HEROIC have moved Gleb “gr1ks” Gazin to the inactive roster, the organization announced on August 7. The news comes as a shock, as the Belarusian AWPer played only two CS2 events for HEROIC after being signed on June 29.
In those two events — FISSURE Playground 1 and IEM Cologne — HEROIC didn’t come close to making the playoffs. The team struggled as a whole, mainly because the riflers Andrey “tN1R” Tatarinovich and Linus “nilo” Bergman have role clashes, and not because of gr1ks.
HEROIC, however, said in an official statement that gr1ks’ playstyle didn’t align with the rest of the team.
When the spring season wrapped up and summer rolled in, we made changes to our starting lineup and coaching staff. That marked the beginning of a new roster at HEROIC.
Our management made a number of moves to get the team into the right spot. Now, we have to accept that not all the pieces we put together have fit as well as we hoped, and we take full responsibility for that. That’s why we’ve decided to make a change early in the season.
As of today, gr1ks will be stepping out of our active roster. While he brought undeniable quality to the server, his playstyle didn’t fully align with how the team is shaping up. We trust TOBIZ’s direction and are therefore making adjustments to support the team’s long-term growth.
To make matters worse, gr1ks said in an interview with Bulgarian caster Teodor “Tedd” Borisov that he declined an offer from GamerLegion so he could play with his fellow countryman, tN1R, on HEROIC.
“One of the things was that I wanted to play with TN1R. I want to play with him, he’s so smart, strong player, I want to play with him and show the Belarusian duo. Belarusian tractors, we say,” gr1ks told Tedd in July.
Moving forward, HEROIC will play with the Kazakh AWPer Alimzhan “Alkaren” Bitimbai. The Spirit Academy AWPer joined HEROIC on loan and will make his debut at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which runs from August 20 to 24.
Should Alkaren play well, HEROIC have an agreement with Spirit to make the transfer permanent.
Even though HEROIC wanted to utilize Alkaren at the ongoing BLAST Bounty Season 2, they couldn’t do so because of the tournament’s roster lock rules. So, they’ll use their own academy AWPer Rasmus “Scr0b” Poulsen during the event.
Feature image credit: Helena Kristiansson | © ESL
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