Rostermania 2023: the most exciting available players

As 2023’s first, and potentially CS:GO’s last full season comes to a close, the rostermania is now underway.

Plenty of crazy rumours have already been floating around, with Major champions Vitality reportedly making a change, Liquid apparently going European-based, and FalleN getting an, ehm, Last Dance.

While it’s certain that many players will move for large fees, there are also many players available for free or possibly in cut-price deals due to them already being transfer-listed.

With many teams looking to rebuild their rosters for the future with Counter-Strike 2 on the horizon, who are some of the best names available?

There are some throwback names, some future stars, and some current stars just looking for another chance at success.

Let’s get into it.

Mass movement in the Americas

Teams from the Americas have had a bit of a shaky time in 2023. FURIA haven't looked anything close to the team that reached the semi-finals of the Rio Major, while Complexity failed to convert a strong start at IEM Katowice and BLAST Spring Groups into any reasonable success over the season. Even Liquid, the one bright light of the season for the Americas, tapered off towards the end despite their quarter-finals appearance at the BLAST.tv Paris Major.

Disappointing results rightfully lead to a lot of moves, so who will these teams be looking at?

If rumours are to be believed, EliGE will be finding himself on the transfer list at Team Liquid. The team is reportedly transitioning into a European roster, and the NA GOAT candidate seems to not have a place in the plans of new IGL YEKINDAR.

Photo: Stephanie lindgren

Elsewhere in NA, there’s plenty of talent available lower down the chain. Should Liquid transition to a European roster, another organisation could pop up to fill the hole they will leave in the region.

Swisher is available thanks to his contract situation with ATK, and as one of the better players in tier two, we could see him make a step up very soon. There are also entire teams available; the Party Astronauts made up of released Evil Geniuses players, could easily make waves in the next season with the departure of Liquid from the region.

Also pay attention to cynic, who just departed nouns, and Jonji, who has always threatened to break into the upper echelons of the NA scene. If there’s any teams in need of an IGL, there’s no one available with a better track record than stanislaw.

Turning our attention to South America, the most notable free agent is fer. A legendary two-time Major winner, it’s not too far from the belief that fer can still hang in tier one. An incredibly mechanically gifted player, he was the main driving force behind impressive showings for Imperial at the two PGL Majors since COVID.

As for transfer-listed players, Luken and history are the picks of the bunch, but don’t expect them to make waves at the highest level. There could be more notable names soon, however, both saffee and drop have been rumoured to be losing their spot on the FURIA roster.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

The Pacific front

The Pacific region is one that’s always been something of a rollercoaster. Constantly up and down, it’s not uncommon to see a team begin to threaten European giants and then immediately make roster moves that push them back into relative obscurity. One such team to do so recently is TheMongolz, who climbed with both Annihilation and Bart4k. Both players now find themselves on the free agents' list.

The most notable Australian player on the free agency list is AZR, most recently with Sprout; many teams in the region and beyond would get an experienced player if they picked him up. There could be another player on the transfer list soon, though, that’s if the rumours about siuhy and MOUZ are true and dexter loses his spot.

As for China, the trio of DANK1NG, Attacker, and Summer are all transfer-listed by TYLOO, and, as familiar names to the Chinese scene, could all become valuable members of teams in the region.

A European shakeup

The biggest collection of available talent, unsurprisingly, is found in Europe. Starting with Germany, there’s an elite AWPer available in the form of syrsoN, he’s been on BIG’s transfer list for a while. There is also tiziaN, who could be a handy Support player for many tier-two teams.

As for Denmark, both valde and es3tag find themselves transfer-listed. valde might be the best player in Denmark to never play on a great team, while es3tag, much like tiziaN, is a versatile player who could offer a lot to top 30 teams. As for free agents, there’s plenty of talent.

Farlig is probably the most notable, with the AWPer spending much of his recent career on Astralis, his former Copenhagen Flames teammates raalz, TMB, and b0rup are all also available too. There’s also niko, who may have reignited interest in himself during his time standing in for OG recently.

France has a few experienced players available as free agents, legendary player shox is free following the failure of the Nakama project, while JACKZ and AMANEK are also available due to the disbanding of their former teams. In terms of younger players, the pick of the bunch is misutaaa, who finds himself on the transfer list at Falcons following their roster revamp that includes BOROS, lauNX, and mhL.

Photo: Stephanie Lindgren

The biggest changes could come in the Russian scene, both Jerry and zorte find themselves on the transfer list at FORZE. Jerry has established himself as one of the premium IGLs in the scene thanks to his work with FORZE, while zorte has also displayed the ability to become one of the best AWPers in the world. Elsewhere, interz, kaiRON-, and mir are all free agents, three players who could do a lot for many teams in the region.

Other notable players include mantuu, who is still on the free agents list following his time with OG, Bymas, who has been teamless since his tenure on MOUZ ended, draken, who is transfer-listed by GODSENT, and CacaNito, the former BLUEJAYS player people have touted for big things in the future.

Photo: Michal Konkol

The most notable player, however, is Aleksib. Arguably hard done by to be out at NIP, the Finnish IGL had done great work to stabilise a roster with very poor role balance. A Major finalist, there are very few players on the market with as much experience as him in the IGL role.