Abay ‘Hobbit’ Khassenov is a young esports player that hails from Ekibastuz, Kazakhstan. He practices Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, training in the position of rifler, calling the shots in-game for Gambit Esports.
Aside from gaming, Abay loves to spend time with his family, catching up on the latest news. He likes to keep an active lifestyle, playing Football and Table Tennis with his friends. Being a professional player, He travels quite a lot to different countries competing in esports event and makes it a point to relax by the beach going for a swim, reading a motivational book perhaps or watching anime.
Where it all began:
Abay has been playing Counter-Strike for over ten years now and does not want to stop gaming anytime soon. He began competing professionally in 2015 with his first esports team, Party, then eventually moved on with Tengri, making a name for himself in the CSGO scene.
The Team:
Gambit Esports is a European gaming organization that was founded in January 2013 with its headquarters based in the United Kingdom. Gambit supports several units that professionally compete in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, FIFA 17 and Dota 2.
Gambit launched their Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster in January 2016, signing on the former players from HS.GG. The current CSGO lineup consists of pro players, Hobbit as their team captain, Dosia, AdreN, Mou, and their latest addition of Seized.
Competition Participation:
The esports tournaments that Hobbit and his team Gambit have participated in include the qualifying matches of IEM Katowice, WESG 2017 Central Asia, ESEA Season 26 and ECS Season 4. The latest premier and major CSGO tournaments that Hobbit has taken part in also include Eleague Major Boston, DreamHack Winter 2017, IEM Oakland, World Cyber Arena 2017, EPICENTER 2017, ESG Tour Mykonos among many others.
Hobbit has shown off his fighting skills in several tournaments and has achieved a few personal records. According to an esports journalist, Thorin has rated Hobbit as the 7th top CSGO players of 2017, while HLTV.org have voted him as the 11th best gamer of 2017 and named him MVP at Dreamhack Winter 2016.
Hobbit and his unit, Gambit Esports have had the pleasure of competing against top CSGO teams like Cloud9, Virtus.Pro, Heroic, North, AGO Gaming, NV, Immortals, SK, and CLG, improving on their mistakes in-game.
Winnings:
The highest achievement for Hobbit and his team Gambit was at the esports tournament, PGL Major Krakow 2017. Dominating the entire event, Gambit has beaten top CS teams such as Mouz, G2, and Virtus.Pro. Advancing into the Playoffs, Gambit has faced off Fnatic in the quarterfinals and Astralis in the Semifinals. Gambit managed to reach the finals beating Immortals with a record of 2-1, claiming their highest cash prize ever so far of $500K and earned a spot in the ELeague Major Boston 2018.
The second great accomplishment for Khassenov and his CSGO team Gambit was competing at ROG Masters 2017. At this event, the Counter-Strike squad beat the likes of 5 Power Club, Splyce and Vega Squadron. Reaching the Grand finals, Hobbit led his team to win against Tyloo with an unbeatable score of 3-0 to claim their rightful prize of $117K.
