Veteran Mongolian rifler Unudelger “controlez” Baasanjargal will stand in for The MongolZ at the upcoming IEM Chengdu 2025, which will run from November 3rd to 9th. IEM Chengdu group stage teams were announced today.
The announcement comes less than 24 hours after The MongolZ shocked the entire CS2 community by benching Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold, who has been their best player this season.
Controlez will have big shoes to fill in, as Senzu averaged a 1.11 rating in the past three months and played a pivotal role in The MongolZ’s Esports World Cup 2025 title run.
The 28-year-old stand-in was plying his trade with Chinggis Warriors, Mongolia’s third-best CS2 team, until he left the roster in October 10th.
He averaged a solid, but not great, 1.06 rating since joining Chinggis Warriors in November 2024, and most notably helped them to qualify for the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 earlier this year. They were sent home with a 0-3 record on Stage 1.
While the reasoning behind Senzu’s benching remains unclear, The MongolZ explained why they’ve chosen to play IEM Chengdu with controlez.
Due to insufficient time to fully assess the academy team’s players, the decision was made to field an experienced player, taking into account the input of the main team’s players.
According to Sudhen “Bleh” Wahengbam, an Indian analyst who is a specialist on everything that involves Asian Counter-Strike, the arrival of controlez indicates that Senzu’s benching “was quite a sudden affair.”
Even though we can’t fully predict the outcome of this substitution, this whole situation is a huge blow to The MongolZ’s chances at IEM Chengdu, which will feature almost all of the top teams in the world. This will also affect The MongolZ’s chances at the StarLadder Budapest Major — should they not reintegrate Senzu in time for the tournament.
Controlez will likely undergo a baptism by fire at IEM Chengdu, as he hasn’t played a single match against a top 10 team in the world, or higher, since he started competing in 2017.
The MongolZ will play HEROIC in their IEM Chengdu debut. The other teams in group A are Team Spirit, Falcons, Natus Vincere, TYLOO, Astralis, and paiN Gaming.
Feature image credit: Stephanie Lindgren | © BLAST
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