Sources: NRG target daps, oSee, Brehze

27-11-2023 21:00

The trio will form the core of the organization's lineup as they re-enter Counter-Strike.

NRG are close to finalizing their new Counter-Strike roster and have targeted Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm, Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele, and Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte to form their core, sources tell HLTV. NRG confirmed that the trio were in their sights when contacted by HLTV, but offered no further comment.

The remaining two spots on the roster have not been decided yet, but HLTV understands that Jadan "⁠HexT⁠" Postma and Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley are in consideration to complete the lineup. The five players were also recently spotted playing FACEIT games together by a user on reddit.

Sources also say NRG has considered Timothy "⁠autimatic⁠" Ta for one of their final spots, but the rifler "is keeping his options open to other potential opportunities," according to Dust2.us.

The American organization's interest in returning to Counter-Strike was first revealed by HLTV, with Dust2.us following up with a report that stated oSee was a primary target for the team's lineup. NRG CEO Andy Miller later revealed that the organization's lineup would be North American.

NRG CEO: "We're going to be NA"

daps and Brehze previously played together on NRG from 2016-2019, rising to a peak ranking of No. 4 in the world in February 2019. They secured title victories at IEM Shanghai 2018, cs_summit 3, and made deep playoff runs at a handful of Big Events when playing together, including 3-4th place finishes at ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals and ECS Season 7 Finals.

The Canadian captain was later replaced by Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz, but Brehze briefly reunited with daps when the latter took up coaching duties for Evil Geniuses in 2021.

With the signing, daps would make his return as a player for an organization for the first time since he led Gen.G in 2020. He had briefly returned to the server prior to his 17-month stint as Liquid's coach, captaining an unsalaried roster in ESL Challenger League, but the team ultimately disbanded after a period of disappointing results.

Brehze has been inactive since June, when he was moved to Evil Geniuses' bench and allowed to explore other opportunities following the promotion of four of the organization's academy players.

The 25-year-old was once considered one of the best riflers in the world and twice named a top 20 player by HLTV, peaking at No. 8 in 2019 and again at No. 20 in 2020.

His form and consistency suffered greatly in the years that followed, with his LAN average rating dropping from 1.12 over 192 maps in 2019 to 0.95 over 49 maps in 2022. Whether he can return to anywhere near his old level upon a reunion with daps, with whom he had one of the best periods of his career, is something that remains an immense question mark for the prospects of this NRG roster.

Media: EG set to drop Counter-Strike division

NRG's core is expected to be:

Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele
Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm
Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte

Isn't daps just like, not good at all anymore?

2023-11-27 21:01

11 replies

As far as is known so far, they want to build a budget NA roster and see if they can turn it into something. As a budget option, daps is a pretty decent choice, especially if you expect him to transition into a coach/analyst role down the line, which I think is a pretty reasonable assumption to make. Also, there's not enough solid IGLs to fill the needs of Tier 1 rosters, let alone T2/T3.

2023-11-27 21:10

1 reply

Now add Stanislaw and Cerq and you got old good NRG

2023-11-28 11:10

it's a ploy, they're getting daps to build the team then they will replace him with stanislaw. you'll see

2023-11-27 21:14

2 replies

I like how you think, Stanislaw is x5 from daps

2023-11-27 21:16

ig they should really get stanislaw after his recent results

2023-11-27 23:41

He's been cooking in pugs when he duo queues with Brehze

2023-11-27 21:47

About the only time Brehze isn't the worst on server

2023-11-28 09:35

The NRG core have been grinding pugs and Daps is currently on a 26 win streak with 3k elo

2023-11-28 18:45

Yeah, IGL wise he is good, aim not so much so Brehze will have to aim for 2 every round

2023-11-27 23:19

Considering how bad Brehze has been in the past 3 years it sounds like NRG is doomed

2023-11-28 06:20

Probably better than brehze so

2023-11-28 00:27

AUTIMATIC PLS

10 replies

+1 underrated

2023-11-27 21:34

+ NATHE PLS

2023-11-27 22:24

6 replies

guy's never returning to CS, and frankly he shouldn't cause he'd get screwed af over here right now kekw I mean not as much as his current situation but still.

2023-11-27 23:08

5 replies

dont know what u talking about, but aight i just wanted the nostalgia of old nrg back

2023-11-28 00:45

4 replies

Ethan’s in contract jail with EG in VALORANT.

2023-11-28 00:48

3 replies

arent they like winning a lot

2023-11-28 00:50

they just won the equivalent of a CS major 3 months ago. But 2-3 weeks later, it was found that EG told them that if they wanted to re-sign they would have to take a 50% paycut. And that EG put the entire roster in contract jail at the same time.

2023-11-28 00:53

dats crazy

2023-11-28 00:58

+1 autimatic needs to be here

2023-11-27 23:58

He would probably be good for a team like this sure but people gotta stop pretending like he's a great talent because he's a little better than most others in a tier 4 level team for 2 years

2023-11-28 00:30

''We are aiming to go to the major'' meanwhile daps and brehze in a team

18 replies

They can go as spectators maybe

2023-11-27 21:04

getting through NA RMR basically means outaiming some Brazilian t2 teams. with some luck you can sign couple players on short term contracts and go to major with such budget roster. at this point you farm money from stickers and potentially develop the team

2023-11-27 22:18

16 replies

Daps and Brehze ain’t outaiming anyone

this nrg team does not sound better than mibr, furia or pain

#114 + U already have liquid complexity furia mibr pain imperial and prob few more that will outaim daps and brehze, and if they somehow get someone like fang then you can say gl to osee

2023-11-27 22:27

13 replies

+1 even m80 or nouns would beat the shit out of them on a good day

2023-11-27 23:05

I mean m80 and nouns have together beat EG 6 times in a row and hard to see this team being much better all of a sudden

2023-11-28 00:33

the idea still works from the business pov. NA RMRs are known to be relatively easy so you build a budget team and hope they will fluke through. if they do - you win, if they don't you just say nt and release the players who were given short term contracts

2023-11-28 08:30

Relatively easy for teams like furia and liquid or col i dont think u can put nrg with daps and brehze there.

2023-11-28 09:18

furia are dogshit, they could easily fail to qualify to the major considering their form. and even if u count these 3 teams u still have 2 spots to grab fighting against t2-3 teams like pain, m80, imperial, mibr. etc

2023-11-28 09:58

Never said furia is a good team, but when it comes to qualifying to major from na they tend to just go through if not from first place then prob in next 4. I just dont think imperial or m80 will do better

2023-11-28 10:07

you miss a point assuming RNG is trying to gather a roster that's stronger on paper than their regional rivals. this is not their goal - the goal is to make a budget team and give it a shot with a hope of abusing a very random format that tends to be forgiving to weaker teams as long as they have some luck in drawing and in their bo1 games. they basically hope for lucky draw and couple good pistol rounds in bo1s. it's a low risk and potentially high reward move, even if the chances of succeeding are not huge

2023-11-28 10:39

Doesnt mean that they have to get brehze and daps in one team, you can literally pick so many free agents in na cuz there are like 4-5 actual orgs if you dont count br teams, and they went with this

2023-11-28 10:43

well that's an entirely different subject. I don't follow NA CS enough to have an opinion on particular player choices in this case. obviously daps & brehze don't sound very scary but I don't know what could be an alternative

2023-11-28 10:48

imperial are trash lmao

2023-11-28 09:31

Trash as they are, they cant be worse with brehze and daps im one team+ prob fang

2023-11-28 09:56

they can compete, really. look at fluxo run on americas rmr, you just have to get a lucky bracket

2023-11-28 09:57

Lucky bracket or not, a team with daps and 0.95 kd rifler brehze wont go far, especially if osee will be their best player a guy who some days just dissapear, i wonder who will carry them then

2023-11-28 10:04

sounds like some washed up players

LOL. It sounds like they are building a new EG [potential] roster... :\

2023-11-28 15:40

Pog

2023-11-27 21:02

Daps will PLAY, not coach??? NRG are already fkin everything up jfl

There's no North American IGL available who's better tho. MAYBE stanislaw but he hasn't exactly dominated tier 2 NA in the last couple years

2023-11-27 21:19

nah stanislaw with some kids and joes who play cs aafter mcdonalds shiftw always makes through open qualifiers just to lose to eg in a closed qualifier in a game for a spot or smthing like that. He is better than ginger daps

2023-11-27 21:28

just import a european IGL and keep an NA core

2023-11-27 22:25

steel

2023-11-27 23:16

this, but not before the second half of 2024 give him the fall and winter to build the team, and the spring and summer to win events

2023-11-28 02:16

hampus is available if he wants to migrate to na. i've always thought it was at least worth reaching out to him about. he'd be such an upgrade over daps in the server. also this brehze move is really stupid. fat washed up unmotivated paycheck stealer will 1.01 in this roster for a year before its inevitably blown up for not getting anywhere. my view was always hopefully picking up hampus and maybe even jks (a bit wishful but its nrg so they should have enticing enough money offers for both of them) with the team rounded out by osee fang and auti and then daps as the coach. but i guess even attempting to put together a roster like that makes too much sense for an na org

2023-11-28 01:51

This is a tier 3 team. osee is maybe a tier 1 awper depending on the day, daps is washed, and brehze is a paycheck stealer. 4 months before this gets blown up

17 replies

"This is a tier 3 team." - so exactly what they said they wanted. From the beginning, NRG was pretty clearly stating they cannot afford a top tier roster, it was even the reason why they left in the first place. They want to build a budget roster in NA and see if they can squeeze something out of it without overpaying a ton of money.

2023-11-27 21:13

15 replies

there is no money below tier2 lmao so theres no point in building a roster that cant compete with those cracked out russian teams. guardian is overrated btw.

2023-11-27 21:20

14 replies

-1

2023-11-27 21:31

9 replies

only good thing to come out ouf the netherlands is verstappen and hes basically belgian anyways

2023-11-27 21:36

8 replies

that's better than having produced absolutely nothing useful. (like the USA). it's really sad when 1 Dutch player reaches further at a major than all USA players together :( (and no, Canada aint USA)

2023-11-27 21:44

hltv.org/events/3247/eleague-major-2018

2023-11-27 22:15

strange point you're trying to make

2023-11-27 22:26

`????Reply needs to have actual content

2023-11-27 23:04

2023-11-28 04:21

and he'll never do it again

2023-11-28 12:59

i only did -1 for guardian. and the usa is most known for warcrimes so ill take my country any time. funny how you try to insult me while all i did was disagree with you.

2023-11-30 15:50

watch out before we airstrike you

2023-11-30 18:13

What I consider tier 3 is top 64-32. Most, if not all, of the teams/orgs in those positions are pro/salaried as far as I know, but with lower budgets. That fits exactly what NRG want as a starting point. Not saying that's the endgame, I would assume they want to target at least qualifying to the second major of 2024, or the 2025 majors, but they have openly stated they are looking to build a team at a budget at the beginning because they can't afford to compete with the top level salaries at the moment and see if it leads to anything down the line.

2023-11-27 21:58

With this roster they are probably the 4th best Na team (col, m80, nouns, and if you wanna count liquid after their roster moves go through) and considering they’ll be lumped in with SA teams as well, there is no chance they are making a major with that core. They’d be way better off picking up the best players from nouns and m80 and adding osee

2023-11-28 04:44

Big if but IF Brehze is motivated he is still pretty young so he could maybe do something but if were just gonna see recent history EG Brehze then this teams shit

2023-11-28 20:02

Yeah brehze needs to prove himself before i have any faith in this roster

what is the point of typing "ok" as a comment to an article? is it to show that you're too cool to care?

2023-11-28 06:38

No i just said ok because that was my honest reaction when i read this

2023-11-28 08:50

Why Brehze? Daps isnt great but Brehze is a .8 rating star rifler. Maybe he'll prove me wrong though. I suppose I have to hope so

he wasn't bad the last time he was in NRG, but ever since...

2023-11-27 21:40

if anybody can make Brehze great again its daps

2023-11-27 22:16

Daps Brehze Osee Fang Hext NA's last hope gg bro. Unless Brehze steps up this roster is already finished

na's last hope meanwhile col performing the best since an na team has since like 2021 xd

2023-11-28 10:59

I'm talking about a full NA team

2023-11-28 11:05

nowadays only thing a full na team could achieve is cct swiss stage 2-3 unfortunately

2023-11-28 12:55

Tier-3 team inc

2023-11-27 21:03

pls let daps be the coach pls

+autimatic +FaNg

2019

NRG is the new EG NA CS makes me want to kiss myself

+jks +autimatic

PLEASE

2023-11-27 21:05

last two spots are most likely fang and hext

2023-11-27 21:09

let me dream

please no HexT

2023-11-27 21:23

isn't EG disbanding though?

2023-11-27 22:29

tier2 at best

dead project on the arrival with daps and brehze bots save osee

daps coach pls

dead from the cradle

na is dead

2023-11-27 21:06

Fucking Brehze lord help us all

2023-11-27 21:07

It's so over for NA

Hext and Fang fill out this teams roles extremally well. Osee is going to be incredible with free reign of the map as the star though im a bit worried that the team won't have a reliable first option rifler.

m8, both canadians are entries.

Please don't let 30 year old talent Daps play

get clasia

Clasia & hext in same team XD they will fistfight on round 2 irl

2023-11-27 23:06

This team is more or less on M80's level or even worse, why NRG even bother returning CS2 with this crap lineup?

lmfao starting out by picking garbage leftovers from NA LOL

2023-11-27 21:08

why not sign a guy like vanity

Vanity is playing VAL for Cloud9.

2023-11-27 21:39

yeah i thought he wanted to comeback, but only with a solid org. oh well, i guess daps is the next best thing

2023-11-27 21:43

He was a free agent over the summer, and he did indicate a willingness to return to CS, but he signed with Cloud9 at the end of September.

good for him! thanks for the update, buddy

2023-11-27 21:53

Where are nitr0 rn? Wouldve been way better option that washed daps

2023-11-27 22:30

he is done with a dead game and now chilling with his wife and kids and playing valo.

Vanity is a huge bot in cs

brazil still hurt about that chaos lineup destroying fallen

2023-11-27 22:19

BRAZIL >>>>> SWE > CANADA >>>> USA

2023-11-27 22:42

Puerto Rico > all Stay mad

2023-11-28 03:47

*clown emoji*

i know they were praccing with Hext, but please complete the team with autimatic + fang.

please break the bank for autimatic

2023-11-27 21:11

daps should not be playing

2023-11-27 21:12

brehze can mayyyyyyyybe step back up but daps???

No way, no, daps can't play. oSee of course, but this is already a step in the wrong direction.

go to the major with that core? xdddd im sure that they will lose vs a tier 3 brazilian team in the RMR.. (if they can reached there kekw)

daps as coach is already questionable, with him as IGL there is no way this roster will be good

2023-11-27 21:15

bring RUSH

+1 not sure why he never transitioned to IGL he would have had so many more opportunities. He has the mind for it he plays the roles for it, maybe he just isn't great at leading.

2023-11-27 22:21

if he comes back, it should be as the coach.

2023-11-27 23:10

pretty sure he said he was willing to igl recently

2023-11-28 12:54

brehze in 2023 LUL

NA fetish for signing washed up players part 7480...................

2023-11-27 21:17

+CeRq

2023-11-27 21:18

lmao rehashing and shuffling the same deck hoping to get a different result at some point

from coach to player lmao

2023-11-27 21:21

Meme team

2023-11-27 21:22

breh EZ letsgooo

They had to have signed Daps as a temporary player, they should sign Tim,HexT,Fang and move Daps to coaching.

hext lmao

2023-11-28 00:08

HEXT LMAOOO

2023-11-27 21:25

2023-11-28 00:09

daps in 2023 ahahahahahaha. Trash team.

2023-11-27 21:27

I actually really like the sound of this team. Probably not gonna be very successful at tier 1 but they've stated that they don't have ambitions that high, so it's okay in my eyes

better to get stewie as IGL ngl

stewie is in contract jail with MYthic

2023-11-28 06:40

are they even real org? i mean...

2023-11-28 23:07

they gotta get autimatic aswell

+daps means +another bulgarian matchfixer

2023-11-27 21:35

+ Stew + autimatic? :D

2023-11-27 21:38

LMAO

solid t5 team

2023-11-27 21:41

t1 in usa

Excited to see these young talents win their first NA Cash Cup!

daps 2024 xd

oSee Brehze Autimatic RUSH Fang/dexter daps coach This would be an good lineup

2023-11-27 21:45

now +jdm pls

Osee poggers Daps back to coach Brehze gtfo

why?... sentimental NA fans better get ready for disappointment

2023-11-27 21:49

Do you hear young stew's entrance music?

2023-11-27 21:51

liquid sh1ro

2023-11-27 21:52

Expected +autimatic +jks +dexter daps to coach

Decent))

2023-11-27 22:05

would actually be fun to see

2023-11-27 22:09

It would but I'm pretty sure NRG has said that their mission was to get a low-cost contender in the NA scene because the reason they left in the first place was that running a top-tier team was getting too pricey. Honestly I think dexter would be a reasonably low-cost addition that would be a boost to both the calling and firepower of the team.

100% team would be better then col and be #1 NA and farm tier 2.

2023-11-28 03:14

I need a majority Canadian roster in my life again...PLEASE

2023-11-27 21:55

So basically they're building an even worse EG roster?

2023-11-27 22:03

7 replies

Dude Sweden cs might be worse them US/CA cs in 2023

hltv.org/img/static/flags/30x20/BR.gif

Brazil at least has a team with a future in MIBR. Sweden has none right now.

2023-11-27 23:11

-Mibr -Future Good one, better luck on next b8

2023-11-27 23:25

Haha what? Neither Brazil nor NA will win a single S-tier event. MIBR has 1 decent player, the rest are tier 2 at best and col has already peaked.

Hot take. No national teams will win anything. International teams are not even eu teams.

2023-11-28 02:15

I'm curious what the Swedish CS scene has to do with this roster being trash?

2023-11-27 23:17

We have seen this before, haven't we?

2023-11-27 22:04

Trash team

2023-11-27 22:06

if they dont get some proper imports they will legit just be EG 2.0 and be worse than M80

not hard to be worse than m80

2023-11-28 13:04

Yeah I like the team but I had assumed an org like NRG wanted to be a little more than a mid tier ECL team

2023-11-28 17:26

well please put daps as coach lol

Onde esta cerq? Um excelente awp

Surely oSee has better prospects than this? EG really trying to keep Junior?

+JKS +Swisher and it;s a proper team

love brehze but he is so done

2023-11-27 22:38

Shroud coming back to pro level

2023-11-27 22:41

God no please

EU teams adding all sort of new young talents and prospects Meanwhile in NA... this reads like a newspost from 2016

2023-11-27 22:45

how players like brehze still has credits? lmao

2023-11-27 23:00

BREHZE LOL

2023-11-27 23:07

steel osee cxzi autimatic swisher better than this shiet

I was hoping to see a Stewie in the mix

2023-11-27 23:21

Imagine daps bringing Rainwaker!

2023-11-27 23:23

Lol

This roster is laugh worthy. You ain't defeating even Nouns or M80 or that Stan team or something with this , let alone the BR guys . Won't even mention Complexity and Liquid

2023-11-27 23:29

it's over

2023-11-27 23:31

sucks for Stewie guess he jobless

2023-11-27 23:33

no he's got a contract with mythic

2023-11-28 06:41

No Auti or Stew?!

2023-11-27 23:52

It’s joever

2023-11-28 00:02

Worse than Evil Geniuses. NA orgs are delusional.

2023-11-28 00:06

Stopped reading after Daps. NA clowns.

2023-11-28 00:07

omg not hext again

Autimatic (rifler) Stewie2k (igl, entry & sec awp) Rush (support) Osee (awper) Jeorge (rifler) Valens (coach) 4 of 6 major champions EZ WIN

2023-11-28 00:12

trash

2023-11-28 00:24

+tarik +ethan

2023-11-28 00:39

oooh, hmm interesting

Id rather see nitro coming back as igl than daps

2023-11-28 00:43

Daps like coach or player? I am a bit confused -_- Osee and Brehze... can't complain. NA seem a bit boosted by CS2 switch.

2023-11-28 00:44

31st in the world incoming

GODoSee

2023-11-28 00:47

why even bring back a team with just shit players

2023-11-28 01:05

2023-11-28 01:06

It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em

2023-11-28 01:22

This is likely going to be another EG that is going to go from failure to failure . . .

2023-11-28 02:27

daps playing until steel's ban is lifted, then full-time coach

2023-11-28 02:41

Tier2 NA teams are always welcomet

2023-11-28 02:50

dead team already

2023-11-28 02:51

NA is a big recycling facility...

2023-11-28 03:34

1 year max until -daps +stan

2023-11-28 03:38

Never seen autimatic perform well since Boston major Bro has been stealing paychecks since then.

I like this team, not going to be top1 again. but very competitive for sure

2023-11-28 03:50

As a player? 🥶

2023-11-28 03:59

hopefully daps is just a temp add

2023-11-28 05:04

daps megalul how to show you pretend to do a tier3 xdddddddd

2023-11-28 06:26

eg 2.0

2023-11-28 06:50

NRG stuck in 2018

2023-11-28 07:23

This roster wouldn't have been able to compete in 2018, let alone 2023. This is literally EG all over again. I can't believe we're still recycling washed names such as Brehze and Daps in 2023, and this is coming from someone who is ROOTING for NA success. This is not the way to do it lmao. Might as well say fuck it and pay Tarik 1 mil to come back.

2023-11-28 07:35