In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, 2022 became a year of fierce competition between teams. However, we did not get an era of dominance by any particular club, mainly due to timely changes in the teams' compositions. This material collected the substitutions that saved the teams this season.

Spinx in Vitality

In early 2022, Vitality changed its lineup and entered the international scene. Then the club signed Emil Magisk Reif and Peter dupreeh Rasmussen. However, it cannot be said that this solution worked.

After a good performance at the Blast Premier Spring Groups 2022, the French-Danish team did not have any achievements, except for second place at the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022. Unfortunately, this is how the first half of the season passed for Vitality, and it clearly didn't satisfy the organization and players.

Therefore, the club decided to make a replacement. At the beginning of August, the team decided to replace Kevin Misutaaa Rabier with Lotan Spinx Gilady. Even then, Spinx was a young star. ENCE was primarily responsible for his results in the year's first half.

At the same time, according to captain Dan apeX Madeskler, Spinx fit the role perfectly.

As long as we have Lotan on the team, we have everything perfect regarding roles.

Dan apeX Madeclear

And the replacement was suitable. Almost immediately, Vitality earned the first championship title this year at ESL Pro League Season 16. However, unfortunately, this achievement remained the only one this year, despite the increase in the game's overall performance.

Vitality's current issues are more about preparation and performance style, but signing Spinx was one of the good decisions this year.

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Dev1ce at Astralis

Astralis had a terrible season. A team that once dominated and won Major after Major failed to make the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 playoffs and then failed to qualify for the IEM Rio Major 2022.

These problems began with the departure of Nikolai dev1ce Rydtz in the first half of 2021. All this time, Astralis could not find a stable sniper to perform the assigned tasks. The last sniper of the Danish club was Asger Farlig Jensen, and he did not live up to expectations.

But what could save the club, if not the returning dev1ce? At the end of October, Astralis officially announced the transfer, which was rumored for almost a year: dev1ce returned to the team. So what changed in the team after that?

After signing dev1ce, Astralis competed in two events: CCT North Europe Series 2 and CCT Central Europe Series 4. In the second one, they took second place, which is not a good result for a tier-1 team, but let's look at dev1ce's statistics.

The Astralis sniper proved that his inactivity has not affected his performance in any way, and he is still one of the best players in the world. With him, the composition of Astralis looks promising, and we are waiting for the return of the Danish club next year.

Degster in OG

At the beginning of the year, OG changed IGL and signed Nemanu nexa Isakovich from G2. At first, the lineup seemed decent, but after BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022, OG had no results.

After that, the team lost two more players, who were quickly replaced. First, sniper Mateusz Mantuu Wiltsevsky could not participate in the BLAST Premier Spring Final 2022 due to illness. And then, the team decided to hire Abdul Degster Hasanov as a stand-in.

Even then, degster showed his best side and finished the tournament with a rating of 6.5. And OG showed the best result at the tier-1 tournament this year, taking 3rd-4th place. After this success, the club did not return Mantua to the team and officially signed Degster in mid-July.

After this change, OG went to IEM Rio Major 2022, which became the first Major in the CS:GO organization's history, and took 3-4th place at BLAST Premier World Final 2022. The signing of degster was the best transfer in the history of OG in CS:GO.

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HooXi in G2

G2 has been rebuilding its roster for over a year to win at least one trophy. The organization reached its last championship in 2017. And at the beginning of the year, G2 again reassembled the roster.

Then the team signed Aleksy Aleksib Virolainen and Ilya m0NESY Osypov. The potential of that lineup was enough for one event: IEM Katowice 2022, where G2 took second place. However, after that, the team was not reached. Therefore, he made two more substitutions during the summer Player Break.

In mid-August, Justin jks Savage and Rasmus HooXi Nielsen joined the team, replacing Aleksib and Odrik JACKZ Yuga. Of course, replacing the captain is a serious decision. It looked even more dubious, given that it was HooXi's first international roster.

And at first, it seemed so. HooXi did not play, and the only decent result of G2 after the changes was 3rd-4th place in ESL Pro League Season 16. And after that, a disaster happened: G2 did not qualify for IEM Rio Major 2022. Fans stopped believing in HooXi and began openly chasing him from the team. However, he just needed time.

At the BLAST Premier World Final 2022, the Dane showed himself as a good captain. A bunch of exciting rounds that confused opponents, excellent decisions in the middle of the competition, and won matches - all this was done by HooXi. The result was G2's first championship in five years.

HooXi really saved G2 from a major flop this season. We wrote about how HooXi affected other G2 players in this article.

YEKINDAR in Liquid

Liquid had a terrible start to the season. At the beginning of the year, the club changed its lineup, including Ryshar shox Papillon. And the Frenchman did not cope with the tasks set for him by the team. His average rating was around 5, which is not suitable for a tier-1 team. Therefore, Liquid didn't show a decent result.

After PGL Major Antwerp 2022, shox left the team himself, and Liquid had to look for a stand-in. Then the team chose Marek YEKINDAR Galinskys, who was in the Outsiders reserve, and this became the best choice of the season. As a result, Liquid made it to the arena games for the first time this season and took 5th-6th place at IEM Cologne. And Jonathan EliGE Yablonovsky said after the tournament:

It wasn't easy on some maps because I had to play in a completely different style. But YEKINDAR perfectly fulfills my previous roles. I just need to get used to doing certain things in the late stages of rounds and learn not to die for longer. But there are not so many such rounds. <...> In the end, everything is fine because YEKINDAR is a brilliant player: he reads opponents perfectly, which is very useful.

Jonathan EliGE Jablonowski

This led to the signing of YEKINDAR and the return of Liquid to the ranks of the best teams in the world. Unfortunately, the team is still waiting for its first championship. However, the team has already earned two second and one 3rd-4th place in tier-1 events.

All these changes were made in the middle of the season and saved the teams from total failure. This again shows that even one small change can make the team one of the best in the world, regardless of its results in the season.

At the same time, after these changes, the teams will be good not only at a short distance but also have great potential for the next season.