News Flash #2 - Preseason Mayhem
The biggest roster shuffle in Counter-Strike history is still ongoing, with more and more teams rounding out their squads for the upcoming season.
While a number of top organizations are yet to reveal their newly assembled rosters, teams from the middle of the pack were more keen on announcing their new recruits. Official transfers announced during this past week are as follows:
FURIA: -saffee -drop
FURIA have announced the benching of drop and their main AWPer saffee, following a disappointing spring season for the Brazilian org. Despite saffee’s tremendous skill, which he displayed on a number of occasions when playing for paiN, he failed to successfully transition into tier 1 play, managing a mere 1.04 rating during his tenure with FURIA. Thankfully for both of them, MIBR are reported to be after their services, as they have just benched their marksman, HEN1 and their 24-year-old rifler, Tuurtle a month prior.
MOUZ: -JDC
The German organization bench their only German player, ahead of the only S-tier tournament held in Germany in the fall season. It was already reported that MOUZ were looking to bolster their squad with the addition of their academy team’s former IGL, siuhy, but the removal of JDC from the active roster suggests that two changes will take place at the very least.
EG: Four of EG Black promoted to main roster
autimatic is all that remains of the former EG roster as HexT, Jeorge, junior and Walco have been promoted to the team’s starting lineup, with Rush joining the squad as a substitute. Rounding out the roster in the role of a coach is Axed after his predecessor, Vorborg, was removed together with the remaining former EG players (Brehze, wiz, refrezh and neaLaN). The North American organization was reportedly pursuing many high profile targets, but were forced to act upon their plan B, after failing to secure the intended signatures.
Aurora: +innersh1ne (coach)
The former FaZe analyst managed to find a new home in no time, as he put pen to paper and became the coach of Aurora. The Russian will be taking up the coaching role for the first time in his career, but having two years worth of experience working with FaZe means he’s more than qualified for the job as during his stint with the international roster, the team enjoyed multiple tournament victories, including a Major trophy.
Other news:
CSPPA’s future up in the air
More and more problems arise regarding Counter-Strike Professional Players’ Association’s role in the CS landscape. The association’s website has been unavailable for some time and many members of the association (professional players) have decided to leave the project, which puts its status and utility in question. Judging from the media reports, it seems like CSPPA was mismanaged and run without any direction as seasoned players, like Styko, said that the association’s higher ups’ communication was lacking and nothing was being done.
PGL CS2 Major RMR qualifiers schedule
PGL has revealed the dates when the qualifiers for the RMR will take place. All the games are scheduled to be played in January, with the first sets of matches transpiring on January 8. Having the RMR qualifiers take place right after the winter player break means that teams wanting to participate in said qualifiers will be forced to cut their vacations short and get back on the server sooner than they had hoped. The qualifiers’ position in the calendar also suggests that some teams will have to play four events on the trot, with the Blast Spring Groups and IEM Katowice presumably crammed in between the RMR qualifiers and the RMR itself.
Astralis receive $100.000 fine
ESL have fined Astralis $100.000 after the Danish organization failed to report on a conflict of interest which occurred between April and July 2021. It is believed that said conflict of interest relates to the former Heroic coach, Hunden, who is said to have been providing Astralis with his services while still being under contract with Heroic. The Danish coach, however, has released a statement on Twitter in which he claims that his recent departure from Astralis and the ESL investigation are unrelated.
ESL Pro League Season 18 Groups revealed
ESL Pro League Season 18 will take place in Malta from August 30 till October 1. The make up of the four groups, consisting of eight teams each, has been released, with four teams yet to qualify for the event. The group disposition is as follows:
Group A
Vitality
Gamer Legion
FURIA
Astralis
Ninjas in Pyjamas
Movistar Riders
Grayhound
Qualifier
Group B
Heroic
ENCE
MOUZ
Monte
BIG
MIBR
Evil Geniuses
Qualifier
Group C
FaZe
Natus Vincere
Apeks
fnatic
Imperial
Rare Atom
ATK
Qualifier
Group D
G2
Cloud9
Liquid
Virtus.pro
Complexity
9INE
Lynn Vision
Qualifier