Author: Sam "AN1MO" McKenzie
Following a difficult first half of 2023 in which they notably missed out on the BLAST.tv Paris Major and failed to reach the playoffs of all but one LAN event they attended, Astralis reinvigorated their lineup by removing Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander and Alexander ‘Altekz’ Givskov and replacing them with Victor ‘Staehr’ Staehr and Johannes ‘b0RUP’ Borup.A move that yielded instant results, the team qualified for the BLAST Premier Fall Final despite a slow start at BLAST Premier Fall Groups, and followed that up with a top-four finish at IEM Cologne 2023 – their best LAN placing since they achieved a…
With GamerLegion’s run at the BLAST.tv Paris Major and MOUZ’s win at ESL Pro League Season 18, the confidence in players who have previously featured on MOUZ NXT is stratospheric.One such player, Henrich “sl3nd” Hevesi, who is perhaps less well known due to his time with the team coming after its dominant run in the WePlay Academy League, now finds himself playing for Endpoint.The Hungarian AWPer has mounted an impressive performance over the past three months and with a new Counter-Strike game to play, will be looking to emulate his compatriot Adam “torzsi” Torzsas in the new era. With that…
IEM Sydney is almost upon us and with that comes the beginning of tier one Counter-Strike 2 action. The first IEM Sydney since 2019, although it might be on at unusual times for a typical Counter-Strike event, it will be an exciting return to one of Counter-Strike’s greatest crowds.A new game, no one knows exactly what to suspect, but we’re willing to bet that with MR12 best of ones, there could just be a tonne of unexpected results. Oh, and definitely a whole bunch of shoeys once we reach the playoff stage.There are two groups to look at, so we’ve…
IEM Sydney is almost upon us and with that comes the beginning of tier one Counter-Strike 2 action. The first IEM Sydney since 2019, although it might be on at unusual times for a typical Counter-Strike event, it will be an exciting return to one of Counter-Strike’s greatest crowds.A new game, no one knows exactly what to suspect, but we’re willing to bet that with MR12 best of ones, there could just be a ton of unexpected results. Oh, and definitely a whole bunch of shoeys once we reach the playoff stage.There’s two groups to look at, so we’ve decided…
Despite being a late bloomer, Audric “JACKZ” Jug has played with a catalog of impressive players since he was signed by G2 in 2018. Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and Richard “shox” Papillon are just a few of those, but recently he has embarked on a new endeavor in TSM with young talents like Cai “CYPHER” Watson and Madalin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea.Alongside Valdemar “valde” Bjorn Vangsa, JACKZ is one of the elder statesmen of this team, and together they hope to guide the team to the first CS2 Major in Copenhagen come March.After the beginning of the project, BLIX got…
Across the ten-plus years of CS:GO’s release, legendary rosters have risen to the top of the rankings and written their names into history forever.From the beginning of the game to its end, these rosters have all dominated for periods, crushing the opposition and becoming immovable objects at the summit of the professional landscape.As we look towards the release of Counter-Strike 2, here at BLIX, we’ve been ranking some of the best in history, and after nations, riflers, and AWPers, rosters are now in line.Starting with the honorable mentions, let’s go through the list and see which roster will win out…
Caster, Analyst, Coach, and all-round Mr. NA, Jason ‘moses’ O’Toole is a veteran of the game who has seen and done it all.In a year of change for both himself and the region in which he calls home, we spoke to moses about recent roster moves in NA, the importance of orgs like nouns and M80, as well as his new casting duo with Adam ‘Dinko’ Hawthorne.Sam ‘AN1MO’ McKenzie, BLIX: It’s been tough for the NA teams so far, including Liquid. How are you feeling about the rosters so far?Jason ‘moses’ O’Toole: Yeah, I don’t really count Liquid anymore, which…
Sources with knowledge of the transfer have confirmed to BLIX that British organization Into The Breach are set to announce former Virtus.pro player, Alexey “Qikert” Golubev, as their new fifth in short order. The upcoming signing sees the IEM Rio 2022 Major winner return to activity after being benched by the Armenian-Russian organization in late August in favor of Nikolay “mir” Bityukov.Likewise, the addition of Qikert comes after Into The Breach’s former IGL Thomas ‘Thomas’ Utting recently benched himself, and follows on from the arrival of Kevin ‘misutaaa’ Rabier in the wake of Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar’s departure. It is the…
ENCE have been one of the best teams in the world in recent months, and although stars like Alvaro ‘SunPayus’ Garcia and Guy ‘Nertz’ Iluz might be the flashy ones catching the eyes of the community, IGL Marco ‘Snappi’ Pfeiffer has been the heart and mind behind their rise back to the elite level of the Counter-Strike world.At IEM Cologne, we sat down with Snappi to discuss ENCE’s return to the top, the growth of SunPayus, and how ENCE is now a place for players to stick around, rather than move on to bigger things elsewhere.Sam ‘AN1MO’ McKenzie, BLIX: In…
Despite people questioning the removal of Peter ‘dupreeh’ Rasmussen so soon after the team won a Major, so far, Vitality with Shahar ‘flameZ’ Shushan have looked as strong as ever. With a top four at IEM Cologne and a win at Gamers8 now under their belts, they stand tall as the best team in the world.Back at IEM Cologne, we got the chance to sit down with flameZ to discuss roles on the team, his form since joining and the influence of an iconic Entry Fragger like Dan ‘apEX’ Madesclaire.Sam ‘AN1MO’ McKenzie, BLIX: Are you surprised by how you’ve hit…