Roster Mania Hits Professional CS:GO Scene

Nicholas Barth,

February 8, 2018 10:30 PM

Major roster changes are always hot topics in the world of esports, especially when a large amount of them are made in such a short time. This was the case this week when a large group of organizations made major changes to their CS:GO rosters.

Roster changes are always interesting topics of discussion, as they often define the success or failure that an organization will have in the future. Since Monday, February 5th there have been roster changes for nine organizations in the world of professional CS:GO with some major moves that look to have the potential to shake up the entire scene.  

One major roster change in the North American scene saw Kieth "NAF" Markovic moving to Team Liquid from the Detroit Renegades, NAF had previously played for Team Liquid back in 2015. Team Liquid removed Josh "jdm64" Marzano from the roster to make room for NAF's return. There has been no word, as of yet, for the future plans of jdm64 by himself or in an organization. 

German esports organization BIG have had their roster reduced down to three players. After a disappointing showing at the ELEAGUE Major: Boston, Nikola "LEGIJA" Nini?  stepped down from the roster, while BIG benched Kevin "keev" Bartholomäus. LEGIJA will still be assisting the organization as the team's new head coach.  

It was then announced during an AMA (Ask Me Anything) session by BIG's manager on Twitch that Niels "luckeRRR" Jasiek will play with the team at the playoffs of Farmskins Championship #2. The winner of the event will be rewarded with the final spot at IEM Katowice 2018. There has been no word by the organization on who else might fill the final spot on the team, but they are considering testing foreign players who can speak German. 

Team EnVyUs made another major roster change, after signing Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey last week. The team moved Christopher "SIXER" Xia from the starting roster to the bench and promoted Ali "hAdji" Haïnouss from their academy roster to the starting roster. SIXER's demotion to the bench was made due to his poor performances and failure to impress the organization during his 15 months with them. EnVyUs will be looking for the young and talented hAdji to provide an infusion of talent into the struggling roster. 

Gambit Esports announced the official signing of Denis "seized" Kostin to their starting roster and the placing of Bektiyar "fitch" Bahytov into a backup role. Seized has been playing with Gambit as a stand in for fitch in the Mountain Dew League and in the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2018 European Qualifier, so it was not very shocking to see the former Natus Vincere player finally be placed on the starting roster. 

Meanwhile, there was the move by LDLC to drop their in-game leader Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans, first reported by Flickshot.fr, due to not being unable to push the team to better results at large LAN events. LDLC would go on to sign 19-year-old Logan "LOGAN" Corti to fill the empty roster spot left by Ex6TenZ. The organization hopes that the addition of a young talent like LOGAN will revamp the roster and breath some new life into the team.  

Astralis was shocked to see Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjaerbye leave the team suddenly and with no warning to join North. On the hunt for a replacement, the powerhouse organization announced on their website that they were able to sign former North and OpTic Gaming player Emil "Magisk" Reif to their roster. Magisk will be looked upon by Astralis to replace the firepower that the team lost with Kjaerbye leaving.  

Magisk's former team, OpTic Gaming, was also very busy with roster moves, as the team announced a brand new roster for 2018. Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz will be reunited with OpTic Gaming, after leaving the organization to join Team Liquid back in February 2017. Along with stanislaw, OpTic Gaming signed Shahzeb "ShahZam" Khan, Rene "cajunb" Borg, Kristian "K0nfig" Wienecke, and Nicklas "gade" Gade. ShahZam is a former member of Misfits, while canjunb and K0nfig are former members of North and Gade is a former member of North's academy team. There has been no word from OpTic Gaming regarding the situation of the three remaining members of the team's previous roster. These players include Adam "friberg" Friberg, Aleski "allu" Jalli, and Kevin "HS" Tarn.  

Team Dignitas announced on their official website  that they had signed the roster of SoaR Gaming to compete under the Team Dignitas brand. The Team Dignitas CS:GO roster now consists of Matthew "mCe" Elmore,  Team Captain Logan "Voltage" Long, Jack "xCeeD" Holiman, Michael "Grim" Wince, and Mitch "mitch" Semago. These five players will be looked upon by Team Dignitas to get the organization back on top of the CS:GO scene. 

Finally, with the loss of NAF to Team Liquid, the Detroit Renegades needed a proven player to fill the shoes of the departed veteran and they were able to sign Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad to fill this void. This is not a permanent move currently, as jkaem will only be playing in a stand-in role for the upcoming months, as the team evaluates his performance before deciding to sign him officially.

With so many roster moves, shake-ups, leavings, joinings and more. It's looking to be a spectularly different upcoming season for CS:GO as we watch to see what teams build their way to victory and who falls along the path. 

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