Led by coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovi?, the new international Counter-Strike 2 line-up is now finalised and ready for the 2024 season.
BLEED Esports announced its first foray in Counter-Strike in late November 2023 with the addition of Serbian coach kassad, and has, over the next month, slowly started assembling the new roster.
First came the signing of ex-BIG rifler Josef “faveN” Baumann, preceding the addition of Hampus “hampus” Poser, Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, and Lauren?iu “lauNX” ?arlea.
With time running out for BLEED Esports to find the fifth member ahead of the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 Major qualifiers, the Singaporean team didn’t need long to round up the five-man line-up.
CYPHER arrives at BLEED from TSM, whom he joined at the end of August but hasn’t accomplished much outside of winning ESEA Cash Cup: Europe – Autumn 2023 #3 and finishing ESEA Season 47: Advanced Division �C Europe in third place.
The final piece!
Please welcome @cyphercsgo_ to BLEED CS2#GOBLEED
pic.twitter.com/g4YROGkeAd
— BLEED Esports (@ggBleed) January 3, 2024
Before signing for TSM, CYPHER played for Into the Breach, which he helped reach the quarterfinals of BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.
He has not found much success in bigger events, despite being one of the most consistent performers on the team.
As confirmed by kassad, BLEED initially intended to acquire Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Max “maxster” Jansson.
Unfortunately, the deal fell apart after PGL failed to confirm whether maxster, who is registered as NiP’s substitute, would be able to participate in the European open qualifiers for PGL Major Copenhagen.
BLEED’s approach for Justin “jks” Savage was also unsuccessful.
But despite all the hoops kassad had to jump through to assemble the new Counter-Strike roster, BLEED Esports now fields a promising lineup, which will debut in the upcoming European open qualifiers for PGL Major Copenhagen, set to kick off on January 8, 2024.
BLEED Esports Roster
- Hampus “hampus” Poser
- Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov
- Josef “faveN” Baumann
- Lauren?iu “lauNX” ?arlea
- Cai “CYPHER” Watson
- Coach: Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovi?
“After extensive discussions, we��ve mutually agreed to part ways with our CS:GO Head Coach, Kassad,” read the announcement on 100T’s Twitter page.
“We appreciate his work with the squad over the past few years and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavours.”
Shortly after his exodus was made public, kassad made a Twitter post that pointed to 100T’s poor results and the fact that his “visions for the future of the team and how to reach the next level didn’t align” with those of his employers.
“I know this came as a surprise to everyone, but the truth is that we have been drifting apart in more ways than one for a while now. I was personally generally unhappy with our progress and stagnation on the same level ever since the start of the last year,” he said.
“The biggest difference in opinions was about how to approach and more importantly how to solve the problems that we had for a while now.”
Kassad joined 100 Thieves after a successful spell in charge of Renegades between October 2018 and October 2019. In that time, he helped steer the Australian esports team to a fifth-sixth finish at the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals, a gold medal at the 2019 Asia Minor Championship, a top-eight finish at Intel Extreme Masters XIII Katowice, bronze at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 7, a semi-final appearance at StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 and a top-four finish at StarSeries & i-League CS:GO Season 8.
That success saw 100 Thieves buy the entire Renegades roster of Aaron “AZR” Ward, Justin “jks” Savage, Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad, Jay “Liazz” Tregillgas and Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai, with kassad retained as head coach. The early signs were promising, as 100T claimed silver at Intel Extreme Masters XIV Beijing, but things have gone south since the turn of the year.
100 Thieves finished 10th-12th in the BLAST Premier: Spring 2020 Regular Season, followed by fifth-sixth at the Intel Extreme Masters XIV World Championship and, most recently, a disappointing group-stage exit at ESL Pro League Season 11: North America.
There is no word yet on where kassad will continue his career. However, with his renown as one of the best strategists in the CS:GO esports scene, it’s fair to assume the Serbian won’t have any difficulties finding a new home soon.
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