Statistically, he has been one of the most promising Swedish players for a while, but Joel "joel" Holmlund’s career has not been on an upwards trajectory at all. With match-fixing allegations, breach of betting offenses, and rumors of him cheating in the game, the 19-year-old rifler has been a controversial figure in the world of Counter-Strike for years.

With a 1.27 rating in 2024, Joel "joel" Holmlund has been among the best players in the second-tier tournaments this year, but that is perhaps about to change.

In a statement on Twitter, BC.Game confirmed, that the young Swede had been banned by the Akros Anti-cheat program prior to their match against B8 in the CCT Season 2 Europe Series 7.

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/39522/joel-banned-by-akros-anti-cheat-removed-from-bcgame-roster-amid-investigation","isNewTab":true,"text":"HLTV"}] reached out to Akros, who confirmed the ban and described it as “zero chance” that the ban was false positive.

BC.Game has removed joel from their lineup, and are currently conducting their own investigation into the matter.

Joel "joel" Holmlund has played for teams such as GODSENT, TSM, and Monte in the past. He joined BC.Game in June 2024. The Swede has not yet commented on the situation.

joelxd

Joel “Joel” Holmlund has been the center of an ESIC investigation in the past month. Today ESIC announced the suspension of the 18-year-old Swede.

On ESIC's website the commision explains the case like this.

The young Swede was benched from GODSENT at the end of March this year. A move that looked peculiar from the outside due to his impressive 1.11 rating during 2023. A couple of days ago fellow Swede Robin "robiin" Sjögren accused Joel of matchfixing in a post on Twitter, where he highlighted the absurdity of losing a spot at the BLAST Showdown to a player, who where being investigated for matchfixing. Joel “Joel” Holmlund qualified for BLAST Showdown with the orgless team Victory Zigzag.

Also on Twitter, Joel “Joel” Holmlund made a statement, where he denied all allegations against him calling the statement from ESIC "extremely injustice".

ESIC has given Joel until the 6th of October to present any evidence that can put the case into new light.

- Considering the gravity of the allegations, Mr. Holmlund’s current active participation in an ESIC-affiliated event, and being satisfied with the compelling evidence presented in its further investigation, ESIC has elected to suspend Mr. Holmlund via a Rejection Order Notice. While the suspension stands, ESIC remains open to reevaluation should Mr. Holmlund present new evidence by 6 October 2023. At the time of publication, as the Rejection Order Notice has not been finalised, ESIC will reserve the disclosure of the duration of the ban on participation in ESIC member events to be imposed. ESIC will make a further statement on or after 6 October 2023 to confirm the final outcome of the investigation.

GODSENT

For the first time since 2018, GODSENT is now again an all-Swedish team.

The roster was announced on Friday as the new GODSENT team. The new team is a mix of youth and experience and will have the former Fnatic in-game leader Maikil "Golden" Selim as their coach.

Most notable is the return to Swedish Counter-Strike, where GODSENT initially started out. Since then the Organization has employed both an International roster, while turning to Brazilian CS in 2021 and 2022. Also notable is the fact that the team's in-game leader Erik "ztr" Gustafsson is joining the roster on a loan deal from Ninjas in Pyjamas.

{cflag:SE} Erik "ztr" Gustafsson (on loan from NIP)

{cflag:SE} Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora

{cflag:SE} Alfred "RuStY" Karlsson (on trial)

draken

Plopski

RuStY

According to [link:{"url":"https://blix.gg/news/ztr-plopski-godsent","isNewTab":true,"text":"blix.gg"}] and sources close to the situation, GODSENT has acquired a new five-man lineup for the new season. The media outlet state that the iconic organization already has signed contracts with the likes of Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzales Zamora and Erik "ztr" Gustafsson.

The three other players will allegedly be Joel "joel" Holmlund, Alfred "RuStY" Karlsson, and the AWPer William "draken" Sundin.

The most profiled players in this mix are undoubtedly Plopski and draken. Both Swedes have been a part of Ninjas in Pyjamas and played several tier-1 events throughout their careers, with Plopski still being under contract with NIP officially.  

GODSENT's potential lineup will look like this:

{cflag:SE} Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzales Zamora

[slugORMA:{"slug":"banks-denies-godsent-rumor","isNewTab":true}]

Golden

Ninjas in Pyjamas

We teamed up with Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen, who has looked into a lot of demos to find the candidates for this list, where we have excluded all players, who are already playing on a Tier-1/2 team such as Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov to name the most obvious one.

You can see the video here, and down below you can see all the names of the players.

10: {cflag:DK} Frederik "Fessor" Sørensen

The 21-year-old rifler is currently playing on Astralis Talent, but has been roaming around the professional scene for the last couple of years without breaking through. Is the highest-rated player before the playoffs start at WePlay Academy League Season 4.

Is currently playing for MONAD eSport on a C-tier level. The Swedish AWP'er is only 17 years old and could have a long career ahead of him in professional CS.

The Polish AWP'er had some big shoes to fill after Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás was promoted to the first team at the start of the year. But with a 1.22 rating in the WePlay Academy League, it seems like mhL is exactly what MOUZ NEXT had hoped for. 

This list and video were created before the news of w0nderful's move to Team Spirit. But we understand why! The Ukrainian is only 17 years old and has little to no experience in Tier 1 CS:GO, but we cannot wait to see him in action at IEM Cologne.

The AWP'er of Fnatic Rising can play both passive and aggressive with his Sniper rifle, which in today's meta is a huge deal. And hey, it's cool to see a new country in CS:GO (an honorable mention also goes to fellow Romanian Laurentiu "lauNX" Tarlea from Sprout)

Ladies and Gentlemen; We have an in-game leader on the list! IGLs are notoriously underappreciated in CS, but we hope to have picked one of the most exciting prospects for the future in "siuhy", who has won three titles in the WePlay Academy team with MOUZ NXT! 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"mouz_nxt_gbrp0x","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: WePlay Academy League"}]

4: {cflag:IL} Dorian “xertioN” Berman

He is only 17 years old, but has already made quite a name for himself. The MOUZ NXT rifler has also been part of the successful spell at the team winning three titles and being one of the most hyped young players on the scene. But he did not make it into our top three! 

Another one! MOUZ NXT is packed with talents, and this one is special. Jimpphat is only 15 years old but is already signed with the best academy team in the world, which speaks for itself. The young Finn is actually VAC-banned, but since the ban was issued in early 2018, he can already compete at a Major next year.

The Russian is one of the most exciting players for the future. He is right on the edge of being on this list, but he is still largely unknown in the wider CS community. He is playing on 1WIN, who mostly are grinding C-tier tournaments.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/r1nkle_zfiwax","originalWidth":1280,"originalHeight":720,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"png"}]

Who is this guy? Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen was blown away watching demos of the 17-year-old Ukrainian AWP'er. He is currently playing for B8, but should have something much bigger in store for the future. Statswise he is currently rated 1.27 for his last three months, which is also very impressive. 

r1nkle

Deko

Jimpphat

xertionic

siuhy

regali

w0nderfu1

Fessor

mouz NXT

Fnatic Rising

Astralis Talent

The Swedish Organization announced its new lineup on Twitter this evening.

The two new players are the 15-year-old rifler Hugo "⁠Chawzyyy⁠" Günther, and 16-year-old AWPer Joel "⁠joelxd⁠" Holmlund. The two young players joins Galaxy Racer after a stint at Flowskola. The two youngster will replace the twin brothers, Joakim "⁠Relaxa⁠" Gustafsson and Fredrik "⁠FREDDyFROG⁠".

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joelxd

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