The CS:GO winter offseason passed in a flash, and as usual, our partnered teams have used the time to make adjustments to their line-ups in order to strengthen their chances of winning and ensure the flow of splendid performances we’re all eagerly waiting for.
Before the BLAST Premier ‘23 Spring Groups action finally kicks off, here are all the moves teams have made ahead of the start of the new season.
DEV1CE BACK TO ASTRALIS
Undoubtedly the biggest bang among our partner teams was the news about dev1ce returning to Astralis. After a short stint with Ninjas in Pyjamas followed by a year-long hiatus from competitive Counter-Strike, the Danish legend is now back to business as a part of his home team he had lifted so many trophies with.
Besides acquiring dev1ce back, the Danish org went through a couple of more roster changes before the end of 2022, including the singing of coach casle, and adding former MASONIC player Buzz to their star line-up.
Following an underwhelming season 2022, let’s see how the revamped Astralis line-up will fare in 2023!
The active Astralis roster going into BLAST Premier 2023 Spring Groups:
●Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander (IGL)
●Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
●Benjamin “blameF” Bremer
●Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
●Christian “Buzz”Andersen
●Peter “casle” Toftbo Ardenskjold (Coach)
HEADTR1CK JOINS NINJAS IN PYJAMAS
Going into the new season, Ninjas in Pyjamas updated their active roster with the NAVI Junior prospect headtr1ck, confirming the speculations running since es3tag was put on the bench after NiP’s 3rd-4th finish at the Fall Final 2022.
Considered one of the most promising talents to emerge from NAVI’s academy project, headtr1ck will now continue his CS:GO journey under Aleksib’s leadership, and we can’t wait to see the young talent flourish in BLAST Premier competitions!
Ninjas in Pyjamas CS:GO roster for the 2023 season:
●Aleksi “Aleksib” Virolainen (IGL)
●Fredrik “REZ” Sterner
●Hampus “hampus” Poser
●Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin
●Daniil “headtr1ck” Valitov
●Daniel “djL” Narancic (Coach)
EVIL GENIUSES PART WAYS WITH CERQ
Less than two weeks before the start of the Spring Groups, Evil Geniuses announced the departure of the Bulgarian AWPer CeRq, who’s been with the team since 2019. Following his exit, Brehze remains the only player on the line-up who’s been a part of the victorious EG crew back at the American Spring Finals in 2020.
Taking his place in EG’s main roster is wiz, who’s been promoted from Evil Geniuses Black line-up, leaving us curious to see the AWPer in action.
Current Evil Geniuses 2023 roster:
●Sanjar “neaLaN” İshakov (IGL)
●Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte
●Timothy “autimatic” Ta
●Jadan “HexT” Postma
●Jerric "wiz" Jiang
●Daniel “Vorborg” Vorborg (Coach)
NPL STAYS WITH NATUS VINCERE AS SDY SAYS GOODBYE
Sdy played with NAVI on a free loan from MAD Lions since the departure of Boombl4 back in June 2022, however, now it’s npl’s time to shine as a part of one of the top CS:GO teams in the world.
The young Ukrainian has been promoted from the NAVI Junior just one year after entering the professional scene, yet his appearance at the World Final 2022 has shown us that he’s got what it takes to compete with the elite.
Here’s Natus Vincere 2023 starting line-up:
●Denis “electroNic” Sharipov (IGL)
●Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
●Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
●Valerii “b1t” Vakhovskyi
●Andrii "npl" Kukharskyi
●Andrii “B1ad3” Horodenskyi (Coach)
