The CIS scene of Counter-Strike seems to be ever-expanding. Whilst there are currently no CIS teams in the top 5 of the official HLTV ranking, there seem to be more CIS teams in the tier-one scene of CS:GO than ever before. The newest addition to the CIS scene goes by the name of BetBoom and is led by the talented brainiac of Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov. 

The exciting roster of BetBoom was announced a couple of weeks ago and is set to have their debut under the BetBoom banner later today at the IEM Sydney Open Qualifier. After being replaced at Cloud9 by the famous Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, "nafany" was left looking for a new place to call home. Alongside experienced names such as Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko and Pavel "s1ren" Ogloblin and with youngsters Aleksandr "KaiR0N-" Anashkin and  Danil "danistzz" Roslyakov, the 22-year-old in-game leader will have to do it all again from scratch. 

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Fighting for a spot in the closed qualifier for the upcoming IEM Sydney 2023 event, BetBoom are set to have their first official match later today. The new-look CIS roster will have to best ECLOT to start their run at the new organization with success. You can watch the Bo1-series between the two sides at 18.00 (CEST). 

nafany

BetBoom Team was announced today on Twitter, where the Russian Organization presented its new Counter-Strike team.

BetBoom Team has been involved in Dota2 since April 2022, and has now expanded their esports division with a new title. Spearheading the team will be the former Cloud9 in-game leader Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov, who is joined by well-known fellow Russian players in Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin, Pavel "⁠s1ren⁠" Ogloblin and Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko, while Danil "⁠danistzz⁠" Roslyakov is the only player who has not played on a tier-1 level before.

{cflag:RU} Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov

{cflag:RU} Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin

{cflag:RU} Aleksandr "⁠zorte⁠" Zagodyrenko

{cflag:RU} Danil "⁠danistzz⁠" Roslyakov

KaiR0N-

s1ren

zorte

danistzz

Cloud9 became the first team to qualify for the Grand Final at ESL Pro League with a 2-1 win in the Semi-Final against ENCE.

It was ENCE who kicked off the match with a solid performance on their own map pick of Ancient, where dominant CT-side saw ENCE win 16-10. On Overpass ENCE carried on in the first half taking a 9-6 lead with them to the second half. But then Cloud9 stepped up. Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov and Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov spearheaded the defense from the CIS squad, who rolled over ENCE winning 16-12.

Vertigo was left as the decider where Cloud9 started by winning the first T-half of the match, which gave them a solid push into the second half. A brilliant second half from Cloud9 helped them secure the win and the Grand Final tomorrow, where they will face the winner of FaZe vs NAVI, who will play later tonight.

Worth noting was also the performance from the in-game leader of Cloud9, Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov, who ended the match as the highest-rated player after an impressive performance on Vertigo.

Cloud9 – ENCE 2-1 (ESL Pro League Season 17)

MVP: {cflag:RU} Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov - 1.29 rating / 65-54 K-D / 92.7 ADR

Cloud9

In recent years, the use of performance-enhancing drugs has been a topic of concern in professional sports, and for the esports scene, it’s not any different. Cloud9’s nafany, who is a prominent pro CS:GO player, recently took to Twitter to question the lack of doping tests in esports.

In his tweet, nafany expressed his surprise at not encountering any doping tests during his pro career in CS:GO, despite being sure that they were being conducted during his early years in the game. He admitted that he was not saying that the absence of testing was right, but rather that he was curious about why there were no such tests in place.

This tweet from nafany comes on the heels of another pro gamer, ImperialHal, who recently called out his peers in the Apex Legends community for allegedly abusing the drug Adderall to gain an advantage in competition. These incidents highlight the fact that the issue of performance-enhancing drugs is not limited to traditional sports, and that esports is now facing the same challenge.

There are several reasons why doping tests are not as prevalent in esports as they are in traditional sports. For one, the esports industry is relatively new and still in the process of establishing standards and regulations. This means that there are few established rules and protocols for drug testing in esports, and that the industry is still trying to find its footing in this area.

Another reason why doping tests are not as prevalent in esports is that the nature of the sport is different from traditional sports. Esports does not require the same level of physical exertion as traditional sports, and the use of drugs such as steroids may not necessarily confer the same advantages in esports as they do in sports like football or weightlifting.

However, it is important to note that performance-enhancing drugs can still provide a significant advantage in esports. Drugs like Adderall can improve focus, reaction time, and decision-making abilities, all of which are critical skills in games like CS:GO and Apex Legends. Furthermore, the increasing prize money and prestige associated with professional esports competitions make the stakes higher than ever, and could potentially incentivize players to resort to any means necessary to gain an edge.

Ultimately, the absence of doping tests in esports raises questions about fairness and integrity in professional gaming. Just like in traditional sports, esports players should be held to a high standard of sportsmanship and fair play. While the industry is still in its early stages, it is important that it takes proactive steps to ensure that esports competitions are fair, transparent, and free from any kind of cheating or unfair advantage.

When Cloud9 last month announced the acquisition of Timur “buster” Tulepov as a replacement for the loyal support player Timofey "interz" Yakushin, some experts and fans within the industry questioned that exact move.

Did they just use interz as a scapegoat? Won’t buster just the same impact and style to the table as interz? Was just some of the questions being asked.

But if you ask Cloud9’s in-game leader and long-standing captain Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov this move will play a “huge difference” going forward, the Russian explained in an interview with ESL.

- Overall, I think this result is okay with us having a new player, nafany said. We didn’t prepare everything that we wanted and it’s a bit different game right now with a new player as well – I would say not even “a bit”, it’s a huge difference Cloud9 with interz and Cloud9 with buster.

- I think it’s obvious with buster that we now have more space to create new things. We can switch on a lot of maps – we have done it already. I know everything will be fine in the future.

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In the interview, nafany elaborates by going more in depth when comparing interz with buster.

- I will say the main difference is that interz is a guy who’s doing his work and was doing a great job. But buster is a player who brings us fresh air and he can fix some gaps on some maps for us. So, it was necessary to change players because we have played in the previous roster for two and half years, which is very long time.

- We have some struggles in teamspeak. It’s not even because of buster, it’s more because of me, hobbit and sh1ro but I can’t say a lot about that because we still don’t really know how to use it perfectly, nafany concluded. 

You can watch the entire interview with nafany down below. 

[youtube:WblnlNpKnXM?feature=share&t=38591]

Yesterday Cloud9 secured themselves a spot at the prestigious IEM Katowice main event after a strong performance on the first day at the play-in stage. Beating IHC 16-5 and afterwards ENCE 2-1 in a decider match was ultimately enough to send them through to the $1 Million event.

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interz

buster

Yesterday was a tough day for Cloud9, who got eliminated from the IEM Rio Major 2022 on the back of a 1-2 defeat against MOUZ in the Champions stage quarter-final. Nafany’s men started off the series on the right foot by stealing away MOUZ’ map pick of Inferno (16-11), but suffered a tough loss on their own pick of Mirage (13-16) before they fell at the final hurdle on Ancient, where MOUZ took a comfortable 16-9 victory to secure themselves a spot in the semi-finals.

After getting eliminated, Cloud9 met with the press in Rio where our reporter caught up with their in-game leader nafany to talk about the tough loss, his thoughts on their run, and what the future holds for Cloud9.

Watch the full interview with nafany right here:

The youngsters from Cloud9 have a lot to prove at the upcoming Major tournament in Rio de Janeiro. At PGL Major Antwerp back in May, the CIS squad disappointed massively with an unsatisfactory 12th-14th spot after losing to the likes of Imperial and Ninjas in Pyjamas.

In a video on Cloud9’s YouTube channel, in-game leader and captain Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov touch on the mediocre result, but also what he hopes the team will present at the Rio Major.

You can watch the entire interview with nafany in the video below. 

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IEM Rio is set to start in less than a week with the first matches being played Monday next week. The first stage will be the Challengers Stage where Cloud9 will begin their campaign against the Swedes from Fnatic. You can find the entire opening schedule down below. 

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ENCE and Cloud9 faced off in a Bo5 for the chance to lift the trophy at IEM Dallas. As the teams headed to the server it quickly became clear that Cloud9 was the stronger team.

The brawl kicked off on Mirage where Cloud9 had a hard time early on as they chose to start on the T side. "Snappi" was not very involved during the first fifteen rounds but the four players by his side were performing admirably, which resulted in a 10-5 ENCE lead.

As well as ENCE performed in the first half, Cloud9's defense was on another level. The CIS squad closed down the Europeans entirely and with an 11-2 half secured the first map of three needed.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/sh1ro_1_ubobpq","originalWidth":4096,"originalHeight":2304,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

Cloud9 has been playing amazingly on CT sides during this tournament, but on the second map of Overpass, it was their offense that shone. ENCE had a hard time dealing with the slow and controlled style of play that Cloud9 is known for, and with no weak links on the Russian chain, the halftime score was 10-5.

The T side was surprisingly a lot better for "Snappi" and co. They were able to be more impactful as they controlled the pace of the game but were not able to string many rounds together. In fact, the second half was very back-and-forth which benefitted Cloud9 heavily as they had the five-round lead at halftime. Cloud9 secured their second map and was now only one away from stardom.

"sh1ro", who was the top performer on the first two maps, continued his dominance on the third map of Ancient. With the CT side AWP he repelled everything that came his way, and if that was not "nafany" was playing out of his mind as well. The Russians gave up bomb plants in nine of the fifteen rounds, but by way of incredible retakes, had only given up three rounds at halftime.

ENCE were not able to put a stop to the pain train of Cloud9, who rolled over the Europeans at 16-3 in the final map of the series.

12-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro - 1.39 Rating / 23-15 K-D / 87.4 ADR

11-16 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro - 1.27 Rating / 20-9 K-D / 73.1 ADR

3-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} nafany - 2.03 Rating / 22-9 K-D / 132.3 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Dmitry "sh1ro" Sokolov - 1.50 Rating / 67-31 K-D / 87.7 ADR

sh1ro

ENCE

A semi-finals spot at IEM Dallas 2022 was up for grabs when FaZe and Cloud9 faced each other in an elimination game. The two top-tier teams went toe-to-toe throughout three maps and after a hard-fought battle and a couple of comebacks, Cloud9 narrowly managed to edge out the FaZe Clan.

The first map of Overpass, Cloud9's pick, was a very close affair. After an 8-7 first half in FaZe's favor, the map would need another fifteen rounds in the second half. FaZe won that one as well and just barely managed to take down the Russians despite a surprisingly strong individual effort from "nafany".

The fight moved on to FaZe's pick of Inferno where Cloud curiously chose to start on the T side. The choice was fruitful as the Russians put themselves in a fantastic position by winning the half 8-7. "Ax1Le", who was also great on the T side, was absolutely magnificent on the defense. The young rifler was winning almost every duel versus the FaZe stars towards the end of the game, and with that fantastic performance, Cloud9 closed the game after 29 rounds.

After having won on each other's map picks, the two star-filled rosters headed to Mirage. Here we saw an extremely strong start from "ropz", who was 9-0 after just four rounds. It was, however "Ax1Le" that stole the show as he once again stepped up massively for his team. With several impact rounds and an ace, he helped his team overcome multiple deficits and in the end take the map and the series after a closing 8-0 run.

[twitchClip:esl_csgo/clip/SarcasticBetterEelUWot-g5A003VQKawXRayP]

16-14 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} nafany - 1.35 Rating / 30-21 K-D / 96.4 ADR

13-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.64 Rating / 34-18 K-D / 115.6 ADR

13-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.58 Rating / 29-19 K-D / 104.8 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov - 1.42 Rating / 85-57 K-D / 101.3 ADR

Ax1Le

FaZe

Sunday this weekend, NAVI announced the benching of their profiled In-game leader Kirill "Boombl4" Mikhaylov, due to the 23-year-old Russian being a “high reputational risk for the club", NAVI stated.

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Prior to the confirmation of Boombl4’s benching, CS:GO expert and analyst Alex "Mauisnake" Ellenberg appeared in an [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3HINe9aLyc&","isNewTab":true,"text":"episode"}] of “Snake & Banter” alongside Duncan “Thorin” Shields and Sudhen "Bleh" Wahengbam. Here Mauisnake expressed his thoughts about the current Cloud9, which he believes “never will work moving forward” and why Boombl4 could be the solution.

You can find the entire episode here, where you can hear Mauisnake elaborate on his thoughts. 

Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov has been in charge of the promising lineup ever since their first days as Gambit Youngsters, then at Gambit's main team, and now under the banner of Cloud9. The 20-year-old IGL has led the team to impressive victories at big tournaments like BLAST Premier Spring Finals and IEM Katowice 2021. However, their performances and results on LAN are one of Mauisnake's strongest arguments as to why nafany should be replaced. 

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

Mauisnake with Maniac on the analyst desk at PGL Major Stockholm

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Boombl4

Natus Vincere

That’s allegedly the amount of cash you’ll have to dish out if you wish to acquire one of CS:GO’s most promising teams. At least that’s what the renowned CS:GO expert and analyst [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/Thorin","isNewTab":true,"text":"Duncan “Thorin” Shields"}] has heard.  

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In a [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIRY69cHO3Q","isNewTab":true,"text":"recent video"}] on his YouTube channel, Thorin discusses Cloud9’s recent acquisition of Gambit’s young roster, where he at one point touches on the transfer price, which he believes to have learned is $1 Million. 

- You have got the only Top 5 team that’s anywhere available at this kind of price point. A million dollars is what I’m hearing for this whole roster – and then they also got two coaches and a manager out of it as well. This is ridiculously. 

(…) to get this roster for $1 Million is one of the craziest [link:{"url":"https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=min%2Fmax","isNewTab":true,"text":"min maxes"}] you’ll ever see. Because this team even has the potential to maybe be a world number one again, Thorin said.

You can watch the entire episode with Thorin down below. 

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Gambit Esports

Earlier this week, Cloud9 announced the organization's return to CS:GO with the acquisition of the Gambit roster. Gambit has reportedly been up for sale since March in the aftermath of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Cloud9 shares that it would help the previously Russia-based lineup to relocate, whether North America is a possibility.

Now the organization has a serious title contender in the ranks once again and will be heading into the next Major as one of the top-three teams in the world.

To learn more about the crazy journey from becoming the first (and currently only) North American team to win a Major and then being unable to set their team amid the COVID-19 pandemic. You can watch the following video about the story of Cloud9:

[youtube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKV-g6ZDAlU&ab_channel=theScoreesports]

Hobbit

The organization announced its new roster on Twitter a few minutes ago.

The now-former Gambit roster was looking for a new home after the international restrictions that were put upon the Russian Organization. Now the five CIS players will represent one of North America's most prolific e-sports organizations. 

Cloud9 disbanded its team roughly a year ago citing the ongoing pandemic as one of the biggest factors. Now the winner of the ELEAGUE Major in Boston is back and will be represented at the upcoming Major in Antwerp, where they will be seeded as Legends.

The five players will be joined by their coach Konstantin "groove" Pikiner as well.

Players

"Players" were the big favorites coming into the first match of Group C, where they would take on the American org. "Party Astronauts". The CIS-squad did not let their fans down, as they completely destroyed their opponents to the tune of 16-4 and 16-6. 

20-year old Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov played a key role in the victory as IGL, but also as a playmaker and rifler. 

"Players" came into this Group C as the heavy favorites, and what we have seen so far from "nafany" and co. has not given us any reason to doubt that!

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19-10 K-D | 101.5 ADR | 85% KAST | 1.56 Rating

25-10 K-D | 96.6 ADR | 82.8% KAST | 1.22 Rating

The Gambit roster, which has been forced to play under the name of ‘Players’ due to [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/esl-issues-statement-regarding-ukraine/","isNewTab":true,"text":"ESL’s sanctions"}] against Russian-based teams, is off to a fantastic start at ESL Pro League Season 15, after dismantling Party Astronauts 16-4, 16-6 on Inferno and Ancient.

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The dominant win was secured less than two hours after the first round commenced on Inferno, with Party Astronauts having huge problems countering the dominant Russians. Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov led his side from the front, ending the one-sided series with a stellar 1.67 Rating and 98.9 ADR.

Players – Party Astronauts 2-0 | ESL Pro League Season 15 (Group C)

16-4 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro – 1.62 Rating / 18-9 K-D / 89.7 ADR

16-6 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} nafany – 1.76 Rating / 25-10 K-D / 96.6 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Vladislav “nafany” Gorshkov | 1.67 Rating / 44-20 K-D / 98.9 ADR

Party Astronauts

Gambit survived the lower bracket brawl against Team Vitality.

The Russians started out by destroying the French/Danish roster on Mirage, where one of the best players in the world, Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was completely shut down. The French star registered a 0.32 rating going 3-18 on the map! A complete disaster performance from the ZywOo, who had only had one worse performance in his career, but that was online.

Gambit played incredibly on their T-side, which effectively shut Vitality out of the match on Mirage.

On Inferno, the match was much more even, but again the CIS team dominated on their T side to win the match. A well-played match from the young Russians, who seems to heat up in the last couple of games at IEM Katowice. Now they only need to beat the winner of NIP vs MOUZ to qualify for the playoffs at IEM Katowice. Vitality is out of the tournament after a bad performance.

Gambit - Team Vitality 2-0 | IEM Katowice

16-7 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} nafany – 1.57 Rating / 19-12 K-D / 92.3 ADR

16-12 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.55 Rating / 27-17 K-D / 109.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov - 1.24 Rating / 46-29 K-D / 100.7 ADR

ZywOo

Team Vitality

The last opening-round matchup at the $250.000 Funspark ULTI Finals 2021 is about to kick off. This time it will be the North American underdogs taking on the dominant Russians from Gambit in a thrilling Bo3 series. 

You can see the match from 16.00 (CET) here.

If you had the chance to change anything you wanted in CS:GO, what would it be?

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In this mini-series, we asked the professional CS:GO players, what they would like to change if they were the big boss of Valve. In this episode, you can hear the opinions of Gambit's in-game leader Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov and the coach of NAVI, Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi.

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While competitive CS:GO is currently on a break there are still some of the professionals who livestreams during the player break.

One of them is the 20-year-old Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov, who finished the year with a second-place at BLAST World Finals with his team Gambit. The young Russian is known for being one of the few players from the CIS region who can be very vocal during matches as we saw during the event in Copenhagen.

According to [link:{"url":"https://csgo.com/news/60809-nafany-cis-casters-are-shoking-i-was-surprised-at-the-poor-quality-of-their-work","isNewTab":true,"text":"csgo.com"}], Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov was also vocal about other issues on his livestream. Here he commented on the casters on the CIS streams.

- CIS casters are shocking. I was surprised at the poor quality of their work. Not all, but some of them... I'm just shocked. I understand why they have a job and people watch them. They are funny and all, but it seems to me that when you try to cover an event, which claims to be competitive, it is a bad idea to hire people who are not able to do their job properly.

Gambit and nafany ended 2021 in third place on the world ranking.

The $1 Million tournament of BLAST Premier World Final has just been concluded, with NAVI sealing the trophy after a 2-1 victory in the Grand Final against their fellow CIS competitors from Gambit. After the match, we spoke with Gambit's in-game leader Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov about the loss, where the 20-year-old Russian quickly took all the blame on his shoulders. 

You can find the post-match interview in the video below.

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

nafany

Player stats

Articles mentioning nafany

BetBoom set to debut today at IEM Sydney Open Qualifier

nafany, s1ren, and zorte spearheads new Russian lineup

Cloud9 ready for Grand Final at EPL S17

nafany: Why are there no doping tests in CS

nafany: There’s a huge difference between Cloud9 with buster and Cloud9 with interz

nafany: As I know, we will play with the same lineup next year

nafany: We’re not just kids who want to play on the big stage

Cloud9 sweep ENCE to win IEM Dallas

Cloud9 eliminate the favorites of FaZe

Mauisnake: Cloud9 should get rid of nafany and sign Boombl4 instead

Thorin: I’ve heard Cloud9 paid $1 Million for the entire Gambit roster

The story of Cloud9: Back to CS:GO

Cloud9 signs Gambit roster

Player of the day: Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov

nafany and company ease past NA underdogs at EPL

Gambit eliminates Team Vitality at IEM Katowice

Live: Gambit vs Complexity

NAVI coach: It would be good to have six-man rosters

nafany: CIS casters are shocking

nafany after Grand Final: We lost only because of me and my communication

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