CS2 Experts Evaluated Most Hyped Recent Roster Changes

After the first Major in Counter-Strike 2 history, many world-class teams started to rebuild their lineups to improve future results while other organisations appeared in CS by signing entirely new rosters.

From the new and improved BLEED roster to confusing and seemingly constant NIP shuffles, today we will speak about the latest most noticeable CS2 roster changes with the help of Counter-Strike experts.

Let’s introduce them first:

• Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko, a former professional player in CS 1.6 and CS:GO, as well as an original member of Natus Vincere. The champion of multiple CS Major titles in 2010-12. Since 2015 Arseniy has been working as a commentator of CS:GO and CS2 tournaments. 
• Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk. — Counter-Strike analyst and expert on everything that goes on in the server. Since 2016, Alexander has filmed many guides, which he published on his own YouTube channel, where he has 216,000 subscribers.

 Let's get started, shall we?

Rebuilding Monte

After failing to qualify for PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev immediately left Monte. Following him, the club sold Alexander “br0” Bro to Astralis. At first, they tried to fill the holes in the lineup with players from the academy, Gytis “ryu” Glusauskas and Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen, but it turned out somewhat lacking, despite the team’s success in the ESL Pro League. After the team’s time in Malta, Martin “STYKO” Styk and Ali “hAdji” Hainouss were called to help the club.

READ MORE: Monte welcomes a new player

When asked about Monte’s strategy, ceh9 had this to say:

It seems to me, that everything Monte does – they should always do in the long run. However, in modern esports the concept of "long term" is relative. It's 3-4 months and if things are bad, no one will keep the roster or players.

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

He also added that he likes the signing of a player like STYKO, but he is not sure about hAdji:

I like STYKO, and I would like to see the fifth player be someone young - from their academy or someone from outside to expose them. I don't think taking some old dude is an option for them. But STYKO in the lineup is a sdy level player and I think he would be a plus for Monte. Especially he has experience playing under lmbt. I think Monte will improve over the next few months

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk agrees with ceh9's opinion. In addition, he pointed out that Monte prefers to spend money only on players they are 100% sure of. That is why the club is systematically going with building a new roster.

Every time Monte makes roster changes, they try to pull out the best in the conditions they have. They have financial constraints: they can't afford to buy s1mple or even Kvem. So they choose the most favourable option for them. I think Monte has some budget but doesn’t want to waste money. They will spend money only when they are very sure about it. As it is, they are looking for the best option among free agents

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk

STYKO played with LMBT for years under the banners of first HellRaisers and later Mousesports. petr1k dives into the decision-making process, pointing out that detail. 

First of all they tried the academy players, gave them a chance, and most likely were not completely satisfied with them. So they started looking at other options that are available at the moment. You look at the free agent market. You look at the players you can get yourself and STYKO looks like not the worst option, especially since LMBT knows this player. It's a case of picking a player you know what to expect. As for hAdji, I don't know. Monte may know better. Especially they haven't fully announced him yet, so maybe he won't stay in the team yet.

The potential of this lineup, with hAdji and STYKO, is the world's top 20. It would also have the potential to go to the Majors and have a shot if everything comes together. However, that's hard to predict.

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk

Can BlameF save Fnatic from sinking even lower?

Fnatic has been constantly changing its CS roster for a number of years now. At first, there were only Swedish rosters, although a lack of available talent saw them switch to international teams. However, neither Swedish teams nor international teams can bring the club back to the top of the professional scene, where an organisation like Fnatic belongs. 

As a result, the legendary organisation has now turned towards the services of Benjamin “blameF” Bremer, a Danish giant who will undoubtedly strengthen Fnatic.

But will he alone be able to make a significant impact on the team's results?

blameF has captaincy experience and maybe that's what will help Fnatic. It's really a legendary club, but it's very hard for them. The current squad looks nothing and what they need so I don't know.

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

petr1k, like ceh9, is quite sceptical about Fnatic's prospects in the near future.

Fnatic hasn't shown anything for a long time. I would like to see a fight for titles from them. The blameF move won't bring Fnatic back to the top of world CS, but it's a boost for them.

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk

Heroic took a wrong turn

After the scandalous breakup of one of the best teams in the world at the end of 2023, things are not going well for Heroic. Yes, the new international squad regularly performs at tier-one events, but they struggle to achieve any serious results at those events.

With Nico “nicoodoz” Tamjidi struggling to have the same impact in tier-one as he did in tier-two the organisation has benched him in favour of Abdul “degster” Gasanov, but that doesn’t mean that ceh9 is fully convinced about this team. 

Heroic should have stuck to the previous squad with cadiaN and they would have done well. Right now, it looks like there will be more shuffles anyway. Now it's a tier-1.5 team.

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

petr1k, for his part, criticised Heroic for the transfer of degster. The analyst believes that the club could afford to sign a better sniper. 

Objectively assessing, degster is not the best option that Heroic could afford. As a sniper degster has always been aggressive and emotional, but also not stable. There could be mental issues here for Heroic due to trying to combine different players into one team. The positions they were in with cadiaN are definitely not coming back. This lineup is very far from that.

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk

Kassad’s “bleeding” project

At the end of 2023, the esports club BLEED opened a CS2 roster. Former Renegades coach and desk analyst Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovic was brought in to build a competitive roster, and he decided the best bet was to build an international roster.

The initial roster did not live up to expectations and a series of replacements followed. Six months later, kassad is still looking for a stable roster but with strong recent results and the signings of Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad and Tim “nawwk” Jonasson, things look to be on the up for BLEED. They can now be considered a strong tier-2 team.

However, ceh9 is sceptical about projects such as BLEED. He thinks that such clubs lack confidence in the future and are doomed to stay in the Tier-2 scene.

BLEED is a hodgepodge of pretty good players and it's not clear what's happening with the investment and whether they will invest or not. At some point, they will need to make a leap. This leap is achieved by training and the hard work of the coach and players. If that's not there, then goodbye. A top ten BLEED is probably out of the picture.

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

petr1k, on the contrary, expressed confidence in the kassad project. He noted that the main goal of BLEED until 2025 is to form a stable roster, which will unfold after the cancellation of franchise leagues in CS2.

The kassad project is something I believe in. The biggest problem for them is the slots for franchises. Getting through online qualifications for top tournaments even with the best team in the world will be very hard. So, BLEED has until 2025 to put together a roster that will contend when franchises don't play such a big role. I like the recent transfers they've made. It's a move in the right direction.

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk

Is it possible to save Ninjas in Pyjamas?

Just like their historic Counter-Strike rivals Fnatic, NIP has been doing nothing but change players in the past few years. During this time, the team has absolutely no results in tournaments. This behaviour of the organisation's management raises a huge number of questions among fans. ceh9 believes that sooner or later NIP will be able to come to a stable roster, probably when they change the person in charge of the club's transfers.

It's strange to see such a legendary club represented by someone who is unclear. The financial component decides a lot and I think NIP has it. So if this squad doesn't pan out, they'll buy new players. And so they can slowly come up with some kind of option. But what would that be? Become a top-five team in the world? Probably not. Top-ten is the ceiling, probably, for the NIP organisation in the next year and a half.

Arsenij "ceh9" Trynozhenko

petr1k thinks that NIP's main problem is the lack of a stable roster. In his opinion, the current roster looks interesting and promising. The only thing left is for the management to not touch the team for at least three months. Maybe then something will come out of it.

First of all, NIP needs to stop signing players all the time and put together a final roster. The roster they have now is not bad and promising. I think it could be somewhere in the top-15 of the world.

Oleksandr "petr1k" Petryk

Conclusion

Each of the above projects is going through bad times and is in the process of building a new roster. Monte replaced sdy and br0 with STYKO and hAdji, which, according to experts, can strengthen the team, but ceh9 advises the organisation to sign a young player to replace the Frenchman. With the arrival of blameF, Fnatic hopes to improve results, but experts are sceptical about the possibility of significant success in the near future.

ceh9 and petr1k believe that Heroic, in its current form, is unlikely to return to its previous level. BLEED, the new team created by kassad, has not yet shown consistent results and ceh9 doubts its future, while petr1k sees potential after the cancellation of franchise leagues in 2025. At the same time, NIP are constantly changing their roster, which hinders stable results. Experts believe that the management needs to decide on the final roster and give the players a chance to fulfil their potential.

The organisations needs to strike the right balance between roster stability and achieving goals. After all, there are very few moments in history when newly assembled rosters immediately achieved great results.