Passion UA has announced that its owner and former Premier League footballer, Oleksandr Zinchenko, will be a substitute for the Counter-Strike 2 team at IEM Atlanta.
The former Manchester City, Arsenal, and Nottingham Forest fullback joined Ajax in January but is out injured for the rest of the season, allowing him to be the backup for his team.
Surprisingly, Zinchenko is a fairly decent CS player, having reached at least level 9 on FACEIT before.
He has also subbed in for Passion UA before, filling in for one of his players who lost power during an online tournament.
This came against Bleed Esports in 2024, as Zincehnko played two maps and helped his team even win one of them. He personally recorded a rather low ADR (42.6) and Rating (0.80), though this was not the lowest on his team.
Still, something drastic would have to go wrong for Zinchenko to make his CS2 Major debut, with the organisation registering him purely as a precaution.
Passion UA Roster Troubles
Passion UA are short on players after the surprising departure of Azbayar ‘Senzu’ Munkhbold to BC.Game.
This is a major loss for the team, considering the Mongolian was ranked #13 in the world last year.
Senzu was only with the team for two months, and while he failed to show the same highs as he did with MongolZ last year, he still sported a team-high average of 1.21.
In his place, Passion UA has signed Ukrainian pro Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev on loan.
Sdy is the latest player benched by ENCE to join another team in recent weeks, after FaZe signed Ryan ‘Neityu’ Aubry as a stand-in.
Passion UA’s roster for IEM Atlanta is now:
- Vladyslav ‘Kvem’ Korol
- Johnny ‘JT’ Theodosiou
- Nick ‘nicx’ Lee
- Santino ‘try’ Rigal
- Viktor ‘sdy’ Orudzhev (loan)
- Oleksandr Zinchenko (sub)
How do you think Passion UA will perform at IEM Atlanta? Share your predictions on the Insider Gaming Discord.
Meanwhile, Fnatic has unveiled a CS skin gambling site STASHD to widespread backlash.
Comments