Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele, Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte, Jadan "⁠HexT⁠" Postma, Justin "⁠FaNg⁠" Coakley, and Josh "⁠oSee⁠" Ohm has been announced as the new roster for NRG Esports, who returns to the competitive scene after a four-year hiatus. 

NRG played their last matches in CS:GO in September 2019. Back then they had just finished 3-4th at the Berlin Major before the roster was acquired by Evil Geniuses. Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte is the only returning player from the last iteration of NRG. The new lineup is a mix of players, that have recently played for Team Liquid, Complexity, and Evil Geniuses. Damian "daps" Steele will return as a player after having coached Team Liquid since 2022.

The announcement of the new NA roster (three Canadians, and two Americans) comes as a pleasant surprise for the many fans of Counter-Strike in North America, who have been relying on Complexity to represent the continent in the past months. Team Liquid is supposedly also looking to return to the NA scene, which could ignite a new era for North America in Counter-Strike.

oSee

HexT

daps

FaNg

Brehze

Before the tournament in Katowice, Permitta was one of the big unknown factors. 

The team had won the Polish Championships to gain access to the Play-in tournament on home soil. Unfortunately, their stay only lasted two days.

On the opening day, they lost 16-4 to FURIA. Today they did better, but not at all what is needed to be among the best teams in the Play-in stage. Against Complexity Permitta managed to win 15 rounds in total on the two maps of Nuke and Overpass. 

While the entire Complexity team ended with a positive K-D score, it was only Dawid 'Layner' Falczyński who managed to keep his head above water during the match. 

Complexity is now ready for the last qualifier against ENCE tomorrow.

Permitta - Complexity 0-2 | IEM Katowice Play-in

MVP: {cflag:CA} Justin 'FaNg' Coakley - 1.46 rating / 43-31 K-D / 103.4 ADR

compLexity Gaming

Permitta

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.

broky

YEKINDAR

degster

FaZe

Team Liquid

There are not a lot of positive things for Complexity to take with them on to the summer break after being eliminated at IEM Cologne, but still in-game leader Ioannis 'Johnny' "JT" Theodosiou tried to keep his head up high after a difficult time for the roster.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"astralis-knocks-complexity-iem-cologne-play-in","isNewTab":true}]

- For most of us, this is our first tier-1 season. So it is a little rough. We are trying to get into it and trying to get used to the environment, especially on LAN. This season was supposed to be a warm-up and something for us to improve as a team. Obviously, it's been going terribly. For most of us, this is probably the worst three months that we have had in our careers. Especially myself, FaNg, and junior. It's been a rough time. We need to get back on the server and grind as hard as we can and try to get back into it.

See the full interview with JT down below.

Junior

The Danes from Heroic are off to a great start at ESL Pro League Season 15 after securing a strong 2-0 win over Complexity in the opening round of Group D.

Ancient served as the opening map as Complexity’s map pick, where the North Americans hoped to punish Casper “cadiaN” Møller and company. However, Heroic looked more than prepared for the map as they managed to take down Complexity with an impressive 16-9 score.

Things got much more competitive and close on Overpass – something Complexity could thank Justin “FaNg” Coakley for. The Canadian rifler pushed Heroic to the edge with important multi kills and entries. But in the end, it didn't matter much.

Through a 16-14 result, Heroic end on top and therefore manage to keep NAVI on a leash, after their victory against AGO in the early matchup today.

Heroic – Complexity 2-0 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group D)

16-9 (Ancient) | {cflag:DK} cadiaN – 1.86 Rating / 31-13 K-D / 118.1 ADR

16-14 (Overpass) | {cflag:DK} refrezh – 1.42 Rating / 24-16 K-D / 88.1 ADR

MVP: {cflag:DK} Casper ”cadiaN” Møller – 1.48 Rating / 56-32 K-D / 96.6 ADR

cadiaN

Heroic

The ESL Challenger February 2022 event is reaching its end in the group stage. With only one spot left in the playoffs at the event, it all came down to this last Bo3-series in Group B between HEET and Complexity Gaming. The French roster of HEET were the heavy favorites going into the Bo3-series, seeing that the new-look Complexity Gaming have struggled with their start to the 2022 season. Despite HEET being the favorites, however, it was Complexity to prove themselves the stronger roster on the day. Three close and intense maps concluded with a 2-1 victory to the North American Complexity roster. The 2-1 victory sees Complexity advancing at the event alongside FURIA from Group B.

The first map was the choice of HEET and saw the two rosters begin their battle on Vertigo. The decision to pick Vertigo pointed toward a confident HEET roster going into the Bo3-series. Whilst the map is undoubtedly one of, if not the best map in HEET’s arsenal, it is also a map that Complexity have proven themselves more than competent on. The fact that both teams were comfortable going into the first map of the Bo3-series showed. Complexity started the strongest on their CT-side and managed to pick up a 10-5 lead going into the second half. However, the CT-side of HEET was just as potent as the one of Complexity, and overtime was needed to find the winner. Finishing what they couldn’t in regulation time, Complexity were able to claim Vertigo at the scoreline of 19-16.  

The map pick of Complexity came to be Ancient. Whereas HEET had picked into their own strengths it was clear the choice of Ancient was a pick that played into the weaknesses of Complexity’s opponent. It was also Complexity to start their map pick the strongest. Whilst it was far from a one-sided affair, the North American side managed to secure an 8-7 scoreline going into their CT-side of Ancient. Despite their strong performance on their T-side, however, Complexity struggled with defending against the French boys of HEET. The back-and-forth battle ultimately swayed the way of HEET and at the scoreline of 16-12, Ancient was theirs to take home.

The third and final map was, of course, Inferno. Being infamous for its close brawls and being the perfect third map in any Bo3-series, it was no surprise that the close match between HEET and Complexity was to end here. It was HEET to carry over the momentum from Ancient and start Inferno with relentless aggression on their T-side. It wasn’t until the French had gained an impressive 9-1 lead that Complexity finally woke up. Despite Complexity clawing themselves back a handful of rounds, it was still HEET to go to halftime with an 11-4 lead. All HEET had to do at this point was to finish what they had started. This, however, was not as easy as it sounded. Complexity shifted into gear and began piling on the pressure. A remarkable comeback came to fruition as Complexity won 12 consecutive rounds and closed out Inferno at the scoreline of 16-11.

Complexity – HEET (2-1) | ESL Challenger February 2022

FaNg – 1.50 Rating / 37-21 K-D / 103.0 ADR

afro – 1.48 Rating / 27-17 K-D / 100.5 ADR

junior – 1.52 Rating / 25-16 K-D / 86.5 ADR

Justin ”FaNg” Coakley {cflag:CA} | 1.32 Rating / 82-59 K-D / 96.3 ADR

As well as finding out what team would advance from Group B alongside FURIA, we were also presented with a brawl for the last advancing spot in Group A. To fight for the spot was 9z and Movistar Riders. Posting an upset, it was the South American roster of 9z to claim victory and advance to the playoffs alongside Virtus.pro from Group A.

The four remaining teams at the ESL Challenger February 2022 event are as follows:

HEET

Another North American team has confirmed their roster for the upcoming season. Complexity announced today that they have signed the current Extra Salt roster.

With the announcement Complexity and team owner Jason Lake (in picture) underlined their commitment to NA Counter-Strike with the words "We are coming home". The new lineup consists of four North Americans and the South African player Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou.

Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince and Paytyn "⁠junior⁠" Johnson transfers from Team Liquid and FURIA to complete the lineup with three Extra Salt players.

The team will make their debut tomorrow at Funspark Ultra 2021 Finals against no other than Gambit.

Grim

floppy

Extra Salt

The Brazilians from FURIA and Liquid are through to the upper final at cs_summit 8 following victories over Extra Salt and paiN in the upper semi-finals. FURIA ended the North American’s nine-match winning streak in all competitions, while Liquid claimed revenge against paiN after losing their first head-to-head battle in DreamHack Open March. The two teams will now start to prepare before the big upper final where we will find out which one of the teams will advance directly to the grand final of the Regional Major Ranking event.

Watch highlights from each matchup right here:

 Justin “FaNg” Coakley – 1.20 Rating – 88.2 ADR – 67-58 K/D

 Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski – 1.30 Rating – 95.1 ADR – 38-32 K/D

EliGE

FURIA

paiN

Extra Salt's promising rifler Justin "FaNG" Coakley is on the rise at the very top of CS:GO, with the 21-year-old presenting one strong performance after another. The Canadian youngster has averaged a strong 1.12 Rating in the last 3 months, as he also has taken home the MVP award at the profiled event of Funspark ULTI EU Final. 

Yesterday, he took down the superstar Brazilians from O PLANO with a massive 1v2 clutch, where FaNg delivers two nasty one tap headshots to eventually seal the round for Extra Salt. A play, we decided to honour as our latest Pley of the Day!

You can see more Pley of the Day's in the link below.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"pley-day-may","isNewTab":false}]

North American Counter-Strike has in times been lackluster but has also produced some incredible prospects for the future of CS:GO - one of them goes by the name of Justin "FaNg" Coakley. At the age of 18-years-old, he joined the Extra Salt side, making it all the more impressive that he has already earned himself an official HLTV MVP award for his last event. 

Extra Salt managed to take BIG to all five maps in the FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final, almost causing an incredible upset. At the forefront of Extra Salt was the young Canadian rifle in "FaNg" scoring an immaculate 1.19 rating throughout the event. Take a look at how he managed to earn himself his first MVP award down below: 

Justin “FaNg” Coakley has been named the HLTV.org´s Most Valuable Player of the FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final.

The Canadian player joined Extra Salt in January 2021, after splitting up with his former team Rugratz, where he only had been at for around 2 months.

This MVP award is the first-ever individual accolade in his career, but he could be looking at a few more if he keeps improving.

Extra salt was playing amazing at the event, and the team helped the teenage rifler to deliver. The organization ended up losing the grand final in a nail-biting affair against BIG, where the German roster ended up pulling the longest straw.

Watch some of his highlights from the event here:

[twitchClip:RudeSmokyChipmunkWholeWheat-VGlD6kZRzq3CX5JP]

[twitchClip:EagerPopularOxPunchTrees-BKBMKxaOjkBJ1wEu]

[twitchClip:ExquisiteOpenMangoRaccAttack-3uZmEoiXLa3rUbDu]

Extra Salt got a great start in the first map on Inferno, and they were quickly leading 6-1 as the CT side against forZe as the T side.

But the Russian organization wouldn’t give up without a fight as they made it to 6-4, but then the momentum changed again. Extra Salt would go on to win the next nine rounds, to make it to 15-4, and the first map win was just a formality for Extra Salt.

Especially the Canadian FaNg was an absolute machine for Extra Salt in the first map, where he ended the map with a whopping ADR of 117,8. He was the key for Extra Salt in the map that ended in a 16 to 5 slathering of forZe.

The second map on Train started with a strong start from forZe, where they came up 5-1 until Extra Salt chose to step up their game.

Extra Salt ended up making the map competitive as they made it 8-8 just after halftime, but forZe ended up securing the map.

A map that was way closer than the first map, a great team performance by forZe, where three out of the five players on the Russian roster had a rating over 1.20. The three players are zorte, Jerry, and FL1T, they were playing on a very high level together.

After an even start on the last map Nuke at 3-3 then Extra Salt shifted gears, as they won eight rounds in a row to make it 4-11, a great performance, where the T side for forZe didn’t work out as they planned.

But after the half and the change from T to CT the tables turned as it was forZe´s turn to win consecutive rounds, they came back at 10-11 and the game was yet again competitive.  

The last map became even more intense as it was to be decided in overtime at Nuke, after a very close first thirty rounds, where the CT side for both teams was very effective, as they both won their CT side 11-4.

forZe – Extra Salt (1-2) | Funspark ULTI Europe final upper-bracket

5-16 (Inferno) |{cflag:CA} FaNg – 1.89 Rating / 21-8 K-D / 117.8 ADR

16-12 (Train) | {cflag:RU} zorte – 1.30 Rating / 20-18 K-D / 80.1 ADR

17-19 (Nuke) | {cflag:RU} FL1T – 1.28 Rating / 27-26 K-D / 94.0 ADR

MVP: {cflag:US} Josh “oSee” Ohm | 1.20 Rating / 71-47 K-D / 77.1 ADR

Watch some highlights from the game here:

[twitchClip:WonderfulDelightfulMelonCorgiDerp-lHrXQ-ral2ADgpFP]

[twitchClip:PoisedObservantYakinikuSMOrc-HdB3j1VCr3dcXr_z]

[twitchClip:LachrymoseAnnoyingLadiesTwitchRPG-wDoS9jEWkMwfAGvi]

[twitchClip:NiceFuriousGrasshopperShadyLulu-PrRR7J32wWjTMm]

zorte

FL1T

forZe

It started on Train, where Extra Salt despite losing the pistol round was dominating. A 9-6 lead at the break was converted to an unbreakable CT side, where Extra Salt won 7-0 to claim the first map. It was worth noting, that it was not only their starplayer Josh 'oSee' Ohm, who was performing, but the entire roster.

The match continued on BIG's map pick, Dust2. Here the Germans felt a lot more comfortable. BIG had only played once on Train during the last three months, while Dust2 had been a battleground nine times. A map that favors good AWP'ers like Florian 'syrsoN' Rische, who made it an uphill battle for Extra Salt, who was trailing all the way through the map.

The decider map was another surprise. BIG had lost the last four times on Nuke, while Extra Salt has 13 victories of their last 14 matches on the map. All of the matches though against tier two opponents. Extra Salt started strong by taking the first six rounds before BIG finally joined the server. The Germans quickly recovered, and by the end of the first half, they were only trailing by one round.

In the second half, BIG was again gone missing. Extra Salt kept adding points to the scoreboard, while Ismailcan 'XANTARES' Dörtkardeş was having an off-day not able to help his team. BIG lost the match 16-8 and has now lost four out of their five latest matches against opponents as Renegades, HAVU, FunPlus Phoenix, and Extra Salt.

{cflag:DE} BIG – {cflag:US} Extra Salt (1-2) | Funspark ULTI Europe

6-16 (Train) | {cflag:CA} FaNg – 1.77 Rating / 23-13 K-D / 108.4 ADR

16-10 (Dust2) | {cflag:DE} syrsoN – 1.37 Rating / 22-14 K-D / 89.2 ADR

8-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:ZA} Sonic - 1.44 Rating / 23-15 K-D / 99.5 ADR

MVP: {cflag:ZA} Aran 'Sonic' Groesbeek - 1.27 Rating / 59-46 K-D / 83.7 ADR

With the victory Extra Salt won their first match against an European opponent. They now advance to the upper semi-final, where they will face the winner of Evil Geniuses vs Dignitas, while BIG will have to make a run through the lower brackets.

Sonic

syrsoN

The North American closed qualifier for Dreamhack Open January NA has come to an end with the victors being Extra Salt and Pain. The rosters managed to best Bad News Bears and High Coast and have thereby secured themselves a spot in the $30.000 tournament. 

Justin "FaNg" Coakley had his debut at the qualifiers and proved himself as signing with a rating of 1.14 across the 5 maps played. The real threat, however, was Josh "oSee" Ohm who managed a rating of 1.38, also across 5 maps. 

Dreamhack Open January NA is set to run from January 27-31 and will feature the following teams: 

Bad News Bears

High Coast

Rebirth

Triumph

With Extra Salt missing the final piece of their roster in a fifth member and Justin "FaNg" Coakley being without a professional contract the move seems perfect for both parties involved. Whilst it has been rumored that the signing of "FaNg" to Extra Salt was going to happen earlier this week it has now been confirmed by the organization in a post on their Twitter page. 

The contract that the young Canadian player has signed will mark a new challenge in his promising career and he seems more than excited to begin his journey with his new teammates at Extra Salt. "Super excited to get a chance to play with these guys. I'm going to be putting in more work than ever, and I've never felt more motivated" he states in a Twitter post. 

In his former team Rugratz the Canadian talent managed a rating of 1.12 over his entire stay with the club. At such a young age and being put to the test at a higher level than experienced before, it is exciting to see how well he performs at his new team.

Rugratz

The newly established CS:GO team Extra Salt, who announced its entry on the CS:GO scene back in mid-December, has allegedly found their fifth and last player. According to HLTVorg, the promising NA team will round off its roster with the acquisition of Justin “FaNg” Coakley.

Read more. “ex-Cloud9 members join new American organization" 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/ex-cloud9-members-joins-new-north-american-organization/"}]

The 18-year old player has represented numerous smaller teams in the past, until he signed with the bigger American team of Rugratz in October 2020. In his time at Rugratz, the Canadian rifler displayed some strong CS and showed high potential by averaging a 1.09 rating and an 80.3 ADR.

Watch FaNg in action for Rugratz at IEM Beijing NA.

[twitchClip:TriumphantShinyWaterBrainSlug]

If the signing goes through, Extra Salt hold the following players:

motm

It was all down to the decider on Mirage after both teams won their own map pick. Whalers dominated the first half with a 10-5 scoreline but didn’t manage to close it out as Rugratz found their footing and made a comeback in the second half to wrap up the series 2-1 with a 16-12 map win.

Justin “FaNg” Coakley topped the scoreboard with a 1.25 rating, and a K-D ratio of 70-52.

Rugratz advances to the next stage of the event and will face off Chaos in the Group A decider match today at 22:00 am (CEST), where the winner advances to the semi-finals.

	30 days	90 days
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FaNg

Player stats

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FaNg named FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final MVP

Extra Salt delivers after overtime in the last map

Extra Salt takes their first European scalp

Extra Salt and Pain finalize Dreamhack Open January NA line-up

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Extra Salt set eyes on young Canadian

Rugratz eliminate New England Whalers from IEM Beijing

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