Biggest surprise package of 2023 - BLAST.tv Talent Awards

"I think Astralis has been surprisingly bad, to be completely honest, again, it's been another year of struggles for them. I think MOUZ as an organisation and team have been playing surprisingly well, they were up there contesting for a top three spot in the world, but now frozen left it's unsure whether that will continue.

If I had to pick one though I'd say ENCE, I think the old iteration of ENCE with Snappi, no one would have seen them playing three or four finals in major tournaments, they did so well in a lot of big tournaments."

"Honestly, right now, I thinking NAVI, even if it's really late to throw their name into it.

I didn't think they were going to be good, and I thought with s1mple leaving they were just dead, but I think w0nderful has improved tonnes, and Aleksib's calling has improved tonnes, and I think they all seem pretty smart in late round situations. b1t's Egnlish has gotten a lot better which has made it a lot more comfortable for him. NAVI have been very surprising for me, and hopefully they can continue on this trend.

Oh, actually, maybe Spirit, I'll just throw them in too."

"It might be weird to say it now, but we have to consider the entirety of the year.

For me, it's Snappi with ENCE. What they did with that project was nothing short of remarkable.

He was considered to be a journeyman of Counter-Strike, he's a similar age to me, deep-thirties and no one really thought he'd be part of a championship squad, a team that could win trophies and make it deep at every single tournament they entered.

The way they kept having the fantastic tournament runs, he got the most out of players that people didn't consider stars and turned them into stars, that's a very rare trait for an IGL and for someone to turn their career around and get themselves into a position where top organisations are fighting for him.

For a player, I'd say Snappi specifically, but as a team as a whole, ENCE as an organisation have done some of the best business of Counter-Strike history, to be honest with you. managing to find amazing talent, become stable, and now, hopefully, recover in the future."

"Just focussing on CS2, Complexity's switch in form has really surprised me. I remember back at Spring Groups the question was whether they were even going to win a map, and the fact they made it to the Grand Final at IEM Sydney and gave FaZe a run for then money, then made it pretty deep at Fall Final, the EliGE effect has been in full swing.

I think that bounce back surprised me, I didn't expect the impact from EliGE to happen so quickly."

"I think Nertz packaged on ENCE was really sick. What a surprise. We knew it was going to be pretty good but I've been really impressed with what we've seen from him. Another Endpoint alumni coming through and playing really well."

"It was a huge deal for UK CS when Into the Breach made the Major, but to go on and do what they did there was incredible to see.

CRUC1AL was clutching constantly, CYPHER was flying round corners and ripping heads off, they beat FaZe, beat the king of UK CS mezii to make the playoffs, their run had everything."