Author: Sam "AN1MO" McKenzie
Elias ‘s1n’ Stein made his debut for BIG’s main team while standing in for the team at the RMR event for the IEM Rio Major. Now a fully-fledged member of the team just under a year later, the team have endured a difficult start since their roster rebuild in the off-season.Having been eliminated from the IEM Cologne 2023 Play-In following losses to Apeks and Liquid, and failing to qualify from BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2023, fans might be down on the roster, but s1n couldn’t be happier with their progress so far.Following their elimination from Cologne, we sat down with…
As a player, he dragged NIP back to relevancy. As a leader, dragged them kicking and screaming to the top ten. It was never easy for him, Nicolai ‘device’ Reedtz came in to be the star he never had, and before they even managed to put together a competitive roster, life got in the way, and device never played another game for the team.Roster instability was the norm, a constantly changing roster where he had to get accustomed to playing with a variety of stand-ins, constantly ripping up his stratbook and starting all over again. Even when he had a…
A stalwart of their region, NAVI has been home to a Ukrainian team ever since its inception in 2009. A time before CS:GO was even released, it took fourteen years for that status quo to be shifted.The consequence of war and a lack of players available to play the roles required by the team, the decision for NAVI to go international was an inevitable one. All the same, it remains a risk, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a risk worth taking.Ever since Kirill ‘Boombl4’ Mikhailov departed the organization and Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov took up the mantle of in-game leader,…
Laurentiu “lauNX” Tarlea’s move should be being held in higher regard as a coup for Falcons, although sadly it has since become overshadowed by the pure insanity of rostermania in tier one.A move that he describes as coming at the “right moment” BLIX sat down with lauNX to discuss the end of his time on Sprout, as well his excitement for joining up with his new teammates Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt and Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro, teammates he says that playing with is something he was “dreaming of” when he was younger.”When I found out that Falcons are interested in me I…
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” Èârlea.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…