Frokat
As the last even of the professional 2021 season ends with BLAST Premier: World Finals, the teams look back at their performance and assess their future chances. For some, the year has been a time for discovering your true potential; others haven’t been this lucky. And if something isn’t working, you must fix it.
And fixing is what many organizations intend to do. Some of the changes were a long time coming, some come off as a complete surprise for the community. Either way, this list is gonna be a big one – and it will definitely be updated in the future.
Team Vitality
The rumors about Vitality planning to pull of a great shuffle for Astralis’ trio of the coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen, and the players Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, and Emil “Magisk” Reif were circulating for almost 6 months by now. The first piece of the puzzle was set (or, rather, removed) as the team’s coach Rémy “XTQZZZ” Quoniam officially parts ways with the organization ahead of the change.
You have been part of the creation of our legend, we have shared so many good moments since 2019, a chapter is closing but your name will remain engraved in the Vitality history ?
Thank you @shoxCSGO and good luck in your next adventure #VforVictory pic.twitter.com/n2IRnkbEap
— Team Vitality (@TeamVitality) December 22, 2021
Team Vitality also announced the departure Richard “shox” Papillon. The titan of French Counter-Strike, shox is the player with the longest professional career in this title. His journey began all the way back in 2006 in CS 1.6. And what makes it even more incredible is his level of consistency, as he frequented top-10 and top-5 HLTV rankings, as well as being one of four players who attended all the CS:GO Major tournaments.
It seems that France’s last superteam is already a thing of the past. While the talks about the change take nobody by surprise at this point, what makes it heartbreaking is the fact that Vitality managed to find their form in the second half of the year, delivering a great series of events culminating in their victory in the IEM Winter 2021 as well as a great last dance in BLAST World Finals.
The players’ post-game interviews say it all. Many will remember Apex for his explosive and upbeat energy during the matches, but what is even more memorable is his love for his teammates.
Team Liquid
The last bastion of the North American Counter-Strike is facing a renovations season. TL’s General Manager has posted a message on Twitter detailing the changes: and they mean that Grim, FalleN, and Stewie2K will no longer represent the team’s banner.
Hey all, we're going to be posting some roster updates in the coming weeks but wanted to drop this message from @jokasteve to let you know who will be stepping back. pic.twitter.com/KDeaXAvS6i
— Team Liquid CSGO (@TeamLiquidCS) December 21, 2021
Unfortunately, the NA players can’t boast the same level of camaraderie as their French colleagues. The internal issues within the team were apparent ever since Liquid’s player’s interviews with HLTV in November. Instead of friendly farewell hugs, we saw Liquid’s last dance end with bitter questions thrown into each other’s faces.
Even under such strange circumstances, Team Liquid managed to pull off some very unlikely upsets in their final days. Their victory over Natus Vincere in the opening round of BLAST Premiere: World Finals was a huge surprise for the audience. For sure, you can debate whether it was Team Liquid’s last stand or NaVi’s carelessness that caused this match to have such an outcome, yet results speak for themselves.
We have already reported that the legend of North American CS:GO, Nicholas “nitr0” Cannella, is considering a return to his alma mater after previously leaving Team Liquid’s CS:GO squad for the greener pastures of Riot Games’ VALORANT.
Ninjas in Pyjamas
The ninjas seem to be restless with their roster. Acquiring es3tag in November was clearly not enough to settle all the roster issues as the team is going turbulent once again; this time it’s dev1ce’s doing.
Sources claim that the Danish legend of Counter-Strike Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz is considering leaving the roster for the greener pastures of his former team, Astralis. However, since the swap is in a very early stage (perhaps even calling it the early stage is a stretch), we shouldn’t expect anything more from it anytime soon.
Complexity
The North American lineup is reported to be in the talks to acquire Team Liquid’s rifler Michael “Grim” Wince as well as the core of team Extra Salt. Extra Salt is a North American T2 team, but its core players are showing remarkable potential to compete even against their T1 counterparts.
“OSee’s a demon in the server these days,” remarks his teammate Johnny “JT” Theodosiou in his interview for Upcomer. “He’s someone that doesn’t respect any other team and he knows his capabilities. When he starts playing Tier 1 teams, he’s going to be fine.”
This news indicates that the ambitious Copenhagen Flames deal might have hit a more serious roadblock than first anticipated. This means that Complexity has to explore other options – and who knows, maybe they’ve hit a goldmine this time?
MOUZ
The german esports organization is considering joining in on the roster changes, as well. After their rather dull performance in 2021 Season, where they failed to escape higher than 9th place in the year’s S-tier events, this decision doesn’t come as a huge surprise.
What does take us off guard is the nature of these changes. According to the sources, the retired French Counter-Strike legend Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt might bounce back into the discipline and join up MOUZ. Although NBK won’t be the first one to rotate back and forth between CS:GO and Valorant, this decision still is highly surprising.
This piece of news also coincides with mithR’s decision to leave the organization. According to the sources, MOUZ’s coach Torbjørn “mithR” Nyborg has finalized his decision to leave the organization and instead turn to nurturing younger talents.