Transfer rumour overview: top ten in shambles?
With the BLAST Premier Fall Final roster lock now just days away, rostermania is in full swing - and it's getting kinda silly.
Highlighted by reddit user u/pajliada, the top ten is seemingly in shambles, and only two of the teams in the top ten are fortunate enough to be dodging the rumour mill.
So what are those rumours? And what changes could be made within the next few days?
G2 Esports
Currently ranked number one in the world, G2 may struggle to hold on to that spot if these rumours come to pass.
First reported by KRL, G2 talisman NiKo could be on his way to the zonic-led Falcons superteam, and this has been backed up by harum1 today as the sometimes controversial leaker has said that the Bosnian is now 'one step away' from joining the Saudi organisation.
NiKo allegedly won't be the only G2 player to leave the German organisation in favour of Falcons - young sniper m0NESY is also supposedly on his way too.
There hasn't yet been rumours as to who G2 would turn to if these rumours come to pass, but both are near-irreplaceable.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenENCE
G2 aren't the only team suffering from the Falcons rumour mill. Finnish organisation ENCE are also having to look over their shoulder as zonic is supposedly targeting his compatriot Snappi as his IGL.
Also reported by KRL, it would be a huge loss to ENCE. Snappi has consistently built ENCE up to being a tournament-contending team in the last two years.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenTeam Vitality
The final top ten team potentially being hurt by the Falcons is Vitality, who have already lost their coach zonic to the new project. They've replaced him by resigning XTQZZZ, but that might not be the only replacement they have to make.
The first Falcons player signing ever rumoured by KRL was Magisk, the Danish anchor who has undergone a career renaissance this year after a difficult 2021 and 2022. It makes sense that zonic would go after him; the duo have been working together since 2018, and harum1 reporting that Twistzz has had talks with Vitality only serves to add more weight to this rumour.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenMOUZ and FaZe
With Twistzz seemingly heading towards the exit at FaZe, it looks to be MOUZ that will pay dividends as FaZe search for a replacement.
frozen could reportedly become the next talent to head up the MOUZ-FaZe pipeline. harum1 has said that frozen is who FaZe are targeting to replace their Canadian star.
This would be a logical move, considering frozen has plenty of experience playing with both ropz and karrigan, but we'll have to wait and see which of the two teams the Slovakian will be playing for come BLAST Premier World Final.
That's if the acquisition of FaZe by Complexity parent company GameSquare doesn't throw another spanner in the works...
Photo: Michal KonkolNAVI
NAVI have impressed since their transition to an international roster, but it seems things may soon be about to change.
Poster boy s1mple has already announced that he is taking a break from competitive play, while HLTV are reporting that Ukrainian sniper w0nderful will be signed in his place.
A move that keeps NAVI tied to their national roots, w0nderful has been in impeccable form since joining Sprout with a 1.30 HLTV rating in the past three months.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenHeroic
There's no team as affected by this rostermania than Heroic. The Danish squad first confused everyone as they benched cadiaN, but things got crazy when stavn and jabbi - the duo who seemingly initiated that benching - were also removed from active duty.
It was looking up for the BLAST Premier Spring Final winners when they signed dupreeh until the end of the year, but now we have no clue what to expect out of Heroic.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenComplexity and Monte
Two teams who look to be escaping all of the madness are Complexity and Monte - and there's no real surprise there.
Both teams have been on the up recently. Monte have held up their form from the BLAST.tv Paris Major and Complexity made the final of the first CS2 LAN at IEM Sydney.
Photo: Stephanie LindgrenAstralis
Heroic might be struggling right now, but it seems the main benefactors of this could be Astralis.
The GOATs of CS:GO refreshed their lineup just months ago with the signings of b0RUP and Staehr, but if you listen to Heroic's statement, those two players could well be on their way back out of the team in order to facilitate space for stavn and jabbi.
Photo: Michal Konkol