2 Esports after leaving FunPlus Phoenix, has a close relationship with Nemanja ‘huNter-’ Kovač. The pair worked together between 2017 and 2019 on several teams, including Valiance and CR4ZY, with peca managing the squad. G2 will have one more event before the end of the year (potentially two, if they manage to qualify for the BLAST Premier World Final). Next month, they will travel to Copenhagen for the BLAST Premier Fall Final, a tournament that could determine whether the changes will extend beyond the coaching staff for 2023. Analyst Jan ‘Swani’ Müller, who has taken over as interim coach, is expected to attend the event with the team.

CSGO: G2 confirm shox replacement amid Vitality rumors ESLG2 Esports have confirmed that Counter-Strike: Global Offensive veteran Richard ‘shox’ Papillon is benched and have announced that Fabien ‘kioShiMa’ Fiey is his temporary replacement. The CSGO post-Major shuffle is well underway and players have been linked with moves all over. Some of the biggest potential moves come from the French scene, where the top two teams are shaking things up. G2 have reportedly benched shox and Lucky, while Vitality are exploring replacements for NBK. Numerous reports have been flying back and forth on the matter, however, things seem to have finally settled. On September 17, G2 announced that kioShiMa is standing in for shox for the IEM Beijing qualifier and ESL One New York, with rumors suggesting that the latter is on his way to Team Vitality. This move was somewhat expected, as fans spotted Fabien practicing with the French team on September 16, with French Counter-Strike insider neL confirming that this was the case and even correctly predicting that he would only stay for two events. NeL also commented that Fabien is likely to be replaced if G2 are able to sign Nemanja ‘huNter’ Kovač and Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković – a transfer that has also been reported about shortly after the StarLadder Major. KioShiMa is a CSGO veteran much like shox, having played for top teams like FaZe Clan and Envy. He has been looking for a way back to the competitive scene since his departure from Cloud9 in early 2019, and is finally returning thanks to the post-Major shuffle. There’s the rumor about kio playing with G2 until they sign hunter and nexa turning around the french scene for a week kinda. Sounds like it’s happening as they play with him on pracc instead of shox. So he will probably play with them tomorrow and maybe at ESL NY. — neL (@neLendirekt) September 16, 2019 The new G2 roster will be playing just a few hours after G2’s announcement in the IEM Beijing qualifier, giving fans a a chance to see kioShiMa in action. They have not confirmed any other roster moves, meaning fans will likely have to wait until ESL One New York to hear more, which runs from September 26-29.

G2 and FaZe CSGO in talks over NiKo buyout: Report ESLG2 and FaZe Clan have reportedly opened talks over a blockbuster deal for CS:GO superstar Niko ‘NiKo’ Kovac, with it potentially being finalized in the “coming weeks.” After briefly scaling the CS:GO world rankings and achieving the coveted #1 spot for the first time in years, G2 have been looking to get back on top and assert themselves as the best around. Though they are currently in the Top 10, their results have been faltering with a string of recent losses to AGO, BIG, Ence, and Heroic in ESL Pro League. While some teams might consider a small tweak to get themselves out of a rut, it appears as if G2 are pushing all their chips to the middle of the table and going all-in on a chase FaZe Clan’s NiKo. According to a report from French CSGO insider NeLdirket and HLTV, G2 and FaZe have opened talks about a move that would see NiKo join his cousin Nemanja ’huNter-’ Kovač on G2’s roster. Signing NiKo, who has been with FaZe since joining from Mousesports back in 2017, would undoubtedly require a huge transfer fee – most likely, the biggest in Counter-Strike history to date. Both sources note that if the deal does indeed go through, it would likely be François ‘AmaNEk’ Delaunay on chopping block for G2, meaning that KennyS, Jackz, Nexa, and huNter- would all retain their spots. While the deal is seemingly not imminent, it could “be finalized in the coming weeks” according to the report, once both teams have made their way through a grueling slog of fixtures in Pro League, IEM New York 2020 Europe, and DreamHack Open Fall 2020. There’s no telling what the deal would mean for FaZe’s roster, given that they recently acquired Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjaerbye and allowed Aurimas ‘Bymas’ Pipiras to depart for Mousesports. If the deal goes through, both teams rosters would look like: G2 NiKo – KennyS – huNter- – Nexa – Jackz – Amanek (Bench) – FaZe Coldzera – Rain – Kjaerbye – Broky –

G2 and Astralis to miss IEM Rio CSGO Major after RMR upsets João Ferreira for DexertoG2 Esports and Astralis will both miss the Rio CSGO Major after upsets against GamersLegion and forZe respectfully. This is both teams’ first time missing a Major in over five years. In the RMR Road to Rio 2022 Europe tournament, both Astralis and G2 Esports lost in their respective lower matches and have been knocked out of Major qualification on October 7. G2 lost their matches against Cloud9 and then 1win before losing their first series against GamersLegion which knocked them out of CSGO Major qualification. Astralis were defeated by Ninjas in Pyjamas and Bad New Eagles during the best-of-one portion of the event before their series loss to the Russian team. Both organizations are staples at CSGO Majors with G2 Esports qualifying for every Major since 2015, a streak of 11 events. This will be Astralis’ first time missing a CSGO Major since its inception in 2016. The Danish organization is the winningest Major team in the esport, claiming four titles in the past six years. G2 and Astralis will not be at IEM Rio CSGO Major G2 Esports’ last Major appearance was at the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 where they placed in the top 11. The team has enjoyed decent showings this year, with a second-place finish at IEM Katowice as their highest placing of the year so far. Astralis have not had the best year in comparison. At the Antwerp Major, the Danish team placed in the top 20. Their best showing this year was at IEM Cologne where they placed in the top four after a 2-0 loss to NAVI. The organization saw some reshuffling to start the year with a few roster moves as well. The RMR Road to Rio is still ongoing as FaZe Clan, NIP and Sprout have already qualified for the Legends Stage. There are only three spots left for teams in the qualifier to make the CSGO Major.

G2’s AmaNEk gets CSGO revenge ace after strange molotov death After dying to a weird molotov that shouldn’t have killed him in the first place, G2 Esports’ François ‘AmaNEk’ Delaunay took his frustrations out on his opponents in BIG with a monster CSGO ace during their ESL Pro League match. When life gets you down, you pick yourself back up. And when life burns you, you take it out on an unsuspecting German Counter-Strike team. In their final series of round two of Group A play in the European division of ESL Pro League, G2 Esports faced off against BIG. G2 needed a win to take control of their own destiny, and ensure a spot in the ESL Pro League finals. They opened play on Inferno, and eleven rounds in, AmaNEk was defending the B bombsite by coffins, when a molotov forced him to jump on top of the coffins themselves. But despite being clearly out of the flames, he died anyway. As caster HarryG remarked, it “was kinda BS.” Molotovs have been the focus of weird bugs and glitches in CSGO for some time, as their damage will extend further past the flames with a disjointed hitbox, and have also resisted the extinguishing effects of smoke grenades. Perturbed by the unfair incineration, and seeing his team start to fall behind even more, AmaNEk shook off the strangeness of his death by fire, and responded with a monster ace just a couple rounds later. Fire can’t kill you if you’re already on fire. The G2 rifler displayed patience and pure flick ability as he shut down the BIG push through CT spawn into the B site. What’s more impressive is that he got kills with the AK-74, the M4, and the AWP all in the same round. While the whiff from BIG’s tabseN definitely aided the ace, the play from the young Frenchman was incredible nonetheless. And this time, he was able to clutch without accidentally alt-tabbing out of his game. That ace was the spark that G2 needed that map. They would win seven straight rounds afterwards, to go from trailing by four rounds to leading by four. The French side then held off the BIG comeback to take the first map of the series. AmaNEk led in kills to go along with his ace. G2 Esports are still very much in the early stages of a transition period, having just acquired Nemanja ‘nexa’ Isaković and Nemanja ‘hunter-’ Kovač from CR4ZY less than two months ago. The new look roster will look to improve as 2019 ends and 2020 begins, as they build momentum toward the 2020 Valve spring CSGO major. They will return to the New Challengers Stage as a result of their 9-11th place finish at the StarLadder Berlin Major earlier this year.

FURIA’s arT responds to m0E’s criticism following ECS Season 7 CS:GO Finals ESPAT / ESLFURIA in-game leader Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan has responded to criticism aimed at him by former CS:GO pro m0E following his team’s second place finish at the ECS Season 7 Finals. Brazillian team FURIA surprised many when they managed to beat Danish powerhouses Astralis twice at ECS Season 7 Finals, before knocking out North on their way to a showdown against Team Vitality in the grand finals. Following FURIA’s loss to Vitality, m0E called out arT for what he felt was an easily-countered playstyle, stating that the way he plays cost his team the match. In a now-deleted tweet, the former CS:GO pro player wrote that he felt “Art [had] consistently lost them rounds by doing exactly what Vitality [expected].” The Brazilian didn’t agree with m0E’s evaluation of his playstyle, though, responding that even though he dies a lot in matches, his deaths serve a purpose and he has no intention of altering his behaviour if his team is still beating other top squads. “I create space and opportunity so my team has a better chance of winning the round,” wrote arT. “It’s only noticeable when it goes wrong, I don’t blame you for that, but as long as we are beating Tier 1 teams with this mentality, I’ll be dying somewhere.” I create space and opportunity as much as I can so my team has a better chance of winning the round. It’s only noticeable when it goes wrong, I don’t blame you for that. But as long we are beating Tier 1 teams with this mentality, I’ll be dying somewhere. Peace m0e :punch::skin-tone-2: — Andrei Piovezan (@arTpiovezan) June 9, 2019 M0E admits that it is sometimes hard to tell from the outside looking in, but felt that arT needs to make adjustments, especially when it’s going wrong “round after round.” He did later conceded that he was wrong in his original assessment that the Brazilian cost his team the match though, and wished him the best of luck in the future. I respect your thought process, but when it’s going wrong round after round with no adjustment on your part it hurts the team more than the benefit of possibly getting the first kill. I understand that I’m from the outside looking in and it shows more. — mOE (@m0E_tv) June 9, 2019 Deleted my tweet i was wrong bout ART. wish him and his team luck in the future hopefully they stay on the right path — mOE (@m0E_tv) June 9, 2019 FURIA’s impressive run at the ECS Season 7 Finals came to an end when they squared off against French squad Vitality, who swept the Brazilians in a best-of-three to secure the trophy, and the $225,000 grand prize. FURIA will return to compete in Europe in July, when they compete at ESL One: Cologne 2019.

FURIA CS:GO’s former contracts “among the worst I’ve ever seen” says lawyer A leading esports lawyer has told Dexerto that FURIA Esports’ CS:GO team had one of the worst contracts he had ever seen before they signed new five-year deals with the organization. CS:GO players Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos, Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan, Vinicius ‘VINI’ Figueiredo, Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato, and Rinaldo ‘ableJ’ Moda Júnior recently put pen to paper on a fresh five-year contract after being with the FURIA Esports for over a year. FURIA Esports co-owner André Akkari said that it meant better commercials, sponsorships, and merchandise deals for the team. However, following the new contract announcement, Dexerto were sent excerpts from their old contracts (which we’ve been assured by sources are legitimate), and when we sent them to esports lawyer Ryan Fairchild, he said: “It’s a very poor contract. If their new agreement looks like this, I would feel terrible for them.” The old contract lists a monthly salary of $1,400 USD, which is small when compared to the $200,000 transfer fee according to Fairchild. “Buyouts are harder to opine on as they can incorporate factors beyond salary, but a $200,000 buyout compared to $1,400 in monthly compensation, to me, is ridiculous and oppressive,” he said. He also explained how it may have come to be that the players signed for five years and expressed his concern for a team who were willing to agree to the previous contract in the first place. “What I’d like to know is if there was a right of first refusal in the contract, something that allowed FURIA to match offers from other teams, but only perhaps as to salary. The terms of that right of first refusal might shed light on how FURIA was able to lock these players in to a five-year agreement. “I’m really worried about players frankly without knowing more.” However, while Fairchild was concerned about the previous contract, André Akkari has explained some of what he sees as the benefits of the new five-year contracts, a length of employment that is unheard of in CS:GO. “Huge buyouts – it’s not happening,” he wrote. “The buyouts are the same as the old contract, just proportionally adjusted with the bigger salaries and benefits. “Bench – we decided to protect it. If a player goes to a bench we are cutting a huge part of the buyout.” Akkari finished by saying that the players didn’t have to sign such a lengthy contract if they didn’t want to “The five years, of course, was not mandatory, we discussed it all together. Could be three years or two, but we – players and orgs – felt that we could lose some opportunities that are coming with a longer contract, nothing more than that.” Dexerto has reached out to FURIA for a comment and will update this story with their response.

FURIA confirm signing of Brazilian CSGO icon FalleN FURIAFURIA have announced that they have completed the signing of two-time CS:GO Major champion Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo. The 32-year-old leaves Imperial for an undisclosed fee after FURIA beat paiN Gaming to the veteran’s signing. FalleN is joined in this new challenge by Marcelo ‘chelo’ Cespedes, who left Imperial after one year with the team. The announcement finally brings together FalleN, the most famous CS:GO player from Brazil, and the country’s two greatest stars, Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato and Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos. It is a union that many thought would never happen despite years of mutual interest. While playing under MIBR, FalleN tried to get KSCERATO and yuurih to join the team, but neither move materialized because of FURIA’s valuation of the players. “FalleN’s arrival represents a moment of unity for Brazilian esports,” FURIA co-founder and co-CEO André Akkari said in a statement. “It is a milestone for the community, which longed for a team that represented the best Brazil has to offer to return to the top of the world in CS. “Differences and obstacles were overcome, and the Brazilian esports community can celebrate this moment.” FalleN signs with FURIA With this announcement, FalleN is expected to put off retirement for the time being. Exactly a year ago, he said that he was planning to hang up his mouse and keyboard by the end of 2023. The Brazilian veteran, who won the MLG Columbus and ESL One Cologne Majors in 2016, will give FURIA a significant and much-needed injection of experience. The team cut a frustrated figure during the first tournament season, their season hitting its lowest point when they crashed out of the BLAST.tv Paris Major in the Legends Stage without a single victory. Just weeks after a 9th-12th place finish at IEM Dallas, FURIA removed Rafael ‘saffee’ Costa and André ‘drop’ Abreu from the starting lineup. Both players have since signed with MIBR. FURIA’s new team will make its first official appearance at IEM Cologne, which will kick off on July 26. In August, the team will also attend Gamers8’s $1 million CS:GO tournament. FURIA’s new CS:GO team: Andrei ‘arT’ Piovezan – Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato – Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos – Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo – Marcelo ‘chelo’ Cespedes –

FURIA’s guerri responds to cheating claims with CSGO coach exploit StarLadderFURIA coach Nicholas ‘guerri’ Nogueira is the latest person implicated in the CS:GO cheating scandal, with the Brazilian said to have abused a camera exploit during a ECS Season 7 match against Complexity in June 2019. He has now responded. FURIA, currently ranked sixth in the world, are now in hot water after their coach, guerri, was reportedly caught using a CS:GO camera exploit that gave coaches an unfair advantage. Former ESL Head Referee Michal Slowinski claimed guerri used the bug in an ECS Season 7 match against Complexity, and “abused it [for the] whole map.” Slowinski also stated guerri’s client was bugged in an earlier match, and worked around it to get it fixed. I am going to make a lot of Brazilian fans hate me even more with this tweet, but… take a look yourself. ECS Season 7 Week 2 against Complexity (abused it whole map). He was also bugged in a match day earlier (vs. LG) and decided to reconnect to get it fixed. FACEIT informed. pic.twitter.com/Ha35uROavI — Michal Slowinski (@michau9_) September 2, 2020 FACEIT have been informed of the incident, although they are yet to release a statement. Guerri is also yet to face any sanctions from tournament organizers. Guerri came out with a statement of his own, commending the work Slowinski has done to maintain the integrity of the scene. “The situation is real and very easy to explain what happened,” he said, according to a translation. FURIA’s CEO, Jaime Padua, also said the organization was looking into the accusations. “I am properly investigating what was reported by [Slowinski] and already looking for possible explanations,” he said, according to a translation. Acabei de ver o video postado pelo @michau9_ . Antes de mais nada parabéns pelo trabalho, o esports precisa de pessoas assim. A situação é verdadeira e muito tranquila de explicar o que aconteceu.Vou postar o video completo, com audio e com as explicações ainda hoje! — guerri (@guerri) September 2, 2020 Guerri releases video and explanation Guerri posted a YouTube video on September 2, showing the instances of the alleged coaching exploit in action during matches he was involved in. He says that the first time he encountered the bug, he didn’t understand what it was, and it resolved itself after a single round. When it occurred again in another match, he expected it to fix itself once again, but when it didn’t he claims he alt-tabbed out of the game completely, and went to stand behind his team. He points to the fact that his cursor moves briefly, the game becomes choppy and the audio drops out. He admits that he should have simply disconnected, but wasn’t aware of the full impact of the bug. I posted a detailed and crystal-clear video explaining everything about the bug (coach) that happened with me in the beginning of 2019. And also the team’s communication videos at the description. I’ll upload with English subtitles in the next days.https://t.co/ucJDepNWBc — guerri (@guerri) September 3, 2020 It comes after three coaches — Ricardo ‘dead’ Sinigaglia of MIBR, Nicolai ‘HUNDEN’ Petersen of Heroic, and Aleksandr ‘MechanoGun’ Bogatyrev of Hard Legion — were banned by ESL for six, 12, and 24 months respectively for abusing the exploit. Another coach, Aset ‘Solaar’ Sembiyev of K23 (ranked #29), has also been suspended by his team, pending investigation. The 33-year-old Kazakhstani reportedly used the camera exploit against FATE Esports in Eden Area Malta Vibes Cup 8. Hopefully last one: here is a clip of Solaar abusing coaching bug during Eden Arena Malta Vibes Cup 8, in a match vs. FATE on train. He did for all 21 rounds. pic.twitter.com/NS7O1IlEj6 — Michal Slowinski (@michau9_) September 2, 2020 Slowinski urged other coaches to step forward if they abused the camera exploit. “Sooner or later you will be caught and then it will be too late. It’s not a threat, it’s a chance,” he said. ESIC determine players not complicit in cheating In a September 2 statement, the Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) told the community there is “insufficient evidence available to determine” MIBR, Heroic, and Hard Legion players were complicit in their coaches’ cheating. “ESIC has reviewed an extensive amount of information with the aim of ascertaining any evidence of complicity of players involved in the affected teams,” it said. Read more: How to watch ESL Pro League Season 12 – Dead, HUNDEN, and MechanoGun were also banned from ESIC member events for six, 12, and 24 months respectively. This includes being around the players in a team house or facility during online events. ESIC issues sanction outcome for CS:GO bug exploitation matter. Investigation to remain open for two more months. Read more: https://t.co/Pjw9g9lLc1 pic.twitter.com/v59lZsVEeO — ESIC (@ESIC_Official) September 2, 2020 On top of ESL and Dreamhack, the three coaches will also be banned from competing in ESIC member events, which includes Blast and a handful of smaller tournament organizers. ESIC has also urged non-member tournament organizers to uphold the suspensions to “protect the CS:GO esports scene internationally.” FACEIT, the operators of ECS, are not members of ESIC.

FURIA announce CSGO star signing with Times Square billboard FURIAFURIA Esports has announced the signing of Brazilian CS:GO star Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo with a billboard on Times Square in New York City. While based in Brazil, FURIA has a large presence in the United States and even a facility in Miami, Florida. The organization also competes in the professional Valorant league, VCT Americas, which is located in Los Angeles, and they have one of the strongest Apex Legends rosters competing in the ALGS, a roster solely comprised of NA players. With all that said, it should come as no surprise they’re invested in their U.S. fanbase. To announce the signing of Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo to their CSGO roster, FURIA plastered their newest pickup in one of the biggest advertising spaces in the world: Times Square. The advertisement is on an electronic billboard and cycles between a picture of FalleN, a message announcing the player joining FURIA and a photo of the player alongside the rest of the CSGO team. FURIA take out Times Square ad for FalleN announcement The Brazilian veteran was reportedly purchased by FURIA for $700,000 and he has signed a two-year contract with the team. Veteran CS:GO star FalleN spent a short time with Imperial Esports and on the free-agent roster Last Dance. The last big-name squad he was a part of was Team Liquid in early 2022. FalleN is one of Brazil’s most popular CS:GO players as the 30-year-old competitor has played Counter-Strike since 2005 and has won multiple Majors. By joining FURIA, he will compete alongside other big-name Brazilian players Kaike ‘KSCERATO’ Cerato and Yuri ‘yuurih’ Santos. With Imperial, FalleN competed at the IEM Rio Major and placed top four at the 2023 BLAST Spring Final. The pro previously hinted toward retirement in 2023 but has seemingly decided to carry on competing into his early 30s with FURIA. The team is expected to debut FalleN on the server alongside the rest of the squad at IEM Cologne, which is set to start on July 26.

FURIA add Junior to CSGO roster ahead of BLAST Premier Finals FURIAFURIA have brought in their first non-Brazilian player in Paytyn ‘Junior’ Johnson to bolster their squad for 2021. The former Triumph AWPer will be thrown into the deep end with FURIA, competing in the BLAST Premier Global Finals on Jan. 19. FURIA are getting acclimatized to North America by picking up some homegrown talent and adding some regional diversity to their roster. The Brazilian team has picked up their first ever American player in Triumph’s Junior just before the 2021 season is set to kick off. O junin ta on! BEM-VINDO À FURIA, @1juniorcs!#DIADEFURIA #FURIACS pic.twitter.com/pfg9m5AgRC — FURIA (@FURIA) January 13, 2021 “Ever since FURIA moved to NA, they’ve been my favorite team on and off the server. I’ve looked up to their lineup, raw skill, and supportive fans for a long time now. I couldn’t be happier to join them and make the Brazilian community proud,” he said on Twitter after the announcement. Triumph, alongside Chaos, made a mark on North American CS:GO during its darkest hour. While the plug was pulled on many teams — including Chaos themselves — Triumph thrived, ending the year on a high by coming second at IEM Beijing 2020. Junior himself posted decent stats for the squad, sitting on an average rating of 1.13 for 2020. He was the leading force behind their unlikely surge to the top of NA, and he’s gotten the reward for his efforts. Read More: Fnatic locks in rising Swedish star Jackinho – Junior’s pickup also comes after FURIA’s rise in 2020 to become arguably the best team in the Americas. They currently sit in sixth on the HLTV standings, with Liquid sitting behind them in ninth. However, there have been concerns about the language barrier between Junior and his teammates. The Brazilian squad communicates in Portuguese, while Junior is an English native speaker. The new squad will be instantly put to the test at the BLAST Premier Global Finals. They are set to face G2 on January 19 as their first major challenge, with no easing into this new project.

FunPlus Phoenix secure Heroic replacement for Flashpoint Phase 2 Starladder / FunPlus PhoenixAfter a false start in Phase 1, FunPlus Phoenix has locked down a new line-up for Phase 2 of the Flashpoint CS:GO league, signing the former eUnited roster playing under the name ‘Swole Patrol.’ FunPlus Phoenix bowed out of Flashpoint Phase 1 in unflattering fashion. After being disqualified for a late roster change, they have decided to restart their run in CS:GO with a new line-up. The Chinese org, home to the reigning League of Legends world champs, have signed former eUnited roster Swole Patrol. The North American-based outfit will not need to relocate for the online section of Flashpoint, making them an ideal choice. Did we just hear that right? You heard it here first! FPX just gained some MUSCLE 💪😱 📺https://t.co/oRPZsZ9U9V pic.twitter.com/L4QzaJsXOx — Flashpoint (@Flashpoint) March 26, 2020 The roster shake-up was announced by Flashpoint themselves during their Group Draft Show for Phase 2 on March 26. Christopher ‘MonteCristo’ Mykles noted that FPX picked up Swole Patrol for the rest of Flashpoint Season 1. FPX are yet to release a statement about the roster shake-up, and players from the new line-up have stated they are yet to sign any contracts. “We haven’t signed with anyone,” said Austin ‘Cooper’ Abadir. “It’s nothing with FPX I’m sure, just a mix-up somewhere.” Read more: Jamppi sues Valve over permanent VAC ban – However, they will be playing under the FunPlus Phoenix banner for the time being in Flashpoint. It’s unclear as to whether this will translate over to ESL Pro League, where the roster also competes. By the way its nothin with FPX im sure, just a mix-up somewhere — Austin Abadir (@CooperCSGO) March 26, 2020 It comes after the Chinese organization dropped the Danish roster suddenly on March 22 after Astralis signed Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen away from the squad, effective in July. With uncertainty around securing a fifth player, and the Danish players wanting to return home, FPX decided to start anew with the North American lineup. Swole Patrol are now the second team, alongside MIBR, to compete in both Flashpoint and their rival tournament. The Brazilian line-up joined the Americas group of ESL Pro League on March 21. THE REPLACEMENTS 🇪🇸@MADLions_CSEN 🇺🇸@ChaosEC 🇺🇸@FPX_Esports (was Swole Patrol) 🇪🇺@c0ntactCS📺https://t.co/oRPZsZ9U9V pic.twitter.com/8E40cii3fO — Flashpoint (@Flashpoint) March 26, 2020 Flashpoint Phase 2 groups revealed FunPlus Phoenix will be matched up against Mad Lions, Chaos Esports Club, and c0ntact in their first bracket in Flashpoint Phase 2. The rest of the groups are as follows: Group A: Cloud9, Envy, Copenhagen Flames, HAVU – Group B: MAD Lions, Chaos, FunPlus Phoenix, c0ntact – Group C: MIBR, Orgless, Dignitas, Gen.G –

FunPlus Phoenix confirm they’re returning to CSGO with GODSENT roster FunPlus Phoenix / GODSENTFPX Esports have confirmed their plan to re-enter the CS:GO landscape and that they’re close to acquiring the former GODSENT roster, pending on the players’ approval. FunPlus Phoenix have had a rather unceremonious start to their journey in CS:GO. Known for winning the League of Legends World Championship in 2019, they looked to enter the popular FPS title through Flashpoint in 2020. However, it wasn’t smooth sailing. They picked up and let go of rosters: first Heroic, then Bad News Bears. Now though, following various reports, the organization has confirmed that they’re indeed close to compiling a third roster. “We at FPX Esports have been in deep talks with GODSENT in the past several months regarding the acquirement of their CSGO roster,” tweeted Petar ‘Peca’ Markovic, General Manager of the org’s CS:GO and Valorant operations. “The mutual agreement has finally been made, and right now we are waiting for the players to review and eventually sign their contracts.” We at @FPX_Esports have been in deep talks with @GODSENTgg in the past several months regarding the acquirement of their CSGO roster. The mutual agreement has finally been made, and right now we are waiting for the players to review and eventually sign their contracts. #goFPX https://t.co/f2F8paDcfp — G2 Peca (@pecagg) December 28, 2020 Once the players are done reviewing the contracts and sign them, this is what their lineup would look like, in addition to potentially bringing current GODSENT coach Jonatan ‘Devilwalk’ Lundberg into the fold: Kevin ‘kRYSTAL’ Amend – Martin ‘STYKO’ Styk – Jesse ‘zehN’ Linjala – Pavle ‘maden’ Bošković – Asger ‘farlig’ Jensen – In late-September, FunPlus announced Markovic as the General Manager for both Valorant and CSGO divisions. Now it looks like peca is making an all-in purchase for the EU roster that is ranked 19th in the world at the time of publishing. That said, however, peca previously confirmed that, regardless of the team acquisition, that FPX wouldn’t participate in Flashpoint Season 2. Although one of the founding teams, FunPlus will instead “take [their] time and focus on 2021.” “We don’t want to make any rushed decisions, as our main goal is to build a promising, long-lasting roster,” he said. The org initially expected to play with Heroic’s roster back in March, which would have included Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen among others. Unfortunately, that deal fell through, which prompted FPX to target Swole Patrol’s roster, though that didn’t pan out as well. Eventually, they temporarily fielded the Bad News Bears for the second leg of Flashpoint 1, after only playing one match prior and forfeiting the rest of the first phase. While the FPX front office successfully put together a Worlds championship roster in 2019 for League of Legends, it’s going to once again attempt to bring a similar metric of success for CSGO.

FunPlus Phoenix release GM & CSGO coach after poor results FPXChinese giants FunPlus Phoenix have announced that they have parted ways with General Manager Petar ‘peca’ Marković and with CSGO coach Jonatan ‘Devilwalk’ Lundberg. The decision comes after a series of disappointing results from the organization’s CSGO and Valorant squads. With FPX’s teams missing out on qualification for PGL Major Stockholm and Valorant Champions, the Chinese organization have decided to clean house and begin a rebuilding job in their European ranks. Peca joined FPX in September 2020 as General Manager of European operations with the goal of “building a winning team in CSGO” after the organization had failed to complete a deal to sign the Heroic squad earlier that year. He was also brought in to manage the organization’s Valorant roster, which at the time was one of the best in Europe. Decline in results FPX officially entered CS:GO in January 2021 with the signing of GODSENT’s team, coached by Devilwalk, who had won two Majors with Fnatic, one as a player and one a coach. The team were inside the top 20 in HLTV’s world rankings during the first eight months of the year, and were in a relatively comfortable place in the European Regional Major Rankings (RMR) table ahead of IEM Fall, the final qualifying event for PGL Major Stockholm. However, FPX crashed out of the tournament in 17th-20th place to miss out on a highly-coveted spot at the first CS:GO Major in two years. we lost tiebreakersthat means we have no chance to qualify for PGL Major Stockholm. Sad after being in good position throughout whole RMR period, even during RoadToRio, but the truth is there are many more teams that deserve the spot than us. Back to the drawing board 🔮— STYKO (@STYKOcs) October 3, 2021 Meanwhile, FPX’s Valorant squad was gradually fading into irrelevance. After placing third-fourth in the Stage 1 Masters and winning the Stage 2 Challengers, the team — headlined by former CS:GO player Kirill ‘ANGE1’ Karasiow — finished the Stage 2 Challengers Finals in 5th-6th place and the Stage 3 Challengers Playoffs in 9th-12th place. Out of the race for a spot at Valorant Champions, FPX began to overhaul their roster for the 2022 season by benching Tobias ‘ShadoW’ Flodström and Dmitriy ‘dimasick’ Matvienko. Their team currently feature four players following the signing of Dmitry ‘SUYGETSU’ Ilyushin earlier in October. Open to Valorant offers FPX’s decision brings an end to a long chapter in Devilwalk’s career. The Swedish coach had been part of the team since February 2019, guiding them throughout their time as NoChance, SMASH, GODSENT, and FPX. Quizzed on his future, Devilwalk revealed that he is entertaining the idea of continuing his career in Valorant. “I am extremely happy with what we did in our journey, from the start of NoChance to FPX,” the 30-year-old told Dexerto. “I got to work with some wonderful people, like Radifaction, nukkye, frozen, Maikelele, kRYSTAL, STYKO, zehN, Maden, chrisJ, suNny, Thomas, emi, and peca. “I’m extremely thankful for the trust they put in me and for what we did during a lot of turbulent times. I have nothing but good things to say about the players! I wish them the best of luck and consider them all my friends! “I’m looking at all options right now, be it in CS:GO or Valorant.”

LoL World Champions FunPlus Phoenix reportedly buying into CSGO ESL / FunPlus PhoenixLeague of Legends Worlds 2019 champions FunPlus Phoenix are reportedly buying into CSGO’s Flashpoint League just days before its expected to kick off, acquiring the Heroic roster in the process. FunPlus Phoenix took the League scene by storm in 2019, making a remarkable run in China to qualify for Worlds, before demolishing everyone in their path to lift the Summoner’s Cup. They’re now hoping they can translate that same story into CS:GO after reportedly buying into the FPS title as their first expansion outside of League of Legends. According to a report by neL, FPX are jumping right into CS:GO, buying a slot in Flashpoint and acquiring Heroic’s roster. The 14th-best team in the world, according to HLTV standings, would be jumping into the inaugural season of the FACEIT-run league as the second-best squad. Read more: Thorin’s CSGO World Rankings (March 10 2020) – Heroic were set to play in the ESL Pro League franchised league, and with Season 11 kicking off on March 16, ESL have less than a week to find a replacement or run one of the groups with five teams. We have the Groups for Season 11 of the #ESLProLeague! Which one are you most excited to watch? 🤔 Find out about how we created these Groups, as well as some other cool new features you may have missed, over at:https://t.co/0Avx0ez5Eo pic.twitter.com/cZ6WF8IQ5I — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) March 5, 2020 Heroic didn’t play in the European Qualifiers for Flashpoint after being invited to the ESL Pro League. The full Danish squad has spent the start of 2020 playing in qualifiers for various events, including the upcoming Rio Major. They managed to qualify for DreamHack Open Leipzig over CIS team Gambit Youngsters, but failed to make it to DreamHack Open Anaheim or the Rio Major after being knocked out by ForZe and Copenhagen Flames respectively. The squad also went through a rebuild in the later stages of 2019. After three of their players left, including Adam ‘friberg’ Friberg and Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer, Heroic picked up Danish veterans like Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller and Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer to take their place. There are still three spots available in the Flashpoint League with action expected to kick off on March 13. It’s reported that Havu and Chaos will be taking the final two places alongside FunPlus Phoenix, while Copenhagen Flames will be replacing BIG — who are choosing to play in the ESL Pro League instead. The expected FunPlus Phoenix roster is as follows: Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer – Casper ‘cadiaN’ Møller – Patrick ‘es3tag’ Hansen – Martin ‘stavn’ Lund – Johannes ‘b0RUP’ Borup –

Friberg, Maikelele & Xizt add to Fifflaren’s NiP accusations DreamHack / ESLFormer CS:GO players Mikail ‘Maikelele’ Bill, Richard ‘Xizt’ Landström, and Adam ‘friberg’ Friberg have reacted to Robin ‘Fifflaren’ Johansson’s accusations of player mistreatment by NiP. In an interview with Richard Lewis, Fifflaren claimed that a large portion of the prize money earned during NiP’s 2012-13 run never made it back to the players, that management made roster moves without the consultation of the players, and that their contracts included clauses that stated the organization could fire them at any time. Now, Maikelele, Xizt and friberg, who all represented NiP in the past, have opened up about their time with the team, and some of the experiences they had while under the umbrella of the Swedish organization. In a tweet posted by Maikelele on July 24, the 28-year-old revealed that following the 2014 DreamHack Winter Major, a former NiP CEO informed him that he shouldn’t receive an equal share of the money made from the team’s CS:GO stickers due to his inexperience. “I remember after attending DreamHack 2014 Major with NiP, the old CEO told me I shouldn’t get as much sticker money as the rest because I (was) the new boy,” wrote the Swede on Twitter. “Back then I accepted it because it was my first pro team, and felt like I didn’t have too much to say about it.” I remember after attending Dreamhack 2014 major with NiP, the old CEO told me I shouldn’t get as much stickers money as the rest because I’m the new boy. Back then I accepted it because it was my first pro team and felt like I didn’t have to much to say about it. — Maikel Bill (@maikelele) July 23, 2019 Xizt gave fans an insight into his departure from the organization, leaving NiP in April 2018 after almost six years representing the team. While the Swede chose not to reveal any specific details about the manner of his exit, he made it clear that it was not handled well, and stated that he wasn’t the only one who left the organization in a poor manner, before showing his support for Fifflaren. Xizt tweeted: “Watching this just makes me sick. My departure – like almost everyone – wasn’t handled pretty either. Kudos to Fifflaren for opening up about ‘our story’ and I’m back him 100% on this.” Ughh, watching this just makes me sick.. My departure (like almost everyones) wasn’t handled pretty either. Kudos to @Fifflaren for opening up about “”our story”” and I’m backing him a 100% on this.Old, new… whatever#NIPFAMILY :> https://t.co/QEGEgXv4Yv pic.twitter.com/5KiL6M4YT9 — Richard Landström (@Xizt) July 24, 2019 Finally, friberg seemingly confirmed that while a number of accusations have already been made about NiP’s conduct, we may not have heard everything just yet, and even hinted that he may release more information. “Happy that Fifflaren went out with his,” wrote the Heroic player. “I also back him up on what was said, there’s more stuff as well. Guess it’s time…” Same for me, happy that @Fifflaren went out with this and I also back him up on what was said, there’s more stuff as well :pensive: guess it’s time… https://t.co/hn7eqBVZkj — Adam Friberg (@fribergCS) July 25, 2019 Fifflaren also claimed that he believes Ninjas in Pyjamas has been the driving factor behind Christopher ‘GeT_RiGhT’ Alesund’s exit from the organization, and says they could be “forcing him into retirement.” NiP have responded to the claims made against them, with current CEO Hicham Chahine issuing a statement that claimed they have “dedicated all of our time and energy to recovering the organization from its turbulent past and mismanagement” and that they aim to put “lingering issues from the past right.” Whether they will be able to do so remains to be seen, but friberg’s comments seem to indicate that there will be more accusations made against the legendary organization in the near future.

French President Macron wants to host LoL Worlds & CSGO Majors if re-elected EUROPEAN UNION 2018-EPIn an interview with TheBigWhale, a French cryptocurrency and Web3 newsletter, French president Emmanuel Macron explained how esports and gaming were an “important component of French soft cultural power” that he vowed to uphold if reelected. He also cited Karmine Corp and Team Vitality of two pillars of “French excellence” in the esports sector. As the esports industry continues to grow, we are seeing more and more collaboration between esports and the wider sectors of entertainment, sports, and politics. This year, esports will appear as an official accredited sport in the Asia Games for the first time in history, encompassing multiple games including PUBG, DOTA 2, and League of Legends. But not only in Asia is the global impact of esports being felt. In a recent interview with Web3 newsletter TheBigWhale, French president Emmanuel Macron discussed the importance of esports in his re-election campaign, and promised to increase the presence of esports events in France if re-elected. France’s presidential election will take place on April 24, with Macron and National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen currently vying as the two main candidates. The importance of esports Macron’s discussion with TheBigWhale was focused heavily on the importance of technology as a cultural export for France – with video games being essential to the continuation of “French soft cultural power” in Europe and beyond. One point that Macron emphasized during the interview was the importance of promoting France as “THE country for video games.” He cited the success of French gaming studios such as Quantic Dream and Ubisoft as cornerstones of France’s presence in the gaming space. He also brought attention to the esports sector, citing French giants Karmine Corp and Team Vitality as organizations that displayed “French excellence” through their success in games like League of Legends and CS:GO. THE KING IN THE NORTH. Bienvenue chez toi, KC @RekklesLoL #KCORP 🟦 *pending Riot approval pic.twitter.com/1i8ZvAjZcE — Karmine Corp (@KarmineCorp) November 16, 2021 Both teams recently saw a huge level of investment in their League of Legends rosters, with Team Vitality building an ‘EU superteam’ and Karmine Corp signing European legend Martin ‘Rekkles’ Larssen at the start of 2022. Hosting international tournaments Macron also highlighted the importance of making France a cultural destination for esports fans. The country is set to host the 2024 Olympic Games, with Macron expressing a desire to “establish a link between the two worlds’ Olympiads” by bringing international esports tournaments to Europe. He cited the League of Legends World Championship, Dota 2’s The International, and CS:GO Major tournaments as events that France would look to host if he was re-elected, stating that “if the French trust me, we will work on it as soon as I am elected. This is what France’s influence is all about.”

French CS:GO legend RpK announces retirement: “It was a real pleasure” ESLCounter-Strike veteran Cédric ‘RpK’ Guipouy confirmed on Thursday that he is bringing an end to his playing career in the popular first-person shooter franchise. The 32-year-old, known in the Counter-Strike scene as ‘The Tank’, will start his own company in the automobile industry – which has long been a passion for him. RpK was released from his contract with Vitality on August 26, four months after being moved to the bench to make way for rising French talent Jayson ‘Kyojin’ Nguyen Van. He spent that time on the sidelines mulling over his future, with the lack of options in the Counter-Strike scene ultimately making him put a stop to his career. “It is clear that it is something big because something that I’ve been doing for many years ends here today,” he told Dexerto. “But all this has taught me a lot and it was a real pleasure. “I completely believed I could have continued a little longer because I still feel fresh and in shape. As long as you feel ready you can go on.” Today marks the end of a long & beautiful career. It started long ago, had ups & downs, but I always loved it. I’m greatful for your support over the years, I won’t forget it ❤️In memory of my journey, I started my merch to keep Le Tank legacy alive 👇https://t.co/jblRlyZ1af pic.twitter.com/KHdZiCTmho — Cédric Guipouy – RPK MOTORSPORT (@RpKTANKK) September 2, 2021 His trajectory RpK’s career began in 2007 in Counter-Strike: Source. He played for a number of top French teams over the next five years before transitioning to CS:GO as part of the famed VeryGames roster, which had many intense duels with NIP in the game’s infancy. With the scene being relatively small at the time and sponsors scarce, RpK put his gaming career on hold in early 2013 to work with his father as a car mechanic to be able to make ends meet. He would return to action almost two years later with Titan in the wake of the infamous cheating scandal involving Hovik ‘KQLY’ Tovmassian. His journey then took him to G2, Envy, and, finally, Vitality in late 2018. It was with the latter team, headlined by superstar Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, that RpK enjoyed the most successful period of his career. He won several international events and finally made it out of the groups at a Major after eight unsuccessful attempts. Although he was never a star player in any of his CS:GO teams, his reliability with rifles and longevity made him one of the most respected figures in the scene. He was one of the rare examples of esports players still competing at the highest level while in their thirties. “Honestly, I’m quite happy with my career,” he said. “Despite some difficult moments, I kept fighting, and I was always focused on what I had to do. “To be honest, I could have continued to try to win a Major. I would have liked to have won one. That would have been the cherry on top of the cake.” To commemorate his esports journey, RpK has released, in collaboration with his agency, Prodigy, his own line of merchandise with several items. “It’s a project that I had wanted to do for some time and I’m super excited to launch my own merch,” he said. “Being “The Tank” is something that I will always be proud of, and I’m glad to have my own brand and clothes to remember it all my life! “I hope the public will like it as much as I do.” Esports future RpK has come back from retirement once, so there will be those thinking that this might not be a farewell but a see you soon. Read more: ESIC sheds light on HUNDEN ban – Questioned if he might return to esports one day, perhaps in a management position, ‘The Tank’ did not rule anything out. “I doubt it’s possible that people will see me in esports anytime soon,” he said, before adding: “But as they always say and as the people who know me are aware of, nothing is impossible.”

Freakazoid’s insane CSGO ace clutch proves former Cloud9 star is still a monster HELENA KRISTIANSSON – ESL / ValveCounter-Strike: Global Offensive pro Ryan ‘freakazoid’ Abadir showed that he can still hang with the best of them with a solo ace during a close FACEIT match. The 26-year-old American has constantly shown flashes of brilliance throughout his pro career stemming back to Counter-Strike: Source. Freakazoid’s time on a pro team ended right before Ghost Gaming announced they were stepping back from the CS:GO scene. But just because his name isn’t tied to an org as of yet, doesn’t mean that freakazoid lets his sharp tactics in CS:GO dull in any way as seen in a ripping clip showing him expertly taking out a whole squad. The wide-eyed Freakazoid kept a close look at his radar while waiting for the opportune moment to strike. During his August 22 stream, the Swole Patrol chief found himself in a precarious situation when his two teammates were eliminated as they were pushing up A long on Dust II playing as the T-side. Hidden in a smoke that was hugging the corner wall, he bided his time while being stranded alone outside of Long Doors – all the while hearing enemy CT’s nearby setting off utility all around his hiding spot. Knowing there was someone pushed up to his position, he crept around the corner and took down the CT AWPer who was looking the other way holding Catwalk. He then made a 270-degree turn to the player holding Long Doors and secured the quick double kill. After collecting the bomb, he calmly made the dash toward the A site with his teammates in disbelief at the play that was unfolding: “He’s long! Car!… You killed him?” Smoking off cross, instead of barreling down to the bombsite in a 3v1 situation, freakazoid pulled back to get a peek into CT spawn where he managed to catch an approaching foe unawares. The 2v1 was quickly cut down to a 1v1 after he’d planted the bomb and gunned down a CT who lazily jiggle peaked long corner. But the last kill prompted an immediate “What the f–” from his teammate since freakazoid finished off the remaining low-health T-player with a cheeky shot as he jumped up the site wall. There’s been talk off an old school Cloud9 CS:GO reunion happening so it’s great to see freakazoid in spectacular form.

Frankie praises LoL’s “amazing” gameday content Counter-Strike host Frankie Ward has called for improvements to event coverage, including interviews, and praised Riot’s “amazing” production level at the LoL European Championship should be what other organizers strive for. Frankie has been working as an interviewer and a host for the past few years, taking the leap after becoming enamored with the gaming world during her coverage of the 2015 League of Legends World Championship with the BBC. While she’s plied her trade at the LEC, as well as Hearthstone and PUBG events, her main focus has been Counter-Strike, where she’s risen to one of the best and brightest stage interviewers the esport has to offer. The game’s events still have a long way to go if they’re to reach their full potential in regards to gameday content though, she says, and believes tournament organizers should take a leaf out of the frontier-forging LEC production team in 2020. Ward had a stint with the European competition in mid-2019, filling in for Eefje ‘Sjokz’ Depoortere as the formerly nailed-on LoL host tried her hand at other esports and tournaments. While there, Frankie said she learned a lot. As well as a dedicated team of analysts and experts like Sjokz, Trevor ‘Quickshot’ Henry, and Indiana ‘Froskurinn’ Black, the European Championship is based in one venue in Berlin. There, they’ve built themselves a veritable fortress of production. With CSGO’s circuit constantly on the move, that strategy wouldn’t work quite as well, of course, but with live replays, deep-dive analytical segments, and constant access to players on-stage and at the desk, the LEC thrives with gameday content. “The LEC [does a lot] right, they have these huge screens and can replay moments and they have all these things at their fingertips like stats and resources that can really elevate the whole thing,” Frankie said on The Minds of Media podcast. “I want to tell the story of the player, and the story of what happened in the game, and my interview training [with the BBC] was all about the act of listening, and not being a slave to questions. Having one minute makes that hard.” While the British interviewer concedes more than a minute or two isn’t always possible when it comes to massive CSGO events like the BLAST, DreamHack, and IEM, she said she’d love to see more time and in-depth conversations, in partnership with the desk. “If I’m doing interviews between maps, I want to capture what went right, what’s going to happen next, and get a sense of the whole game,” she said. “Then I can work with the analysts, and give them as much info as possible. I want what is discussed with the players to line up with what the desk is doing for a complete show. That’s what I’m going to be working on next year.” Frankie’s suggested ideas don’t necessarily mean she thinks CSGO is behind the bell-curve when it comes to presenting esports as an entertainment machine, of course — the star host says she “absolutely loves” the Counter-Strike tour. In fact, she loves it so much that sometimes she finds herself getting swept up in the hype and excitement of the narrative, like when Fnatic battled all the way through the lower bracket at DreamHack Masters in Malmö to lift the trophy. Fnatic had just scored a 2–1 win over Vitality to clinch the championship, after ousting tournament favorites Astralis 2–0 in the semifinals. Frankie was tasked with interviewing Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell, and she hilariously flubbed her lines. “I’ve done winners interviews before—they don’t have the intimacy of the sideline interviews I normally do—and in Malmö, I did one, and they’d been quiet for the most part, but the crowd was going crazy after Fnatic won,” she said. “Everything was hugely emotional, and it was a great story, and I threw my cue cards away because I wanted to be in the moment with the questions, and then I stupidly went for a gameplay question and I messed it up. “I forgot what map I was talking about because I didn’t have the cards, and JW was like “do you mean this?” It’s those kinds of moments that work… I want the interviews to be dynamic, and so I think people forgave me for that [mistake].” For mobile readers, the related segment in the video below begins at 1:08:32. Whether or not CSGO’s tournament organizers around the world take on Frankie’s advice, it certainly seems like the esport is headed for a massive year, with new competitions that may buy into the “upgraded” gameday coverage suggestions. A new twelve-team franchise league, led by Astralis and Cloud9, has been rumored, and BLAST is establishing a new ‘Pro Series,’ though they’ve come under-fire after leaving dominant rosters Fnatic and mousesports out of the equation. One thing is for sure heading into 2020 though — Frankie is sure to be at the forefront of CSGO interviews long into the year, and if she’s involved, there’s a good chance she’ll bring her suggestions to the table for production. As for her own interviewing style, as long as she isn’t hurling her cue cards off the stage in a moment of grand final hype, she’s sure to have a great year too.

CS:GO: Fragadelphia 13 organizer reassures attendees after security threat CS:GO / FragadelphiaNorth American tournament organizers, N3rdStGamers, have reassured attendees after security threats were made online ahead of their Fragadelphia CS:GO event which will take place on September 13 in California. Fragadelphia is one of the most popular open tournaments for top CS:GO players to attend, often attracting pros like the Swole Patrol lineup featuring stars such as freakazoid and swag, who claimed victory at Fragadelphia 12. However, their upcoming open tournament in California, Fragadelphia 13, has already hit its first bump after threats were allegedly made by a CS:GO player to ‘shoot up’ the event, while arguing with another player in online game chat. The argument between the two CS:GO players apparently turned hostile after one player reportedly said, “I hope you’re going to Fragadelphia, I pray to god you do” which was met with a threatening response from “ohcgnor” saying, “might shoot up Fragadelphia, IRL.” When a screenshot of the argument was shared to the CEO of N3rdStGamers, who organizes the Fragadelphia events, he quickly responded assuring everyone that they will take the matter seriously. He also explained that he was going to alert the FBI and the local police department ahead of the event and will also have armed security measures and a police presence in place for when the tournament kicks off on September 13. Thank you for alerting us. We take these matters seriously. We are in the process of connecting with Faceit and alerting the FBI & local PD. We will have armed security and a police presence on site at Fragadelphia. Our priority is providing a safe gaming atmosphere for all. — John Fazio (@jfaz) August 6, 2019 N3rdStGamers told Dexerto that they are in contact with the FBI’s Los Angeles Branch, as well as the Huntington Beach Police Department, and Faceit. “We will not provide any detailed information on the investigation or increased security measures to avoid putting either at risk.” The event was highly anticipated by many CS:GO players as it will mark the first time the massive open competition will take place anywhere other than their original city, Philadelphia, as the tournament’s name suggests. Despite the player’s threats, Fragadelphia 13 is still set to run as usual and will get underway on September 13 in California, with added security measures in place.