Dark times have come for fans of Gambit CS GO: the team officially ceased to exist on April 24, 2022. Five gamers were sold to the Cloud9 organization (C9) along with their manager, coach and analyst for a sum of $1 million.
This event has already been called unprecedented in eSports. Indeed, this has never happened before when the club’s management refused to continue working with a team that is among the top three in the world.
So at the moment, fans of the Russian team Gambit CS GO can only remember the golden days, savor the highlights from victorious tournaments and cherish the hope that the history of Gambit has not been interrupted completely, and great victories will come to the club again someday.
What happened?
The story of the sale of the Gambit squad actually dates back to the beginning of the Russian special operation and the sanctions that followed, which affected, among other things, Russian e-sports organizations. The essence of the restrictions is that Gambit, as a sports team, does not have the right to participate in tournaments taking place in countries that support sanctions, and this is at least 95% of all competitions. Although, Gambit CS GO players could independently take part in the competition without displaying a flag, i.e. in a neutral status. In fact, they took advantage of this to enter the Antwerp Major 2022.
However, the club was not interested in such a scenario: the neutral status of gamers did not allow them to earn money from sponsorship advertising, as well as from stickers. In addition, the team's sponsors began to refuse cooperation.
In general, in the face of sharply falling income, the club had no choice but to put the Gambit CS GO squad up for sale in March 2022. Within a month, C9 responded to the offer, who was interested in returning to Counter Strike and ultimately took advantage of Gambit's desperate situation.
Achievements
Over the nine-year history of the organization, we can highlight 2 years during which the team showed phenomenal play.
2017 – victory in the Krakow Major, which to date is the pinnacle of the team’s success. It was then that the most important match of Gambit CS GO was played in the finals against the Brazilian esports club Immortals. It should be noted that analysts did not consider Gambit not only a favorite, but even a “dark horse” major, capable of delivering a surprise. All the more unexpected was the victory of a team that did not have top gamers on its roster, but gained its strength due to the amazing mutual understanding between the players and well-coordinated work. By the way, this was the first success of a team from the CIS at majors.
2021 once again showed that the Polish land helps the Gambit CS GO team to forge victories. At IEM 2021, held in Katowice, the club achieved another major success. In the same year, based on the opinions of 2 authoritative organizations in the Counter Strike world, Gambit was recognized as the best team in CS GO.
The golden squad that won the Krakow Major
Almost no one believed in these guys, but, nevertheless, they won. Let's remember who they are:
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The captain of the Gambit CS GO team at that time was “Zeus” (real name – Daniil Teslenko) from Ukraine. He is considered a legendary person among eSports players: rarely has anyone managed to win the world championships in the old Counter Strike 1.6, then move to CS GO and achieve success again, this time at a major.
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«AdreN» or Dauren Kystaubaev from Kazakhstan. A person who is quickly interested in different things, for some time he could not choose between Counter Strike and Dota. Because of this, before joining Gambit, CS GO was characterized by unstable play.
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«HObbit» or Abay Khasenov from Kazakhstan. Took over the position of riffler in the club. He became a discovery of the Krakow major, in many ways it was Abai who brought the coveted gold for Gambit.
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Rustem Telepov, better known in esports as “mou,” played as a sniper in Gambit. All his achievements in Counter Strike are connected with this club.
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«Dosia» or Mikhail Stolyarov became the first representative of Russia to win majors and get into the top twenty best gamers in the world in Counter Strike until 2015.
Will the Gambit CS GO team be revived?
At this stage, the forecasts are disappointing. Top experts believe that the Antwerp Major 2022 will be the last where there is a significant chance of winning for teams from the CIS, and then there is a high probability of breakups of gaming teams. The reason is said to be the toxicity of Russian players due to the sanctions imposed on Russia. Teams will get rid of Russians by any means possible or require them to move to another country, and Russian clubs will most likely be prohibited from applying to participate in eSports competitions.
So selling Gambit CS GO players – This is only the first sign of the impending degradation of Russian e-sports. From the current situation we can conclude that Gambit’s return to Counter Strike will take place only if sanctions are lifted. Judging by the political news, this is impossible in 2022
So loyal Gambit fans might want to at least temporarily cheer for Cloud9, where the entire roster of players from the Gambit CS GO team has moved, or become a supporter of another team.
Interesting facts about Gambit's star players
First. The highest results in the "HObbit" career associated exclusively with Gambit. What’s amazing is that, having achieved the dream of any eSports player, – victories at a major in 2017 – Abai experienced a huge decline in his game, leaving the club and three years of wandering around different teams. The second period of Gambit's heyday in CS GO occurred in 2021, when the Hobbit returned and played more confidently and reliably than before.
Second. "Zeus" before he became a Gambit CS GO player, he had no luck with trophies in Global Offensive. Although he had excellent leadership qualities, he was poor in individual performance. In fact, his poor gaming skills became the reason for his separation from Navi, who failed several majors. According to rumors, after leaving Zeus, he said that sooner or later he would win this damn major. In the esports world, Zeus' words caused a mocking reaction, which intensified even more when he moved to the Gambit CS GO team, which was missing stars from the sky. What happened next is well known, and it caused skeptics to bite their tongues.
