On Monday, Apeks announced that MICHU will be stepping in for the team at CCT 4 Closed Qualifier and for the remainder of the ESEA Advanced season.

The CCT 4 Closed Qualifier ended up being a success for Apeks and their new stand-in MICHU, who all went on to secure three victories over LDLC, Astralis Talent, and Nexus to go 3-0 and secure a 1-4th place finish with a ticket to the CCT Central Europe Series 4. Apeks will continue to use MICHU for the remainder of the ESEA Advanced season, in which the 25-year-old Polish player hopefully can help them get more good results.

MICHU

Apeks

The CS:GO roster of Benched Heroes with MICHU, Calyx, smooya, Aunkere, and fear in the lineup will unfortunately be missing the RMR due to visa issues that has left the team without any possibility of attending the event.

In a Twitter post, 23-year-old UK AWP’er, smooya, announced the unfortunate situation.

The RMR would have been a good opportunity for the roster to show their potential against the top teams in CS:GO, which might have helped them get the backing of an organization.

smooya

Aunkere

fear

Calyx

BenchedHeroes

The European mix called Benched Heroes, which features Owen “Smooya” Butterfield on the AWP, may soon play under a new banner and with an organization as backing.

Because according to team member Evgeniy "Aunkere" Karyat, the roster has received an offer from an unidentified British organization to represent them going forward, Aunkere recently said.

- Smooya got contacted by [a] British organization. He and fear talked with them about signing us. In theory, if we will come to an agreement on price, we will be competing under their tag instead of Benched Heroes. They gave us a really good offer, we are still thinking about it. If it will not work out, I will definitely share or at least hint at how much we got offered, but the sum is very good. I'm glad me and fear decided to make this team and such guys got interested in us - Transcript by [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/news/37946-smooya-and-aunkere-stack-benched-heroes-is-in-talks-with-british-organization","isNewTab":true,"text":"EscoreNews.com"}].

[slugORMA:{"slug":"mixed-team-led-smooya-qualify-iem-rio-eu-rmr","isNewTab":true}]

With a five-man side of Smooya, Aunkere, fear, Michu, and Calyx, Benched Heroes managed to qualify for the European RMR tournament in Malta next month. Here they will compete against the CS:GO elite for a spot at the prestigious IEM Rio Major taking place in October-November this year. 

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[slugORMA:{"slug":"smooya-reveals-wages-eg-players-brehze-cerq","isNewTab":true}]

Fear

North American CS has been criticized and laughed at since the beginning of CS:GO, however, when Cloud9 made history and won a major as the first North American team ever, respect was gained from the entire CS:GO community. The same storyline can be said to be true in regards to the North American rifler Tarik "tarik" Celik. 

"tarik" started his CS:GO journey as a content creator playing, streaming, and recording CS:GO content for his viewership to watch. Starting from the bottom "tarik" would literally stream shirtless in his brother's closet due to the hot temperature of the room. With his viewership beginning to rise as well as his own abilities within the game, "tarik" was slowly but surely making a name for himself. At this point of his CS:GO journey, however, it wasn't always because of his skill level he was recognized. In fact, it was more often than not his charismatic personality and funny clips that got him recognition within the CS:GO community. 

In 2014 a new chapter in the story of "tarik" began to take place as he joined his first professional CS:GO team in NetcodeGuides.com. Shortly after his spell at NetcodeGuides.com, and with a pitstop at CLG, "tarik" was signed by Optic Gaming. At Optic Gaming it became clear that "tarik" had two different modes - one capable of defeating anyone and one where everything just seemed to go wrong. 

Due to differences within the Optic roster and communication difficulties, "tarik" parted ways with the organization in 2017. Later, the same year, he signed for Cloud9. It was unclear at this point as to what to expect from the, at the time 21-year-old "tarik". He had proven his abilities but was simultaneously infamous for some lackluster parts of his play. 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Copyright_-_Helena-Kristiansson_-_Tarik_Old_picture_for_C9_yfo1k6","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Helena Kristiansson_ESL","alt":"Tarik"}]

Taking on a new role in his CS:GO career as the IGL of Cloud9 he took the entire scene by storm in the early stages of 2018. Making history Cloud9, lead by "tarik", managed to win the Boston ELEAGUE Major 2018 as the first North American team ever. 

The Boston ELEAGUE Major 2018 is by many regarded as one of the most iconic CS:GO events to have ever taken place. In that exact moment, the story of North American CS and "tarik" collided and reached its pinnacle as the North American Cloud9, with "tarik" calling the shots, surprised everyone on home turf. 

After the major victory, "tarik" joined MIBR in what would become an all-time low in his career. However, "tarik" spent very little time at the bench of the Brazilian organization after it didn't work out. 

After the failed spell at MIBR "tarik" joined NRG who later became the Evil Geniuses roster that we have seen him compete for in the latest of times. Earlier this year it was announced that "tarik" was to be replaced by Polish Michał "MICHU" Müller. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"evil-geniuses-sign-michu-tarik-steps-down","isNewTab":true}]

Whilst "tarik" is currently without a team and it is unclear as to what his future holds, one thing is for certain - "tarik" started from the bottom and reached the top, gaining the respect of everyone along the way. 

To hear more about the story of how "tarik" went from a shirtless streamer to become a respected major winner you can watch the following video: 

tarik

Cloud9

Evil Geniuses

MIBR

Things have looked dire for Evil Geniuses in 2021. In late 2019 they managed to rank as the world's best team, according to the official HLTV rankings, for a duration of over three weeks. 2020 saw the North American roster continue their strong form, however, as of late things have been rough. After their recent performance at the PGL Major 2021 in Stockholm, having been knocked out of the event with a 0-3 record, the organization decided to make some big changes to the active roster. 

Just announced on their Twitter page, Evil Geniuses part ways with three of its active players in IGL Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz, youngster Owen "oBo" Schlatter, and rifler Michał "MICHU" Müller. The three most recent additions to the team in the above-mentioned players will no longer be performing under the Evil Geniuses banner. 

As to which players will be brought in to fill the void in the current Evil Geniuses roster is still unsure. Furthermore questions regarding the three now free agents have already been raised by the CS:GO community, especially in regards to the 27-year-old IGL "stanislaw". The Canadian IGL, however, has already announced on his Twitter that he will not be hanging up his mouse just yet, as he is ready for future challenges to come: 

In regards to the roster of Evil Geniuses more will likely follow within the next short period of time seeing as their roster currently only consists of two players. As it currently stands, with the departure of "oBo", "stanislaw", and "MICHU" the Evil Geniuses roster looks as follows: 

stanislaw

In the first elimination match of the day, we have Vitality facing Evil Geniuses. The French side comes into this match as huge favorites, as the results of EG have been extremely underwhelming. The first two matchups for the American side were losses against FaZe and Copenhagen Flames, at 16-6 and 16-2. They would need a massive performance boost to survive at the Major. The first map picked by EG was Inferno, then Vertigo picked by Vitality and Dust2 would be the decider if needed.

The favorites from France started fast going up 4-0 and rapidly building their economy by only losing two players during these rounds. EG answered back with force, stringing together three rounds together before being obliterated by a sinister “shox” ace. EG managed a couple more rounds by having “Brehze” break down the Vitality defense, but the Frenchmen would go into the second half with a lead of 10-5.

The American Geniuses started out great in the second half, picking up momentum in the pistol round and converting it into seven rounds in a row, going up 12-10. That’s when the fun stopped as the Frenchmen found form and took three. Vitality were not able to put up any more resistance on their T-side and EG takes the victory on their own map pick at 16-13 and shows that they have more fight in them than they showed yesterday.

The second map would take place on the construction site of Vertigo. The map pick of Vitality would grant them the first three rounds. But EG looked solid and were able to keep the economy low for the French side. This would be crucial as the Geniuses managed to break the Vitality side and take five rounds for themselves. For a moment it looked like EG would complete the upset at 2-0, but after their five-round win-streak, Vitality totally crushed them, taking all the all every single round from that point on. Vitality takes the map 16-5, ending on a streak of 13 rounds in a row.

Dust2 was to be the final stand that would decide the fate of EG and Vitality at this Major. The Geniuses would get the first foot out the door as they took down the pistol round. Vitality shut them down fast with the force-buy and began to build their lead. The American squad struggled throughout the first half to figure out how to crack the French defense. “CeRq” was not done at this Major and helped carry his team to five rounds on the T-side.

EG would start fastest again taking the first two of the second half. The American squad kept fighting as hard as they could getting a round here and there, but it just did not seem like enough, as the French powerhouse possessed too much firepower and reached series-point at 15-9. “MICHU” managed to keep his team in contention a little longer, but it was all for naught as the Frenchmen were able to close it out at 16-12

Vitality – Evil Geniuses 2-1 | PGL Major Stockholm Legends Stage

13-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:US} Brehze – 1.41 Rating / 24-18 K-D / 102.5 ADR

16-5 (Vertigo) | {cflag:FR} ZywOo – 1.58 Rating / 20-11 K-D / 92.5 ADR

16-12 (Dust2) | {cflag:FR} Kyojin – 1.31 Rating / 21-14 K-D / 70.4 ADR

[twitchClip:pgl_csgo/clip/BitterSpotlessAntGOWSkull-g7Frt1jenOHpROyM]

CeRq

ZywOo

Brehze

Kyojin

Team Vitality

Perhaps the most exciting Bo1-series of the opening round was between Evil geniuses and FaZe. Both rosters have some iconic players within their rosters and a close battle was on the cards. The two teams clashed on the map of Mirage, meaning plenty of room and possibilities for aim-duels and crazy frags. With both teams ready to fight the battle was far from one-sided and seemed as if it could have gone either way. In the end, however, it was FaZe to prove themselves the better roster on the day. FaZe could claim their victory on Mirage after an impressive performance leading to the scoreline of 16-12.

The map of Mirage is, as mentioned, perfect for aim-duels and individual play due to its many open spaces. It was Evil Geniuses who, thanks to a phenomenal individual performance from “MICHU”, could see themselves starting the strongest. It didn’t last for long, however, as FaZe quickly regained focus and made things even. A first-half filled with aggression and individual performances from both the FaZe and EG players saw both teams going to halftime as close as possible at the scoreline of 8-7 favoring FaZe.

The second half was just as close as the first and it was clear that neither team would give up the battle without giving it their all. Trading rounds back and forth it was unclear as to which roster had the upper hand. Ultimately, however, it was FaZe to prove themselves the stronger roster. They managed to defeat Evil Genuises with a 16-12 victory, meaning a vital start at the IEM event for the legendary FaZe. 

16-12 Faze | MICHU 1.42 Rating / 87.0 ADR / 28-17 K-D

[twitchClip:CrazyWonderfulCaribouAMPEnergy-p8Tl3qTh3hKOs62X]

Michał “MICHU” Müller| 1.42 Rating - 28-17 K/D - 87.0 ADR - 71.4% KAST

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/michu_k1u41h","originalWidth":1115,"originalHeight":627,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Virtus.pro / DreamHack"}]

In the opening rounds of the IEM Cologne 2021 Play-in event, there are matches to be played simultaneously. Whilst the FaZe vs EG match was played two other premium Bo1-series took place as well.

The biggest underdogs in the IEM Cologne 2021 Play-in, without any doubt, the side of Chinese ViCi. In their opening match they faced Complexity in search of a huge upset. The upset, however, never became a reality and it was instead Complexity to close out the Bo1-series with a 16-10 victory against the Chinese roster. The MVP of the Bo1-series was Complexity player “k0nfig” with a rating of 1.48. 

Brazilians are known for their incredible Counter-Strike ability, however, the side of TeamOne were not the favorites going into their opening match at the event. They faced the side of OG who are currently ranked as the 13th. best team in the world. It was also the European roster of OG to take home the victory in the end at the scoreline of 16-6. The MVP of the Bo1-series was OG player “mantuu” with a rating of 1.83.

karrigan

k0nfig

mantuu

FaZe

Evil Geniuses' Polish player, Michał "MICHU" Müller was on fire against Gambit on Inferno. The rifler showed his incredible abilities with the Deagle in a 1vs4 situation.

The North Americans are looking good in the match against the World's number one. You can follow the match in the link below.

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Stanislaw’s troops from Evil Geniuses are through to the upper semi-finals in Group B following a confident victory over Spirit on Overpass (16-9). EG will now face off against Heroic on Friday at 16:45 (CET) for a spot in the upper final, while Spirit will meet Imperial on Friday at 13:30 (CET) in the lower bracket.

Things didn’t go the Russians’ way in the game as Evil Geniuses ripped their defense apart to take a 10-5 lead right before halftime. It seemed like Spirit slowly began to find their footing in the beginning of second half as they grabbed 4 rounds in a row, lowering their deficit to only one round. But that didn’t affect the squad from EG who answered back by winning 6 consecutive rounds in a row to close out the map and secure their first victory at the event.

MVP: Michal “MICHU” Müller – 1.71 Rating – 110.3 ADR – 24-15 K/D

Spirit

The North American top team and Wilton “zews” Prado will no longer be associated, as the Brazilian is set to leave his coaching position, according to a report by HLTV.org. The report states that the two parties part ways in a mutual decision, owing to a “difference in opinion regarding the team’s direction”

zews was acquired by EG back in April last year, where he commenced his 14-month long tenure with 3 strong titles in BLAST Premier Spring NA, cs_summit 6 NA, ESL One Cologne NA. However, after that, a longer slump followed as they failed to present an adequate result. 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/EG/Copyright_-_Helena-Kristiansson_-_EG_rgdpzi","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Helena Kristiansson ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}]

Vincent "Brehze" Cayonte and company will have to look after a new head coach if the rumours are true

The bad period and the disappointing results lead to a series of roster changes, as prominent figures like Ethan "Ethan" Arnold and Tarik "tarik" Celik was replaced with Owen "oBo" Schlatter and Michal "MICHU" Müller. And despite the roster changes, EG hasn't succeeded in 2021, where many of their result on European soil has been quite underwhelming. 

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Ethan

In mid-April, the North American superstars from Evil Geniuses announced the signing of Michał "MICHU" Müller, who instantly replaced the former Major winner Tarik "tarik" Celik. The 24-year-old Pole joined a struggling EG-squad, with the otherwise dominant roster enduring a tough 2021-season so far.  

MICHU haven't had the time to showcase his powerful rifling skill, as he only has played two maps for EG. However, on his frequent Twitch streams, the rifler displays a very high level of Counter-Strike, including this outstanding ace on Train. 

It is the debut match for Evil Geniuses' newest signing Michał "MICHU" Müller, who joined the team last week. 

The team will face the Swedish roster from Team Dignitas, who has been showing promising signs lately.

Map Veto: Inferno (Evil Geniuses), Vertigo (Dignitas), Overpass

You can see the match here from 17.30 (CEST).

Team Dignitas

After two thrilling matches yesterday, Funspark ULTI Europe Final is back with two more exciting matches. Today, the strong Germans from BIG enter the tournament, as they will take upon Extra Salt.

The organization announced the signing of the Polish rifler Michal “MICHU” Muller Thursday, and that he is going to replace Tarik “tarik” Celik on the active roster. The American tarik has stated that he will take a step back and “focus on streaming and content creation”.

MICHU will get his debut in the team's next event, which is the FunSpark ULTI 2020 Europe Final on April 19th.

The director of Esports at Evil Geniuses stated the following about the signing.

- A player who is hungry to compete against the best team in the world. We look forward to seeing him integrate with the team and for our CS:GO team´s continued growth and success.  

According to HLTV.org, the NA titans from Evil Geniuses are about to make some significant roster moves, as they state that EG is looking to sign the former Virtus.pro player Michał "MICHU" Müller.

Evil Geniuses has struggled for a long period now where the otherwise dominant North Americans have presented one disappointing performance after another, dating back to October-November last year. Therefore, could a potential roster move be a useful and smart move for Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz and his troops.  

Is he going to replace Tarik "tarik" Celik?

The Polish international was for a long time destined to join OG, owing to several rumours saying that he was close to signing with the European organization. However, Aleksib and company went for the Israelian youngster Shahar "flameZ" Shushan.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/og-signs-flamez-last-man/","text":"Read more: OG sign flamez as their last man"}]

Watch some of MICHU's best plays from his career:

OG is still looking for their new fifth man to the roster. Last month both NBK- and ISSAA was removed from the active roster, and only Nikolaj "

" Kristensen has been brought in as a replacement so far.

With the next tournament coming up soon, OG is under pressure to find their new player. According to HLTV, it could be Endpoint's Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan, that could fill the last spot. The talented 17-year-old Israelian has with Endpoint since September 2020, where the English Organization has seen big improvements. 

Also Michał "⁠MICHU⁠" Müller is rumored to be on the OG shortlist.

[link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/31497/og-eye-flamez-as-potential-new-fifth-report","text":"You can read the full report from HLTV here."}] 

flameZ

ISSAA

NBK-

Endpoint

The former Team Envy player could be the missing piece in OG´s roster puzzle.

According to the Polish media report, MICHU will replace Issa “ISSAA” Murad, who was benched last week by OG. Read the full Polish report down below.

After last weeks signing of the Dane Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen, MICHU could fill the roster. The Polish rifler was at first rumored to MAD Lions, especially after the new organization acquired MICHU´s former coach Jakub “kuben” Gurczynski.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/preview/?id=PbOE2jWyhYOwIkzs4Cbo&previewToken=null","text":"Read more: OG: Promising future with niko"}]

The nostalgia seems out of the picture according to the report. MICHU has been on OG´s radar since the ending of 2020, and were one of the contesters to take the spot after the benching of NBK-.

MICHU could make his first appearance for OG in the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown, the event is scheduled for April 13th – 18th. The roster will be interesting to follow if the rumors became reality.

[link:{"url":"https://eweszlo.pl/michu-bliski-uzupelnienia-skladu-og/","text":"Read the full Polish media report here:"}]

Watch some of the Polish riflers best plays here:

niko

There has not been shortage of changes on the MAD Lions roster in the past year. Lucas "Bubzkji" Andersen was transfered to Astralis, while AWP'er Frederik "acoR" Gyldstrand was sold to mousesports earlier this year. This week the roster again sold out of their Danish treasure with Rasmus "sjuush" Beck and Ismail "refrezh" Ali leaving the roster for Heroic.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"heroic_signings_kblt4n","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Heroic"}]

According to the website 1pv.fr, the Spanish Organization will now turn away from fielding a purely Danish roster in the future. A change of direction, that will remove Fredrik "roeJ" Jørgensen and Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen from the roster, while keeping Thomas "TMB" Bundsbæk on the team. Names as Simon "twist" Eliasson, Michał "MICHU" Müller, Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov are named as possible replacements, but nothing has been settled yet.

[link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/fr/news/101464-mad-lions-to-go-international-roej-hooxi-to-be-benched","text":"Read the full story here."}]

sjuush

roeJ

twist

xsepower

MAD Lions

Despite the fact that the current constellation of Envy has only participated in one tournament since its construction, Envy now decides to take a step back from Counter-Strike. 

The players who have been placed on the transfer market are: 

Whilst it is sad that we will not get to experience more from this interesting and talented line-up, it makes the transfer market ever so interesting going into a new year of Counter-Strike. Especially Noah "Nifty" Francis, who supposedly was set up to be the rosters star player will be interesting to follow, as he seeks to continue his career elsewhere. 

The news of Envy stepping down from the Counter-Strike scene is to many surprising as co-owner and Chief Gaming officer Mike "hastr0" Rufail stated in November 2020 that they had reserved more funds towards their Counter-Strike team and that they were ready for the 2021-season. 

Having a Major win under their belt after winning DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, it is sad to see Envy as an organization give up on their Counter-Strike team, but hopefully, the talented players from their roster will find a new and more ambitious place to prove their skillsets. At least, it seems as if "Nifty" is ready for a new journey elsewhere. 

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

MICHU

Player stats

Articles mentioning MICHU

Apeks to use profiled stand-in

smooya: Benched Heroes will be missing the RMR

Smooya’s Benched Heroes in talks with British organization

The story of tarik: From meme to Major winner

MICHU, oBo, stanislaw part with EG

Vitality survive at the Major, Evil Geniuses eliminated

Faze defeat Evil Geniuses in close thriller

Video: Outrageous 1vs4 clutch from MICHU

Evil Geniuses secure opening win against Spirit

Media: Renowned top coach leaves Evil Geniuses

Pley of the Day: Evil Geniuses' MICHU is a monster on Train!

Finished: Team Dignitas vs Evil Geniuses (2-0)

Today in CS:GO - Tuesday 20/4 2021

Evil Geniuses sign MICHU as tarik steps down

Report: Profiled Pole to join Evil Geniuses

Media: OG looking at flameZ as new fifth man

Rumor: Michal “MICHU” Müller takes the last spot in OG´s roster

Media: Mad Lions turns international

ENVY places entire roster on the transfer list!

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