Author: Jimmy “Infernal” Young
Tournament Overview BLAST Bounty is an extraordinary event that will include a prize pool based on bounties. The prize pool distribution will depend on seeding and the outcomes of individual matches, pushing the teams to perform at their best to secure their complete bounty. The team’s seeding will determine the bounties, with the top-seeded teams becoming the main targets and having more at stake when the matches begin. There will be 32 teams featured, and they will have to fight for eight spots at the LAN Finals. The online part of the event will run from January 14 to January…
G2 has announced the acquisition of Nikita ‘HeavyGod’ Martynenko from Cloud9 to take the place of Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač, who has moved to Falcons. ‘HeavyGod’ was with Cloud9 for only seven months and maintained a 1.16 rating across 73 maps played. He notably guided the Russian team to qualify for the Perfect World Shanghai Major, achieving a 1.32 rating in the European RMR. The Israeli rifler is anticipated not to serve as an in-game substitute for NiKo; rather, he is expected to assume the anchor CT responsibilities previously held by Mario ‘malbsMd’ Samayoa, enabling the Guatemalan to step into NiKo’s…
paiN has revealed the addition of David ‘dav1deuS’ Tapia Maldonado. The Chilean sharpshooter is joining the team after playing for RED Canids, where he was part of the roster starting in October 2023. While he was with the team, he achieved an average rating of 1.18 and participated in the RMRs for the Copenhagen and Shanghai Majors, although RED Canids did not secure a spot in either event. After concluding the Shanghai RMR, which RED Canids wrapped up with a 2-3 record, the Chilean player was put on the bench along with Gabriel ‘nython’ Lino. ‘dav1deuS’ has taken the place…
BIG has finalized the acquisition of Can ‘kyuubii’ Ali from fnatic and elevated academy player Marcel ‘hyped’ Köhn, the German organization revealed on Tuesday. These two players will replace Rigon ‘rigoN’ Gashi, who has departed, and Florian ‘syrsoN’ Rische, who has been benched, following the conclusion of the 2024 season. This is the latest instance that hyped has been elevated by BIG to take syrsoN’s place. In February 2023, he was promoted to the main roster, but four months later, he was reassigned to the academy team when the organization brought in Mateusz ‘mantuu’ Wilczewski. ‘hyped’ dedicated the following eight…
9 Pandas has confirmed the addition of Vladislav ‘Krad’ Kravchenko and Vladislav ‘Alv’ Vorokhobov to their roster, restoring it to full capacity after the benching and transfer-listing of Artem ‘iDISBALANCE’ Egorov and Aleksandr ‘glowiing’ Matsievich. Following their unsuccessful attempt to qualify for the Perfect World Shanghai Major, 9 Pandas decided to refresh their roster, after being defeated by G2, Virtus.pro, and Ninjas in Pyjamas during the Europe RMR. ‘Krad’ boasts significantly more experience compared to the other new signing, having competed for teams such as DreamEaters, Entropiq, FORZE, and AMKAL, with each team taking him to a Major. Throughout his…
Metizport has announced their latest lineup, adding Hampus ‘hampus’ Poser and Isak ‘isak’ Fahlén to the team while placing Casper ‘SHiNE’ Wennerberg on the bench. Both players have signed contracts that will last until the summer of 2026. These changes follow the recent exit of Linus ‘nilo’ Bergman from the organization. As part of their announcement, Metizport disclosed that Nicolas ‘Plopski’ Gonzalez Zamora has signed an extension with the team, lasting until the summer of 2026. ‘hampus’ serves as the significant name for Metizport’s latest lineup. The 26-year-old in-game leader gained recognition by clinching victory at IEM Fall 2021 with…
Ninjas in Pyjamas have declared that they are severing ties with Isak ‘isak’ Fahlén, marking the conclusion of the Swede’s eight-month stint. ‘isak’ became a member of Ninjas in Pyjamas in May 2024 after spending three years with GamerLegion, marking the completion of a roster overhaul that started in February. The 23-year-old experienced some early success at LAN events with Ninjas in Pyjamas, finishing ahead of teams like Eternal Fire and HEROIC to secure second place at YaLLa Compass and achieve 16th in the global rankings. Ninjas in Pyjamas did not accomplish much of significance during isak’s period with the…
Complexity has confirmed the recruitment of Danny ‘cxzi’ Strzelczyk and Nick ‘nicx’ Lee, validating a recent report from Dust2.us and finalizing their roster following the recent exits of Jonathan ‘EliGE’ Jablonowski and Ricky ‘floppy’ Kemery. The changes signify a major overhaul of Complexity’s starting roster after a year of lackluster performance in international competitions, with their most recent exit being from the Opening Stage of the Perfect World Shanghai Major. ‘Floppy’ was sidelined by Complexity shortly after the mentioned Major, just before star rifler ‘EliGE’ left amidst speculation about a transfer to FaZe. In making the replacements, Complexity has chosen…
Fnatic has revealed the acquisitions of Rodion ‘fear’ Smyk and Denys ‘Burmylov’ Buraga to restore their roster to full capacity once again. The Ukrainian pair will replace Alexandre ‘bodyy’ Pianaro and Tim ‘nawwk’ Jonasson, who were dropped from the team during the winter offseason. The transition indicates that fnatic is shifting towards a significantly younger lineup, as the new pair is 14 years younger combined than ‘bodyy’ and ‘nawwk’, resulting in an average age of the previously aging team dropping to 24.5. ‘fear’ joins fnatic as the new in-game leader after guiding Passion UA to an unexpected showing at the…
HEROIC has revealed their new lineup, incorporating Sangal’s trio of Linus ‘LNZ’ Holtäng, Simon ‘yxngstxr’ Boije, and Yasin ‘xfl0ud’ Koç, together with Álvaro ‘SunPayus’ García and Andrey ‘tN1R’ Tatarinovich. In the announcement, it was revealed that Linus ‘nilo’ Bergman and Pavle ‘Maden’ Bošković will serve as substitutes for HEROIC during the upcoming BLAST Bounty campaign. The updated roster mainly aligns with a prior announcement from Sheep Esports, but ‘nilo’ is not included in the starting team. The future plans for HEROIC’s roster remain uncertain, as they have designated two notable substitutes. ‘nilo’ is regarded as one of Europe’s most promising…