Perched atop the HLTV rankings, the Major runners-up and current BLAST Fall holders come into the new season ready and raring to go after an exuberant end to 2022. With Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard now fully integrated within the team, Heroic will look to continue their momentum and cling on to the number one spot as their biggest competitors continue to build back stronger. Casper 'cadiaN' Møller’s crew have accrued significant respect on their name and now must deal with the weight of expectation befitting the world's best. Can they survive under the pressure?

With their roster uncertainty continuing, no one will expect much to come from EG but the potential double header of and in-form Timothy 'autimatic' Ta and Vincent 'Brehze' Cayonte certainly whets the appetite and if EG come out swinging with a solid AWP signing, we really could be cooking with gas. Their showing at the Major wasn’t awful and Sanzhar 'neaLaN' Iskhakov is definitely one to watch with his combined fragging output and IGL talent. The only way is up for this ailing team, so with nothing to lose, let’s hope they can restore the pride of NA and give us some entertaining matches.

I don’t think I’m alone in the opinion that more needs to be shown from Vitality, the sum of their parts are far less than one would expect from the names on the roster and while their ESL Pro League 16 victory was impressive, something tells me it is only delaying the inevitable. I mustn't go much further without name dropping Mr Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut, his talent is immeasurable, but I believe it’s Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen who holds the key to sustained success and Vitality needs him to maintain consistent performances to go far.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"zywoo-are-still-happy-with-spinx-are-going-work-with","isNewTab":true}]

The return of the king, and a fresh face in Christian 'Buzz' Andersen, but will it be enough to haul the fraying remnants of a dynasty to new heights. This will be the much anticipated first look at the new Astralis, should we place them as underdogs or as a team that should cruise through due to the overall calibre of player they possess? It seems Benjamin 'blameF' Bremer will finally be getting some help and I am excited to see what they can cultivate as they begin their new era.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"dev1ce-before-astralis-comeback-are-far-away-from-top-cs-go","isNewTab":true}]

Expect a tight three-way battle to avoid the showdown, but can the underdogs from across the pond spoil the party for one of the favourites?

Group A kicks off on the 19th of January with Heroic taking on Evil Geniuses.

stavn

neaLaN

Spinx

device

Heroic

Evil Geniuses

Team Vitality

Astralis

After the departure of Stewie2k and RUSH, Evil Geniuses have finally announced their two new signings. The first signing is the young Sanjar "neaLaN" İshakov who just got announced as an Evil Geniuses player after 2 years with K23. The other signing is their in-house player Jadan "HexT" Postma.

Meanwhile, Evil Geniuses are switching out players from their active roster, they also replaced Damien "MaLeK" Marcel with the Danish head coach Daniel "Vorborg" Vorborg.

The new lineup is set to debut in the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, which will be taking place from August 19-28. 

HexT

Jake “Stewie2K” Yip, one of the most popular and profiled figures in the North American CS:GO scene, has decided to leave competitive Counter-Strike, the 24-year-old revealed on Twitter. The Boston ELEAGUE Major winner will from now on focus on streaming both Valorant and CS:GO.

- I’m hype to announce that I’ll be streaming Valorant & CS for Evil Geniuses Creator Collective. For now, I’ll be stepping away from competitive CS and focusing on streaming. Thanks to those who tagged along and to many more! My future isn’t determined.

The news comes only one day after the publication of several reports stating that Evil Geniuses is about to pick up Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier and Sanzhar “neaLaN” Iskhakov. With the ladder looking like a likely replacement for Stewie2K as the in-game leader.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"surprise-transfer-way-eg-pick-misutaaa-k23-rifler","isNewTab":true}]

Stewie2K

Misutaaa

Evil Geniuses is reportedly looking to sign Kevin "misutaaa" Rabier from Vitality and K23’s Sanjar "neaLaN" İshakov, according to a report by [link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/news/142390-misutaaa-to-bounce-back-with-eg-which-is-also-signing-nealan","isNewTab":true,"text":"1pv.fr"}]. The news comes after several reports stating that misutaaa has lost his spot at Vitality to Lotan “Spinx” Giladi, which only strengthens the likelihood of the 19-year-old Frenchman joining the North American squad.

neaLaN is more unknown to the typical CS:GO fan, with the 21-year-old Kazakhstan only having represented tier-2/3 teams in Syman Gaming and most recently K23. The fact that he’s an in-game leader could mean that Jake “Stewie2k” Yip is on the way out of the door at EG. That's also something which is reported in the article by 1pv.fr that neaLaN will take over the captaincy and IGL role.

{cflag:BG} Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov 

{cflag:US} Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"report-stewie2k-rush-benched-eg","isNewTab":true}]

Yesterday K23 took down a massive scalp at the top of CS:GO as the Russians managed to upset Astralis at the opening round at Funspark ULTI Finals 2021. The underdogs went toe to toe with the Danish superstars over three thrilling maps, which in the end tipped in the favour of Sanjar "neaLaN" İshakov and his troops.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"k23-defeats-astralis-after-thriller-match-funspark-ulti","isNewTab":true}]

After the impressive 2-1 victory against Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Astralis, K23’s in-game leader neaLaN took his time to speak with the tournament desk about the surprising defeat. In the post-match interview, the 21-year-old captain also opened up about his and K23’s quite bold goals for the upcoming season.  

- We were confident about our game and we knew that if we were doing everything right, we would be going to win. So yeah, that happened, neaLaN said to the desk and later on touched on the goal and expectations for K23 this year:

- Our main goal for 2022 is to be a Top 5 team at the end of this year, and to play in tier-1 HLTV’s (events) and to compete against them.

You can see some of the post-match interviews in the videos down below.

[twitchClip:DelightfulLuckyAnisePraiseIt-o0V_Se8BBeCsBtHs]

[twitchClip:FamousDeliciousLampAMPTropPunch-9ke0KgtcoKrDXjgE]

K23’s campaign at Funspark ULTI Finals will continue again on Friday, where they are set to play the winner of today’s matchup between Fnatic and BIG.

Today’s schedule | Funspark ULTI Finals 2021

Last year, Gambit took the entire CS:GO world by storm, being arguably the biggest ‘breakthrough team’ of 2020. Huge prospects as Dmitri “sh1ro” Sokolov and Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov helped the iconic organization in its return to the top of CS:GO. 

The Russian youngsters will commence their 2021-season this Wednesday when they take upon their countrymen from Winstrike in the quarterfinals of Vulcan Fight Series. nafany’s troops can only disappoint against the lower-ranked Winstrike team, which features two K23 players Sanzhar “neaLaN” Iskhakov and David “n0rb3r7“ Danielyan.

Read more. "Spotlight on Top 2020: Gambit - 2020 recap"

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/spotlight-top-20-gambit/"}]

You can see the thrilling matchup on the following streams. (English + Russian)

sh1ro

Ax1Le

n0rb3r7

Gambit Esports

Winstrike

The Germans from ALTERNATE aTTaX took down Heretics in confident style. A strong performance from the German duo in Fritz “slaxz” Dietrich and Stefan “stFN” Seier helped ALTERNATE aTTaX to take home a 2-0 victory.

K23 was just as dominant in their matchup against Project X. The former Syman Gaming team dismantled a tame Project X side beating them 2-0 through solid showings on both Nuke (16-9) and Overpass (16-10).

16-10 (Dust2) slaxz- 24-14 k/d, 101.3 ADR, 1.64 rating

16-11 (Inferno) stFN 23-13 k/d, 88.7 ADR, 1.37 rating

16 – 9 (Nuke) neaLaN 18-13 k/d, 68.3 ADR, 1.22 rating

16-10 (Overpass) n0rb3r7 22-17 k/d, 103.2 ADR, 1.41 rating.

You can see the full score at Nine to Five 6 down below.

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/events/5630/nine-to-five-6"}]

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

neaLaN

Player stats

Articles mentioning neaLaN

BLAST Spring Group A Preview

Evil Geniuses annouce their new players to the main roster

Stewie2K steps down from competitive CS:GO

Surprise transfer on the way? EG to pick up misutaaa and K23 rifler

K23 IGL after Astralis upset: We want to be a Top 5 team at the end of this year

Live: Gambi vs Winstrike (Quarterfinal)

Favourites sweep opponents in Nine to Five #6

Follow Pley