Editorial: Best and worst transfers of CS2

HLTV's writers share their opinions on who made the best and worst transfers so far in CS2.

As we approach the first full year of CS2, which was released after the summer of 2023, we wonder what the best and worst roster changes have been during the early era of the game post-CS:GO.

Initially, the idea was to look back on the winter market, but with the advent of CS2 many teams jumped the gun and started to form their rosters in late summer and early fall, so we expanded the window to include all of the changes that came about with the seismic shift around the time the game was released.

From Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov joining Spirit to Ninjas in Pyjamas's overhaul, or Astralis' no-anchor mayhem and G2's unpopular removal of Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage, our staff give their opinions to see if there is a quorum on the best and worst transfers affecting the first half of 2024.

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Best: sh1ro to Spirit

sh1ro's decision to step down from Cloud9 came out of left field and was heavily scrutinized considering the roster he was leaving. There's no denying now that teaming up with Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets was a slam dunk of a move, and when you look at the ruin that is now Cloud9 perhaps we were too blind to see then that sh1ro was jumping a sinking boat.

Worst: Magisk joining Falcons

Singling out Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif in the whole Falcons ordeal might seem harsh when the former ENCE core also came out much worse for it. However, the Dane was the first to commit to Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen and was leaving Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut behind and a Vitality team that went on to win a couple of events despite the downgrade.

Who knows how this could have turned out had Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač not made the last-minute U-turn, and perhaps the promise of the Bosnian superstar may have swayed many of the incoming players, but the reality is Falcons have been nothing short of a disaster post-Katowice.

- Milan "Striker" Svejda

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Best: NIP turn a corner

Ninjas in Pyjamas' RMR was a disaster. But it also offered the new management an opportunity to mold the team in their image. Björn "⁠THREAT⁠" Pers and Richard "⁠Xizt⁠" Landström came in, were trusted with sporting matters, and improvement came overnight.  

After a baffling amount of time was spent trying to make Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke, and Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin co-exist in the same team, the new team plucked anchor Isak "⁠isak⁠" Fahlén out of GamerLegion — a huge coup — and promoted the impressive Max "⁠maxster⁠" Jansson to (accidentally, they say) restore a Swedish core.

But the big one is adding Artem "⁠r1nkle⁠" Moroz. Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov was a touch passive, but it's not like there was zero potential. You could have kept him. Instead, they boldly moved for the opposite style of sniper, compatriots though they are. At YaLLa Compass, we saw why r1nkle may very well end up as one of the three best rookies of 2024.

Worst: Astralis put four rotators in the same team

Anyone who watched even a single map of Astralis and HEROIC in 2023 could have told you that making Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer co-exist would be difficult. Playing exactly the same CT positions (and both wanting to be the trader on T) is one thing, but the clash in how they saw the game was even more stark. stavn is all about team-based proactivity and his ability to mid-round. blameF, as good as his raw numbers are, is about setting his own individual plays up. 

Adding Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard simultaneously only made things worse. Astralis removed Christian "⁠Buzz⁠" Andersen and Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup, the two anchors in the old team, and added rotator jabbi and shifted poor old Victor "⁠Staehr⁠" Staehr — who was their best role-adjusted player in this period — to the graveyard shift of B on Mirage.

Under blameF, stavn had a 0.99 T rating, and 1.08 on CT. jabbi, meanwhile, had 0.98 in his new anchor roles. Since the RMR, and blameF's departure, stavn has a 1.29 on CT and 1.12 on T. jabbi has a 1.13 on CT, and 1.19 on T. Roles matter.

- Harry "NER0" Richards

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Best: sh1ro to Spirit

Spirit's management could hardly believe their luck when they learned that sh1ro had been made available for transfer by Cloud9. This wasn't a cheap move (rumors suggest that the deal cost upwards of $1 million), but it instantly allowed Spirit to solve one of their biggest issues while giving donk a reliable right-hand man.

With Spirit, sh1ro has rediscovered his joy of playing and his best form, playing a key role during the team's title-winning campaigns in Katowice and London. With a 1.22 average rating and four EVPs, he is firmly in the conversation for Best AWPer of 2024.

Worst: cadiaN to Liquid

Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller is becoming a great example of how quickly things can change in modern Counter-Strike. Just months after making his first-ever appearance in the HLTV Top 20 Players of the Year, the Danish AWPer/IGL finds himself in an extremely fragile situation after a barren spell with Liquid. The fault lies squarely between the player and the organization, as the team never fully bought into the Dane's system, which raises serious questions about the thought process that went into creating the lineup.

After half a season, the two brains of the project, cadiaN and Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado, are gone, and another player is believed to be on his way out. This is certainly not what cadiaN had in mind when he signed with Liquid at the end of last year. His stock has taken a precipitous fall, to the point where he might have a hard time finding a top team, and he may be left with no choice but to sit out the rest of the season.

- Luís "MIRAA" Mira

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Best: MOUZ add Brollan

Losing David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský was inevitable for MOUZ, and replacing a player like the Slovakian seemed impossible due to his fragging output. They passed the test with flying colors, though, as they found a worthy replacement in Brollan.

The Swede's career was seemingly waning before MOUZ became the team to finally unlock his potential, something that both fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas failed to do. Because he is a different type of player and didn't take frozen's roles, his addition also helped his teammates reach a higher level, which allowed MOUZ to become one of the world's top teams despite losing their star player.

Worst: G2 remove jks and add nexa

A team short of firepower due to NiKo's and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač's struggles in CS2 removed a high-fragging anchor for a much more supportive one, and that alone is enough to make the move a bad one.

When you add how G2 handled the communication and that the community seemed unanimous in branding the change a downgrade, which added so much pressure to the team, it's safe to say Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković's addition didn't have the desired effect. His removal in the summer break also tells its own story.

- Žan "Sumljiv" Zupanič

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Best: Spirit add sh1ro

If there were any commensurate roster-building moment in CS2 that parallels 2012's legendary Ninjas in Pyjamas roster, then sh1ro joining Spirit would be the one. This change-out created titanic headwinds in CS2 and catapulted a five-man core into a permanent Top 5 fixture.

sh1ro added the perfect amount of firepower, impact, and cohesion to Spirit’s roster, and has been the Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg to donk’s Christopher "⁠GeT_RiGhT⁠" Alesund (in terms of 2012 and 2013 days). This roster move also freed up Myroslav "⁠zont1x⁠" Plakhotia, allowing him to play a more specialized role and paid dividends to Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov’s overall leadership system.

But most of all, since we love storylines at HLTV, it was the ultimate emotional payoff from the days of sh1ro looking like the poster child for depression during his time at Cloud9 to the new days of winning events. Three cheers for the Russian anime team.

Worst: nexa returns to G2

There are a couple good contenders here: cadiaN joining Liquid, Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander to ENCE (despite early promise), and the entire Falcons project. But nothing quite has the morbid and corrosive sting as nexa’s stint on G2 in hindsight. The obsession with nexa’s lack of impact on this roster reached fever pitch by the mid-half of 2024 prior to his benching.

In Dante’s Inferno, the eighth circle of Hell is known as the Malebolge (“evil pouches”); in the first pouch, Dante is shown a gathering of frauds running to and fro while being scourged by whips amidst hellfire. If there ever were a space for a Pouch 1.5 to be created for our modern de_inferno, then surely it would be for nexa's pit position play on CT-side and how he was continuously scorched there. At the very least that is how many will remember his stint on G2.

- Michal "stich" Malachowski

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Best: Astralis remove blameF and add br0

After the heavyweight signings of jabbi and stavn failed to net results for Astralis, culminating in arguably the organization’s most embarrassing result in missing out on the PGL Copenhagen Major, the decision to part ways with blameF and bring on Alexander "⁠br0⁠" Bro was exactly the move the team needed.

Taking on the supportive roles that the team sorely needed to be filled, br0’s addition has helped breathe new life into Astralis, who snagged four consecutive semi-finals in his first events with the team.

Worst: gla1ve joins ENCE

One will be hard-pressed to find a bigger waste of time this season than the addition of storied in-game leader gla1ve to ENCE. He initially joined a lineup with one foot in the grave at the end of 2023, and matters were made only more bizarre by the Danish captain being tasked to lead four Poles ahead of the new year.

A stunning quarter-final finish at IEM Katowice exceeded expectations for the skipper’s new side, but the remainder of ENCE’s season provided almost nothing to be excited about. If one believes that gla1ve’s prime is far behind him, it stings to see an organization like ENCE, which previously commanded competitive lineups, place him as the centerpiece of their roster.

For those who believe that the Dane still has more to give, seeing him thrust into a season surrounded by players signed at the last minute makes the first half of gla1ve’s 2024 feel like a waste of time for nearly everybody involved.

- Samuel "Draik" Popkes

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Best: Senzu joins The MongolZ

The MongolZ put themselves on the map in 2023 with a handful of upsets at Big Events, notoriously playing spoiler to FURIA in the Play-ins of IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne in what looked like a tale as old as time: An emerging roster from Asia attends a few top events and surprises higher-ranked teams, but fails to convert that into a deeper run and drops back into the depths of their region, not to be seen again until their next upset win or two in a handful of months.

It was apparent quite early on that this was something different, though. The type of Counter-Strike The MongolZ played wasn't a gimmick, nor had off-meta strategies that surprised and allowed for "fluke" wins. The team had the structure and was working on playing "proper" Counter-Strike, but lacked the experience and firepower to contend against the best.

Enter Azbayar "⁠Senzu⁠" Munkhbold. The 17-year-old previously played for The MongolZ in 2022, under a different lineup, and his return to the organization under Garidmagnai "⁠bLitz⁠" Byambasuren's leadership came upon the eve of the transition to CS2.

Senzu has firmly established himself as the team's best player since joining, and the change has paid dividends as The MongolZ enjoyed breakout success in the first six months of 2024 making the Major's Elimination Stage, EPL playoffs, and two smaller titles to reach a high of 11th in the world rankings.

Worst: Magisk to Falcons

The disaster-class of Falcons is a disappointing tale from a wealth of angles, including the ripping apart of a successful ENCE roster, but the impact it's had upon Magisk and his 2024 career is in a league of its own.

Admittedly, the Dane may have joined with the expectation of the organization completing the blockbuster signing of NiKo or other superstar talent. However, their failure to complete that move, their results since, and his departure from a successful Vitality roster — one that went on to win titles without him — leaves a bitter taste.

Not only has his form dipped (1.05 LAN rating with Falcons, 1.14 in his last six months with Vitality), but I'm remiss to think of the other possible destinations he could have gone to when he made the transfer to the maligned Falcons roster, whether they were on the table or not.

To FaZe for a departing Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken? Fire. G2 in place of nexa? No doubt. Staying on Vitality? Not hard to imagine what could have been. Even a reunion with Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz on Astralis, if Magisk would actually return to the organization, leaves one salivating. This was a point I made on Snake & Banter in December, and though it didn't seem to age well with Falcons' playoff run in Katowice, it's one that I look back on now with sadness as to what could have been.

- Danish "Nohte" Allana

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Best: MartinezSa takes a gamble overseas

The Spanish-speaking world was taken by surprise when AWPer Antonio "⁠MartinezSa⁠" Martinez joined 9z. Most in Spain considered it a lateral move at best, perhaps incentivized by a better paycheck, but boy, is he proving everyone wrong.

The 23-year-old had recently taken up the spot previously held by Spain's most prolific player ever, Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García, and given the chance to prove himself on the world stage with his country's flag-bearing team, Movistar Riders (now KOI), who often compete at events like ESL Pro League, can win mid-level LANs such as ESL Challengers, and even qualify to Majors on occasion.

Then Maximiliano "⁠max⁠" Gonzalez did what he does best: get AWPers to excel in his system. The team's two past AWPers, Santino "⁠try⁠" Rigal and Lucas "⁠nqz⁠" Soares, played their best while in 9z, and now MartinezSa is following that trend with a career-high 1.20 rating. It took a few months, but they went from a fringe top 30 team to 12th in the world after a Cinderella semi-final run at IEM Dallas and hoisting the trophy at the FiReLEAGUE Global Finals (where Dust2.com.br named 'Marti' their MVP).

Worst: G2's lateral move doesn't work out

It's hard to find hipster picks for the worst move. Second-line Chinese teams adding random European players could be one. FURIA departing from their aggressive Andrei "⁠arT⁠" Piovezan-led style and giving Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo the keys could be a hot take to stoke the fire — although it probably doesn't qualify as it has been a transformation taking place since well before CS2 was out. But it's just as hard to pick one particular high-level train crash above the rest.

Was nexa's return worse than gla1ve knowingly signing onto a dead team and having to end up leading a Polish lineup? Or Falcons failing to secure their star roster and the following meltdown that ensued after keeping Mohammad "⁠BOROS⁠" Malhas? Or Liquid investing hugely into an international squad just to never buy into one vision of the game and it all falling apart?

What sets the removal of jks apart from the others is that it seemed completely unnecessary from the outside, and nobody has come out to dispel that line of thought. When G2 made the announcement, it was unanimously hailed as a lateral move. However, even lateral moves carry risk, and with nexa now benched after a not particularly prolific period, that seems to be the case — made worse in hindsight by the fact that they had won a Katowice and Cologne double in 2023 with the Australian.

- Lucas Aznar Miles