SAW renew player contracts ahead of Copenhagen Major

15-3-2024 18:08

The entire squad has signed improved contracts on the eve of the biggest tournament of their careers.

SAW have tied the players down to new deals

SAW's players have signed new contracts until the end of 2025, the Portuguese organization has announced. The news comes as a timely boost for the team ahead of their first match at PGL Major Copenhagen.

SAW are enjoying a fine run of form and have won their last nine matches in all competitions — a stretch that began at the European RMR. In Bucharest, the team overcame a 0-2 deficit and beat Ninjas in Pyjamas, Enterprise and fnatic to qualify for PGL Major Copenhagen, making history as the first Portuguese team to secure a spot at a Major.

How Portugal went from Antwerp heartbreak to fielding seven players at a Major

Christopher "⁠MUTiRiS⁠" Fernandes' charges went on to qualify for the BLAST Premier Spring Final after beating Liquid, Cloud9 and OG in the Showdown tournament. The two qualifying runs propelled SAW to their highest-ever ranking of 18th in the world just days before the start of the Copenhagen Major.

Michel "⁠ewjerkz⁠" Pinto and Rafael "⁠arrozdoce⁠" Wing have emerged as breakout stars for SAW as part of a young trio that also includes AWPer João "⁠story⁠" Vieira. ewjerkz was the team's top performer at the RMR with a 1.29 rating, while arrozdoce blew the community away with a 1.32 rating in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown.

Date	Matches
PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024 Opening Stage
17/03/2024	SAW 16:00 KOI	Match

SAW will take on Iberian rival KOI in the first round of the Major's Opening Stage. The two teams faced each other last month in the semi-finals of the RTP Arena Spring Cup 2024, the Iberian qualifier for the BLAST Showdown, with SAW running out 2-1 winners.

Good decision

2024-03-15 18:09

10 replies

Literally the opposite effect of kicking your IGL during the major (AleksiB ENCE 2019)

2024-03-15 18:11

9 replies

That decision happened before the major, but overall kicking a player but waiting to make it official until after the major always makes 0 sense. Why would you tell your players that a change is made BEFORE the biggest tournament there is? Aleksib actually got to shine as Ence's 3rd best player in that major as well, posting a 1.10 rating. Regarding the actual information of this news, it's just nice to see a national squad from portugal stay together.

2024-03-15 18:28

8 replies

You're right. And technically SAW resigning is before the major, too

2024-03-15 18:41

ig but this isnt too good either odds are saw might perform worse now than they would have if the org told them whoever performs well at the major gets to stay on the roster or gets a contract longer than a year or sth

2024-03-15 23:15

6 replies

That's worse, why put extra pressure on your players in the biggest event of their lives? As an org you gotta back your guys, say that you trust them and even if they fail here you got their backs. That will allow them to have the biggest chance of success

2024-03-16 02:19

3 replies

i feel like if they get this long of a contract extension before their performance at the most important tournament they might relax too much and not care since they already have what they need yk if you tell them they get 2 year contract instead of one year if they perform well or sth they would have more incentive while also not being under too much pressure since they already have 1 year secured

2024-03-18 14:13

2 replies

That's not really how psychology works, extra pressure is just gonna stack on and remove your clear vision, instead of focusing on winning you're worrying about your contract.

2024-03-18 16:06

1 reply

as i said its not pressure but incentive

2024-03-18 19:54

that's some backwards logic there bro.. they already meet their goals for the current semester - qualified for the major, and as a bonus, have qualified for the blast spring finals. I'm glad management did not wait till after the major, in my mind it would make 0 sense, and would only put unnecessary pressure on the players.

2024-03-18 12:23

#87

2024-03-18 14:14

nice?

Smart

So smart dude

2024-03-15 20:33

Yup, very smart move

2024-03-16 04:03

bag acquired well deserved

i do really feel happy for mutiris rest i dont really know

2024-03-15 23:17

2024-03-15 18:10

smart. but still probably won’t prevent at least one tier team coming to poach one of the young SAW guys, even if they have to play a hefty buyout.

4 replies

fair, but it also removes pressure that they "have" to perform at the major for a new contract. Now they can focus on their game

2024-03-15 18:12

We will see its too soon to know i guess

SAW probably included that in the new contracts. if a tier one team wants to buy someone out you recoup with free operational costs for the org for a couple years.

2024-03-15 18:20

But they will have to pay the buyout, which is better than lose sunPayus for free and alex and martinez almost for free too like riders

2024-03-15 19:42

Nice

vamos and stuff

Waiting for Nadiya opinion

#12

2024-03-15 18:13

Only 1 year is fair. People forget their abysmal performances before the major.

2024-03-15 18:14

22 replies

They qualified for blast by beating Liquid, C9 and mighty OG. Wouldn't call this perfomance abysmal

2024-03-15 18:15

17 replies

Liquid were jetlagged and OG don’t have coach and lost HeavyGod in the match against SAW. OG would have won if they had their full team and not a last minute stand-in. Cloud9 don’t have an AWP.

2024-03-15 18:19

16 replies

How do you know when their contracts were about to run out? Link tweet would be appreciated

2024-03-15 18:18

Because contracts are most of the times extended when they are ab to run out.

You said contract were about to run out in the end of 2024, but it's only mid March.

2024-03-15 18:21

Yes

Still, even if that is true, when was abysmal?

2024-03-15 18:25

I know you didn’t watch SAW before they qualified for the major. When MUTiRiS benched himself, SAW was struggling. And even before this, SAW was so inconsistent, kept losing to teams they shouldn’t.

2024-03-15 19:18

yes i watched, why the past results is more important than the recent matches? a lot has changed...

2024-03-16 15:24

Cope, saw would won og with or without heavygod

2024-03-15 19:11

SAW wouldn’t have won if OG had HeavyGod. The last minute stand-in ruined the OG’s momentum. They had to change everybody’s roles and positions in the a couple of hours because no way could s0und just learn HeavyGod’s roles in such short time.

2024-03-15 19:16

5 replies

Like i said and repeat, saw had momentum aswell and og with heavygod saw would won it aswell, but you can cope harder for all i care

And OG didn't have momentum? They beat two major teams in a row, with everybody playing their roles perfectly.

2024-03-15 19:20

Are you really comparing saw momentum to og momentum? Saw went to the major, which og didnt so saw were way more confident than og. They were in a 7 match streak before playing og also beating liquid and cloud 9 (who are in the major aswell). So like i said and i repeat you can keep coping. The only reason og went to the final is because they didnt have another competition to go lmao

2024-03-15 19:28

Yeah, and SAW players knew their momentum was about to fade until it was announced that s0und was standing in for OG because of HeavyGod. OG beat a team from the LEGENDS stage meanwhile SAW beat a team that don’t have AWP player. “The only reason og went to the final is because they didnt have another competition to go lmao” now that is cope.

2024-03-15 19:32

"Knew their momentum was about to fade" lmao what are you talking about hahahahaha. Dont tell me you were with the saw players and they tell you that. Lose their momentum for playing a team that even't went to the major. So basically what you are saying is that for cloud 9 which is in major didnt lose the momentum of saw why should og make saw lose the momentum. I swear this is coping too much DougBuck. Its not suprising that even story doesnt like you ahahah

2024-03-15 19:37

Delusional, imagine playing OT against F1ku and 2 academy players

2024-03-17 15:37

And? Its totally a different game. Saw would won it anyway im sure of that

2024-03-17 15:38

This guy is such a SAW hater, did your girl get stolen by a Portuguese man or something?

2024-03-15 19:58

ofc hahahahahahaha he doesn´t have a life

2024-03-15 21:02

8/8

2024-03-15 21:18

Dougbuck... Why did you change "Adella" 's flag from Angola to Spain?

2024-03-16 04:06

MAJOR BUFF inc

nice, make those buyouts big to scare shit T1 orgs away

2024-03-15 18:16

Fair of them, sticker money will be great income which should ensure stability and sustainability

time to throw

damn, why didnt they sign hampus and faven instead

2024-03-15 18:22

Good move for the org and the players. They are playing good cs

izi 3-1 for them

2024-03-15 18:23

Makes sense, not only takes some pressure off the players shoulders, it also guarantees that if some player shines and looks promising enough to make a T1 team interested, the org will profit more since the buyout is now bigger

2024-03-15 18:24

+motivation

2024-03-15 18:27

2024-03-15 18:32

well deserved gl hf boys

2024-03-15 18:33

2024-03-15 18:44

With how well they've been playing I feel like they should've bet on themselves and waited until after the major to sign new contracts. Might be like an ENCE 2019 kida story where they end up being a solid top10 team for the year and play on like 5-6k/month.

2024-03-15 18:46