According to the Mongolian news site Meta Gaming and their podcast [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbK8CWhZOO8","isNewTab":true,"text":"FreezeTime"}], former Renegades AWPer Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai will transfer to Team NKT.

Here the 27-year-old New Zealander will join forces with the likes of Erdenetsogt “erkast” Gantulga and his former teammate Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand. If true, it will also mark a long-awaited comeback to competitive play after his benching on EXTREMUM back in October 2021.

However, Gratisfaction has kept himself in shape on the server by standing in for the lower-ranked team Encore in 28 maps from August to February.

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After having represented several smaller Australian teams, Gratisfaction joined the Oceanic heavy hitter Renegades in late 2018. Here his AWPing skills were a valuable asset to the team, and he quickly became one of their star players.

Alongside his teammates, Gratisfaction helped Renegades secure a number of notable victories, including their stunning run at the StarLadder Berlin Major in 2019, where the team made history by becoming the first Australian squad to reach the playoffs of a Major tournament.

Gratisfaction has following his stint in Renegades played for 100 Thieves and EXTREMUM alongside the majority of the former Renegades squad. However, both projects ended up in the bin after a series of lackluster results.

{cflag:MN} Erdenetsogt “erkast” Gantulga

[slugORMA:{"slug":"bntet-signs-with-new-team","isNewTab":true}]

Gratisfaction

Renegades

Encore Esports Club, formerly known as LookingForOrg, has announced that Aaron “AZR” Ward and Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai will be standing in for the Aussies at the Oceanic RMR for the Rio Major.

The profiled duo is therefore set to return to the pro scene after not having played a single official match since October last year.

AZR and Gratisfaction have gathered a lot of tier-1 experience so far in their career with the two having represented teams like Renegades, 100 Thieves, and most recently EXTREMUM. At the latter, they were released from their duties back in October together with Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand, Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad and Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas after failing to qualify for the PGL Major in Stockholm. 

The roster eventually decided to split up with AZR and Gratisfaction being the only players to not have found a new team. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"extremum-bench-entire-roster","isNewTab":true}]

Encore Esports Club will field the following players at the upcoming Oceanic RMR:

{cflag:AU} Aaron “AZR” Ward (stand-in)

{cflag:NZ} Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai (stand-in)

Encore

LookingForOrg

100 Thieves

The profiled EXTREMUM AWPer Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai displayed his coolness yesterday against Budapest Five at Spring Sweet Spring 3, as he won a tough 1v3 clutch by first killing two enemies, just to stick the defuse, right in front of the last remaining Budapest Five player. The former 100-Thieves star ended the match with a staggering 1.64 Rating, which led his team to a confident 2-0 win. 

You can watch the outstanding 1v3 clutch here. 

EXTREMUM

Budapest Five

Despite being ranked as the 39th. best team in the world, according to the official HLTV rankings, EXTREMUM is proving themselves in front of the entire Counter-Strike scene. Coming off the back of three 2-0 victories they have once again managed to take their opponent down in an impressive fashion. The EXTREMUM roster, build around the core of the previous Renegades roster, was more than up for the task when facing AGO. In quick succession, they tore apart the Polish roster and managed another 2-0 victory. 

The first map took place on Dust 2. The map was picked by AGO, however, it was clear that EXTREMUM was the better roster on the day. Despite the fact that AGO managed to keep it close in the first half of Dust 2, it became too much for them to handle in the second round. Posting a strong and aggressive T-sided half EXTREMUM swept away their Polish opponents and closed map one at the scoreline of 16-9. 

The second map was chosen by the side of EXTREMUM and was to be played on Inferno. With momentum carrying over from their impressive second half on Dust 2, there was little discussion to be had on Inferno. Once again it was the T-side of EXTREMUM that allowed them to take an instrumental lead in the first half, only allowing AGO 3 rounds. Staying composed and concentrated they finished Inferno 16-4 and thereby also the series 2-0. 

The victory against AGO means that EXTREMUM will face fnatic in their next round of play in order to further advance at the Spring Sweet Spring 1 event. 

16-9 (Dust 2) | jkaem – 1.44 Rating / 25-17 K-D / 105.9 ADR

16-4 (Inferno) | BnTeT – 1.85 Rating / 24-9 K-D / 109.0 ADR

Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad | 1.49 Rating - 44-32 K/D - 106.1 ADR - 82.2% KAST

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Copyright_-_Carlton-Beener-_jkaem_it0fhs","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Carlton Beener ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike, jkaem"}]

jkaem

BnTeT

EXTREMUM’s Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai surely had his work to do against ex-Winstrike, in yesterday’s matchup at Funspark ULTI Europe.

Down 1v4 on Dust2, with the round looking completely unwinnable for Gratisfaction, the profiled AWPer from New Zealand succeeds to turn the round into his favour by demonstrating his immense ninja abilities. 

Through an intense hide-and-seek, the EXTREMUM player managed to tiptoe his way to the bomb, without the enemies knowing his whereabouts.

Watch the impressive and nifty play right here.

[twitchClip:CallousInexpensiveSnoodSMOrc-iKeWdQTXlF9yTw2m]

ex-Winstrike

The star-studded ex-100 Thieves core suffered their first loss under the new EXTREMUM banner on Tuesday, after losing 2-1 to Winstrike at the Snow Sweet Snow 1 event.

Read more: “EXTREMUM defeated by young Russians” 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/extremum-defeated-young-russians/"}]

EXTREMUM is an organization backed by private investors, with the two leading figures of the project being Emir “sngz” Udvincic as Head of Business Development and Evgeniy “aBi” Kuzmin as Sports Director.

The team consist of the Oceanic trio Jay “Liazz” Tregillgas, Aaron “AZR” Ward, and Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai, as well as Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad from Norway, and former TYLOO player Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand.

You have the opportunity to learn more about the players and coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunovic in a short interview. The players and coach have to answer on 25 questions and pick between some tough topics for us to meet them.

Liazz

The star-studded ex-100 Thieves core has suffered their first defeat under the new EXTREMUM banner, after losing 2-1 to Winstrike. It became a reality, even though Sean “Gratisfaction” Kaiwai and company dismantled Winstrike on the first map of Dust2, with EXTREMUM only giving up 2 rounds.

There was only one problem; The Oceanic-Norwegian mixed team hadn’t taken account for Winstrike’s young and promising AWPer Aleksey "El1an" Gusev. After Dust2, the 21-year old player took over the server and brought home the win for his team, by putting up a total of 65 kills in the last two maps, while averaging a stellar 1.80 Rating.

Winstrike – EXTREMUM (2-1) | Snow Sweet Snow 1

2-16 (Dust2) | Gratisfaction – 1.94 Rating / 19-8 K-D / 102.6 ADR

16-9 (Mirage) | El1an – 2.09 Rating / 28-11 K-D / 120.4 ADR

19-16 (Nuke) | El1an – 1.51 Rating / 37-24 K-D / 95.7 ADR

El1an maybe won the overall AWP-battle, but in this play it was Gratisfaction who came out as the victor

[twitchClip:GoodBlightedShrimpJonCarnage?filter]

El1an

Winstrike

The newly shaped roster of EXTREMUM took on Honoris in their opening round of the Snow Sweet Snow 1 event. Whilst it was far from a perfect performance from the new roster of EXTREMUM, they managed to muster up a solid victory against the Polish legends in "NEO" and "TaZ" from Honoris. They now need two more BO3 victories in order to advance to the playoffs.

The first map between the two rosters took place on Honoris' map pick, Mirage. The two teams went toe to toe in the opening rounds of the map and went to halftime as close as possible with a scoreline of 8-7, favoring the Polish side. The second half, however, was dominated by EXTREMUM as they managed to string together 9 rounds, whilst Honoris only managed a single round in the second half. This, of course, meant that EXTREMUM could walk away with a 16-9 victory on their first-ever official map together.

The second map took place on Inferno. Once again the two rosters refused to give an inch to their opponents and the rounds were as close as possible. In the end, however, it was Honoris, lead by Polish "reiko", to have the slight edge over their opponents and ultimately take home the narrow win on Inferno with a scoreline of 16-14.

This, of course, meant a third and final between the two competitors. They would have to prove themselves the better roster over on Nuke as the match was set to be decided there. The two previous maps had been close, however, this wasn't the case on Nuke. EXTREMUM started their t-sided half with absolute dominance and managed to create a 13-2 lead going into the second half. Despite Honoris' best attempt to make a comeback, EXTREMUM closed Nuke 16-8 and thereby also the series 2-1. 

The win against Honoris marks the first-ever BO3-series, as well as BO3-victory, for the new EXTREMUM roster. In order to advance to the playoffs of the event, they will now only have to win two more matches.

16-9 EXTREMUM (Mirage) | BnTeT 1.46 Rating / 92.7 ADR / 23-15 K-D

16-14 Honoris (Inferno) | reiko 1.27 Rating / 89.8 ADR / 24-19 K-D

16-8 EXTREMUM (Nuke) | Liazz 1.65 Rating / 98.5 ADR / 23-13 K-D

[twitchClip:GentleFuriousPlumageDendiFace]

Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad | 1.23 Rating - 54-46 K/D - 80.4 ADR - 77.2% KAST

reiko

HONORIS

After months of speculation it is finally revealed that the former four players from 100 Thieves in Aaron "AZR" Ward, Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad, Jay "Liazz" Tregillgas, and Sean "Gratisfaction" Kaiwai once again are going to be reunited, only this time with the addition of Hansel "BnTeT" Ferdinand who replaces Justin "jks" Savage's place. 

Alongside the acquisition of a new roster, Extremum have also announced that the players' former Head Coach Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović will be joining the organization. In-game, however, it is going to be "AZR" who is calling the shots. The 28-year-old is not without any experience as he was also the in-game leader of the 100 Thieves roster. 

"AZR" explains in a statement regarding the news, how moving to Europe is part of the upcoming plans for the new roster: 

"They offered me the chance to help them put together a team and I accepted the offer. It has already been a great joy working with them and seeing what their vision for the brand is great." 

He furthermore expresses his eagerness to get back into the professional Counter-Strike scene as well as now competing against some of the best teams in the world in Europe: 

"I am so excited to play CS with my good old teammates Liazz, Grats, Jkaem, and kassad, and with our new teammate BnTeT, who will be a great addition to the team. We're looking forward to playing in Europe and grinding against the best in the world. The boys are back!"

Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović (Head Coach) 

The Russian esports organization Extremum is according to Jarek “DeKay” Lewis and DBLTAP in talks with Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward, Sean "⁠Gratisfaction⁠" Kaiwai, and Jay "⁠Liazz⁠" Tregillgas. The Australian trio has since 100 Thieves’ exit from CS:GO stood without a team.

Extremum is owned by private investors, and do currently not own a CS:GO team, but competes in BNS and Dota 2. The Russian organization is according to sources seeking two European players to round up their roster if they succeed to sign AZRm, Liazz and Gratisfaction.

The Australian trio is at the moment still qualified for the next major event due to prior results, even though the transfer of jks and jkaem has resulted in a 40% reduction of their RMR points. 

A match up which on paper looks really close, with two teams both in good shape.

100 Thieves picked Nuke as the first map, which should prove out to be a very good decision. The Australian thieves had a lightning start to the game, producing a nearly perfect CT-sided first half that resulted in a 13-2 score at half time. They closed the map in confident style through a masterclass performance from Gratisfaction who put up a 1.98 rating and a 34-12 K/D.

The Second map on Inferno was much closer and the Brazilians began to show their true colors and managed to take avoid the 0-2 start by winning 16-14. On Vertigo, FURIA dismantled the 100 Thieves’ side and took no prisoners by beating them by 16-4.

Mirage was no different. FURIA with arT at the wheel ran over the thieves, putting the last nail in the coffin for the Australian roster. A strong CT-side conducted by their mastermind in-game leader helped the Brazilians to an 11-4 half time score. After the side-swap, 100 Thieves looked like a team ready to make the comeback. Their star player Justin “jks” Savage stepped up with crucial kills and helped them close the gap to FURIA to only 3 rounds. Although the good effort, did FURIA prove out to be too strong, and they closed the game 16-11, which means they now are qualified for IEM Global Challenge later this year.

This concludes the storytelling of 100 Thieves with this being their last tournament as an organization. A telling of a team that has brought many high points, but then again with a feeling of an unfulfilled potential.

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

Gratisfaction

Player stats

Articles mentioning Gratisfaction

Gratisfaction reportedly set to return to CS:GO

AZR and Gratisfaction are back in action!

Video: PROS DON'T FAKE - Gratisfactions wins tough 1v3 clutch

EXTREMUM annihilate AGO 2-0

Video: Gratisfaction is a silent assassin – 1v4 Ninja Defuse

Video: Meet EXTREMUM CS:GO team – 25 questions

EXTREMUM defeated by young Russians

New EXTREMUM roster defeat Polish legends 2-1

Extremum announces roster featuring former 100 Thieves core and "BnTeT"

Russian esports organization rumoured to sign prominent Australian trio

FURIA wins IEM New York NA in confident style

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