Wildcard Esports has officially benched its entire Counter-Strike 2 roster, signaling a full rebuild after months of instability and disappointing results at the BLAST.tv Austin Major and Perfect World Shanghai Major. The organization confirmed the reset on social media, outlining that every player has been benched, transfer-listed, or set to depart. Here’s a full breakdown of what led to the overhaul and what comes next for Wildcard in CS2.
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Why Wildcard Is Resetting Its Entire CS2 Roster
Anyone who has followed Wildcard over the past few months likely saw this coming. Following the BLAST.tv Austin Major, and after their shaky showing at the Perfect World Shanghai Major in 2024, the team has not looked the same.
Wildcard struggled to find consistent results, leading to multiple roster changes that ultimately failed to improve the team. Consequently, this led to the current decision to disband the roster.
Full Breakdown of Wildcard’s Benched and Departing Players
Every member of Wildcard’s team is either benched, transfer-listed, or departing because of contract expiry. Here is the full roster and what happened to each player:
- Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz – Listed for a transfer
- Love “phzy” Smidebrant – Listed for a transfer
- Josh “jBa” Barutt – Listed for a transfer
- Jaxon “Peeping” Cornwell – Benched
- Maciej “F1KU” Miklas – Will depart
Since Peeping is the only member not listed for transfer, Wildcard may choose to rebuild the roster around him. Whether this will happen is unknown, but we may see the player in the new team.
Internal Issues and the Austin Major Turning Point
Wildcard was performing reasonably well, but something changed during the Austin Major. The team’s questionable decisions to bench phzy and stanislaw after that have caused a lot of issues because it seems like the management did not consult with the rest of the team.
While it is true that the management team eventually reinstated the two players to the roster, the damage had already been done. It affected the way people played, and the team was never able to bounce back to where it was.
What’s Next for Wildcard in CS2?
CS2 fans can only hope Wildcard finds its way back, as the team has shown before that it can compete at a high level. The organization will be starting from scratch, so everything is possible. Make sure to follow us for more information.
