Evil Geniuses, one of the most recognizable esports organizations in the world, have announced the signing of Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali from Sprout. Refrezh, a Danish professional player, will join the team's active roster following the team's recent poor results. 

Refrezh's move to Evil Geniuses is no surprise to many CS:GO fans, as rumors had been floating about him and the North American team. He departed from Sprout in February after being replaced by Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss and has since then not played on the competitive scene. 

Evil Geniuses have been struggling in recent tournaments. Evil Geniuses also failed to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major Americas RMR but were given a second chance as a replacement team. However, they fell short against Paquetá. With only a 28% win rate in the past three months, Evil Geniuses is in a hurry to make things better within the team and their performance. 

Refrezh is expected to bring great communication and tier-one experience to the Evil Geniuses roster. After almost 2 years under the Heroic banner, refrezh has to bring back some life to the North American roster which seems out of line at the moment. The Dane will be joining Evil Geniuses as a rifler, and it will be interesting to see how he performs in the upcoming tournaments.

With refrezh joining the active lineup, Evil Geniuses will look as follows:

{cflag:US} Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte

{cflag:KZ} Sanzhar "⁠neaLaN⁠" Iskhakov

{cflag:DK} Daniel "⁠Vorborg⁠" Vorborg (coach)

Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali has already played his first game as an Evil Geniuses player. The North American roster lost their opening match at ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 North America Open Qualifier against WITHOUTWARNING. When looking at the Danes' stat line, It's fair to say that Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali hasn't got the perfect start under the Evil Geniuses banner. 

⁠refrezh against WITHOUTWARNING: 6-18 K-D/-12 +/- / 55.2 ADR / 0.50 rating. 

The next time fans get to see the Evil Geniuses in action will be at the IEM Dallas 2023, which starts on May 29. With the addition of refrezh, Evil Geniuses will hope to bounce back from their recent poor performance.

refrezh

Evil Geniuses

Yesterday evening, Evil Geniuses announced the much-anticipated [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/evil-geniuses-sign-refrezh","isNewTab":true,"text":"transfer "}]of the Danish rifler Ismail “refrezh” Ali.

The arrival of refrezh means that the North American talent Jadan “HexT” Postma has had to give up his roster spot as he’s expected to play for EG Black going forward.

One individual who is sceptic about Evil Geniuses’ recent roster move is the renowned expert and caster Mohan "launders" Govindasamy. He especially criticizes the organization for bringing in a European player instead using North American prospects

- refrezh can’t save EG and EG signing international talent when they have bought access to owning multiple entire NA rosters [is] embarrassing. This isn’t League of Legends, launders notes in a [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/launders/status/1645977351845494790","isNewTab":true,"text":"Tweet"}].

[slugORMA:{"slug":"evil-geniuses-discard-15-man-project","isNewTab":true}]

In two follow-up Tweets, the Canadian caster continues to make his point on why he believes bringing in the former Heroic rifler is not the right way to go.

- Blocking NA roster spots for above-average European talent is so fucking stupid - like why are you spending money on more than 5 players if you will just buy the ones, you need anyway.

- EG would have more fans with a full NA lineup and win just as much. They have offered so much support to NA and somehow become the region's bottleneck at the same time. Mind-blowing.

Daniel Vorborg, head coach at Evil Geniuses, responded to one of launders’ Tweets as he gave an explanation on why they decided to bring in refrezh stating that they “couldn’t get the skillset they needed anywhere else”

- Refrezh brings a skillset that we really need though. He's a strong voice and a leader. He brings initiative and direction, even in the toughest moments.

- And although I don't have final say, from all the data and information I have - we couldn't get that skillset, which is our biggest deficit imo, anywhere else.

You can read find all the tweets down below.

Sprout

According to [link:{"url":"https://blix.gg/news/refrezh-to-replace-hext-in-evil-geniuses","isNewTab":true,"text":"blix.gg"}] Evil Geniuses is signing the Danish player Ismail "refrezh" Ali who reportedly has reached a verbal agreement with the big North American organization. The signing is expected to happen after the recent poor results from the EG first team. 

Evil Geniuses dropped out of the top 30 on the HLTV World Ranking list after they didn't manage to qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023, and failing to win a single match at the ESL Pro League Season 17. The roster has struggled to find its form in recent months with multiple losses in both competitions.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"evil-geniuses-drop-top-30","isNewTab":true}]

Following their recent result, the 25-year-old Dane is set to replace Jadan "HexT" Postma in EG's lineup. HexT is averaging 0.81 Rating / 0.73 DPR / 59.4 ADR / 0.79 Impact rating during the past three months against the top 30 teams. 

The current head coach of Evil Geniuses Daniel "Vorborg" Vorborg was the coach for refrezh back in 2020 when the Danish rifler played under the Copenhagen Flames banner. 

The former Sprout IGL was benched after an agreement between the player and the organization. Whether or not this will be a reality is yet to be decided, for now, Ismail "refrezh" Ali stays on the Sprout bench. 

After Sprout announced the benching of their former in-game leader, refrezh, the Danish player has now released a statement on [link:{"url":"https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss8gfu","isNewTab":true,"text":"TwitLonger "}][link:{"url":"https://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1ss8gfu","isNewTab":true}]explaining the situation from his point of view. refrezh stated that they have made a mutual agreement to put him on the transfer list as they had different visions for how to operate the team.

In his statement, refrezh said, “I’m sad that it had to end this way, but it was pretty clear that we had different visions for how to operate the team. There was a lot of disagreement on how to manage and structure the team. As most of you know, we had several roster changes, role changes and trials of new players in a very short span of time, which left very little time to find the identity of the team. I never really found my footing, and never got to fulfill my visions for this project.”

[slugORMA:{"slug":"sprout-bench-former-in-game-leader","isNewTab":true}]

The Danish player also expressed his gratitude towards his former team and the management, stating that he had enjoyed his six months with the team. He also mentioned the team’s successful run to the Rio Major, which he said was something he would never forget.

His departure from Sprout means that they will now be going their separate ways. refrezh ended his statement by wishing the team the best of luck going forward and promising to provide more updates soon.

It’s clear that there were differing opinions between refrezh and the Sprout organization on how to operate the team, and the situation highlights the challenges that esports organizations face when managing a team of players with varying opinions and visions. It remains to be seen what the future holds for refrezh, but fans of the Danish player will be eagerly awaiting more updates on his plans for the future.

Sprout has announced the benching of their former in-game leader, refrezh. In a statement released on their official Twitter account, the organization revealed that they have made a mutual agreement with the player to put him on the transfer list due to different views on the project.

The statement reads, “It’s with a heavy heart that we bid farewell to refrezh from our active roster. Due to different views on the project, we have made a mutual agreement to put him on the transfer list. We’re grateful for his commitment and the memories, especially our run to the IEM Rio Major in Brazil.”

Refrezh had been a part of the Sprout roster since August 2022 when he took over as an unexperienced captain. However, the team’s recent performances have been below par, and it has been difficult for them to find consistency, which seems to be the reason for the organization to make some changes to the roster to improve their overall performance.

Sprout also revealed that Zyphon would be returning to the active lineup, resuming his role in the team. The statement further added, “As for the search for a new IGL, we’re actively testing candidates and will keep you updated on our progress as the week closes.”

The organization is now on the lookout for a new in-game leader to replace refrezh and lead the team forward.

Zyphon

Earlier this month, Sprout announced that they have decided to remove the 19-year-old Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss from the active roster after only five months on the team. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"sprout-bench-zyphon-refrezh-steps-down-igl","isNewTab":true}]

However, contrary to some people’s beliefs and how a player benching in CS:GO often pans out, it looks like Zyphon has got a second chance on the European squad.

When contacted by Pley.gg, Sprout Manager Daniel Paulus, confirms that the organization still see Zyphon as an option for active lineup despite his earlier demotion.

- At the moment we’re testing for the IGL position and it was for us always clear that we want to see Zyphon in this testing phase too, Paulus states.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"refrezh-its-ideal-igl-when-stutter-least","isNewTab":true}]

Sprout announced alongside the news of Zyphon’s benching that the fellow Dane Ismail “refrezh” Ali was set to step down as the in-game leader - why the German organization right away began a testing phase of potential candidates.  

Something Daniel Paulus also commented on in a statement to Pley.gg.

- At present, we are conducting a testing phase with a number of players, and we have concluded that it would not be appropriate to retain Berry as our IGL given his value as a coach. Although Berry is a highly skilled player for the role as an IGL, we believe he is better suited to coaching. We are optimistic about finding a suitable replacement by the deadline of 05.03, and we have contingencies in place should an emergency arise. In such cases, we are prepared for Berry to step in temporarily, Paulus stated. 

The Sprout Manager did not wish to comment publicly about the [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/csgotalentscout/status/1628867987930329089","isNewTab":true,"text":"rumours "}]of refrezh being the one who's getting cut. 

{cflag:RO} Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea 

{cflag:DK} Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss (inactive)

{cflag:DK} Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger (coach) 

24-year-old Ismail "refrezh" Ali is thankful to his team for being so patient with him for the past six months. The former Heroic players moved to Sprout back in August 2022 and have since then been the IGL for the Danish-majority team. However, with two Romanian players on the roster refrezh had to speak in English which for him was the first time ever.

- It was quite chaotic being the IGL for the first time and I never seemed to have the control I wanted to have. It's a very inexperienced team and it didn't suit the style I wanted to have where everyone had some freedom but also some responsibility. When I found out that I had to be more controlling, it also got to a point where I was limiting the team too much and I didn't do a good job of activating the players. I was aware of these issues for some time and in the end, I had to be realistic and say I couldn't execute what had to be done in the role of being the IGL. Speaking English for the first time in a team didn't help either, but the same issues would still occur most likely, refrezh wrote in a Twitter post. 

Read refrezh's full experience as an IGL in the post below:

Sprout announced yesterday that Mikkel "⁠Maze⁠" Sparvath will be joining the team as their new IGL, refrezh will therefore transition into the rifler role and Ramus "Zyphon" Nordfoss will be moved to the bench. 

Read more about the ongoing roster changes in Sprout:

A Danish rotation is happening on the Sprout roster after the Danish-majority team fell short at IEM Katowice 2023. 

Sprout will follow their guts and make way for the young Mikkel "Maze" Sparvath who recently has been on trial for the mixed European roster Let us cook. Maze will join the team as their new IGL which therefore moves Ismail "refresh" Ali to a permanent rifler role just like in Heroic. The former Copenhagen Flames player Rasmus "Zyphon" Nordfoss will be moved to the bench after spending five months on the active roster. The two Danes came to Sprout at the same time back in August and have since then played some decent CS on the biggest stage. However, with the lack of results that Sprout has witnessed, the talented roster is in need of making some changes to their team. 

Sprout will look as follows going forward with the 2023 season:

{cflag:RO} Laurențiu "⁠lauNX⁠" Țârlea

{cflag:DK} Danny "⁠BERRY⁠" Krüger (coach)

{cflag:DK} Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss (benched)

Maze

Doing the ESL Challenger League Playoffs Season 43, the 24-year-old IGL secured a third map after he single-handedly took down four players of Spirit doing an after-plant. 

Sprout had a 15-6 lead when refrezh saw his entire team fall, and only him being left alone to fight against four Spirit players. Plating on A was Spirit but less did they know as Refrezh walked behind the smoke and took down four players of Spirit to take the map win. 

Check out this impressive clutch from refrezh right here:

[twitchClip:OutstandingCarefulTubersTriHard-GZieD4xo8FIRWUL5]

Despite refresh closing out the second map, Sprout ended up losing the decider and the game 1-2 against the Russian team. 

Spirit

The Germans from Sprout have this year managed to put together an extremely promising but also successful roster.

Led by the former Heroic rifler Ismail “refrezh” Ali, Sprout fields a talented trio of Rasmus Zyphon” Nordfoss, Victor “Staehr” Staehr, and Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea – with especially the two latter players having drawn a lot of interest from the CS:GO elite. Reportedly, Astralis has kept a close eye on Staehr to round off their roster while lauNX previously has been on ENCE's radar earlier this year. 

In the newest episode of HLTV Confirmed, Sprout’s IGL refrezh talks about potentially losing some of his youngsters to bigger organizations and what that will mean for the team. 

You can watch the entire HLTV Confirmed episode with refrezh down below. 

{cflag:DK} Staehr (18 years old) – 1.13 Rating

{cflag:RO} lauNX (17 years old)  – 1.12 Rating

{cflag:DK} Zyphon (18 years old)  – 1.08 Rating

{cflag:DE} slaxz- (24 years old)  - 1.03 Rating

{cflag:DK} refrezh (24 years old)  – 0.99 Rating

[slugORMA:{"slug":"staehr-astralis-rumours-would-hard-no-them","isNewTab":true}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"top-10-future-stars-cs-go","isNewTab":true}]

Staehr

lauNX

One would think that being fired or cut from a team is a very unfortunate situation for an individual. However, that’s not the case for all people.

When Ismail “refrezh” Ali earlier this year was benched by Heroic the Danish rifler explained that he actually felt a slight relief, he stated in an [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDARXomDVXg","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview "}]with Duncan “Thorin” Shields' show 'Talk to Thorin'.

In the interview, the newly-signed Sprout player describes how he didn’t fit in as a player while playing together with Casper “cadiaN” Møller and Heroic.

- [After being benched] Many people came to me saying “oh man, I’m so sorry you got kicked, it’s not fair” and this kind of stuff. But I was actually happy to get kicked from the team. (…) I learned a lot in Heroic and we had good results, but I didn’t fit in as a player.

- I really like the people on Heroic and the management, and we were all great friends – but as a player it has been really stressful not being able to spread out your wings and do your best as a player, feeling a bit limited by the roles.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"two-danes-ready-sprout","isNewTab":true}]

"Could have signed for a much bigger team"

refrezh was announced as a new signing for Sprout in August this year together with his countryman Ramus “Zyphon” Nordfoss, with taking over the important in-game leader role. But he could have signed for a bigger team, refrezh revealed to Thorin.

- I could for sure have signed with a much bigger team and maybe compromise a bit with myself as a player but I was not willing to do that again. It was actually me who contacted Sprout. I was just looking at HLTV’s list of all the teams and trying to envision myself in one of these teams - and for me, Sprout was the place I wanted to be.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"sprout-takes-down-b8-qualify-major","isNewTab":true}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"s1mple-renew-contract-with-navi","isNewTab":true}]

Heroic

One year ago at ESL Pro League Season 14 in a matchup against Liquid, Heroic’s Ismail “refrezh” Ali (now Sprout) defied all odds by delivering one of the best plays in CS:GO for a long time – and arguably the best of 2021.

In what looked like an impossible 1v5 situation on Inferno against five Liquid members, refrezh stepped up massively to deny the North Americans’ match point. To get the very best insight and feel of the already iconic play, Heroic has released their voice comms from the insane round on their YouTube channel. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"clutch-year-refrezh-makes-insane-1vs5-clutch","isNewTab":true}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"naf-refrezhs-1v5-happened-lan-think-would-haunted-until-end-time","isNewTab":true}]

Team Liquid

The roster changes are coming in hot this Monday afternoon!

This time it is Sprout, that is ready to announce its two new signings.

Former Copenhagen Flames player Rasmus "Zyphon" Nordfoss and Heroic's Ismail "refrezh" Ali will be the two new faces in the German Organization, where they join fellow Dane Victor "Staehr" Staehr in the lineup. At the same time, refrezh announced on his Twitter, that he would be the new in-game leader for the roster, which also counts Laurențiu "lauNX" Țârlea and Fritz "slaxz-" Dietrich.

The two players replace Rasmus "raalz" Steensborg (Copenhagen Flames), and Timo "Spiidi" Richter (Free Agent).

Last month, Ismail “refrezh” Ali was benched on Heroic as he was getting replaced by the CPH Flames youngster Jakob “jabbi” Nygaard. However, the demotion doesn’t seem to have teared on his confidence.

In a match at Esportal Cup against Sashi Esport, where refrezh played for OPAA alongside staehr from Sprout and Zyphon from CPH Flames, refrezh decided to bring out a rather saucy 1v1 clutch in the last round of regulation.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"refrezh-out-heroic-makes-changes-amid-jabbi-rumors","isNewTab":true}]

Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard has just been confirmed as the new fifth player on the Heroic roster.

On Heroic's website, the now-former Copenhagen Flames player commented on his move.

Jabbi will replace Ismail "refrezh" Ali, who was benched three days ago.

Jabbi

Copenhagen Flames

Ismail “refrezh” Ali’s days as a Heroic member has come to an end with the Norwegian-based organization announcing his departure this Saturday. The 24-year-old rifler joined the Casper “cadiaN” Møller-led team in February last year arriving from MAD Lions.

The news about refrezh’s exit comes only days after a [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/media-heroic-close-signing-with-jabbi","isNewTab":true,"text":"report "}]from TV 2 Sport stating that Heroic is pursuing Copenhagen Flames’ Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard.

- Since the beginning of this 5-man roster, we have always believed that the team were capable of great things. However, during the last year Heroic has been highly competitive in the major tournaments but has struggled to take that final last step. Therefore, despite all the qualities of refrezh, we have decided that it was time to try something new, Heroic wrote in a statement. 

Furthermore Heroic informed that refrezh will continue to be under contract with the organization. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"media-heroic-close-signing-with-jabbi","isNewTab":true}]

{cflag:DK} Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller 

{cflag:DK} Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali (inactive)

It's time to initiate the playoff stage at Pinnacle Cup Championships. In the first matchup, we have Heroic taking on the heavy underdogs from Finest in the lower bracket. The favorites will undoubtedly be Casper "cadiaN" Møller's troops despite the Danes having dropped down in the world rankings lately. 

The winner of the match will go up against the loser of the late series between BIG and Astralis at 20:00 (CET) this Friday. 

Heroic vs Finest is set to go live at 16:00 (CET) and will be streamed on the following Twitch channel.

Finest

Liquid was up 15-14 in rounds and had managed to decimate Heroic down to one single man left standing on the deciding map. With five CT players alive in the final round of regulation, the victory was secured for Liquid. The casters were sure, all the viewers were sure, and it also looked like North Americans already had begun celebrating their further advancement at ESL Pro League Season 14.

However, in the next minute of time, something miraculous happened – performed by no other than Ismail “refrezh” Ali.

The crazy clutch seems to have left a quite big and substantial impact on Liquid’s Keith “NAF” Markovic, the fourth player to fall against refrezh in the already iconic play.

In an interview for his recent ‘Top 20 Players of the Year 2021’ honour, NAF touched on the famous 1v5 clutch describing how that exact play had kept him sleepless.

- refrezh' 1v5 was a huge blow, if that happened on LAN, I think I would be haunted by this memory until the end of time, but I believe since it happened online it's been out of my head. I remember the following day I had to go meet my girlfriend's parents for the first time and I remember at about 08:00 when she woke up I told her I never went to bed, I was just lying there for like 9 hours and all I could think of was refrezh 1v5'ing us, NAF said to HLTV.

You can read the entire article featuring NAF right here.

NAF's reaction to the clutch back in September.

The best of the rest. That was the expectation for Heroic before the start of BLAST Premier Fall Finals. The Danes are hoping to build upon their good performance at the PGL Major in Stockholm and perhaps challenge NAVI for the title in Copenhagen.

Heroic started their tournament with a matchup against FaZe. Two teams that rarely play each other. The last time was in IEM Cologne, where it was FaZe who came out on top.

At BLAST Premier Fall Finals the match got off to a great start on Mirage. An 8-7 scoreline at the break told the story of a close match, that was decided in the last round, where Rasmus "sjuush" Beck took matters into his own hands with three kills to seal the deal.

Next up was Nuke. A map where Heroic has won the last six out of seven games. But on their T-side, the Danes ran into trouble. Finn "karrigan" Andersen and his men were well prepared and took a solid 9-6 lead with them to the second half, where they established a commanding 13-7 gap on the scoreboard. But then Martin "stavn" Lund came alive. The young Danish rifler was the key architect behind an impressive comeback for Heroic, who won all the remaining rounds of the match. 

A shell-shocked FaZe roster could only see the victory slip out of their hands, but nonetheless, it was an uplifting performance from FaZe, who could still play a part in this tournament. They will face the loser of NAVI vs BIG in the next round, while Heroic in the upper bracket is set up for a huge match against NAVI, if they beat BIG later today.

FaZe Clan vs. Heroic 0-2 | BLAST Premier Fall Finals

14-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:DK} refrezh – 1.37 Rating / 28-19 K-D / 89.3 ADR

13-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:DK} stavn – 1.45 Rating / 26-17 K-D / 104.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:DK} Martin "stavn" Lund – 1.26 Rating / 46-34 K-D / 91.2 ADR

stavn

karrigan

FaZe

On Thursday, Heroic booked themselves a ticket to the semi-final of PGL Major Stockholm, following a 2-1 victory over Virtus.pro at the Avicii Arena.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"heroic-move-past-virtus-pro-with-2-1-victory","isNewTab":true}]

Today’s Pley of the Day features non-other than Heroic’s refrezh who has been delivering consistent performances lately. In the Quarter-final matchup between Heroic and Virtus.pro at the PGL Major Stockholm, the 23-year-old Dane pulled off an absolutely breathtaking 1v3 clutch to give his team the lead, while also breaking Virtus.pro’s defense in the process. 

Watch our #POTD featuring refrezh right here: 

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

refrezh

Player stats

Articles mentioning refrezh

Evil Geniuses sign ⁠refrezh

“Embarrassing”: launders slams EG following refrezh transfer

Media: EG has reached verbal agreement with refrezh

refrezh: There was a lot of disagreement on how to manage and structure the team

Sprout bench former in-game leader

Newly-benched Zyphon still an option, Sprout manager confirms

refrezh: It’s not ideal to be an IGL when you stutter - at least not for me

Sprout bench Zyphon - refrezh steps down as IGL

Pley of the Day: refrezh clutch 1vs4

refrezh on potentially losing the likes of lauNX and Staehr: There’s a big chance they will get poached

refrezh: I was actually happy Heroic kicked me; I didn’t fit in as a player

Video: Voice comms from refrezh’s iconic 1v5 against Liquid

Two Danes ready for Sprout

Video: refrezh savagely disconnects while clutching

Confirmed: Jabbi join Heroic

refrezh out! Heroic makes changes amid jabbi rumors

Live: Heroic vs Finest

NAF on refrezh’s 1v5: If it happened on LAN, I think I would be haunted by it until the end of time

Heroic wins hard-fought battle in opening round against FaZe

Pley of the Day: Breathtaking 1v3 clutch from refrezh

Follow Pley