Weekly CS:GO News Digest (new G2 Esports Manager, Brazilian Reflashes and more)

Another competitive week in CS:GO has come to an end, which was remembered for a couple of small championships, and was also marked by some interesting transitions and rumors. In this regard, we propose to recall the past week for the most high-profile news from the world of CS:GO.

Richard Lewis retires from esports

Famous British journalist Richard Lewis has announced his retirement from esports. The 40-year-old analyst made the corresponding statement during a live broadcast on his Twitch channel, citing the lack of pleasure from work.

When was the last time I enjoyed esports? I haven't had fun here in a long time. This industry is garbage. I hate her and came to the conclusion that this feeling is too strong.

I have donated to this sphere for 17 years... and for what? To watch all the cancers that come on stage metastasize? I used to want to fight to stop them, but I lost this battle.

Before finally leaving esports, the British journalist will complete several of his big investigations for the Dexerto portal, where he worked as a consulting editor. Lewis will also stop any production of esports content, including the By The Numbers podcast.

peca becomes G2 Esports Team Manager

The beginning of the week was marked by the appointment of peca as the manager of the G2 Esports CS:GO team. The Serbian functionary has long been familiar with the esports scene. Being the manager of the Valiance team, he managed to bring the roster to the international level, after which he moved under the wing of the CR4ZY organization, gathered around the Balkan tag.

The last job of the 31-year-old Serbian specialist was FunPlus Phoenix, where he worked as a general manager from September 2020 to October 2021. Under his leadership, the team won Snow Sweet Snow #1, and also took second place at DreamHack Open January 2021: Europe and Fantasyexpo EU Champions Fall 2021.

However, at the end of last year, the Chinese club announced their retirement from the scene, thus leaving peca without a main job. Nevertheless, the Serbian was simultaneously engaged in the development of the tournament operator Relog Media, in which he is still a member of the management team to this day.

BLAST Tournament Operator Approves Venue for BLAST Premier World Final 2022

In the middle of the week, the BLAST tournament operator presented the venue where the BLAST Premier World Final 2022 will take place. The championship will be held from December 14 to 18 in the United Arab Emirates, in the city of Abu Dhabi.

At the moment, two participants of the event are known. Natus Vincere received an invitation as the winner of BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022, while FaZe Clan won ESL Pro League Season 15 and PGL Major Antwerp 2022. One more team will receive an invite after winning BLAST Premier Fall Finals 2022, and the fourth and the fifth participant will be known after the completion of Intel Extreme Masters Rio Major 2022 and ESL Pro League Season 16, respectively. The remaining three teams will be selected through the global rating table from BLAST.

HAVU announces roster realignment

The Finnish esports organization HAVU has announced another change in the CS:GO roster, saying goodbye to ottoNd and sLowi. Both players will continue to be on the club's balance sheet until their contracts expire on July 31.

ottoNd returned to the HAVU roster at the start of the current season after spending the past year inactive. In turn, sLowi joined HAVU in May 2018 after moving from iGame.com. However, things didn't work out for the Finnish team in the new season, as it didn't win a single significant championship, being in the top three at Elisa Open Suomi Season 1 and Pelaajat.com Series: Spring 2022.

The organization added that it will begin considering candidates to replenish its roster, promising to announce the final five in the coming weeks.

CSPPA unveils summer break dates for next year

The CSPPA, the Counter-Strike Professional Players Association, has approved summer break dates for 2023. Next season, the upper echelon of the scene will take a break from June 12 to July 9. According to the CSPPA, such a decision was made to evenly divide the season into two parts.

After consulting with organizers, players, and other members of the community, the CSPPA has decided to put a hiatus on the 2023 Summer Tournaments from June 12 to July 9. Compared to the summer holidays of 2022, which will take place from July 18 to August 14, the dates have been moved forward by a month.

Given the dates Valve has set for next year's Majors, the Spring Championship will be the last in the first half of the season (scheduled for weeks 19 and 20).

00NATION signs the backbone of GODSENT

The Norwegian esports organization 00NATION has officially unveiled its updated CS:GO roster, signing the core of the GODSENT team, as well as a new coaching staff led by cky.

Talk about the future of the coldzera-led project began as early as late May, when the first report was published linking TACO to his former comrade. Over the following weeks, the parties moved forward with negotiations, including even more players in the deal. Initially, the Norwegian club considered signing four GODSENT players at once, until b4rtiN pulled out of the deal.

As a result, the parties agreed on mutually beneficial terms, eventually agreeing on the transfer of TACO, latto and dumau, as well as the GODSENT coaching staff to 00NATION.

Looking ahead, the Brazilian team has already managed to take part in the ESL Challenger at DreamHack Valencia 2022, taking 5-6th place after losing to Outsiders and Sprout at the group stage.

BIG wins a major online casino tournament

The German team BIG became the winner of the Roobet Cup 2022. According to the results of the championship, which took place online from June 22 to 30, BIG earned $150,000.

The tournament for the future winner began with two wins over Entropiq (2:1) and FaZe Clan (2:1) in the group stage. After that, the German team managed to defeat Eternal Fire (2:1), simultaneously defeating Cloud9 (2:0) in the semifinals. And for starters, BIG once again outplayed FaZe Clan (2:1), thanks to which they earned a solid prize.

Interestingly, syrsoN was recognized as the best player of the championship, who was noted for his impressive stability throughout the entire event. This is the second MVP medal in the German sniper's career.

Valve begins active work on porting CS:GO to the Source 2 engine

Another batch of rumors about the imminent porting of CS:GO to the Source 2 engine. This time, a user under the nickname Aquarius said on his page that he became aware that this week Valve began work on porting several of the most famous maps to the Source game engine 2.

As evidence, the insider showed a screenshot, which shows that the name of the maps that Aquarius does not disclose ends with the prefix “_s2”, which, according to the author, symbolizes the optimization of the map for the new engine. Later, the user shared a list of cards, the processing of which has already been discovered.

Maps already rumored to be porting to the new physics engine include Inferno, Overpass, and Italy. It remains only to wait for the next news from insiders, since talk of imminent changes has been going on for more than a year.

Movistar Riders became the champion of ESL Challenger Valencia 2022 at DreamHack

The Spaniards from Movistar Riders unexpectedly won the home ESL Challenger Valencia 2022 at DreamHack. In the championship final, the team was stronger than Outsiders (2:1), thanks to which they earned $50,000 and a slot at the ESL Pro League Conference Season 17.

The tournament for the Spanish team started with two crushing victories in the group stage over HUMMER Esports (16:0) and MIBR (16:3). Having made it to the playoffs, Movistar Riders confidently outplayed Sprout (2:0), thanks to which they reached the grand final of the home championship. Well, in the final of the event, the Spaniards managed to make a comeback with the Outsiders (2:1), thereby winning the first championship in a long time.

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.