For a long time, Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov was one of the few positive things coming out of the latest iteration of OG.

The Russian AWP'er sports a 1.15 rating during the last 12 months on a team where the rest of the players were all delivering numbers below a 1.00 HLTV rating.

Last week OG announced the benching of Adam "NEOFRAG" Zouhar and Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov.

This a message that came as a surprise for Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov, who wrote this on his personal telegram channel.

- My path in OG comes to an end. It was my first experience in an international roster — and it was awesome. We have had rapid ups and equally rapid downs, but I don't regret a thing. I'm thankful to everyone from OG. It's time to move on, peace. And for those dumbos who spam me with my previous post — I didn't know until the last minute that I would be removed from OG.

The message has been translated by [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/news/48417-degster-i-didn-t-know-until-the-last-minute-that-i-would-be-removed-from-og","isNewTab":true,"text":"escorenews.com"}].

degster played on Team Spirit before joining OG. There is no rumors at the moment where he will continue his career.

degster

OG will once again have the luxury of having their powerful AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov on the server after sitting out for one match due to illness.

On Wednesday, it was revealed that the 21-year-old Russian was to miss OG’s match against NIP at BLAST Premier Showdown – a match OG lost 2-1 and was eliminated – However today he’s ready to retaliate.

degster and OG will take on the Swedes from NIP at 12:00 (CET) when the closed qualifier for IEM Dallas is set to begin this Friday.

Here the two teams are joined by Cloud9, Spirit, Astralis, GODSENT, Fnatic, and sYnck who all are fighting for only two spots at the main event.

IEM Dallas Closed Qualifiers | Opening schedule

All matches are set to be played 12:00 (CET)

It will be a severely weakened OG squad that will take on the Swedes from Ninjas in Pyjamas at BLAST Premier Spring Showdown as they will have to do without their absolute star player Abdul “degster” Gasanov.

Due to sickness, degster is set to be on the sideline why OG have decided to bring in a replacement in the form of Owen “smooya” Butterfield, the organization confirmed on [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/OGcsgo/status/1641045563578757121","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitter "}]today.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/smooya_dsjzlm","originalWidth":4096,"originalHeight":2304,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: ESL Adela Sznajder"}]

smooya hasn't been on a team since his benching on Fnatic one year ago

In addition today’s unfortunate news, OG is also still without their in-game leader and captain Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic who stepped back from the team temporarily in mid-February. That means OG will have to field both Smooya and the former OG player Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen for the time being.

The match between OG and NIP will is set to be played at 16:30 (CET) today.

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{cflag:DK} Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen (stand-in)

{cflag:GB} Owen “smooya” Butterfield (stand-in)

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smooya

It does not look like CS:GO will lack great and powerful AWPers in the future with the arrival of numerous top talents throughout the last couple of years. Something the legendary and four-time Major winner Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz also has noted.

As the guest in the most recent [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsdE3aetwFU&t","isNewTab":true,"text":"episode "}]of HLTV Confirmed, dev1ce praises the new generation of AWPers, where he also pin-points what they are doing so good these days and what aspects he’s yet to master himself.

- I think m0NESY is going to be one of the greatest that’s ever touched Counter-Strike. His mechanical skills are absurd and a bit cleaner than what you see with s1mple, where s1mple just has more flair, dev1ce stated. 

- s1mple does impossible things, m0NESY does that as well, but it’s kind of different with the mouse movement because of the difference in mouse sensitivity… but m0NESY is for me the next big, big, big player.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/m0NESY_G2_uilqxo","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

m0NESY, G2's new talisman, gets a lot of honouring words from dev1ce

dev1ce then continues to highlight a young trio of snipers as well.

- degster still has something to learn but he’s also really, really good. Like there are so many CIS AWPers that is good – you can just go through the list of deko and so on, who supposedly is not a very friendly player to play with.

- broky and sh1ro as well. They fit perfectly into their teams and these two are specially very good at trade fragging with the AWP when you execute. That’s something that’s really hard for me, like quick zoom and trade fragging, and is something that I’m working on which is quite new.

When asked Zvonimir “Professeur” Burazin about what makes these new top-tier AWPer stand out, the Astralis superstar quickly points towards one specific aspect; Clutching.

- One common thing is the clutch factor. I think that’s something you’ve seen more and more with AWPers - It has been there with FalleN and others previously - But now you’re thrown into clutches a lot more as an AWPer because you set your team up for executes. 

- Especially broky, m0NESY, and degster. You can just see the highlight reel when you say their name in the clutch situations, dev1ce said. 

You can watch the entire HLTV Confirmed episode down below.

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device

m0NESY

broky

sh1ro

Astralis

In Group B of the closed online qualifier for the Paris Major EU RMR tournament, OG was the team that everybody kept an eye on with in-game leader Nemanja "nexa" Isaković missing out on the tournament due to personal reasons. In today's match against Aurora there was no need to sweat! OG won a clear 2-0 victory, but what was even more impressive was their T rounds. OG managed to go 22-5 on their T sides despite not having their in-game leader there.

AWP'er Abdul 'degster' Gasanov also did incredibly well to set his team up for success with a +19 K-D score during the match.

MVP: {cflag:RU} Abdul 'degster' Gasanov - 1.47 rating / 44-25 K-D / 86.4 ADR

Another AWP'er that stole the spotlight today was the legendary Frenchman Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub. The sniper performed excellently on all three maps in today's match between 500 and Falcons. The French Falcons reversed swept 500 after going behind on Nuke. With the win kennyS keeps the dream alive of representing his country on home soil in at the Paris Major.

MVP: {cflag:FR} Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub - 1.34 rating / 75-50 K-D / 86.6 ADR

While France could enjoy success with Falcons they got disappointed with the overtime loss on the decider map for HEET. The French lineup lost 19-16 on Nuke to Monte with former NAVI stand-in Viktor 'sdy' Orudzhev on the roster. Both teams had won each other's map pick before Nuke came into play. Here Bryan 'Maka' Canda did everything he could to keep his team in the match, but Monte was too strong in the overtime game. 

MVP: {cflag:FR} Bryan 'Maka' Canda - 1.39 rating / 85-53 / 89.3 ADR

Aurora, 500, and HEET all have an extra chance to qualify. They are playing right their fifth and final game right now in the group.

Maka

kennyS

Monte

OG took on Heroic at the IEM katowice 2023. A match between two young rosters started out on Inferno where the Danes came out pressing the speeder. Down 4-5, OG´s superstar Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov took down two players in a pre-plant clutch attempt but with no time left on the clock the Russian AWPer was left empty-handed.

Check out the fight between degster and the clock. 

[twitchClip:RichShortWalrusPanicBasket-heDtsSbQYCZcqATE]

Heroic is ready to play in Spodek after they took down OG in a dominant 2-0 fashion.

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Heroic

In Group B of IEM Katowice MOUZ and OG went head to head in the second match of the group. Before the match, the bookmakers had predicted an all-even match with no favorite. A prediction that came through.

MOUZ kickstarted the match by winning both halves on OG’s map pick of Inferno. In-game leader Christopher 'dexter' Nong could enjoy his four teammates performing at a very high level on the map, which gave MOUZ a clear 16-9 win.

Moving on to Overpass everything seemed to play into MOUZ’s hands. They won the first half 8-7 on their T side, which normally would be a slam dunk to finish the match on the CT-sided map. But Nemanja 'nexa' Isaković wanted it different. The in-game leader stepped up and called a solid T side to force the match into Mirage.

The decider map finally gave us a very close battle between the two teams. In a spectacular ending, OG managed to equalize the score in the last moment of round 30, where Abdul 'degster' Gasanov with a Tec-9 gun took down two MOUZ players through the smoke to send the match to overtime.

Here MOUZ picked up three rounds on their CT side to put OG under maximum pressure, but all of a sudden both teams produced stellar defenses to deny any T rounds. Again it was degster who broke the deadlock with an excellent 1vs2 clutch to find the necessary rounds to win the match. The Russian AWPer ended Mirage with 41 kills to seal the win.

MOUZ will now have to take the long way through the lower bracket, while OG will face the winner of Complexity vs Heroic in the next match.

MVP: {cflag:RU} Abdul 'degster' Gasanov - 1.24 rating / 77-59 K-D / 83.8 ADR

MOUZ

A sterling start to 2022 fizzled into mediocrity, but still considered to be the best team of the year, FaZe look to stamp their claim on 2023 with an early success story here at BLAST Spring Groups. Finn 'karrigan' Andersen will be confident that his team can re-find their form of last year and with the deadly rifle duo of Russel 'Twistzz' Van Dulken and Robin 'ropz' Kool giving  scintillating performances throughout the BLAST Premier World Final, the confidence will be flowing. Getting to the Spring Finals is a necessity for FaZe to continue their quest to reclaim their crown atop the world rankings and we expect nothing less.

Fate halted Complexity’s charge to the IEM Rio Major in the form of Imperial, and since, no tangible improvement has presented itself. Despite the efforts of Michael 'Grim' Wince, the team are yet to confidently grasp the mantle of #2 in North America, so facing off versus superior opposition here could prove difficult. Saving Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli from the ageing Swedish scene was a step in the right direction, yet more consistency is needed around him to truly allow Complexity to rise. Can they upset the big names of Group B and sneak a place at the Spring Finals, or will it be another trip to the gauntlet?

Liquid have shown steady progression throughout the year and capping it off as runners up at ESL Pro League Season 16 and the BLAST Premier World Final gives them great momentum coming into the new season. Positive yet laborious progress from Josh 'oSee' Ohm has begun to elevate Liquid’s level, and I’d say they are slowly but surely morphing into potential title contenders. If Keith 'NAF' Markovic and Jonathan 'EliGE' Jablonowski can finish tournaments in the same fashion as they start them, Liquid can challenge the world’s best and continue to scythe through into the latter stages.

With their only wins at the IEM Rio Major coming over the Asian RMR minnows of IHC and Grayhound, OG’s performance left much to be desired. What followed was the community notion that OG weren’t worthy of BLAST Partner status, something they duly backed up by crashing out of the Fall Finals without winning a map. A late resurgence thanks to spite at the World Finals ended the year on a relative high, but it will take a lot to continue that momentum and take on the two favourites here in Group B. Shahar 'flameZ' Shushan will hope to maintain his form and take revenge for their semi-final loss at the World Finals. Can OG surprise us again?

This group looks more of a two-horse race but the raw firepower on OG and the historical success Complexity has seen at BLAST events could prove potential difference makers.

Group B kicks off on the 20th January with FaZe taking on Complexity.

FaNg

YEKINDAR

FaZe

compLexity Gaming

Team Liquid

According to a source are OG on the market looking for a new player going into the upcoming season. This Tweet was published on Dec 26. 2022.

The star AWPer from OG tweeted an answer to the rumor that was been floating around on Twitter since "OverDrive" tweeted " OG are Searching for a rifler for the next season!"

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According to the often-precise transfer insider Aleksey "OverDrive" Biryukov, OG are on the market for a new player going into the upcoming season. Something he revealed on his Twitter yesterday, leaving no hints on who’s the man to be sacrificed on the current OG squad.

The rumours of a potential roster change come after a year where OG already have made a large number of changes with no less than four new players having been introduced to the team this year.

First it was Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic in January, then a double signing in Maciej “F1KU” Miklas and Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar, and lastly Abdul “degster” Gasanov who arrived right after the player break. The young roster with nexa at the helm never really managed to hit the ground running despite the promising lineup.

With OverDrive stating that OG are on the lookout for a new rifler, the spotlight must be on F1KU and NEOFRAG as the most obvious players to be demoted. nexa is the IGL, flameZ has been a standout performer together with degster, being two players OG won’t sack anytime soon.

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We have reached out to OG for a comment on the rumours, however, they haven't replied to the request.

NEOFRAG

F1KU

flameZ

nexa

We look back at the last big event of the year, where some of CS:GO biggest stars went head to head for the $500.000 in first prize.

In the Grand Final, it was G2 who lifted the trophy. The star-studded roster also had four of five players in the top 8 best-performing players at the tournament. You can see the top 10 list here.

Highest-rated players at BLAST World Finals 2022:

Twistzz

ropz

NiKo

ZywOo

huNter

k0nfig

EliGE

OG has been the positive surprise at BLAST World Finals with two straight wins in the group stage against Heroic and Team Vitality.

After their win against Vitality, we spoke with Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov about the match and the lack of expectations towards OG at the event.

Abdul "degster" Gasanov and OG are going head to head with FaZe at BLAST Fall Finals in Copenhagen, where the Russian AWP'er will have to perform at the highest level again to fight off Finn "karrigan" Andersen and his troops. 

We spoke with degster on Media Day, where he explained his thoughts on the future of the team. The Russian AWPer also talks about his time in OG where he has been for four months now, after levering Spirit back in July. Here the Russian AWPer explains that he has high beliefs in the squad and that OG has the right surroundings for him to develop as a player and as a person. 

 - I think that in OG I can be the best player in the world, we can be the best team in the world and we can win tournaments. 

You can watch the entire interview with degster down below.

You can bet on BLAST Fall Finals and OG's next game via our betting partners below:

In June this year, OG announced the departure of their star AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov due to “personal reasons”. Following the exit, degster has commented on the reasons why on several occasions, pointing towards a [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/article/35480-i-was-told-that-spirit-will-fit-my-ideas-but-later-they-declined-degster-on-why-he-left-matchfixing-in-cs-go-and-his-upbringing","isNewTab":true,"text":"different view of how to play the game"}].

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Now the other side of the story has decided to spill the beans with Spirit’s Robert "Patsi" Isyanov accusing degster of lying and being a tough individual to work with, in an [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/article/40291-degster-said-we-didn-t-give-him-freedom-but-you-watch-the-games-and-see-that-he-does-the-same-things-patsi-about-rio-major-degster-s-leave-and-his-public-claims","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview "}]with escorenews.com.

- Abdul wanted to fulfil his "I want." There were problems with it all the time. Like, we play the game and ask him to do something the team needed, and we lose. The next day there is a team talk: "Guys, let's play for me, we won't win like that." It was very strange. It certainly did not help our work and did not speed up the process of team development.

- I wouldn't say anything about him if he had not started saying untrue things in interviews. If you read them, then there were always very strange statements about us, like: “The old team did not give me the freedom that I want. And in the new team, I do everything I can.” But you watch the games and see that he does the same things, Patsi has stated to escorenews.com.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Patsi_Adela-Sznajder__dcod9v","originalWidth":5472,"originalHeight":3078,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Adela Sznajder, ESL","alt":"Patsi"}]

According to Patsi, degster didn’t say goodbye to the team and “just left the chat and that's it.”

- He said that the team didn't work as hard as he did, but he was the first to leave the practice during the Major. It was another very strange moment. We would have kept this between ourselves if it weren't for so many interviews from him. There were at least five of them where he told a lie, an outright lie.

- Maybe it's wrong to do that in public, but I can't leave it like that. Everyone will think that he is very cool, and we are the bad guys, Patsi has stated to escorenews.com.

Patsi

Spirit

Today’s match between OG and IHC came way closer than many expected, however, in the end, it was still the favourites led by Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic who ended up on the winning side of things.

That means OG stay alive at IEM Rio with a confident 2-0 victory, while the Mongolian underdogs on the other hand are eliminated from the $1.25 Million tournament. OG is set to play again tomorrow in the swiss format, where they will go up against another 2-2 team to determine their fate.

OG – IHC 2-0 | IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage

16-11 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} degster – 1.59 Rating / 28-15 K-D / 101.5 ADR

16-14 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} degster – 1.31 Rating / 27-18 K-D / 73.6 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Abdul “degster” Gasanov – 1.44 Rating / 55-33 K-D / 86.8 ADR

Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov and OG lost against FURIA earlier today, where OG once again was struck by technical issues. Yesterday OG had to wait for more than an hour to restart their match against Grayhound, which clearly has caused frustration for the Russian sniper, who spoke about the issues after the FURIA match.

- I have played the last three Majors now. I remember people telling me, that PGL Majors was bad. But guys, I played the first game, where we stayed for two hours with technical problems. And right now we played a game, where my teammate crashed at the start of the round, and we are told, that we can't replay the round because we got damaged at the start of the round. 

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The OG player also talked about the issues with the microphones, when they played on the stage in front of the crowd at the Riocentro Arena.

- The microphones we have playing on the stage don't work sometimes. We spoke with Nexa today on Overpass, and sometimes we can't hear him. So when we take a tactical pause we tell him to just scream. Because otherwise the microphone just eats some words from him and we don't understand him. So he started to scream because otherwise, we could not hear our in-game leader, degster told Pley.gg.

You can see the full interview with degster down below.

ESL has since responded to degster's comments on Twitter.

International roster seems to be the new normal in the professional world of CS:GO. With FaZe being the first team to perhaps accomplish consistent success with such an international roster, many teams have now opted for the international route as it allows teams to bring in exactly the player that is needed, no matter the nationality of that given player. 

A team that has also taken the international route is OG. Since bringing in their new star player in "degster", OG have looked incredibly cohesive and a scary opponent for almost any team to face. 

After beating FaZe yesterday, OG continued their strong form by taking down the iconic Danes of Astralis today and securing a spot in the upcoming BLAST Premier Fall Finals event. We spoke with "degster" about OG's recent performances and asked him about the future of OG as a team: 

To hear more from one of the most talented AWP'ers in the world after having just beaten Astralis, you can watch the entire interview down below: 

The North Americans from Complexity have been sent home to the states after losing 2-0 against OG in the elimination match at BLAST Premier Fall Groups. OG, on the other hand, is through to the next round where they will take on FaZe.

Despite presenting a strong fight on OG’s map pick of Ancient, Complexity ended up being dominated massively on the second map giving up a tame performance against a well-playing Abdul “degster” Gasanov, who led OG to the decisive map victory on Overpass. The Russian AWPer rounded off the Bo3 series with a stellar 1.49 Rating giving his rival AWPer Håkon 'hallzerk' Fjærli an extremely tough battle.

OG – Complexity 2-0 | BLAST Premier Fall Groups

16-13 (Ancient) | {cflag:PL} f1ku – 1.23 Rating / 25-19 K-D / 88.3 ADR

16-4 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} degster – 1.91 Rating / 24-9 K-D / 100.7 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Abdul "degster" Gasanov - 1.49 Rating / 47-27 K-D / 89.5

We had the chance to sit down with OG’s newest member in Abdul “degster” Gasanov, who is currently preparing for their opening match against Vitality at BLAST Fall Groups with the rest of the OG squad in Copenhagen.

During the summer there were multiple offers for the 21-year-old Russian, who impressed widely and gained a lot of attention with his stand-in performance at BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Lisbon. In our interview with degster, he shares everything regarding the chaotic summer, where a lot of teams tried to get him on their roster, and much more.

Watch the full interview with degster right here:

OG has secured themselves the final spot of IEM Rio Europe RMR after a win against the "Portuguese Family" in a 2-0 match with victories on Vertigo (19-16) and Dust2 (16-8).

The win at the qualifier made Abdul "degster" Gasanov's first event as an OG player very successful. degster has been building upon the team's 3-4th place finish at the BLAST Premier Spring Final when the AWPer helped OG win over teams like Natus Vincere and ENCE.

The next big event for OG is the BLAST Premier Fall Groups 2022 which is held from Aug 19th to Aug 28th. The OG squad is in the same group as Vitality, OG, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Astralis. 

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degster

Player stats

Articles mentioning degster

degster reveals: I didn't know until the last minute that I would be removed from OG

degster returns to action for OG at IEM Dallas qualifier

Tough blow! OG set to miss degster in BLAST opener

dev1ce praises the new generation of AWPers and explains what he wants to learn from them

kennyS ready for EU RMR alongside OG

A close call between degster and the clock

OG edge past MOUZ in three-map thriller

BLAST Spring Group B Preview

degster gives response to transfer rumours: Zero changes in OG

CS:GO insider: OG are searching for a new rifler for 2023

Highest rated players at BLAST World Finals

degster on the OG doubters: Hello haters!

degster: I think that in OG I can be the best player in the World

Patsi hits out at degster after problems in Spirit: He didn’t even say goodbye to us

OG survive another day at IEM Rio Major

degster lash out on ESL: What is going on guys?

degster: When we play like this, why can we not be the best in the future?

Complexity eliminated by nexa’s troops

A sitdown with degster: OG bought me to be a starplayer

OG to IEM Rio Europe RMR

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