BC.Game has announced the benching of Denis ‘electroNic’ Sharipov from their Counter-Strike roster in a move that will likely see the organization swap VRS regions to improve their chances of making the PGL Singapore 2026 Major.
electroNic played much of his career alongside Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev in one of the most iconic duos in Counter-Strike history, but the Russian rifler’s dwindling performances and the team’s poor results have broken that partnership, potentially for good.
BC.Game expected to make VRS regional shift after electroNic benching
electroNic’s removal from BC.Game’s active roster is expected to bring about a change of region for the roster from EU to Asia in the Valve Regional Standings.
HLTV has reported that THUNDER dOWNUNDER’s 23-year-old rifler Tyson ‘asap’ Paterson is expected to replace electroNic in the roster, making the roster a majority-Asian team in Valve’s standings.
The decision echoes Team Liquid’s decision last season to swap Guy ‘NertZ’ Iluz for Mario ‘malbsMd’ Samayoa, which switched Team Liquid’s VRS region from Europe to the Americas because of malbs’ Guatemalan nationality.
The decision allowed Liquid to easily qualify for the IEM Cologne 2026 Major, despite their struggles in a largely stagnant season.
The same can be said of BC.Game as a roster. Following the acquisition of the former SAW core in January 2026, BC.Game’s rank has fell precipitously from a peak of 21st to a low of 164th after the organization effectively gave up on last season and stopped playing events after missing the Cologne Major.
The roster was then rebuilt, adding Astralis legend Emil ‘magisk’ Reif and MongolZ rifler Ayush ‘mzinho’ Batbold to the roster, but the change in personnel largely did not have the desired effect.
The roster failed to qualify for a series of events including the Esports World Cup, IEM Beijing, and PGL Bucharest, even requiring a second qualifier to make the Tier 2/3 Stake Pulse Beat III event.
Those qualifiers have seen harrowing losses for the roster against obscure opposition such as EAC and Xcity, amongst others.
The culmination of those failures leaves BC.Game’s chances of making the Major through the EU VRS practically extinct, leading to the decision to remove electroNic and bring about a switch of region.
To do so, BC.Game only needed to add one player who qualifies for the Asian region after signing mzinho in the offseason, and Azbayar ‘Senzu’ Munkhbold before that in June.
The two Mongolian players and another Asian-qualified player mean a switch of region for BC.Game to Asia, where BC.Game’s 1190 VRS points would put them as fourth in the VRS Asia Rankings, putting them in line for a place at the PGL Singapore 2026 Major.
If that ranking was maintained until the November 2 VRS deadline, BC.Game would start the Major in Stage 1 of the Major, requiring progression through three Swiss Stages to make the Playoffs of the event.
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Darragh is an Esports Journalist for Insider Gaming specialising in Counter-Strike. He loves to explore how esports teams work, or why they very often do not.
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