IKLA announces on Twitter that they part ways with three of their player. One of them is their star player SENSEi who in their recent games has produced some impressive numbers. 

When looking at recent matches and tournaments, IKLA hasn't played up to its own standards. The Ukrainian roster is currently playing in the Elisa Invitational Winter 2023 where they won their first match against the polish team Illuminar. However, they fell short in their two following games against Monte and Partizan. 

IKLA plays their next match today at 14:00 (CET). But with only three players remaining in the active lineup, IKLA is in a hurry to find two stand-in players that can help the team take down Endpoint. 

SENSEi

Psycho

j3kie

IKLA

IKLA has formally announced the transfer of Dmytro “SENSEi” Shvorak and Evhen “j3kie” Serhachev on a permanent basis signing a two-year contract with the Ukrainian organization. Before the official signing, the duo has been on trial on the team, which currently is placed at #74 in HLTV’s world ranking.

Furthermore, IKLA has brought in the 25-year-old coach Oleksandr “Psycho” Zlobin.

With the acquisition of SENSEi and j3kie, IKLA is boosted with a great amount of firepower from the former Akuma players. SENSEi’s average rating in 2022 is 1.23 while j3kie has averaged a 1.10 Rating (against all teams).  

The Ukrainians are also in great shape at the moment with the team having defeated strong competition at the ongoing CCT North Europe Series 1 in the likes of Eternal Fire, HAVU and ECSTATIC. They are set to play in the semifinals of the $50.000 event tomorrow against Entropiq.

SENSEi and j3kie were both a part of the infamous Akuma roster that rose to fame after being accused of cheating at EPIC CIS League RMR last year. Here they took down NAVI and Virtus.pro to seal the third place overall. You can learn more about the scandal in the article below.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"cs-go-cheating-scandal-did-akuma-really-cheat","isNewTab":true}]

{cflag:UA} Kyrylo “s4ltovsk1yy” Lytvynov

Aleksey “El1an” Gusev was once one of CIS’ most promising players with the Russian AWPer showcasing impressive Counter-Strike for Winstrike and later on Entropiq. However, his time at Entropiq seems to have come to an end as the Czech organization has decided to place him on the transfer list after a mutual agreement.

Last year: 1.20 Rating / 80.6 ADR / 1.25 Impact rating / 0.75 kills per round

This year: 1.04 Rating / 69.8 ADR / 1.00 Impact rating / 0.67 kills per round

As the above-mentioned statistics clearly show, El1an has been nowhere near his previous top level from 2021. The 23-year-old AWPer was therefore not surprised about the outcome, he explains in a Twitlonger.

Entropiq announced that Dmitriy "SENSEi" Shvorak will stand in for the team at the upcoming ESL Challenger Rotterdam Closed Qualifier. Whether the former Akuma AWPer is set to make a permanent transfer going forward, is still yet to be confirmed by the Czech organization. 

{cflag:RU} Aleksei "⁠NickelBack⁠" Trofimov 

{cflag:RU} Igor "⁠Forester⁠" Bezotecheskiy 

{cflag:RU} Vladislav "⁠Krad⁠" Kravchenko 

{cflag:UA} Dmitriy "⁠SENSEi⁠" Shvorak (stand-in) 

{cflag:RU} Aleksei "⁠El1an⁠" Gusev (benched)

[slugORMA:{"slug":"mir-joins-countrymen-entropiq","isNewTab":true}]

El1an

Entropiq

Gambit is big favorites as they are the #1 team in the world right now, which makes them favorites in every game they play. But there will be a possibility for Akuma, who can take the win if SENSEi hits yet another wild performance for Akuma.

Akuma

Gambit Esports

Today's Pley of the Day is made by Dmitriy "SENSEi" Shvorak from Akuma. The 22-year-old AWPer and his teammate were placed in a difficult 2v5 situation near the A-bombsite on Inferno after a failed execute by the CIS team. 

The round looked done and dusted for the Ukrainians, however, out of nowhere did SENSEi into a trip superhero, as he dismantled DBL Poney in an outstanding quad kill, which in the end sealed the round for Akuma. Watch the impressive play right here. 

DBL PONEY

Akuma is favorites in the match against DBL PONEY, but as we have seen before the French roster can play on a very high level on their day!

SENSEi has played on a very high level in the last three months, and it is going to be interesting to see if he can keep producing the same numbers, as he has played with in the last three months with a rating of 1.36!

There have been some impressive performances from the other tier´s in the last month, with sterling on top of this. The Australian Euan “sterling” Moore has played fantastic with a K/D ratio of 1.54 in the last month!

Here are the top five best performers in the last month:

1. {cflag:AU} Sterling – 1.38 – 27 maps

2. {cflag:UA} SENSEi – 1.35 – 26 maps

5. {cflag:ES} SunPayus – 1.30 – 20 maps

There has also been some team who has performed near perfect in the last month, here is a top-five of the best performing teams!

sterling

oSee

HaZR

SunPayus

Dire Wolves

Order

Extra Salt

GODSENT

Fiend

Akuma’s AWPer, Dmitriy “SENSEi” Shvorak has posted a statement on TwitLonger on behalf of his squad, responding to the Esports Integrity Commission, who revealed that they have received evidence of the former Project X CEO, Oleksandr Shyshko, placing “numerous bets on highly suspicious Project X matches” from his active CS:GO betting account. The Esports Watchdog adds that the CEO’s betting took place at a time when some players from the current Akuma lineup were playing under the Project X banner. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"esic-forwards-evidence-potential-betting-fraud-valve- ","isNewTab":false}]

SENSEi, who was playing under Project X at the time, has denied his team’s involvement in betting on their own matches and says they’re ready to cooperate with the investigation into bets placed by their former boss. The 22-year-old AWPer and the rest of his squad have also offered to provide ESIC with all necessary information. 

“We want to make a statement that none of Akuma/ex-Project X players were involved in betting on own matches. Also, we want to claim that we cannot be responsible for our ex-CEO of Project X Oleksandr Shyshko activities on betting websites. We are ready to cooperate with ESIC and provide all necessary information.”

The young Ukrainians from Akuma has, until this day, gone under the radar for the majority of people in CS:GO, with the rather unknown team not having played at a single top event yet. Their status as an uncharted figure stopped last month at EPIC League CIS, where Akuma ended up being THE talk of the town. 

Akuma's 3rd place at the CIS RMR event and their upset victories over the superstars from NAVI and Virtus.pro, has resulted in a sky-rocketing climb on HLTV's World Ranking for Dmitriy "SENSEi" Shvorak and company. They now occupy an impressive #20 place in front of big teams like FaZe, fnatic, and Evil Geniuses. 

After their surprising and astounding results at EPIC League CIS, which featured a 16-2/16-10 win against s1mple and NAVI, Akuma has received heavy critique and severe allegations from 14 out of 16 participating teams, who believe Valve should initiate an investigation of Akuma, quoting:

- we suspect that the AKUMA team/players received live data from third parties on external devices in order to gain the unfair advantage of seeing opponents’ positions on the map at all times.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"cis-teams-join-forces-initiate-investigation-akuma","isNewTab":true}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"navi-coach-alleged-cheaters-personally-think-they-were-cheating-100","isNewTab":false}]

Natus Vincere

The Counter-Strike scene is currently seeing several controversial and disputed incident and topics, with the CIS RMR event EPIC League CIS 2021 being right in the centre of discussion. Allegedly, the tournament had problems with providing an anti-cheat program to catch potential wrongdoers. 

The lack of anti-cheat followed by a series of surprising upsets by Akuma and some "strange-looking" clips, sparked a heavy debate and also cheating accusations against Dmitriy "SENSEi" Shvorak, Sergey "Sergiz" Atamanchuk, and the rest of the team.

Something, B1ad3 has given his perception of on the latest episode of HLTV Confirmed. The NAVI coach has a very clear view, as he is 100% sure that they cheated at the Major qualifier.  

[twitchClip:RepleteBlitheWalrusSSSsss-d-kzmBkXF_yeVlw0]

[twitchClip:HungryArtisticTaroTBTacoLeft-EO5oo0AjJQLuc1ec]

Sergiz

The Ukrainian AWPer Dmitriy “SENSEi” Shvorak has been playing fantastic lately with a rating of 1.35 in the last three months, and his team has been playing on a very high level as well.

The Ukrainian organization has beaten Virtus.pro and Natus Vincere in one week, a fantastic performance for the team, where SENSEi has been performing on a very high level against both.

Earlier this week before the game between Natus Vincere, where he stated the following.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"sensei-think-play-like-s1mple","isNewTab":true}]

And the young Ukrainian has put some great performances behind those words, in the games between the Russian giants

[twitchClip:HotIgnorantApeTTours-BglJIxuaUG64ejqf]

s1mple

Virtus.pro

Akuma did it again! The Ukrainian underdogs proved themselves against another CIS giant taking down Virtus.pro in two maps.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"akuma-destroys-navi-s1mples-worst-performance","isNewTab":false}]

The Ukrainians managed to win after two very convincing maps on Mirage and Dust2. They established a good lead in the first halves, and never really looked back. Again it was SENSEi and DemQQ who were leading the show putting in some very impressive numbers. 

On the other side of the server, YEKINDAR had an off-day, which did not help a struggling Virtus.pro roster, who was constantly trailing their Ukrainian counterparts. It ended in a bit of a humiliation with a 16-6 win on Dust2 for Akuma. Another huge surprise gives Akuma access to the Upper final against Gambit, while Virtus.pro needs to make a run in the lower bracket.

Akuma - Virtus.pro 2-0 | EPIC CIS League 2021

16-9 (Mirage) |  SENSEi – 1.40 Rating / 20-15 K-D / 95.2 ADR

16-6 (Dust2) |  DemQQ – 1.74 Rating / 28-12 K-D / 117.1 ADR

MVP:  Sergiy 'DemQQ' Demchenko – 1.50 Rating / 48-21 K-D / 87.9 ADR

DemQQ

YEKINDAR

Ukraine's Akuma has been a positive surprise at EPIC CIS League so far. The team is on a six win-streak, but will that be enough against mighty Natus Vincere?

The match will feature two of Ukraine's best AWP'ers, with Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev going up against Dmitriy "SENSEi" Shvorak, who has been on fire so far at the tournament.

The match will start after the conclusion of Virtus.pro vs forZe.

The Ukrainian AWPer look forward to the meeting with a big team like NaVi, and stated the following:

They are humans like we are, we are just more observant that vi have nothing to lose and all to win

SENSEi commented on his own abilities and similarities to other players like device and s1mple:

I think I play like s1mple. If everything goes wrong, I will go out and rip them apart. If the bullets are flying, no one can stop me. It´s the same way s1mple plays.

Watch if SENSEi can win against s1mple´s troops today at 19:00 on Pley.gg.

[link:{"url":"https://gameinside.ua/materials/ya-igraju-pohozhe-na-simpla-esli-letit-menya-ne-ostanovit-intervju-s-sensei-o-matche-s-navi-i-uspehe-na-epic-league/279773/?fbclid=IwAR2gVwCYbddM-_0ZHeTgb2sdfpuwL5ntgnctXEr1vpTUD9rK6iqadySbcHg","isNewTab":true,"text":"Read the full interview here:"}] 

Three Ukrainian in the top three of best-rated players at the event so far, a perfect performance, especially by SENSEi who has played maybe the best event of his career.

Watch some highlights from SENSEi´s career here:

If you think of a Ukrainian superstar, it will forever be the man, the myth s1mple and of course, he is to be seen at the top of the ratings, only defeated by SENSEi.

Gambit has been outrageously good this year, but it seems like the gear has dropped a little in the last weeks, maybe the team needs a little break after all these tournaments.

But Gambit is playing against Nemiga, and possibly the stat sheet will be updated after this match.

chopper

There was no doubt about today´s outcome before the game, but Akuma made the impossible possible after a great first map, they fought bravely, but Gambit ended up winning.

The first map was on Mirage, where Gambit got themselves a great start with 9-6 in the first half as the T side, and it seemed to be a walk in the park for the roster.

But Akuma had one outrageously good player today, Dmitriy “SENSEi” Shvorak played fantastic, and gave Akuma an opportunity at the map.

The unknown roster came back in the game and made it to overtime after a perfect performance as the T side, where especially SENSAi played fantastic.

They won the second half 9-6 as the T side as well.

Gambit ended up winning the overtime 10-8 which resulted in a victory for the big team 25-23 after a great fight by the unknown roster.

In the second map at Vertigo, Gambit outplayed Akuma as expected, a nearly perfect performance by the Russian side.

They were in front with 12-3 at half time, and the ending was just a formality.

They won the second half 4-1 and won the game 16-4.

The thing that we will remember from today´s game was SENSEi´s performance against a tier 1 team.

Gambit – Akuma 2-0| EPIC League CIS 2021

Mirage: 25-23 | SENSEi – 1.59 Rating – 100.6 ADR – 50-27 K/D

Vertigo: 16-4| interz – 1.72 Rating – 89.9 ADR – 17-4 K/D

MVP: Sergey “Ax1Le" Rykhtorov – 1.25 Rating – 77.7 ADR – 49-37 K/D

Viewers MVP: Dmitriy “SENSEi” Shvorak – 1.20 Rating – 83.0 ADR – 55-42 K/D

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

SENSEi

Player stats

Articles mentioning SENSEi

Ukrainians part ways with their star player

ex-Akuma duo picked up by Ukrainian team

El1an on Entropiq benching: Maybe they should have done it earlier

Pley of the Day: Crazy 1v5 clutch by SENSEi!

LIVE: Akuma vs Gambit

Pley of the Day: SENSEi takes down French ponies with his AWP!

Live: DBL PONEY vs Akuma

The Australian sterling has been the best the last month!

Akuma AWPer: We cannot be responsible for our ex-CEO’s activities on betting sites

Ukrainians climb massive 118 spots on the World Ranking

NAVI coach: Personally, I think they were cheating – 100%

Video: SENSEi the new s1mple with 4 AWP kills at bombsite

Akuma delivers another upset - Virtus.pro blasted down to lower bracket

Live: Natus Vincere vs Akuma (0-1)

SENSEi: I think I play like s1mple

Ukrainian domination at EPIC League CIS 2021

Gambit won against new star

Follow Pley