CS:GO news digest for the week (refrezh leaves Heroic, YEKINDAR may move to Team Liquid)

Another competitive week has come to an end, during which eight teams gathered in Lisbon to determine the winner of the BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022. But even without that, the teams managed to stir up the scene with some interesting transfers and transitions, and also added a portion of interesting rumors. We propose to recall the past week for the most high-profile news from the world of CS:GO.

valens became the new sports director of Evil Geniuses

The Evil Geniuses organization has been unable to build a stable roster for years that could fight for high achievements not only in Europe, but at least in North America. Moreover, the club recently signed two new roster Party Astronauts and Carpe Diem at once, bringing all the players together.

Now the leadership of the organization has announced the appointment of valens to the position of sports director. Once the champion of ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, as a Cloud9 coach, he will develop that very new project, code-named "Blueprint", the prospects of which we have yet to find out in the future.

Note that the 32-year-old American has already worked at the club since 2019, holding the position of head of the analytics department. Interestingly, the ill-fated investigation into the use of a coaching bug is also associated with the name valens. A few months ago, the Dexerto portal found out that the former Cloud9 coach took advantage of the error several times, thereby gaining an advantage over the opponent. However, the 32-year-old American did not receive any fine from ESIC, while valens himself denied the allegations and said that he was trying to clean up the bug.

YEKINDAR may move to Team Liquid

According to analyst Richard Lewis, the European esports organization Team Liquid has joined the fight to sign YEKINDAR. It is expected that the 22-year-old esportsman from Latvia will replace shox, who recently left the starting lineup and is preparing to return to his homeland.

YEKINDAR has been the main star of Virtus.pro (Outsiders) over the past two years, winning several major championships with the team, reaching the quarterfinals of PGL Major Stockholm 2021 in parallel . However, immediately after the end of PGL Major Antwerp 2022, the Russian club announced the departure of YEKINDAR, put him on the transfer list.

The rest of the young star was the main subject of conversation in the transfer market. At one time, an esportsman was matched with G2 Esports. OG and Team Liquid. However, as it became known quite recently, Virtus.pro asked for about one million dollars for the redemption of its player, which automatically repelled potential buyers.

And yet, YEKINDAR managed to agree with the organization about leaving, which the cybersportsman announced on his Twitter.

Virtus.Pro and I have agreed on the terms and conditions of my departure, so I'm ready to negotiate with other teams! I am very excited and want to play again!

It is unclear where YEKINDAR will continue his career. However, in the event of parting ways with Virtus.pro (Outsiders) as a free agent, the eighth best player of 2021 will quickly leave the shelf and find a new team.

refrezh leaves Heroic starting roster

On June 18, the Danish organization Heroic announced a reshuffling of its roster, deleting refrezh from the list. Despite good results, the 24-year-old Dane was not needed by a club that wants to win major TIER-1 championships on a regular basis.

All great stories come to an end. I'm sad to leave Heroic, but it's time for all of us to embark on new adventures. I love every minute I have spent here and will always cherish the experience and memories I have.

Recall that refrezh joined Heroic at the beginning of last year. In 16 months, the 24-year-old Dane helped the team win ESL Pro League Season 13 and Pinnacle Cup Championship 2022, as well as get into the top three at PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and Intel Extreme Masters XVI - Katowice.

Based on past rumours, Heroic is negotiating a transfer for jabbi, who is currently on the market for the Copenhagen Flames.

shox and adreN left Team Liquid

We didn't have time to discuss the rumors about the possible transition of YEKINDAR to Team Liquid, as the European club announced the parting with shox and coach adreN. Looking ahead, the organization has already introduced a new coach in the face of daps.

Today we are announcing that shox and adreN are leaving our starting roster as we explore all of our future roster options.

adreN took over Team Liquid for the second time last May. During this time, the 32-year-old American specialist helped the team win BLAST Premier: Fall Showdown 2021, as well as take fourth place in BLAST Premier: World Final 2021.

In turn, shox joined Team Liquid at the end of last year, having moved from the Team Vitality camp. Initially, this transition bordered on a lot of controversy, as the Frenchman's prospects in the team looked bleak. For six months, the 29-year-old French esportsman helped the team take fifth place in the PGL Major Antwerp 2022: American RMR, as well as reach the quarterfinals in the ESL Pro League Season 15 and BLAST Premier: Spring American Showdown 2022.

However, the Frenchman himself was unhappy with his position at the club, as shox was reported to be missing his family and having difficulty flying between North America and Europe.

At the same time, Team Liquid promised to present the final roster before the start of Intel Extreme Masters XVII - Cologne, which will begin next month.

NaVi won BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022

The NAVI team became the winner of the BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022. In the final of the championship, "Born to Win" defeated Vitality with a score of 2:0, thanks to which they earned $200,000 and a slot at BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.

The tournament for the future winner began with an unexpected defeat from OG (1:2), after which NAVI hung in the balance from relegation. However, the team managed to pull together and outplay BIG (2:0) to get into the playoffs. Here, "Born to Win" first defeated FaZe Clan (2:0), and then took revenge on OG (2:1), thus making it to the grand final. In the decisive match of the championship, the wards of B1ad3 dealt with Vitality (2:0), thereby extending their winning streak over the Danish-French team to nine matches.

Results of BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022

• 1st place: NAVI — $200,000 + 4,000 BLAST Premier points + slot to BLAST Premier: World Final 2022.
• 2nd place: Vitality — $85,000 + 2,000 BLAST Premier points.
• 3rd-4th place: OG and G2 Esports — $40,000 + 1,250 BLAST Premier points.
• 5th-6th place: FaZe Clan and ENCE — $20,000 + 500 BLAST Premier points.
• 7th-8th place: paiN Gaming and BIG — $10,000 + 250 BLAST Premier points.

s1mple holds the record for the number of MVPs

s1mple became the best player in BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022. According to the results of the championship, the NAVI sniper received 20 MVP awards in his career, thereby becoming the record holder of the esports discipline and ahead of dev1ce, who currently has 19 awards.

The NAVI sniper had another outstanding championship, ending it with a rating of 1.37 for 12 maps played. In addition, in the grand final of BLAST Premier Spring Finals 2022, the Ukrainian became the second player on the server, playing the match against Vitality with a rating of 1.38.

Dignitas leaves CS:GO discipline

The North American esports organization Dignitas announced the parting with its previous roster and decided to leave the CS:GO discipline.

While we have been exploring options for changes to our squad in recent weeks, we have decided that it is in our common interest to give all players and coaching staff the opportunity to explore other options. Thus, Dignitas will not be present in the CS:GO discipline for the foreseeable future.

Recall that in early May, the Dignitas organization decided toputits entire CS:GO roster for transfer. Then the North American club planned to reconsider its possibilities and assemble a new team.

The last Dignitas roster was formed in early 2020, with minor changes over the next two seasons. During this time, the Swedish team became the winner of Elisa Invitational Spring 2020, BLAST Nordic Masters: Spring 2021 and BLAST Nordic Masters: Fall 2021.

These were the most interesting news from the world of CS:GO over the past week. If you want to stay up to date with all the latest events, feel free to go to the news tab - we keep our finger on the pulse and promptly introduce you to new insiders, as well as share high-profile transfer transitions.