Sources: NRG exploring CS return

3-11-2023 20:19

The organization already has a core in mind, but hasn't locked in options yet.

NRG are looking to foray into Counter-Strike again after four years

American organization NRG are looking to re-enter Counter-Strike and are exploring options for a roster, HLTV has learned.

Independent sources first brought word of the organization's interest in a team to HLTV, and when reached for comment, NRG confirmed that they are exploring a re-entry and already "have a core in mind" but noted that "no contracts have been signed yet" and "no terms have been agreed to."

NRG currently has teams in VALORANT and League of Legends, and previously had lineups in Rocket League and Overwatch (under the San Francisco Shock banner).

The American organization last housed a Counter-Strike roster in 2019 with a lineup that featured Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik, Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte, Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold, Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz, Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov, and Chet "⁠Chet⁠" Singh. The team peaked at No. 3 in the world rankings after a run to the semi-finals of the StarLadder Berlin Major.

That roster, and the previous iteration that was led by Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele in place of stanislaw, also won IEM Shanghai 2018 and made deep playoff runs at a plethora of Big Events including ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, ECS Season 7 Finals, and IEM Sydney 2019.

The organization eventually exited Counter-Strike by selling the team for a rumored price of $3 million to Evil Geniuses, with whom the roster briefly peaked at No. 1 and won ESL One New York 2019 and StarSeries i-League Season 8.

NRG co-owner Andy Miller discussed the organization's exit in an AMA on reddit at the time, describing the sale of their CS team as "gut-wrenching" and stating that NRG would like to return to the title someday.

He added that the game was a tough one for organizations to invest in, "given the economics and lack of structure," stated that the operating costs for a top CS:GO team in North America at the time was "in the ballpark of $2 million+," and expanded on the specific sale of the team's lineup in another answer.

"We built that team the right way over a lot of years," Miller explained. "Really like the guys, but the space is crazy. Totally [the] owners' fault. 100%. Salaries are dumb. Too hard to even look at it as a loss leader. We want NRG to be around for a long time and current day CS model wasn't going to help us get there."

2023-11-03 20:19

26 replies

some decent NA options to be fair daps (coach or IGL) FaNg CLASIA stanislaw + rest of the forsaken guys (or take the roster as a whole) Sonic oSee Brehze (if u want the gamble) OR STEWIE potential for an NA return!

2023-11-03 21:10

25 replies

keep daps and CLASIA away lmao.

2023-11-03 21:16

1 reply

its gonna be like tsm signing some faceit level 5 stack

2023-11-04 17:31

i really hope they get stewie man the rest of those players except for osee and stan are shit imo though, i dont think nrg should sign any of those guys if they actually wanna win tournaments

2023-11-03 21:17

11 replies

stewie0k

2023-11-03 21:29

if they want to win tournaments they shouldn't sign a NA team in the first place

2023-11-03 23:59

2 replies

true

2023-11-04 00:00

+111

2023-11-04 22:29

And they are gonna win tournaments with stewie2k?? Lol

2023-11-04 05:09

5 replies

I’d rather have a returnee from VALORANT on NRG’s CS2 team than Stewie lmao

2023-11-04 05:43

Mark my words. Stew will win a major in CS2. The org that cashes in on that will be laughing.

2023-11-04 11:30

3 replies

Don't forget about Tarik and the dynamic between the 2 that won them the major. Just sign 2018 C9 lol

2023-11-04 18:45

0/10 shittiest take in the history of takes.

2023-11-04 20:17

This better be bait

2023-11-04 21:39

Sonic, oSee and brehze are good. Stewie is a wild card but potentially good. FaNg is not good but a decent option since he performs well in NA t2 (just struggling in t1). With 3 of those 4 riflers +oSee they will be a good team with one of daps and stan, being able to compete with EG, M80, Nouns and complexity.

2023-11-04 12:50

I dont want to be toxic but this is a tier 2 lineup which is fine if nrg doesnt have big aspirations. Just like og, no tier 1 players no tier 1 results.

2023-11-03 21:58

4 replies

listen this is the best we can do okay? NA barely has any up and comer talents except for JBa (who's really good btw) these options aside from maybe oSee and FaNg would all be either free or very cheap and NRG's prior issues with CS was money

2023-11-03 22:00

I would rather invest in some young na talent like this JBa guy + some veterans. We know what stanislaw will offer, we know what stewie2k will offer, we know what osee can deliver. You get the point. Plus being tier 2 is not bad in itself. Its only cringe if they overhipe with "colossus" type of adjectives and then the lineup sucks.

2023-11-03 22:05

keep only one veteran. No more than that. If there were more options, would rather have the veteran be the coach and the roster be all young upcomers.

2023-11-03 22:12

I think they got enough money by defeating G2-0 in Worlds and from the sale of ardiis to NaVi in Valorant

2023-11-04 04:56

grizz also looks pretty good, definitely one for the future

2023-11-04 00:29

Fang and oSee sure, not seeing who else that is worthy tho

2023-11-04 12:26

Isn't CLASIA the guy who got cut from EG because he has attitude issues? Pretty sure he rages in every FPL game based on the streams I've watched from Stewie2K, mOE, laski, and so forth. If this is true, then he should not be in the sights of NRG if they want to build a relatively successful CS2 team.

2023-11-04 13:23

hes a rager but hes so incredibly good if he could just get his attitude under control he could easily be on any NA team not named coL

2023-11-04 15:52

I always thought he was slightly above average, but as someone who doesn't follow CLASIA often and for the sake of the NA scene, I hope he can change for the better and help put NA on the map. NA needs everyone that they can get, kind of like the old CS 1.6 and CS: Source days.

2023-11-04 16:13

You take the worst player from every NA team wtf is that

2023-11-04 17:28

disband in 3 months

didn’t they already come back and this exact outcome happened?? mandela effect

2023-11-04 02:07

why? cs is dying

9 replies

youtube.com/watch?v=PYNyielIrpA

2023-11-04 17:39

6 replies

Video is 6 years old my guy… Not saying CS2 is dying but, 6 years ago NA was thriving. Current state if we being honest is CS is mostly a European title. Sprinkle some Brazil on top w/ a pinch of NA & Asia.

2023-11-04 18:09

'Video is 6 years old my guy' that's literally the whole point. the playercount kept on rising despite the death of valorante region. valve fucked it up by not calling this game open beta and closing csgo but it's far from dying. I hate how dramatic people are being

2023-11-04 18:16

Those "dramatic people" have nothing to give to convesations, so its just easier for them to say "cs is dying" rather than actually looking at the player counts. Counter strike has now more average and peak players now than at the same time last year, so its far from dying.

2023-11-04 21:32

yep exactly, there aren't many things that are worse than in csgo imo and my pc doesn't suck ass so I love the new additions to the game even though certain competitive aspects like hitreg are questionable at times. I swear most people who quit were forced to because they just couldn't run the game. a lot of russians with walkie-talkie mics and potato pcs with 2000s gpus cant play cs anymore, what a tragedy.

2023-11-04 22:01

Ye i love the new game too, first time in like 10 years that i actually enjoy a game this much. I feel like a teenager again when playing lol. But i do have some friends that doesnt play cs2, allthough its going to be the main game anyway, and just stick with lobas lobby playing go for whatever reason. But if thats what you enjoy, then go for it.

2023-11-04 22:16

I took a break from GO because I got super bored of it past 2 years, now with CS2, like you, I also feel pumped to pour hours into it. many of my friends who didn't play shooters or disregarded CSGO due to its looks are getting into CS2, from my side this update has been a positive experience overall

2023-11-04 22:21

Doing what xD?

2023-11-04 19:03

cry is free

2023-11-04 19:39

nrg s1mple.

2023-11-03 20:20

They have money for him?

2023-11-05 04:56

LES GO

I can't wait to see the shit roster they will unveil.

2023-11-03 20:21

I have a feeling they will recruit degster.

2023-11-03 20:31

just as long as they don’t recruit daps.

2023-11-03 20:35

french = opinion discarded

2023-11-04 02:10

They can just build a cheap team with young players.

Who cares when they are just gonna sign some NA tier 3 no name team like REASON

2023-11-03 20:22

We don’t talk about reason 💀

2023-11-03 20:37

third impact (old reason) was barely an ECL team, was in advanced for a while the only reason people cared about them and watched them was for the org

2023-11-03 21:07

gob b tabsen fugly s1lent forgot the other guy

Just9n or something i think

2023-11-03 21:06

ptr and legija

DIRTY PEEK PETE

YES LETS FUCKING GO

2023-11-03 20:23

Just get L4O

Brehze, cerq, and daps to run it back?

brehze is done

2023-11-03 20:49

Ughhh, why are those names even in the discussion ? They’ve had plenty of chances to redeem themselves in EG, but repeatedly they failed and sucked ass!

2023-11-04 19:33

pls we need Brehze back

2023-11-04 21:49

They could have been affected like the rest of the EG clown-org. Hopefully we can see Brehze shine like he once did. We need NRG and DIckStacy back for refill of the goated sticker combo

2023-11-05 02:42

Would be fun especially if it had a NA core. probably would be faze clan core though

2023-11-03 20:27

League of legends

2023-11-03 20:25

Long have we waited, NRG is back

2023-11-03 20:26

Yeah, let's goooooo

GET FORSAKEN PLEASE

Tarik (Rifler) M0e (AWP) Leith (Second-Rifler) OceaN (IGL) Nitr0 (support)

Tier(50)

2023-11-03 20:34

It's almost like i was ironic with my comment but thanks for the comment tier expert

2023-11-03 21:00

lmaooo love this

2023-11-03 21:15

ocean star player

2023-11-03 21:25

Yes, bring back god Ocean -nitr0 +summit1G -tarik + Slemmy tho

2023-11-03 23:27

Haha that’s be a fun team to watch, I will buy their merch! Do it

2023-11-04 19:40

that's cool

Surely its between Forsaken and PA right? Both of which would be great pickups of course.

7 replies

if they’re going cheap and want to stay in CS for the long term, Forsaken’s the best they can go for. based on the past, they don’t want to spend crazy which was why they sold their last roster to EG.

2023-11-03 20:32

why dont they just buy the faze players

2023-11-03 21:13

they’re not gonna want to spend so much, that’s why they sold their last roster to EG, it was too much for them in terms of finances lmao

They sold the last team because it was getting expensive, why would they come back to sign an even more expensive team

2023-11-03 21:37

but surely the team wont be that expensive since they are "disbanding"

2023-11-03 22:38

The core is still gonna be expensive lmao

2023-11-03 22:51

Both suck

2023-11-04 14:58

Faze roster to NRG.

2023-11-03 20:28

Hoping for an NA team or at least some NA representation.

2023-11-03 20:29

Daps TwistZz NAF HexT Fang

13 replies

no daps. Fuck that guy.

ban

2023-11-03 20:42

what's wrong with daps? great talent scout in the past, has led teams to the precipice of championship winning teams seems like a hard worker and a really nice guy just can't frag

2023-11-03 21:09

He was an awful coach on Liquid and Liquid’s EU venture which was horribly half-asses was mainly his idea along with thinking YEKINDAR was a good IGL. And he technically screwed TenZ in his CS career.

2023-11-03 21:18

doubtful on the awful coach part for liquid, the yekindar nonsense and shenanigans seems like the org was playing favorites with yekindar, notice how when daps stood in at blast yekindar still held on to the IGL role, and now daps got kicked and yekindar stayed also daps gave tenz that chance on c9 but he wasn't that good

2023-11-03 21:20

Daps was igling when he stood in

2023-11-04 22:58

not what yekindar said in interviews at blast even though i believe the hltv post said so

2023-11-04 23:17

If hes not igling, its fine

2023-11-04 22:57

all canadian roster????? based????

2023-11-04 07:29

I have very specific taste (i probably got all the tisms) for what i like in counter-strike, these days, above all, i like mechanically exceptional players that can make the gameplay im watching look beautiful and graceful, right now, TwistZz is by far the most mechanically skilled player on the planet, and this Canadian roster would be the only way to build a team that puts all the resources into him, i would really really want to see that experiment, aim, movement, aesthetically pleasing fluidity...TwistZz is a lot better than ZywOo and NiKo in these things, i think he deserves one more shot, the last time he had the team built around him was with Misfits and he was so good when that happened that it bought him his spot in Liquid. Also, Daps is the best IGL of all time in Canada, he just needs more testosterone and he'd be goated, if TwistZz is playing at full power, it really doesnt matter if daps fragged worse than hooxi.

2023-11-04 07:49

#122 i meant that daps is the best igl of all time from na, not in Canada. daps >>>>>>>>>> all the na igl's ever in GO.

2023-11-04 07:51

Hes not even close

2023-11-04 22:59

0/8

2023-11-05 04:55

Nice

Yo les noobs, You’re welcome back but please use the old logo I beg you.

2023-11-03 20:33

Buy Complexity so conflict of interest with faze take over will be solved for col owner company

Get Looking4Org, apparently they just want to get around 2k€ / month, that's pretty cheap compared to most of pros. They've been grinding their ass off and need help mostly with preparation and analysis.

Osee landing on NRG. Heard it here first.

Forsaken + Osee free top 20

NRG: Elige Jt Floppy Hallzerk/oSee Grim Complexity: Karrigan Rain Twistzz/frozen/nertz Ropz Broky

2023-11-03 20:38

This.

2023-11-04 15:23

you think that an organization that left CS in 2019 because their roaster was getting too much expensive to maintain is gonna buy the full roaster of Complexity?

Congratulations to forsaken in advanced

2023-11-03 20:40

another tsm ass roster :/

2023-11-03 20:41

most probably an EU mix sadly

ayyy, hopefully they stick in cs

2023-11-03 20:50

coL to NRG

2023-11-03 20:53

Thank God, NA finally might have a decent org to build a team

2023-11-03 20:55

hell yeah

2023-11-03 20:56

The complexity roster would be a good option in case complexity is disbanded

You meant faze Jason lake is close with jones family complexity won‘t be banned get that

2023-11-03 21:01

+1 also jason lake is head of esports at gamesquare lol

2023-11-04 22:07

That I didn‘t know

2023-11-04 22:30

Man i really do miss the old NRG lineup that competed in Berlin back in 2019

why? cs is a lost cause

Looking at the rankings, the only orgless rosters worth picking up is: Forsaken or Party astronauts in NA, and if they are okay with an EU team, L4O or BNE. Otherwise they need to build their own roster from scratch, which is the most likely option if they were to make a team before the major. If they decide to start making the team after the major, there will be a lot of roster changes once again and maybe then they could get a great team on the books. However, they could also pickup osee right now and poach him from his potential other destinations, and then build around him.

2023-11-03 21:04

Considering their main motivation for why they left CS was because they were screwing themselves with financials and it was getting expensive for them to maintain it, they will likely look to go budget but not too budget since they seem to want to stay in the long term. If they want to go NA, a core from Forsaken's their best option + two others seem to be fine. As for their coach, maybe steel can be involved somehow. Just as long as they don't go for daps or adreN.

2023-11-03 21:32

GOOD

2023-11-03 21:05

L4O !!!

NRG was super fantastic this year LoL (League of Legends) worlds. Please NRG, pspspsps, please do come!

Can someone elaborate me on this: "We built that team the right way over a lot of years," Miller explained. "Really like the guys, but the space is crazy. Totally [the] owners' fault. 100%. Salaries are dumb. Too hard to even look at it as a loss leader. We want NRG to be around for a long time and current day CS model wasn't going to help us get there." What space? What's the owner's fault? What does he mean by salaries are dumb? How was current CS model not helping them?

2023-11-03 21:31

if Im understanding it correctly somewhat, they screwed themselves initially because they were overpaying that roster.

2023-11-03 21:33

would be pretty neat, old CSGO NRG was pretty neat (and then they got bought by EG and collapsed lel)

2023-11-03 21:39

maybe he will come back Stewie2k

2023-11-03 21:46

Very POG in my opinion. Always loved this org <3

LETS GO + sh1ro + donk + interz + YEKINDAR + Patsi

2023-11-03 21:49

1. get 5 fucktards from NA FPL 2. sponsor them for 3-4 months 3. drop team 4. repeat

2023-11-03 21:50

sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster sign faze roster

2023-11-03 21:56

NA needs to give Swisher a shot.

Bro hes on m80, m80 just needs to drop some deadweight.

2023-11-04 02:12

Big if true

2023-11-03 22:10

Tier 3

2023-11-03 22:37

so essentially... forsaken core: stanislaw JBa Infinite FaNg Stewie2k/Brehze wiz is a walking liability with an awp. even daps can do better.

2023-11-03 23:41

Stan Tarik Cerq Brehze Ethan All technically available,lets run it back

2023-11-03 23:39

NRG buys complexity lineup? So based on the rumors, either faze or col will have to drop their entire roster, it would be a chance for NRG for a comeback with such a good lineup already established. Basically no work is needed. Wont be particularly cheap though, my guess...

2023-11-03 23:46

sign complexity

2023-11-04 00:09

sign Faze

2023-11-04 00:40

Liked them better than eg

2023-11-04 00:47

mythic bouta get an org lets go gg ez

2023-11-04 01:36

cxzi jba fang stanislaw wiz/dea daps

2023-11-04 01:37

Hope they stay NA. Here is my T2 roster Brehze Stanislaw Osee Fang Jba Daps Would love to see Ethan come back to CS. Could take the place of Fang

2023-11-04 03:11

why would Ethan ever return, what would there even be any point in doing so. Despite CS being where he was made, it would now just be a massive downgrade if he left VALORANT now due to the success he’s gotten.

2023-11-04 03:15

EG was a terrible organization in many events, now Riot had begun investigation on EG to decide whether to revoke its berth of VALORANT.

2023-11-04 05:28

well ye obviously, but what would stop orgs in VALORANT in wanting to sign him after the EG fiasco or him wanting to remain in VALORANT.

2023-11-04 05:29

Let NRG assemble CoL/Faze and autimatic, for the others of EG, let them go

2023-11-04 05:39

timmy's washed af broski, no lmao.

2023-11-04 05:41

they should sign M0e and Summit on the same team that would be funny I think

2023-11-04 03:29

Pog.

2023-11-04 05:49

Another TSM incoming but hopefully not. stanislaw/ALEX FaNg/MarkE junior/oSee JBa Swisher

2023-11-04 06:52

M80’s not gonna let their players get poached lmao

2023-11-04 17:33

I want them to take bne but i dont think they would go for a europe team

2023-11-04 13:41

NRG!!!! I loved NRG back in 2019! Let's gooooooooo

2023-11-04 14:11

buy young brazilian players and give them NA gaming house, farm NA invites dumau insani venomzera nqz TACO (igl)

2023-11-04 17:36

great idea, wrong names. dumau and insani buyouts are skyhigh... i would go with something like: biguzera (IGL) skullz RCF (AWP) dav1d dgt

2023-11-05 04:59

Very good

2023-11-04 17:42

NRG Kscerato

2023-11-04 18:14

Declined Liquid but join NRG? Highly doubt

2023-11-04 18:27

NRG is not gonna spend high lmao.

2023-11-05 05:46

FNS and s0m?

It's good to see them back, after VAL disruption, but they are back. Hope we can see the NA scene back...

2023-11-04 18:18

Just buy betboom roster

2023-11-04 18:19

Enzo Exus +3

2023-11-04 19:04

Why is there an expectation that they’d go for an NA roster? Will they?

2023-11-04 19:42

its hopium. Although not out of the question since all of NRG's current rosters in esports are all NA majority rosters.

2023-11-04 21:33

Oh I see. That's a good indicator, they are probably going to stay in NA with CS2 then.

2023-11-04 22:15

ye but not alot of options tho. The best they can go for is signing Forsaken and work from there.

2023-11-04 22:17

For some reason im 200% sure this team will have Brehze and Cerq in it)

2023-11-04 19:44

Got Stewie written all over it

2023-11-04 19:50

+Steel NACS back on the menu boys

2023-11-04 19:57

yuuuhp Steel gunna be NA's top IGL when his time comes 100%

Stew is back poggers

2023-11-04 20:02

+ Stew + JoJo + oSee + stanislaw + FaNg

2023-11-04 21:50

they better not signing some washed player

2023-11-04 22:00

yes please, so NA can finally confirm themselves to be a tier2 region

2023-11-04 22:33

There is one player in NA who has proven he can build a top NA team multiple times and that's Stanislaw. He did it with Optic, EG, EG Black (Walco learned to IGL from him) and he did it again with Forsaken. NRG need to start with him. I hope they can get CLASIA and may be Stan can teach him manners.

2023-11-04 22:51

Buy oSee

2023-11-04 23:09

Stew comeback

2023-11-05 00:43

legija + gobb inc

2023-11-05 00:48

HAHAHAHA valorant ?

2023-11-05 01:32

nice

2023-11-05 02:44

It is rocky road for NA they probably need international team with some European players for paving the way. Hopefully cs2 new era will bring more NA talents and make the competition less EU/CIS dominated

2023-11-05 04:50

I don't think there's anyone they could go for and is willing to relocate to NA. Unless they want to sign that Latvian studying and living in NA (who really isn't impressive at all frankly). So they pretty much have to go local if they're going NA which is probably very likely since all of NRG's current esports rosters are NA majority. And their best shot to start off and eventually work with overtime to stay in the long run is with Forsaken aka stan and friends. Tho probably only a duo or trio from them specifically since they likely want nothing to do with Infinite at least and seem to already have a core in mind they want to work with for the time being lmao.

2023-11-05 05:01

Imagine if someone like sAw and Snappi got offer from NRG and accepted it. Surely not realistic scenario but that would be exciting news

2023-11-05 05:02

Snappi's already going to Falcons anyways and why would sAw ever leave ENCE lmao. And I don't think there's any highly regarded EU coach that would be willing to sign with NRG. And even then, NRG likely wants to go "budget but not completely budget" for their roster since the last time they had a CS roster, they had to sell it cause it was getting too expensive for them to maintain at the time. For an "equivalent", only person that fits the profile is steel.

2023-11-05 05:05