Players Without Teams in CS:GO 2. Why They Haven’t Fit in Previous Lineups and Where They Might End Up.
The professional Counter-Strike scene evolves rapidly, with each team striving to keep up with the pace, aiming to achieve the desired results as quickly as possible. This directly impacts roster formation, with organizations seizing any opportunity for potential strengthening. Player substitutions have long become commonplace, and in today’s reality, there aren’t many players who can be 100% certain about their future. Today, we’ll talk about players who not long ago performed at a tier-1 level but are currently without a team or only formally remain in an organization due to an existing contract. Rumors abound that during the tournament pause, numerous reshuffles will occur, so it will be quite useful to remember such players.
Olexander "s1mple" Kostylev
The best player of the last decade in CS:GO, after transitioning to CS2, suddenly announced a career hiatus due to personal circumstances. He did so completely unexpectedly and, according to rumors, shocked not only the entire community but also his teammates. Alexander’s last tournament with NAVI was in October 2023. EPL S18 marked the end of his CS:GO tournaments, as he missed his flight to Sydney for the first CS2 event. A few days later, he officially took a break and, judging by his social media activity, completely stopped dedicating time to the game and maintaining his form.
In February 2024, after failing to qualify for the Major, Falcons loaned s1mple for a month. At the time, it seemed like the perfect turn of events to revive Kostylev’s career, but they lost their very first match. The star returned to the bench in his club, hoping to return to the main lineup after the Major, but his team unexpectedly became champions without him. It seems that there aren’t many career continuation options for him, as his performance in Falcons didn’t impress anyone. NAVI definitely won’t let go of such an asset for peanuts, and the only team that could afford such a financial adventure returned him after a month of loan. The most realistic option for a return to the pro scene is transitioning to a rifler and replacing iM, who performed extremely poorly even at a championship tournament.
Justin "jks" Savage
The last team of one of the best and most consistent anchors in the world was G2. Together with him, the lineup won two prestigious trophies in 2023: IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne. Remembering such results and the player’s individual performance, the decision to part ways with the Australian sharpshooter surprised almost everyone. Symbolically, Justin’s last tournament with G2 was at the home tournament in Sydney in October 2023. Since then, he hasn’t played a single official match, and there’s been complete silence about his future. A player with vast experience, capable of quickly adapting to team ideas in positions where adaptation is crucial, miraculously hasn’t found use for half a year. The Australian has already proven capable of quickly integrating into a team, serving as a stand-in at IEM Katowice 2022, where he helped FaZe win the trophy. Perhaps the issue lies in the absence of official matches in CS2, and teams are reluctant to take risks, but Justin is currently a free agent, and the risk doesn’t seem too high. Most likely, organizations are waiting to see how transfer events unfold before approaching him with specific offers. At the moment, a transfer to Vitality looks like a decent option, where he would replace mezii.
Benjamin "blameF" Bremer
It was 2019, and a young Danish captain was performing in the up-and-coming organization, Heroic. The player stood out with his incredibly high statistics in the captain’s role and was remembered by the community not only for his performance in CS but also for his unusual, impeccable physical condition. He caught the attention of Complexity, who decided to assemble a lineup of global CS stars with blameF as their leader. The transfer cost almost a record $500,000 at the time, and from then on, the Dane’s career didn’t quite take off. Over five years, he won only one trophy during the online era, but consistently made it into the HLTV top 20 for individual performance.
Currently, blameF finds himself on the bench after failing to qualify for the Major in Copenhagen. On paper, their lineup with device, his former teammate from Heroic – stavn, jabbi, and Staerh was supposed to restore the tag’s glory by assembling almost the best Danish players. However, this roster failed to find synergy, and the player decided to step away into inactivity. The Dane’s career has been quite turbulent and resembles riding emotional roller coasters. There’s hardly any doubt that blameF will receive another career opportunity during the competitive CS pause. The most splendid development would be joining G2, replacing Hoxii, or returning to Heroic in place of kyxsan and taking over the captain’s role from sjuush. There are also less top-tier options with joining the Danish lineup of Gaimin Gladiators or the international team Apeks. It all depends on whether he wants to continue being an IGL or plans to transition to a rifler role.
Nikolay "mir" Bityukov
The player has played for almost all the top teams in Eastern Europe. The FPL star played for Vega Squadron, Team Spirit, Gambit, and Virtus.pro, where he literally sat on the bench just a few weeks ago. The Bears unexpectedly signed Nikolay in the summer of 2023 after almost a year of inactivity and won several trophies with him. But when the opportunity arose to replace him with Denis “electroNic” Sharipov, the organization couldn’t afford to miss such a chance. VP stated that they are ready to consider any offers for mir, and surprisingly, they might find a new club for him. After the collapse of Cloud9 in the CIS region, significant changes began to occur, involving many organizations, and there is a good chance that mir’s experience could be useful to one of the Russian-speaking teams. Unlike many players who are rumored to be involved in future transfers, Nikolay Bityukov has been participating in tier-1 events with VP all this time. The Russian player also has downsides: his age, complete disregard for the club’s media life, and an existing contract with VP, but thanks to this, teams can offer him a less risky contract, citing these nuances. Nikolay should understand the situation and will likely be happy with any offer, making his potential signing a win/win for both sides.
Mohammad "BOROS" Malhas
The community learned about this player after his incredible performance at the last CS:GO Major in Paris. With Monte, the Jordanian reached the quarterfinals and was the absolute leader. After that tournament, there was no doubt that BOROS would end up in a top club, where he would be trusted with the role of a star player. Suddenly, Falcons appeared on the horizon, deciding to make him the leader of the lineup, but at that time, they picked teammates who were significantly inferior to him in skill. At the end of 2023, the Arab organization entered the transfer market to rectify this situation and acquired a top trio from ENCE and multiple Major champions in the form of Magisk and coach zonic for BOROS.
The Jordanian quickly struggled under the pressure of playing with such renowned teammates and the suddenly increased responsibility. He couldn’t help the team qualify for the Major and, as it turned out, even became the main culprit of the failure. The coach, along with experienced captain Snappi, heavily criticized the player, accusing him of absurd actions and a lack of focus on the game. Extra manipulations with settings, changing gaming devices, created a lot of fuss and, according to the Danes, had nothing to do with a professional approach. Because of this, the player was benched, and his future looks the most uncertain among today’s five players. His reputation has been significantly tarnished, he likely has a fairly large contract, and few will want to exercise the option to buy BOROS from Falcons.