Jaw-Dropping CS:GO Trades Across Europe, Asia, And North America
Teams such as NAVI Junior, TIGER, Extra Salt, and the Lemondogs have made some drastic changes to their lineups within the past few days. NAVI proceeded to promote a majority of their Youth lineup while a few Junior players were dropped from the team.
With hopes to create future pros, NAVI is willing to do whatever it takes to find the best possible players in the amateur scene. TIGER, on the hand, has followed through with a complete roster change which is currently in transition.
All five of their players, including their head coach, were dropped from the team for various reasons. The Chinese organisation made it very clear on their socials that they wanted to become the best team in all of Asia. With dreams like that, players are bound to be dropped in an instant due to a lack of performance.
Finally, the old school shoot em up team known as the Lemondogs followed through with their revamp by letting go of three different players. The all-Swedish org made their comeback last year after dropping out of the competition in 2016.
They had a strong season in 2020, but it simply wasn’t good enough for the team name. Their new roster looks really strong and definitely shows a great amount of potential when it comes to dominating their future opponents.
THE LATEST LINEUP FROM NAVI ACADEMY
The new NAVI Academy team will act as a bridge between NAVI Youth and NAVI Junior. They plan on creating one strong team by allowing other applicants to apply in the near future. This could be for either young prodigies or amateur players that are looking to advance their careers.
It seems like the only rule is that anyone who joins has to have a touch of raw talent and show a lot of potential within competitions. NAVI Academy currently consists of seven different players along with two head coaches.
One of the players that made the cut was Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who’s made multiple FACEIT highlights within the past two years. He’s been competing since 2019 and was only 14 when he began teaming up with other amateur players. Besides the positive side of this trade, a few players, in particular, were left in the shadows of NAVI after being dropped.
DISSOLVING NAVI JUNIOR
NAVI recently placed Kirill "Gospadarov" Gospadarov, Ivan "kapacho" Koplenko, and Oleksii "Topa" Topchiienko on the free agent transfer list. The head coaches at NAVI made it clear that they achieved a lot with the team last year, but roster changes were bound to happen.
Neither one of these players have made an official announcement yet regarding their departure from NAVI Junior. Most of them have been playing since 2018 and have a long road ahead when it comes to competing with the best.
They fell short a couple of times last year but still managed to take hold of $21,000 in prize money. Now they’ll have to wait and see what the future holds for them while NAVI Academy prepares for their current season.
Click to enlargeTIGER DROPS THEIR LINEUP
After making their debut last year, TIGER made sure to hold their players to higher standards. They knew about the cutthroat industry within esports and how hard it was to produce a successful Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) team.
TIGER participated in more than twenty events last year and definitely had a number of opportunities to prove themselves. They won over $80,000 and won six different events.
Roughly twenty-eight percent of their placements were within the top three, which is a big deal for such a small team. The only issue is that they mostly competed in B and C-Tier events and clearly invested a lot of money and time into the org.
THE SWEDISH VETERANS ARE BACK FOR MORE
Another team that took a serious look into their roster was the Lemondogs. The Swedish org finalised their roster last year with a chance to put their name back into the competitive scene.
They signed five promising players and went off to compete across multiple online events. The Lemondogs won two different tournaments, including the Shark Gaming CS:GO Open and Fragleague Season 5.
Despite their tournament earnings hitting under $10,000, the Lemonddogs still managed to acquire a very well-known player. Even though he’s not on contract, Simon "twist" Eliasson agreed to play with the Lemondogs throughout multiple events.
SWAPPING OUT PLAYERS IN EXTRA SALT
Lastly, there’s Extra Salt with their latest player transfer that is raising questions. Entry fragger Ian "motm" Hardy was recently replaced by an ex-Chaos EC rifler known as Edgar "MarKE" Maldonado.
Motm has been super consistent within the past few months and even helped his team secure a first-place finish at the fifth ESEA Cash Cup. He put up some of the most points and was definitely a dominant figure throughout the entire event.
MarKE is also a great player, and he proved that by helping Chaos EC before their disband. He won two huge events last year and definitely has what it takes to turn Extra Salt into a legendary team.
Images via NAVI | TIGER
