The 5 biggest CS:GO roster changes of 2016

By Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen

With 2016 coming to an end, it’s time to look back and reflect on all that happened during the year. In the case of CS:GO, that means taking stock of the roster swaps that headed around the world. Here were the five biggest movers in 2016.

Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz to OpTic

Though OpTic also picked up Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas and Tarik “tarik” Celik in 2016, neither was a true catalyst to bigger and better things. As soon as stanislaw completed the roster, however, OpTic made solid top six finishes at ESL One New York and ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals. Following a last place exit at DreamHack Winter, the team stormed through ELEAGUE to win the championship and placed second at ECS Season 2 Finals. Effectively, OpTic went from a good North American team to an international semi-contender. What more could you ask for from an in-game leader pick-up?

Timothy “autimatic” Ta to Cloud9

While Cloud9’s in-game leader Jake “Stewie2K” Yip might be a fan-favorite over autimatic, it is unquestionable that the addition of the latter is what allowed Cloud9 to become a top team. Stewie2K took some time to settle in at the top level of Counter-Strike, and his team put together no meaningful results through August. But once autimatic joined, Cloud9 went on a run of six top four finishes, including the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals win. The team has fallen off a cliff since, but the duo should help Cloud9 remain competitive throughout 2017.

Emil “Magiskb0Y” Reif to dignitas

I suggested in July that Magiskb0Y would be a good fit in dignitas, and that turned out to be true, to say the least. Once he replaced Jesper “TENZKI” Plougmann, the Danes made top four at SL i-League StarSeries Season 2 Finals and DreamHack Open Bucharest and got their one big win of 2016 at EPICENTER: Moscow, where they bested Na`Vi and Virtus.pro in best-of-three series. Much like Cloud9, dignitas have since fallen off, at least partly due to an incredibly busy travel schedule, but most of us expect them to bounce back once given some time to work on their tactics-heavy game. In short, Magiskb0Y made dignitas a contender in no time.

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev to Liquid

This might seem like an odd choice given s1mple parted ways with Liquid fairly early this year, but think about it from the results perspective. Not only were Liquid not a top team, they had basically no results to speak of prior to s1mple uniting with Spencer “Hiko” Martin. Once in Los Angeles, s1mple proceeded to carry Liquid to within two rounds from besting Luminosity at MLG Columbus, and returned for a stand-in stint in the summer – only because he was still under contract as a direct result from the pick-up – to help Liquid reach the grand final of ESL One Cologne. His time in Na`Vi has gone as well thus far, but who would turn down what s1mple gave Liquid in a six-month span?

Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander to Astralis

In the first few months of 2016, Astralis had some solid results, but it all went downhill after the Na`Vi loss at MLG Columbus. For more than six months the Danes struggled to put up meaningful results, going from perennial semi-finalists to a team that often went out in groups or even failed to qualify for events. Some of it was self-inflicted; Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen’s health ruined their plans. But once gla1ve became the team’s new in-game leader in a much-anticipated late October move, he unlocked a beast. Astralis wound up beating SK to top their ELEAGUE group, finished top four at IEM Oakland, second to OpTic at ELEAGUE and then rounded out the year with a championship at ECS Season 2 Finals. And they go into 2017 and the ELEAGUE Major as arguably the favorites to win it all.

For more from the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene, follow @lurppis_ on Twitter.