Led by coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovi?, the new international Counter-Strike 2 line-up is now finalised and ready for the 2024 season.
BLEED Esports announced its first foray in Counter-Strike in late November 2023 with the addition of Serbian coach kassad, and has, over the next month, slowly started assembling the new roster.
First came the signing of ex-BIG rifler Josef “faveN” Baumann, preceding the addition of Hampus “hampus” Poser, Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Lauren?iu “lauNX” ?arlea.
With time running out for BLEED Esports to find the fifth member ahead of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 Major qualifiers, the Singaporean team didn’t need long to round up the five-man line-up.
CYPHER arrives at BLEED from TSM, whom he joined at the end of August but hasn’t accomplished much outside of winning ESEA Cash Cup: Europe – Autumn 2023 #3 and finishing ESEA Season 47: Advanced Division – Europe in third place.
The final piece!
Please welcome @cyphercsgo_ to BLEED CS2#GOBLEED
pic.twitter.com/g4YROGkeAd
— BLEED Esports (@ggBleed) January 3, 2024
Before signing for TSM, CYPHER played for Into the Breach, which he helped reach the quarterfinals of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.
He has not found much success in bigger events, despite being one of the most consistent performers on the team.
As confirmed by kassad, BLEED initially intended to acquire Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Max “maxster” Jansson.
Unfortunately, the deal fell apart after PGL failed to confirm whether maxster, who is registered as NiP’s substitute, would be able to participate in the European open qualifiers for PGL Major Copenhagen.
BLEED’s approach for Justin “jks” Savage was also unsuccessful.
But despite all the hoops kassad had to jump through to assemble the new Counter-Strike roster, BLEED Esports now fields a promising lineup, which will debut in the upcoming European open qualifiers for PGL Major Copenhagen, set to kick off on January 8, 2024.
BLEED Esports Roster
- Hampus “hampus” Poser
- Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov
- Josef “faveN” Baumann
- Lauren?iu “lauNX” ?arlea
- Cai “CYPHER” Watson
- Coach: Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovi?
?Valde joined the team after his spell at OG as the team’s rifler. He has also played alongside Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer, the in-game leader of ENCE, during his time with Heroic in 2016 and 2017. ? ?
Although he was signed by the franchise, he was not ENCE’s first pick. The Finnish esports organization previously had their eyes set on Lauren?iu “lauNX” ?arlea, the resident rifler in Sprout. However, they could not strike a deal with the team.? ?ENCE’s IGL revealed that after trying to sign lauNX and failing, the team hosted tryouts for a new player. ?
?”LauNX was the only one where an offer was made early on, and he wanted to go,” Snappi said.
“We bid a lot, but Sprout denied it, and his agent didn’t put a buyout in his contract. After that, we did tryouts on some players as we weren’t 100 percent sure who to go for.”? ?
He continued, “Valde did amazing, and the team preferred him. I think he will do great, and he truly seems motivated to do big things as he didn’t achieve what he wants to. He has great comms, and with the addition of him, it opens up more possibilities to play more ‘open’ rounds without an end goal.”? ?
ENCE considered Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski to be another player to take the place of Spinx. The Polish player left Anonymo in December 2021 and has stayed a free agent since then. He stood in for Spinx during the team’s participation in the IEM Dallas and gave an impressive performance.? ?
Due to visa issues, Spinx was unable to participate in the event, but Snax certainly made up for the team’s star player’s absence. Despite not participating in tier one events in a while, the 29-year-old was the highest-rated player on ENCE’s team during IEM Dallas and assisted the team in getting to the event’s grand finals. The astonishing performance was given with little time for the player to practice.? ?
Snappi revealed that the Polish legend was one of the four potential players selected by the team. ? ?
“Yes, he [Snax] was considered. We had four different players we picked between as a team, and he was one of them. It was close that we picked him. I love Janusz, and I’m truly sorry that I didn’t hold up my tweet after Dallas,”? the IGL said.
?”I wrote it both to help him and also because I actually meant it at the time.
“So, sorry to the Polish community, but mostly Janusz, for not picking him. I’m sure he will find somewhere soon, though; he is not like other older players; he has motivation, drive, and, most important talent. I really hope I see him again soon; he is amazing.”? ?
Spinx left ENCE earlier this month to replace Kévin “?misutaaa?” Rabier at Team Vitality. The player’s contribution to ENCE made them one of the best CS:GO squads worldwide and earned him the spot as the best player on the team. This year, Spinx averaged a 1.15 rating covering 115 official maps and was an essential part of the team’s position as runner-up in the April ESL Pro League Season 15 as well as their semifinal run in the PGL Antwerp Major that took place in May.?
?The ESL Pro League Season 16 is slated to take place in September and will see ENCE’s additions, Valde and Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia – the team’s new AWPer – make their debut. The team was placed with Astralis, HEET, MOUZ, Heroic, and Complexity in Group C. GG Bet has ENCE as $1.39 favourites to win their group.
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