CS:GO news digest for the week (new additions to fnatic and Heroic rosters, YEKINDAR will play for Team Liquid)
/Another competitive week has come to an end, which was not full of big championships, as most teams are preparing for Cologne. However, we still saw a couple of high-profile transitions, seasoned with a few interesting insiders and results from small competitions. In this regard, we propose to recall the past week for the loudest news from the world of CS:GO.
HEAP is the fifth fnatic player
British esports organization fnatic has announced the signing of a contract with HEAP. So far, the Swedish player will play for the team in test mode, but there is a high probability that he will stay at the club.
HEAP announced itself as part of Dignitas. Joining the team at the end of 2020, the 22-year-old Swedish esportsman became the winner of several TIER-2 tournaments, including BLAST Nordic Masters: Spring 2021 and BLAST Nordic Masters: Fall 2021, and also made it to the top three at Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 1 and Pinnacle Cup III.
However, back in May, the former organization sent the player to the bench, as well as two weeks later, they abandoned the roster and left the esports discipline. At the same time, HEAP has already managed to make his debut for fnatic as part of REPUBLEAGUE Season 3, having obtained three victories in the group stage.
daps led Team Liquid
The European club did not sit long without a coach, announcing the appointment of daps a day later. At the same time, the experienced Canadian will have time to prepare the team for the upcoming Intel Extreme Masters XVII - Cologne.
daps appeared on the professional scene back in 2012. As a player, the 28-year-old Canadian has won several major tournaments including ELEAGUE Road to Vegas, Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Shanghai and DreamHack Open Anaheim 2020.
However, in recent years, the Canadian has not been given an esports career in CS: GO, as a result of which he decided to try his hand at VALORANT. However, six months later, daps returned to his "native" discipline and headed Evil Geniuses. But even here the specialist did not succeed, since the North American team gave out failure after failure, after which he announced a global reshuffle of the roster, for the umpteenth time.
Already in the new season, daps tried to develop his own project called "Orgless", but soon recognized the lack of prospects in his region and set off to look for new opportunities.
Now the Canadian will try to revive his career in Team Liquid, where there were already enough problems.
YEKINDAR will play for Team Liquid at IEM Cologne 2022
Not even a week had passed since the rumors about a possible transition of YEKINDAR to Team Liquid appeared, as the European club announced that one of the main stars of the scene had joined its roster. So far, the transfer is temporary, but Marek himself is eager to return to the stage.
Oil on the fire of YEKINDAR's future transition to Team Liquid was added by the Dust2 portal, which stated that the esports organization would not be able to buy out the player's contract from Virtus.pro directly due to the sanctions imposed on the Russian club. The only option for Team Liquid could be to buy an esportsman through third parties.
Do not forget about YEKINDAR and the new head coach of the team - daps:
Since I also just joined the team, I can't talk about the team's plans, but YEKINDAR will be playing for us in Cologne and we're going to make the most of his full potential with a short bootcamp. We have about a week, but as far as details, I don't want to go into any details.
Let's see how the fate of Marek will turn out, because there is only a week left before the start of IEM Cologne 2022.
Jabbi has officially joined Heroic
The Danish esports organization Heroic has made changes in its roster, removing refrezh from the start and signing Jabbi from Heroic in his place.
A recruit from the Danish club Heroic began his career as a professional CS:GO player in 2019. After playing for the GoldenGitte team, the young Dane began to try his hand at Team Sigma, Team Singularity and Copenhagen Flames.
However, the real success for Jabbi came with the Copenhagen Flames team, with which he won BLAST Rising 2021, Malta Vibes Knockout Series Season 4 and PGL Major Antwerp 2022 European RMR B, and also reached the quarterfinals of PGL Major Antwerp 2022, surprising the entire community.
The newcomer will try his hand at the new team already at Intel Extreme Masters XVII - Cologne, which will start for Heroic from the Play-In stage on July 5th.
MIBR, Outsiders and Eternal Fire qualified for ESL Pro League Season 16
ESL Pro League Season 16 Conference ended on Monday, according to the results of which six teams qualified for ESL Pro League Season 16. These lucky ones were MIBR, Outsiders, Eternal Fire, FTW, HEET and Endpoint, which will compete with ESL partner teams and three invited teams.
ESL Pro League Season 16 itself will take place from August 31 to October 2 at an unannounced location. The prize fund of the championship will be $835,000 and a slot for BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.
Stewie2K is about to leave for VALORANT
Stewie2K is seriously considering moving into the VALORANT discipline. A leaked conversation between Stewie2K and Wardell has fueled speculation about the former's possible move into a tactical shooter from Riot Games. The messages came out during a broadcast from Wardell and seem to show Stewie2K discussing their options in VALORANT.
Stewie2K's move to VALORANT has been a hot topic for months. The 24-year-old American eSportsman said late last year that he could try his hand at a new discipline and has been seen playing VALORANT alongside tarik and JasonR lately.
The leaked conversation with Wardell has now added fuel to the fire. Stewie2k and Wardell seemed to be discussing Stewie2K's hypothetical transition into a new discipline. However, the Canadian recommends that the current Evil Geniuses player immediately become a streamer.
This option may be the most favorable for the American, because the last six months in Stewie2K's career can hardly be called successful - the captain of Evil Geniuses failed to become the backbone of his team, getting involved in a conflict with maLeK along the way, actually expelling the coach from the North American club.
NaVi approved roster for IEM Cologne 2022
The Ukrainian esports organization NAVI has approved the roster for the upcoming IEM Cologne 2022. As a result, sdy will remain in the starting team for the next championship, as the Ukrainian showed a decent game in his first tournament in the Born to Win camp.
Recall that sdy joined NAVI three weeks ago. Together with the team, the 25-year-old Ukrainian esportsman became the winner of BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022.
At the same time, NAVI is the current winner of the championship - last year, "Born to Win" outplayed G2 Esports in the grand final with a score of 3:0. The upcoming championship for the yellow-blacks will start from the group stage.
ESIC cancels its recommendations again and removes the ban from the 9z trainer
ESIC lifted coach 9z's suspension from the competition. It is clarified that after receiving additional information from zakk, the Commission has formed the opinion that the provisional suspension is no longer required until a final decision is made.
zakk was one of three coaches who were caught using a banned camera glitch and recommended to be removed from events. Later, the investigation was confirmed by the tournament operator PGL, which suspended specialists from PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
As a result, the specialist was forced to miss the major, as ESIC found him using a static variant of the bug in 1.5 rounds in two games (in 2018 and 2020) when he was coaching two different teams, Luminosity and 9z.
This is not the first time ESIC has rolled back the results of its investigation. The authority had previously canceled a suspension of a peacemaker who was seen using a dynamic variant of a bug that allowed him to move around the map. Nevertheless, the Brazilian specialist found "evidence" that relieves him of guilt and responsibility.
As a result, hally, the coach of Team Spirit, who continues to be sanctioned, is still involved in the case.
mouz NXT wins the WePlay Academy League again
The MOUZ NXT team became the winner of the WePlay Academy League Season 4. In the grand final of the championship, the MOUZ team was stronger than BIG Academy with a score of 2:0 and earned $45,000.
Interestingly, MOUZ NXT managed to lose in the final stage of the championship, losing to FURIA Academy (0:2). However, the team did not lose a single map further to secure another victory.
This is the fourth victory for MOUZ NXT in the WePlay Academy League championship series - the team has been the winner of the previous three seasons.
These were the most interesting news from the world of CS:GO over the past week. If you want to stay up to date with all the latest events, feel free to go to the news tab - we keep our finger on the pulse and promptly introduce you to new insiders, as well as share high-profile transfer transitions.