Denis ‘seized’ Kostin is a 23-year-old pro gamer from Moscow, Russia. He trains and practises CS: GO, taking on the role of rifler who calls the shots in the game competing for Gambit Esports. Kostin is experienced and quite a flexible player who can coordinate with his team mates towards winning the prestigious CS matches.
In his younger days he liked sports especially Volleyball and won the Russian championship of his age group. Aside from Denis’s gaming talent, he enjoys watching movies with his friends, in fact one of the TV shows he is watching at the moment is Lie to me.
Where it all began:
Denis began his passion for video games since 2009 playing Counter-Strike 1.6 for fbgaming and USSR. Seized follows tournaments in Dota 2 and generally understands the game. Kostin is a fan of Team Secret and also keeps track following NaVi dota 2 team.
The Team:
Gambit Esports is a Russian gaming company that was founded in January 2013. They were widely known for their League of Legends squad and also support a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team.
Gambit Esports created their CS: GO roster in January 2016, that consisted of former Hellraisers players. They have shown their capabilities in their very first esports tournament, CIS Minor Championship – Colombus 2016 and after that have participated in the MLG Major Colombus and DreamHack Masters Malmo 2016. The current CSGO lineup consists of Hobbit as their in-game leader, Dosia, AdreN, mou and seized who at the moment is on trial.
Competition Participation:
Some of the latest esports tournaments that Seized has represented Gambit Esports at the IEM World Championship Closed qualifiers. While competing for Flipsid3 Tactics, Seized has also participated in the premier Eleague Major: Boston 2018. Kostin has taken part in esports tournaments such as ESL Pro League Season 5 – Europe, reaching fifth place in the DreamHack Tours 2017 as well as Eleague Major 2017.
Kostin has participated in tournaments where he got to battle it out against some of the best CS: GO teams. Seized and his team NaVi at the time beat Heroic in the qualifier IEM XI World Championship, Counter Pit League Season 2 – Finals, they defeated top team Astralis.
Winnings:
At the MLG Major Championship: Colombus, Seized and Natus Vincere reached the finals to come in second place. The squad showed an outstanding performance in the event but in the end NaVi lost to Luminosity 0:2, taking home their prize of $150K.
The second great achievement for Seized and his team Navi was beating a top team like Virtus.Pro in the ESL One: New York 2016. NaVi won the premier title and proudly claimed their remarkable reward of $125K.
The third accomplishment for Denis and Navi was at Eleague Season 1. In the group stages, Natus Vincere won over CSGO teams, Echo Fox and Flipsid3 Tactics, advancing to the Playoffs. On their way to the semi-finals, Navi defeated Cloud9 with a score of 2-1, however their winning streak was not to last as the CS team lost to top CS team, Fnatic. Seized and Navi finished in fourth place, claiming their surprising reward or $60K and acquired their spot for the next Eleague Season 2.
