Insider Gaming looks at the big roster moves of the Counter-Strike off-season ‘Rostermania’ period to assess which moves could work and which are dead on arrival.
MOUZ
– brollan
– jimpphat
+ PR
After almost two years of being so close, yet so far, MOUZ’s roster finally cracked in the latter half of the first season of the year, resulting in the benching and ultimate sale of Ludvig ‘brollan’ Brolin and Jimi ‘Jimpphat’ Salo.
Opting not to sign temporary stand-in Justinas ‘jL’ Lekavicius, MOUZ are retaining their academy talent Adrian ‘xelex’ Vincze in the main roster and bolstering the team with another former MOUZ NXT player, Oldřich ‘PR’ Nový from GamerLegion.
PR was a hugely effective lurking element when GamerLegion were at their best in the first half of last year, but at times showed signs of demotivation in a disrupted GL roster in the intervening time.
Perhaps most importantly, MOUZ have committed to Dorian ‘xertioN’ Berman as the long-term IGL of the roster after a short period with the role at the end of last season. The jury is still out on whether that will be beneficial in the long run.
Aurora
– MAJ3R
– soulfly
+ kyxsan
+ jimpphat
– Fabre (coach)
+ ash (coach)
As had been rumored earlier in the year, Aurora has taken the step to move the roster in an international direction, away from their previously fully Turkish roster.
In securing a reliable pure anchor in jimpphat, and a strong leader of soldiers in Damjan ‘kyxsan’ Stoilkovski, MOUZ have created a decent base for their shift to an international roster.
We already know that Özgür ‘woxic’ Eker can play internationally, winning multiple events in MOUZ’s 2019 roster, but there will be question marks surrounding the switch to English for comms for the rest of the roster.
Ismailcan ‘XANTARES’ Dörtkardeş especially hasn’t looked his best in the months leading up to the change, so we’ll have to keep a close eye on whether the team adapts to the change to international status.
Legacy
– saadzin
+ try
It’s hard to imagine a world where Santino ‘try’ Rigal is not a straight upgrade for Guilherme ‘saadzin’ Pacheco. Individually, try has shown much more potential, especially in his last South American stint with 9z.
The Argentinian AWPer has switched from Spanish to English to now Portuguese comms, but it is not his first time in a Brazilian roster, having played for 00 Nation in the past.
FUT
– lauNX
+ xfl0ud
Laurențiu ‘lauNX’ Țârlea was an important morale leader of the FUT project and also a senior figure due to his long career in the space despite his young age.
His seeming fallout with the organization over health issues may deprive FUT of a vital piece of their recent growth, but the NAVI Junior roster existed before lauNX, and they will not have to exist after it.
BetBoom
– FL4MUS (loan)
BetBoom says goodbye to Timur ‘FL4MUS’ Maryev after a loan period, which saw him unexpectedly play the IEM Cologne 2026 Major due to Pavel ‘S1ren’ Ogloblin’s Visa issues.
BetBoom will be confident of continuing their Cologne form as they ramp into the season, considering FL$MUS was not technically in the starting roster.
GamerLegion
– PR
+ FL4MUS
FL4MUS is finally free from the Virtus.pro prison he was locked into after he left GamerLegion. GamerLegion was the most successful stint of his career so far, a place where he proved hugely impactful under now Aurora coach Ashley ‘ash’ Battye.
FL4MUS and GamerLegion will be hoping they reunite as if nothing changed, but neither FL4MUS nor GamerLegion are the same after their time apart.
For one thing, FL4MUS, an extremely aggressive rifler, is taking the place of PR, a lurking and largely passive part of the roster.
That means GamerLegion will have some work to do in rearranging how they approach the map, especially on the T-side, but overall, GamerLegion could hardly have hoped for a better outcome in losing PR.
The MongolZ
– mzinho
– cobrazera
+ tikauk
+ DarkMeister
After the loss of Azbayar ‘Senzu’ Munkhbold from The MongolZ roster, many were quick to mention it as the moment where The MongolZ may slip out of Tier 1 contention.
In the end, The MongolZ were still able to qualify for plenty of playoffs and maintain a strong level, but the loss of Ayush ‘mzinho’ Batbold has raised those questions yet again.
MongolZ also chose to bench cobrazera, an interesting decision as the rifler was certainly delivering individually, arguably more so than their established riflers.
Once again, Erdenedalai ‘maaRaa’ Bayanbat is pulling from the depths of the Mongolian LAN cafe scene, adding two youngsters to mould and grow, but will it be one move too many for The MongolZ to stay a Tier 1 threat?
Parivision
– BELCHONOKK
– nota
+ HObbit
+ slaxejezzz
Parivision imploded at the end of season 1 of 2026. Parivision’s coach Dastan ‘dastan’ Akbayev was publicly criticizing what he saw as unforgivable mistakes from his young soldiers.
The result was the removal of Andrey ‘BELCHONOKK’ Yasinskiy and Emil ‘nota’ Moskvitin in favor of Abay ‘HObbit’ Khassenov and Vyacheslav ‘slaxejezzz’ Vinokurov.
dastan clearly values 2017 PGL Kraków Major-winner HObbit as an experienced, safe pair of hands, but the 32-year-old also has a lower ceiling in terms of fragging.
dastan and Dzhami ‘Jame’ Ali’s rosters have traditionally had lower firepower, but are hard to beat due to elite fundamentals, so that will not necessarily worry the IGL/coach pair.
FaZe
– broky
+ JBOEN
FaZe’s removal of Helvijs ‘broky’ Saukants was described as “inevitable” by their coach Niclas ‘enkay J’ Krumhorn. There’s no denying that. The Latvian Laser’s form had long since waned and proved to be a competitive hindrance for months.
With BIG Academy AWPer Jason Boe ‘JBOEN’ Nielsen added to the roster, FaZe are clearly moving to a more developmental model, ditching the high-cost superteam model, and early signs are relatively positive.
Whether JBOEN can sustain form against Tier 1 opposition will be his main test, but FaZe have certainly ‘won’ their off-season in a sense, as they have kept hold of their most important piece in David ‘frozen’ Čerňanský.
A third/fourth place at XSE Pro League Guangzhou was neither above nor below expectation, but an important result for a team looking to build up their VRS ranking points, but the nature of their semi-final loss did raise questions over the tactical approach of Russel ‘Twistzz’ Van Dulken as IGL.
Liquid
– ultimate
+ jorko
If broky’s removal was inevitable, then ultimate’s was long overdue. The Pole essentially had two positive events at the start of his Liquid stint, before getting counter-stratted to never show that form again.
The only thing that saved the Polish AWPer for so long was Liquid’s general disarray and dysfunctionality, which continues to this day.
In Jorko, Liquid has taken a low-risk investment, signing the 17-year-old after his successful Tier 2/3 stint in FOKUS. The Bulgarian may prove to be a clever signing for Liquid, but the team needs much more than just an improvement in the AWPing position.
Who do you think won the Counter-Strike off-season? Let us know your predictions on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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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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