Several teams underwent roster changes following poor FACEIT Major performances.

Just like in the traditional sports setting, esports teams can make changes to their rosters at will. In esports though, teams can’t change up the players in the middle of the game, not like in basketball or football. The only means that they have is to choose the best combination of players before the start of a competition. Sometimes, with the change in players also comes a shift in strategy.

So what is going on with the CS: GO team rosters nowadays? Let’s revisit some of the latest news in team roster changes.

Winstrike Revamping The Entire Team

Winstrike team’s stint was cut short in the FACEIT Major London 2018 because they were unable to hold on to their Legendary status during the competition. The fact is that due to their poor performance in the New Legends stage resulted in a 0:3 run.

This event led to a significant change in their team. Four out of the five players in their current CS: GO roster will be replaced, and Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov will remain in the team. The coach Dmitry “iksou” Mikhaylichenko will head the new squad.

Though there is still no news as to whether the remaining four members will be part of the main lineup or not, the organisation will carefully consider who will be part of it.

The team was never favoured from the start by both analysts and most of the fans. They also faced tough match-ups. They met Team Liquid, Fnatic, and Cloud9 in their first three games, all of which are solid teams. The struggle led to the team expectedly packing their bags early.

Since Winstrike is planning to take part in the qualifiers of both EPICENTER and WESG, they will have to make their minds up soon as to who will be joining Boombl4 and Coach iksou for the competition.

Since Winstrike also acquired Quantum Bellator Fire last June 20. Perhaps this will be his chance to show what he can do? You will never know that unless the team releases its new roster.

Flusha out of Fnatic but seen practising with Cloud9

Many Fnatic fans were shocked when the team announced that Robin Rönnquist aka “flusha” is out of the main roster. The release of the player was due to the team’s lacklustre placement and performance during the FACEIT Major – London 2018.

Cloud9 experienced the same roster issue. The team is struggling to find a solid roster, now that Jake Yip (“Stewie2k”) and Tarik Celik (“Tarik”) joined the reformed MIBR.

However, even with two players going out of Cloud9, flusha and C9 got to practise together. The team intends to play at the BLAST Pro Series – Istanbul 2018. With this in mind, flusha may be just in time to stand-in as the team’s fifth player in their main roster.

As from the Blast Pro Series – Istanbul 2018, Cloud9’s roster consists of:

• Maikil Selim (“Golden”)
• Timothy Ta (“autimatic”)
• Will Wierzba (“RUSH”)
• Robin Rönnquist (“flusha”)
• Martin Styk (“STYKO) as a stand-in

Flusha attended the last three tournaments ESL One Cologne 2018, ELEAGUE CS: GO Premier 2018, and FACEIT Major. Another thing to note is that flusha playing for C9 in Turkey, reunited with Golden, a former teammate back in Fnatic and now the in-game leader for the North American team C9.

Cloud9 is set to have their first match in Istanbul on September 28 against MIBR, one of the semi-finalists in the FACEIT Major. The event will be a small reunion between Cloud9 and their former members in MIBR. At the same time, it is the latter’s way of introducing their newly reformed team, considering that they had a great run in the recently concluded FACEIT Major.

DIVIZON confirms their new lineup

The German CS: GO team DIVIZON recently announced that their roster is almost completely changed and bringing in new members. Their previous season, which they consider a bad one, forced them to implement this shift.

The team has dropped four out of the five players in their lineup so that new gamer can join in and help improve the team’s performance.

One of the new players that will be joining DIVIZON will be Kirby, who will be captain of the squad. He is a veteran in the professional Counter-strike game, as he started way back in the 1.6 days while playing with the team Hardware4u. He mostly plays at the local level and participates in German-only events. He was recently part of Entropy Gaming but got transferred recently.

The other new member is Dominikkk, who has also been in the professional scene for quite some time. Before playing for DIVIZON, he was a coach for EURONICS Gaming and played for Playing Ducks and DIVIZION for the past two years (2016-2018).

The other two new members are Merca and soNy, who have been in the esports industry as early as 2015. The only remaining member of DIVIZON is PulzG. Even as a newbie (just played for the team last August), his career traces back to 2016.

Total overhaul for the Playing Ducks; five players brought into the team

Playing Ducks have been struggling for the past years. To add fuel to the flame, it was just at the end of August when the team’s previous roster has decided to call it quits by that time.

Despite the challenge, the squad is not disbanding. Instead, five new players will be filling in their empty slots.

The new players of the team’s CS: GO lineup came from different countries in Europe. Below is the Playing Ducks roster of players:

• stavros
• Ultimate
• syncD
• Aika
• DeniMM

From this list, probably the most prominent gamer would be Stavros, starting his professional career as early as 2011. He became part of other teams such as EURONICS Gaming, Planetkey Dynamics, and the newly-reformed DIVIZON.

Another member is DeniMM. It is as if he is walking down memory lane, and that is because he had a short stint with Playing Ducks. He was also part of DIVIZON and has competed in several low and mid-tier tourneys in Europe. His experience may be just what the team needs to do well next season.

There is nothing much known about the other gamers except for their names and the home country. There is even the possibility that the management decided to choose these people because they are looking for “diamonds in the rough” that they can invest. However, despite having unpopular players to represent the team, it’s good to know that Playing Ducks is doing what it can to stay in the industry. The team is well-known in the German competitive scene and have been competing since 2009.