M80 enter Counter-Strike with roster featuring malbsMd, Swisher; dephh returns as coach

15-7-2023 21:22

The Briton returns from his time in VALORANT to stand behind this new American-majority squad.

dephh returns to Counter-Strike after over three years in VALORANT

M80, an American organization with teams in VALORANT, Rainbow Six Siege, and Rocket League, have announced their entry into Counter-Strike with the signing of an American-majority roster, confirming a prior July 11 report by Dust2.us which stated that the organization's negotiations with the lineup were "moving at a rapid pace."

Forming the backbone of the new side is the American trio of Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid, Adam "⁠WolfY⁠" Andersson, and Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano, who put pen to paper and sign with the organization after last playing for ATK before the player break. WolfY in particular joins the team with a fair amount of European experience, having also played under the ECSTATIC and fnatic Rising banners in 2022.

Rounding out the starting five, and forming the international contingent for the team, are Marcus "⁠maNkz⁠" Kjeldsen and Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa, the former of whom returns to WolfY's side after previously playing with the American AWPer on ECSTATIC. The Guatemalan, meanwhile, links up with M80 on a transfer from TeamOne, where he had spent the past year and averaged a 1.15 rating over 158 maps in what was his second stint with the Brazilian team.

Meet malbsMd, who is putting Guatemalan CS on the world map

Standing behind the team is none other than Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson, who returns to Counter-Strike close to three years after his departure to VALORANT in July 2020 to take up his first-ever coaching gig. Before his switch to Riot's shooter, dephh donned the Complexity jersey between 2016-2019, with his biggest achievement being a surprisingly deep run to the quarter-finals of the FACEIT Major London in 2018.

Date	Matches
Thunderpick World Championship 2023 North America Series 1
16/07/2023	M80 23:00 ex-Snakes Den	Match

M80 will make their debut when they take on ex-Snakes Den in the Thunderpick World Championship North America Series 1, which has two spots for the $500,000 main event up for grabs.

M80 enter Counter-Strike with the following lineup:

Michael "⁠Swisher⁠" Schmid
Adam "⁠WolfY⁠" Andersson
Ethan "⁠reck⁠" Serrano
Marcus "⁠maNkz⁠" Kjeldsen
Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa

Rory "⁠dephh⁠" Jackson (coach)

2023-07-15 21:22

44 replies

Mankz? Did they just spin the wheel and picked a random player?

2023-07-15 21:23

42 replies

thought the same

2023-07-15 21:24

2 replies

NA CS IS BACK

2023-07-15 21:25

1 reply

start of a new era!!!

2023-07-15 21:32

prob cause wolfy, didn't he igl in ECSTATIC after they removed birdfromsky?

2023-07-15 21:26

6 replies

Yes and he did a great job.

2023-07-15 23:08

5 replies

Best of luck to maNkz. I hope he can help NA get some W's under their belt.

2023-07-16 00:07

No he didn't, he was dog water

2023-07-16 05:36

3 replies

You hate dogs or what?

2023-07-16 18:26

maNkz took a bunch of average t3 players and made them reach top 25 in hltv. That was a career high for all of his teammates. If his teammates were good and had a established track record of success no matter their teammates, it would have been a different story but they did not. He’s also been tutored by birdfromsky himself who actually is a brilliant igl even though he’s a former radar user

2023-07-16 22:29

Radarfromsky

2023-07-17 05:17

Decent igl with experience with wolfy and he’s probably cheap

2023-07-15 21:28

hes a good IGL wdym

2023-07-15 21:29

wanted an EU IGL I guess.

2023-07-15 21:30

the tsm tactic

2023-07-15 21:31

This roster is going to be better than TSM probably.

if they pick up dupreeh then no

2023-07-16 05:01

TSM aren't smart enough to pick up dupreeh.

2023-07-17 12:29

one of the best, if not the best tier 2 IGLs out there. Gamerlegion also wanted him

2023-07-15 21:34

14 replies

well now the real question is if he can make 3 Americans plus a Guatemalan into something.

2023-07-15 21:38

never doubt swisher

2023-07-15 21:41

4 replies

which I should also note, maNkz has no experience against tier 1. His first taste of tier 1 debuts in EPL season 18 which starts at the end of next month.

2023-07-15 21:42

he’s danish, they’re all tier1 if they try hard enough

2023-07-15 22:29

they've practiced against good teams for sure it don't matter if they've played against them in officials or not, they will get raped anyways

2023-07-16 04:00

He got Hella experience from getting 16-0’d by g2 at the Rio rmr xD

2023-07-16 11:23

4 Americans more or less, you wouldn’t know he isn’t American

2023-07-15 23:09

Is Gamer Legion going to die off now after losing their IGL and a star player? I don't know who is available for them to pickup.

2023-07-16 00:08

they are getting volt and nealan apparently

2023-07-16 00:09

I forgot who volt is, but I hope neaLan does well with them. I honestly liked the previous iteration of the Gamer Legion roster.

2023-07-16 00:13

Volt was part of the Into the Breach lineup in Paris

2023-07-16 00:20

Volt is a really good player, had a good major but was in Cypher’s shadow

2023-07-16 01:03

OHHHHHH now I remember who he is lmao. An OG ITB member. That was another great roster.

2023-07-16 03:39

unfortunately ruined tho. Their two standouts, especially CYPHER, are gone now.

2023-07-16 04:07

Mankz is overqualified compared to those NA shitters wdym. He’s been performing great as a fragging igl for a long time in eu tier2

2023-07-15 21:39

He only started igling after birdfromsky left so saying a long time isn’t really correct. And swisher did amazing last epl and wolfy was fantastic in ecstatic back a couple years ago.. Reck and Malbs are the two big question marks

2023-07-15 22:16

its been over a year since godfromsky left ecstatic

2023-07-15 22:53

I still wouldn’t call that a long time. As an igl in esports a year really isn’t that long

2023-07-16 00:26

You overvalue wolfy, he’s average and he didn’t do fantastic in ecstatic

2023-07-15 23:11

Fantastic was probably an overstatement, but he definitely was a big reason the team succeeded, considering after he left and they got xellow the team fell off

2023-07-16 00:25

i think that Malbs has some potential, but didn't fit in role wise back in Team One.

Honestly I think it’s because when you are tier2 NA team. You basically consider any European player as a boost to the team. Even if it’s not a good European player. Like Bodenmaster and a couple of other mid tier Europeans that have been recruited like this before. But these teams never usually go anywhere. Just like for fun teams kinda like mythic and stuff. Interesting teams to watch when nothing else is going on

2023-07-15 21:46

eh, I think the real attraction was that maNkz is an IGL, and an EU one to be exact, which they tend to have more knowledge to the game and do far better in comparison to ones from anywhere else. And plus, I think maNkz probably took the offer due to his contract offer having higher salary and a chance to potentially go higher since there's less competition in NA, especially the fact that Liquid has exited NA, which gives M80 a better chance of qualifying for the first CS2 major in Copenhagen. And he gets to play against tier 1 for the first time due to M80 taking ATK's spot at EPL season 18, in which they would face Apeks for their first match.

2023-07-15 22:21

wolfy played with mankz on estatic its not a random pick

2023-07-16 12:23

That Wolfy guy is GARBAGE

2023-07-16 05:35

Les go

NICE Good luck!

cool, anyways umm

MALBS GOD! DESERVED!

GOAT MALBS WILL DESTROY ALL

MALBS IS GOATED!!! TOP 1 2024

stavn era over

nice for malbs but wtf is he doing there + lmao mankz aswell

8 replies

Mankz +wolfy back on ecstatic Idk. Prolly just needed a fifth for malbs, plus you get SA support now too

Guatemala is North America, but yes

tbh, wasnt even thinking about he was from Guatemala, mb. i just remembered he was on SA team so I assumed he would garner some support from them.

2023-07-16 14:14

Malbs is from NA m8 lmao.

na geography

2023-07-15 22:46

I know language is different but Malbsis NA bro.. Anyway good to see a new NA Nationality in CS instead of USA and Canada

2023-07-16 01:02

He’s an NA player…

2023-07-15 21:33

dust2.us/news/31368/malbsmd-ive-always-w..

2023-07-15 21:44

feel happy for swisher, good player

actually okay lineup

2023-07-15 21:50

Infinitely better than EG. And some small trivia: Only Swisher and Malbsmd have any experience against tier 1 via EPL (season 14 for both but Swisher also had last season). maNkz, reck, and WolfY will all make their debuts against tier 1 in EPL season 18.

Good context, thanks for this

EG just need to disband and build from scratch, or just exit CS for good. They tarnished their good reputation from the CS 1.6 days when they did well with n0thing.

2023-07-16 00:11

Ye I'd prefer it if they exited CS as well. At least until the entire management gets fired and the current CEO is out cause she clearly isn't meant for this.

We can only dream. I hope that EG clean up their act and start fresh - ground up that is, beginning with their entire management team and then their e-sports teams. Restructuring is the word that I was looking for. EG need a lot of restructuring so they can field competitive e-sports teams again and have the right kind of support standing behind their players.

2023-07-16 00:15

WHAT

3rd best NA team

9 replies

Behind who? I'd say probably 2nd best after col, but they're at a similar tier to EG and Nouns imo

2023-07-15 22:19

2nd is unarguably Nouns, there stacked and Destroy EG any day of da Week

2023-07-16 01:04

7 replies

Nouns downgraded a lot. Cynic was their carry and stamina is an average awp and okay igl with a lot less fragging power. This team has 3 star riflers a decent fragging igl and a good support awper

2023-07-16 04:43

I think Nouns can still make it ik cynic was their hard carry but i believe that with some experience bwills, and CJ who are actually good firepower just inconsistent can find their form, Nosrac is no doubt great support and markE is a great lurker A good team is not only made up of one player I believe in Nouns

2023-07-16 12:00

My issue is that stamina is a big downgrade to cynic and it’ll be tough to recover from a loss like that

2023-07-16 15:00

Of course no doubt in that but with seeing semphis as their brain,. Now that they are loaded with a mental coach I think they'll pull themselves up

2023-07-16 15:20

Maybe. To me bwills and marke will have to do a lot of heavy lifting individually for this team

2023-07-16 16:26

where is cynic going btw?

2023-07-17 08:51

Taking a break until cs2 is out. After that idk. M80 won’t take him since they have mankz and wolfy Nouns probably won’t bring him back. If walco keeps playing as bad as he is maybe he goes to EG Other than that, pa as a star rifler is probably his best option if the pa guys want him back

2023-07-17 14:36

I hope more orgs join to compete when CS2 is released, makes the game more diverse

That's what NA trollers don't understand. Current the game is becoming cs europe offensive

2023-07-15 21:35

It isnt a bad thing All the top football clubs are playing in Europe and players from SA and Africa just move there if they wanna play on the highest lvl Same with ice hockey, but all the clubs in NA so EU and Russian players move to NA Today income of tier 1 pro allows you to live in any place in the world, rent apartments in any city so I dont understand why most of NA, SA, AU decent players refuse to leave their homes

2023-07-15 22:49

Some people want to focus on growing their country's scene as opposed to joining an international team. Also, for some people it is difficult to leave your family and friends behind to move to somewhere different all alone.

2023-07-16 00:12

eh better yet, it'd be nice if CS2 can debut top tier cs from regions in Asia as hell. Getting hella boring with EU, especially international teams, just steamrolling everything ngl :v

2023-07-15 21:40

Couldn't care less but glad for wolfy, good player

Me too .. he deserves it .

good luck boys

2023-07-15 21:27

most random squad i've seen in a while, besides tyloo

t5 team

T80

2023-07-16 00:54

Who the heck are those guys? Does it really need a hltv post ? if yes they need to make a post about Pork team new roster

why not? it's a pretty big valorant org coming to the cs

Not a pretty big org but big enough get somewhat excited. If 2-3 more orgs come back to NA CS, it will be a start of something and can be the key for the revival of NA CS

Decent NA talent and a former LOS + oNe star. It's notable to the still decently sized North American audience.

2023-07-15 21:48

idk how you can watch cs in the last year (EU or NA) and have not heard of at least one of these players

2023-07-16 03:00

t4 team hf

Cool roster

dephh left valorant for what?

Extra Salt 2.0 incoming

gl guys, very random but still

good for the scene I hope

Lol tier 4 at most

Solid tier-3 stack

Tier 2

tier80

2023-07-15 21:36

Pretty interesting lineup, glad to see wolfy playing in a majority NA team

Finally

2023-07-15 21:58

Always happy when a new org comes into the scene even better when it's signing a NA roster. Ty M80 save us.

TL please come back to NA 🥺 too. 4 big enough orgs could have been the start of reviving NA CS. TSM unfortunately went in the direction of EU and 100T are still pondering.

dust2.us/news/38009/daps-its-not-liquids.. xD

2023-07-15 23:39

YUP AGREE. We also need NA Pro League or something similar to comeback. Just more events back in NA in general. I miss Oakland, NYC, and Chicago...good events to watch.

2023-08-04 19:47

Xeppa, leaf when?

never, they're vibing in C9's VAL roster lmao.

sad, miss those guys, I bet some Brazilians do too

2023-07-15 21:49

If wolfy doesnt work out, they should try try

MalbsMd <3

2023-07-15 21:51

Good for dephh.

2023-07-15 21:55

ahoy m80

This goes hard

2023-07-15 21:57

gl malbs & cia

nice

Since when was Wolfy American? Isn't he Swedish

2023-07-15 21:59

Always played under an American flag. IIRC he was born in America to American and Swedish parents but moved to Europe.

2023-07-15 22:12

Swedish-American, dual citizen basically. Born in America but supposedly moved to Sweden where he was raised and lived in for most of his life.

2023-07-15 22:23

Very random lineup

2023-07-15 22:02

I mean considering how weak NA RMR will be, makes sense

2023-07-15 22:07

Wtf is this team

2023-07-15 22:08

A solid Tier 4 team

2023-07-15 22:11

dude there's a Portuguese radio station called M80 and i thought this was about them for some reason lmfao

2023-07-15 22:24

This team will be competitive in Premier

2023-07-15 22:25

M who? but hey, it's good to see orgs investing in NA CS

2023-07-15 22:27

some new esports org that debuted last year. Fielding rosters in Siege and VALORANT (had a RL one too but released them a few days ago.) To various successes, most successful being their Siege team right now, just made it to the grand finals of Gamers8 Siege in Saudi just now. While VALORANT is mixed. (frankly, the only notable thing about them is that Happy is coaching the team)

2023-07-15 22:37

Not horrible.

2023-07-15 22:32

"M80 enters CS" I initially thought they added new MG into the game. Very good roster btw. Acquiring such roster for free is a daylight robbery. Management deserves props

never heard of this org. Is it a good org?

2023-07-15 22:50

they're extremely young as an org. Debuted last year. They're fielding rosters in Siege and VALORANT (also RL but they released them a few days ago due to a long player break essentially). To various degrees of success. Their most successful roster being Siege where they just now made it to the grand finals of Gamers8. While the only really notable thing about their VALORANT team is that Happy is coaching them.

2023-07-15 22:56

damn. Big balls for a small org to enter into the CS scene, specially in NA. Hope they can achieve some decent results and stay in the game

2023-07-15 23:15

well, they raised 3 million in an investment fund as a start, in which they're using to expand themselves.

2023-07-15 23:27

I know their name is M80 like the explosive, but I can only read it is matey pirate org lol

2023-07-16 02:53

GL malbito

2023-07-15 22:51

Better than EG

2023-07-15 23:00

and better than Nouns(on paper)

2023-07-15 23:06

Was hoping one of these new NA orgs investing into Cs 2 would pick up steel. He's been grinding cs again and a such a good igl in the NA scene is a prized possession

2023-07-15 23:05

Steel is so underrated. Remember chaos? They were shockingly good

2023-07-15 23:20

banned major still a turn off for lots of teams, doesnt help his players would probably get poached

2023-07-15 23:49

I feel like that's the intention. Build up the players so orgs give them a chance.

2023-07-16 01:36

eh, never going to happen unless steel's permanent ban from Majors doesn't apply to CS2.

2023-07-15 23:28

dephhh lmaooooo who's next, wenton ?

on paper its even better than EG and Nouns, will see

I dont know a single one of these players

2023-07-15 23:17

did you only start watching this year and only t1 events? none of these players are unknown except reck

2023-07-15 23:42

#155 this guy is clueless

2023-07-16 02:23

Y only this year poor newbie

2023-07-16 09:35

How to say I'm not watching any t2 matches without saying it. Mankz and woolfy was playing in estatic, a eu t2/t3 team. Malbs is a talent who play in t2 sa. Swisher is a probably one of the last okayish player in na. His gf sleep with stavn.

2023-07-16 02:22

That last part was fucking wild LULZ

2023-07-16 04:08

Bluds thought they were cooking 💀

It's good to have teams in NA to develope talent, like Grim for example he went through like 3-4 tier 2 teams + Dignitas before he got his big break in liquid. Even if this roster is trash, it will still be good for NA overall.

2023-07-16 21:20

Nice

Liquids gonna be sorry they didn’t pick up Swisher

2023-07-15 23:32

Decent, probably will be the best na team tbh.

2023-07-15 23:46

def not best NA team, but maybe best that plays in NA

2023-07-16 02:50

What other team is better? Maybe complexity but barely

2023-07-16 13:19

Not even a bad roster tbh

2023-07-15 23:47

dephh 💀💀💀

2023-07-15 23:48

pronounced matey

2023-07-15 23:55

dephh is gonna contribute nothing to this team lmfaoo

2023-07-16 01:05

Wtf actually great team

2023-07-16 01:16

save malbsmd and mankz already💔 💔

2023-07-16 01:20

What do you have against swisher?

2023-07-16 04:33

this is extremely exciting.

2023-07-16 01:29

tier 34

2023-07-16 02:29

malbsmd one of the weirdest aliases in csgo

2023-07-16 02:49

Sounds like Marlboro. He can get free sponsor. Make friends with camel and dumau rier

2023-07-16 04:45

COL and EG are in a big trouble

2023-07-16 03:54

Gl malbs and swisher, Mankz is top 3 igl's of tier2 EU. This lineup can do some damage, they're underrated.

2023-07-16 04:23

ye but can he make miracles happen with 4 NAers aka three Americans and a Guatemalan :v (although WolfY is technically Swedish since he was raised there...)

2023-07-16 05:07

Cool, nice to see new NA orgs joining the scene. GL

2023-07-16 04:25

Good

2023-07-16 05:59

mankz))))))))))))

2023-07-16 06:33

lmao deph still in the scene

Oh and I should maybe point this out: putting aside the weird fact that he did it, maNkz deciding to take the gamble and IGL a team of 4 NA players is actually very strategically smart. The American trio guarantees M80 a spot at EPL season 18 which starts at the end of next month in which they take over ATK's initial spot. Which means maNkz would debut against tier 1 CS for the first time as a result of choosing to be signed by M80 who took the chance to snag a core from ex-ATK and got the spot as a bonus. And I like to think this was also a deciding factor: His original team failed to qualify for EPL Season 18 twice. First time was due to Moviestar Riders beating them in the Semis of the first qualifier in Melbourne. And later failed the second time in the second chance qualifier in Katowice nearly 3 months prior due to getting beat by 9z, who then got obliterated by VP lmao. (and yes, they choked against 9z in that second qualifier. Lost in Map 3 by losing 7 rounds in a row, losing 14-16 lmao.)

2023-07-16 06:41

And it gives him probably an easier route to the major.

2023-07-16 15:38

Sick

2023-07-16 06:46

decent tier2 team

2023-07-16 08:52

valurant CSGO killer they said :D

2023-07-16 10:54

swisher will get his revenge vs heroic stickman

2023-07-16 11:40

I hope the best of luck for malbs, he deserved to be free from Team Meme

2023-07-16 14:24

Massive W for all Wolfy fans

2023-07-16 15:17

Infinitely better than EG. And some small trivia: Only Swisher and Malbsmd have any experience against tier 1 via EPL (season 14 for both but Swisher also had last season).

2023-07-16 17:06

Really happy to see but gonna be T3-T4 alongside nouns

2023-07-16 18:18

Give them a chance, I think they can become a top NA teams, they have all the right pieces.

2023-07-17 08:03

nah, this team has promise. Can easily overtake EG and even coL if they can make shit work. And if reck can improve since based on the first series they played, reck’s M80’s worst player.

2023-07-17 14:44