North American comeback

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The Counter-Strike season is coming to an end. Time for teams to rethink their rosters to best position themselves for the coming year. GlobalESportNews Lights up the transfer carousel that is slowly picking up speed

The BLAST Premier: World Final in Abu Dhabi will be the last really big S-Tier tournament of the Counter-Strike year in mid-December. In addition to the current No. 1 in the world – FaZe Clan – virtually the entire crème de la crème of Counter-Strike eSports will be taking part: Team Vitality (23) complete the field of participants.

The tournament will provide the first glimpse of what fans can expect in 2024. Even now, hardly any of the teams are fielding the same roster as they did in the last tournament. Of the eight squads competing in Abu Dhabi alone, only FaZe Clan and MOUZ have seen no significant changes to their team structure in recent weeks.

Fnatic in upheaval

After William “mezii” Merrimann and Frederik “roeJ” Jorgensen recently left the team for Team Vitality and Preasy respectively, the org now decided to make a change in a third position and officially benched in-game leader Christopher “dexter” Nong. The 29-year-old Australian’s chapter at FNC should therefore be closed after just four months, having only moved from MOUZ to Fnatic last July.

The three vacant positions were replaced immediately. In addition to the eternal Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson and Aurélien “afro” Drapier, Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro (from Team Falcons) will now hold the reins as IGL. He will be joined by Matus “MATYS” Simko and the German-Iranian Can “kyuubii” Ali, although the latter will have to assert his place for the time being as he is still in “trial status”.

After a four-year absence, NRG is back in the Counter-Strike circus. Tonight, the North American org published a post via X officially confirming the return

The roster itself consists of an American-Canadian core. The names are sometimes more, sometimes less prominent. The team is led by Damian “daps” Steele, who until recently worked as head coach for Team Liquid, but is now back in action and is set to take on the role of in-game leader. The Rifler trio will consist of Justin “FaNg” Coakley, Jadan “HexT” Postma and Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte.  HexT and Brehze come from the Evil Geniuses, FaNg from Complexity. The quintet is completed by AWPer Josh “oSee” Ohm.

To what extent the roster can really compete in the big tournaments remains to be seen. Although the team is certainly competitive in terms of names alone, the truth is that apart from HexT none of the other four come from a team that had planned a future with this player.

Rumor: CadiaN & Twistzz to Liquid?

It has been clear since mid-October that Casper “CadiaN” Möller would be leaving Heroic after three and a half thoroughly successful years. Where the 28-year-old in-game leader would be heading, however, was not. Now it seems that Team Liquid could be a serious option for the Dane.

But CadiaN wouldn’t be the only big-name player who could apparently imagine playing for TL soon. None other than Russel “Twistzz” van Dulken also seems to be keen on the idea of returning to the org where he finally made his breakthrough, dominating the Counter-Strike scene for a time and winning the Grand Slam, among other things.

At the moment, only veteran Keith “NAF” Markovic and Marek’s “YEKINDAR” Galinskis are still under contract with Liquid. If the rumors surrounding CadiaN and Twistzz turn out to be true, four of the five roster spots would be taken. The org seems to have Felipe “skullz” Medeiros in mind for the fifth spot. The 21-year-old Brazilian last played for paiN, where he attracted attention with good performances.

Herioc double pack on the way to Astralis

Following the imminent departure of Captain CadiaN, two more crew members have now left the (sinking?) Heroic ship. Both Martin “stavn” Lund and Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard are moving to Danish rivals Astralis.

In fact, the signing of the two Danes is causing quite a bit of noise within the CS community.

In the end – as reported by several sources – both Rifler players are said to have initially agreed to a contract extension with Heroic, linked to the condition of demotion CadiaNs to the bench. Heroic agrees, announces his intention to part ways with the longtime captain and…

..jabbi and stavn moved to their Danish rivals anyway. The two of them probably didn’t score any sympathy points outside the Astralis fan base with this move.

For the two new additions, Johannes “b0RUP” Borup and Christian “Buzz” Andersen have to make way. The core around Nicolai “device” Reedtz and Benjamin “blameF” Bremer remains. Victor “Staehr” Staehr completes the squad.

Legend takes another run-up

Lukas “Gla1ve” Rossander was part of the golden Astralis generation. Between 2017 and 2019, the Danish in-game leader won together with Nicolai “device” Reedtz, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif and Andreas “Xyp9x” Hpojseth won four majors and their first ever Grand Slam title.

After that, things quietened down for the team, but also for gla1ve itself. Although the team was still competitive and among the world’s best, after the last title – the IEM Global Challenge 2020 – it was no longer enough to reach the very top. gla1ve itself then found itself on the bench in June 2023.

This time is now over. Since yesterday, the Dane has been part of ENCE.

He is set to replace Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, who has been repeatedly linked to Team Falcons in recent days.