Author: Sam "AN1MO" McKenzie

The off-season’s Rostermania has been the most exciting of all time, and frankly, no one knows what to expect from any of the teams in the coming months.It’s almost a certainty that some of these teams will fail, and we have an inkling as to a couple that will, but failure is just as exciting as success, especially when it could be as drastic as this.Luckily for us, the debuts of many of these new teams are right around the corner, and with BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023 set to kick off in just a few days time, let’s talk…

Michael “Grim” Wince broke into the tier-one scene with Team Liquid, the first player to step into their Intel Grand Slam-winning roster after the departure of Nick “nitr0” Canella. Now the star of a Complexity team looking to do NA proud, he will reunite with his former Liquid teammate Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski as EliGE takes his first steps outside Liquid in eight years.BLIX sat down with Grim to discuss the change, what it will be like to play with EliGE again and what it means to be the best team in NA by default. Sam “AN1MO” McKenzie, BLIX: You’ve played…

Vitality have been on a great run of late with wins at IEM Rio 2023, the BLAST.tv Paris Major and a grand final appearance at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2023. Success did little to quench their thirst for improvement however, and as rostermania roared into action they made the surprising move to replace legendary Danish entry fragger Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen with Israeli star Shahar “flameZ” Shushan.flameZ, who had become one of the hottest prospects in Counter-Strike thanks to his performances on OG, now steps into one of the best teams in the world where he can hopefully realize his full…

From 2019 to 2022, Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski was building a reputation as one of the best upcoming AWPers in CS:GO. Despite this and his lengthy tenure on OG, in mid-2022 he was benched in favor of Abdul “degster” Gasnov ahead of IEM Cologne 2022Now, after a year on the bench, mantuu now makes his return with BIG. Ahead of his debut at the BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023, Sam “AN1MO” McKenzie of BLIX sat down with mantuu to discuss his new team and whether he feels he has a point to prove with the German organization.Sam “AN1MO” McKenzie, BLIX: You’re…

In a surprising shift from their formerly French roster, Falcons have entered a new era following their announcement of the signings of Milosz “mhL” Knasiak, Mohammad “BOROS” Malhas and Laurentiu “lauNX” Țârlea.Three impressive young players, each of them come into the team looking to take the next steps in their career. With backing from Saudi Arabia, Falcons is an ambitious organization with a team that mhL says has “really big potential.”In an interview with Sam “AN1MO” McKenzie, mhL discussed joining Falcons, the team’s ambitions for greatness and replacing legendary French AWPer Kenny “kennyS” Schrub.”[We] have everything you need to get…

OG arrived in CS promising big things. One of the greatest organizations in the history of Dota 2, their two International wins suggested that this is an organization that will not settle for merely existing is the CS space.Two complete rosters later, OG have done little more than settle for their own mediocre existence. With two rosters that have failed to impress or failed to even achieve much outside of the BLAST space in which they are protected by their partner spot, they have barely even managed to progress the careers of their stars. Outside of Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, former…

Counter-Strike 2 is almost upon us, and as Global Offensive comes to a close, we’re taking another look at the history books for another top five.We’ve already covered the best nations, as well as the best riflers, so now it’s the turn of those who have starred on the big green, the AWPers.Some love them, some hate them, but regardless of your views on Counter-Strike’s most iconic weapon, there’s no debating that these players have starred with the gun like no others.Before we get into our list properly, let’s take a look at a couple of honorable mentions. Exceptional players,…

With both the BLAST.tv Paris Major and IEM Dallas completed, it’s clear that the roster shuffle season is almost upon us.There have already been reports about OG, ranging from them signing Florian “syrsoN” Rische to them dropping almost their entire roster. At the same time, FURIA have also been reported to be tapping up the godfather of Brazilian Counter-Strike, Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo.The Major saw the rise of many tier-two talents, with the likes of Apeks and Monte making the Playoffs while GamerLegion went all the way to the Grand-final. It seems certain that many teams will struggle to hold onto…

MOUZ’s performance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major was downright pitiful. Eliminated 0-3 in the Challengers Stage, their time in Paris was embarrassing. Especially considering the fact that the exact same roster were semi-finalists at the previous Major, IEM Rio 2022.And if you want to add insult to injury, they were dumped out by GamerLegion: a team featuring Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek, one of two players from their dominant MOUZ NXT team that they didn’t promote to the main team, and Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand, the AWPer they failed to correctly utilize years earlier.For a roster that once looked capable of propelling the…

With the BLAST.tv Paris Major now concluded, all eyes are firmly set on the release of Counter-Strike 2.There’ll be many things to discuss with CS2 as we continue to learn more about the game, but before that, it’s time to reflect on CS:GO.Although the final Major of the games life cycle was won by an international squadron, it did round off the history of multiple nations, as well as writing a new chapter in another. Denmark and France added to their Major winner tallies, while Israel marked its first Major champion in what will be the game’s last.So, with that…