Roster moves CS2 teams should make in the off-season

The first full season of CS2 has now come to an end and what a season it was. 

There were six S-tier events, with Spirit becoming the only team to win two at the final event of the season, BLAST Premier Spring Final. It’s one of the most competitive eras of CS we have ever seen, and it’s set to only become more competitive as teams make changes to try and become contenders. 

With that in mind, what changes should teams make in order to elevate themselves to the top? We’ve selected four teams that we feel are all underachieving but could turn that around in just one or two moves. 

Vitality: -mezii +Perfecto

mezii had a strong start to life on Vitality as he won both BLAST Premier Fall and World Finals in 2023. Unfortunately, he hasn’t seen the same level of success in 2024 as Vitality failed to win a trophy in the first half of the year.

That trophyless run has included two appearances in grand finals, two appearances in semi-finals, as well as an embarrassing last-place finish at IEM Katowice. 

mezii has been heavily criticised during the run for his failure to appropriately replace Magisk due to his 6.2 rating, although apEX recently told BLAST.tv that it will “take time for mezii” in the team. 

However, we’re not sure how long Vitality should wait given that mezii has already had eight months with the team. Instead, we think they should choose to go for Perfecto, who would offer more security within the anchor spots mezii occupies as well as a lot of tournament winning experience. 

G2: -HooXi +Krimbo

Although G2 have already benched nexa and look to be bringing in M80’s malbsMd as his replacement, we feel that just one move isn’t enough for G2 to become real contenders.

The team’s win at IEM Dallas without HooXi proved that he isn’t as valuable to the team as some people may believe him to be, and the Dane performing worse than TaZ during Spring Final only furthered that belief. 

With NiKo proving to be a competent IGL in Dallas he showed that he could step into the role full-time, but any loss of fragging because of that move would need to be negated by a solid fifth. 

We think we have found the perfect fifth player in Krimbo, BIG’s star who seems destined for a move up the ladder. Krimbo has a solid 6 rating in 2024, far higher than HooXi’s 5.3 rating in similar CT side roles.

BIG: -syrsoN +slaxz-

Who remembers when syrsoN was one of the best AWPers in the world?

The hope was that the German would be able to recapture that form upon his return to his nation’s premium CS2 organisation, but he has failed to come anywhere close to that so far.

His rating for 2024 currently sits at 5.8, which, for an AWPer, is abysmal. He is set up to be a star on the team but is performing like a support player. There is no way in which BIG will ever be a top team as long as he is a member of their squad. 

Therefore, we propose that BIG should look towards slaxz-, the German AWPer currently playing for M80. slaxz- has been incredibly impressive during international events this year, especially when he recorded a 6.5 rating in M80’s run at ESL Pro League Season 19. 

fnatic: -afro, -KRIMZ +cadiaN +Altekz

fnatic impressively pulled off a blockbuster signing when they convinced blameF to join their team and now have an elite-level star player. However, the remainder of their roster is not up to scratch, and they will remain on the outskirts of the top 15 as long as that is the case. 

afro is the main player struggling, his aggressive playstyle is not at all suited to tier one. The same could be said for bodyy, who proved he is a competent leader in tier two but has so far failed to record any notable achievements at the tier one level.

For that reason, fnatic should look to purchase cadiaN from Liquid. Not only is cadiaN one of the best IGLs in the world, but he is also a competent AWPer, and would therefore be able to kill two birds with one stone. On top of that, blameF is tailor-made for cadiaN’s system and would be a perfect fit for the role stavn occupied on HEROIC. 

The other change fnatic could look to make is the signing of Altekz in place of KRIMZ. This isn’t because KRIMZ has done anything wrong, he’s just old. On the other hand, Altekz is very youn and one of the best up-and-coming anchors in CS. Signing him while he is still a free agent should be a no-brainer.