On Thursday, Nemiga Gaming announced that Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov joins their CS:GO roster after an agreement between them and K23 to exchange snipers was reached. This means that Artyom “iDISBALANCE” Egorov leaves the organization to join forces with Rassim “Jyo” Valijev and Konstantin “Raijin” Trubarov at K23.

Nemiga Gaming have been making some roster changes lately and still have two open spots on the team left to fill after the switch of AWPers. The organization thanked their now former AWPer on Twitter for his time under their banner.

xsepower

iDISBALANCE

Nemiga Gaming

K23’s active CS:GO roster has been reduced to three players as the organization has made the decision to move Bodgan “xsepower” Chernikov and Vladislav “FinigaN” Usov to the bench, making them both available for transfer.

Following a 2-3 campaign at the Regional Major Ranking (RMR) event earlier this month, K23 failed to qualify for the Major in Brazil. In the decisive match, the Russian squad faced the Germans from BIG and lost in overtime on the third map of the series. K23 also had already missed the PGL Antwerp Major earlier this year, and decided to bring in Konstantin “Raijin” Trubarov, Timur “clax” Sabirov, and FinigaN to the team.

23-year-old FinigaN only arrived to the team back in August, replacing former captain Sanzhar “neaLaN” Iskhakov who signed with Evil Geniuses, while xsepower was one of the roster’s longest-serving members, being a part of the team since October 2021 with Daniil “X5G7V” Maryshev.

Xsepower helped the CIS organization win several small events, such as the Funspark ULTI European Playoffs in December 2021, Pinnacle Winter Series in February 2022, and Thunderpick Bitcoin Series in March 2022, while FinigaN, on the other hand, didn’t stay long enough to help the team win any titles.

FinigaN

The second quarter-final of Pinnacle Winter Series ended with an upset victory for K23. The CIS team defeated Heroic after three close-fought maps.

It was Heroic who started best by winning K23’s map pick on Mirage. Martin ‘stavn’ Lund spearheaded the defense of Heroic to win them the first map of the match. K23 immediately retaliated on Nuke. A huge 15-5 lead set them up to the map win, but it was not without difficulties. Heroic made it all the way back to 14-15 before the CIS team managed to deny the comeback.

Overpass was set as the final battleground in the match. Again it was Heroic who had to pull off another comeback in the match after going 14-9 down. At 14-14, it was Bogdan 'xsepower' Chernikov who put K23 into a prime position to win the match with an AWP clutch. Like it happened on Nuke, Heroic came short in the end, and K23 took the upset victory after an excellent ending to the match.

The CIS team will face Copenhagen Flames in the semi-finals at Pinnacle Winter Series.

Updated: After the match the Heroic in-game leader Casper "cadiaN" Møller announced, that he had been tested positive for Covid-19 shortly before the match.

K23 - Heroic 2-1 | Pinnacle Winter Series 1

12-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:DK} stavn – 1.36 Rating / 24-16 K-D / 100.9 ADR

16-14 (Nuke) | {cflag:RU} xsepower – 1.36 Rating / 23-15 K-D / 80.0 ADR

16-14 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} fame – 1.27 Rating / 27-21 K-D / 80.2 ADR

stavn

Heroic

Yesterday the underdogs from K23 managed to batter the superstars from Astralis in the opening round at Funspark ULTI Finals 2021. The highlight performer for K23 in upset victory ended up being the former forZe AWPer Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov, who also got this outstanding ace on Mirage against Benjamin "blameF" Bremer and company. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"k23-defeats-astralis-after-thriller-match-funspark-ulti","isNewTab":true}]

Astralis

The former number 1 team in the world, Astralis, kickstarted their 2022 season with a match against K23 at Funspark Ulti 2021 Finals.

Mirage laid the ground for the first map. K23 found momentum at the beginning of the match leading 9-6 at halftime. After the break, Astralis managed to fight their way back and force the map to overtime. Worth noting was the return of Philip “Lucky” Ewald on the AWP, which proved to be a good idea for the Danes, who could see Lucky contributing with 21 AWP kills during the map. In the end, though, it was not enough against K23, who locked in their map pick by winning after double overtime.

The match continued on Astralis territory on Inferno. Here the Danes and especially the lethal blameF and k0nfig duo left no doubt of the outcome. Astralis plowed through their opponents and won the map in comfortable style.

Overpass was left as the decider. Here the Russians started as CTs and immediately started to dominate in the first half. The question was if the 10-5 lead was enough on the map, where CT’s often has the upper hand. During the second half, it became evident, that Astralis was not out of the match yet. The Danes took the lead for the first time on the map at 13-12.

K23 answered back with style, and for the second time in the match, we had to settle the score in overtime. Here Astralis only managed to win one of their CT rounds, which gave K23 the momentum needed for swinging the match in their favor. K23 won 19-16 and knocks Astralis down to the lower bracket of the tournament.

K23 - Astralis 2-1 | Funspark Ulti 2021 Finals

Mirage (22-19) | xsepower – 1.35 rating / 35-24 K-D / 81.3 ADR

Inferno (8-16) | blameF – 1.77 rating / 22-9 K-D / 99.6 ADR

Overpass (19-16) | blameF – 1.54 rating / 33-19 K-D / 104.3 ADR

MVP: Benjamin "blameF" Bremer | 1.48 rating / 88-49 K-D / 94.3 ADR

blameF

k0nfig

After losing the two veteran players of K23's previous line-up in Rustem "mou" Telepov and Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev just four days ago, K23 have already found their replacements. It has now been officially announced that Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov and Daniil "X5G7V" Maryshev is going to be the team's two new additions. 

The changes made to the roster come after a disappointing run at the IEM Fall 2021 CIS event where they managed nothing more than a single victory in the group stages and ended up with a 9th.-10th. place finish. The lackluster performance at the event also meant that K23 would not be participating in the upcoming PGL Major in Stockholm, Sweden. 

Whether or not the new additions to the roster will help K23 reach their desired heights is still unsure, however, the two new additions have already had a successful debut at REPUBLEAGUE TIPOS, with K23 advancing to the play-in bracket. 

The current K23 roster, with the addition of "xsepower" and "X5G7V" look as follows: 

X5G7V

Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov who was one of the key components of forZe’s impressive rise throughout 2018 and 2019, has announced that he will be moving into free agency.

The 23-year-old had spent around seven months on forZe’s bench alongside Dmitry “facecrack” Alekseyev after the organization decided to replace them with Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko and Aleksandr “KENSI” Gurkin.

Since then, xsepower and facecrack has been playing under the bankaPEPSI banner with former HellRaisers core Nikita “JlaYM” Panyushkin, Nikolaj “kalinka” Rysakov, and Dmitriy “ProbLeM” Martinov. Most recently the mixed team failed to advance through the Funspark ULTI Europe Ragional Qualifier event.

{cflag:RU} Almaz “almazer” Asadullin 

{cflag:RU} Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov 

{cflag:RU} Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko

facecrack

forZe

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

MICHU

MAD Lions

Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov has been transfer listed on the Russian top team as of Today, forZe confirms in a statement on Twitter. The 22-year old Russian has been a long-standing servant for the team, having represented them since April 2018. 

At forZe, xsepower developed into a powerful AWPer with great numbers and impact, and he concluded last year as the best performer among his teammates, by presenting a strong 1.16 Rating and a 1.27 K-D Ratio.

The CEO on forZe, Sergey “MegioN” Ignatko has put to a statement regarding the parting.

“It is very difficult to make this kind of decisions, especially for players like Bogdan and Dima who have been with us for such a long time. But together with the team we came to the conclusion that it's time to try something new.” - 

The announcement of xsepower’s departure comes after the confirmation of two new forZe signings only yesterday, in the young duo of Alexander 'KENSI' Gurkin and 'Zorte' Zagodyrenko. Two players will round off the roster, as xsepower seeks a new home. 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/forze-sign-young-russian-duo/","text":"Read more: forZe sign young Russian duo"}]

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/facecrack-benched-forze/","text":"Read more: facecrack benched by forZe"}]

forZe have just announced that their player Dmitriy "facecrack" Alekseyev has been benched and placed on the transfer list. The fact that "facecrack" has been benched and transfer-listed is not a surprise, as forZe for quite some time have utilized stand-ins as a replacement for the 26-year-old Russian. 

The organization has stated that in addition to the news regarding "facecrack", they will be announcing more changes to their roster in the near future. The roster changes will likely concern the team's AWP'er Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov, as he too has been replaced by stand-ins in the team's previous tournament appearances. 

Both "facecrack" and "xsepower" are currently replaced by stand-ins Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko and Aleksandr "Kiro" Sherov as the team participates in the Snow Sweet Snow 1 event. Earlier today forZe managed to beat Sinners in their opening round of the event without fielding "facecrack" and "xsepower" in their roster line-up. 

Kiro

zorte

Forze and HellRaisers bested their opponents in the closed qualifier and can now look forward to the Dreamhack Open January Europe tournament. The Russian roster of Forze was the standout team at the closed qualifier as they won both their games 2-0. Forze seems more than ready for the new season and even managed their results with two of their star players in Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov and Dmitriy "facecrack" Alekseyev missing.

The tournament will take place from January 27-31 and features eight competitors fighting for the $70.000 prize pool. The best team participating in the tournament is, according to the official HLTV world rankings, the BIG roster. BIG is currently placed 4th. in the world after their impressive performance in an otherwise tumultuous year of Counter-Strike. 

The eight participating teams are as follows: 

HellRaisers

Sprout

Evil Geniuses

Gambit Esports

Spirit

As usual, the AWP produced some stunning moments in the past year.

The Youtuber "VirreCSGO" has collected all the incredible AWP highlights from 2020.

In 2020 Bogdan "xsepower" Chernikov made the most kills with the AWP. A total of 5412 times the Russian killed an opponent with the Sniper Rifle.

sh1ro

CRUC1AL

syrsoN

The strong roster of Cloud9 couldn’t live up to the hype, in their matchup against forZe at the semifinals of MIDNITE Nine to Five 7. The American team lost to a better side, where the Russian team was in control for the majority of the match.

A well playing Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov led his team in two strong showings on Mirage and Inferno and ended the series with a 1.32 rating.

16-5 (Mirage) xsepower 1.77 rating / 19-6 K-D / 90.6 ADR

16-14 (Nuke) Jerry 1.23 rating / 25-21 K-D / 85.7 ADR

forZe will meet their countrymen from Gambit in the Grand Final, which is set to begin at 12:00 (CET).

Jerry

Cloud9

Envy lost their first official match since June despite dominating the first map of the series. forZe made an impressive comeback to win on Mirage (16-10) and Nuke (16-11)

Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov dominated the server with a 1.49 rating, 96.1 ADR, and a 63-37 K-D.

The Russian team will now progress to Group B’s upper final, where they will face off the winner of BIG vs. MIBR.

	30 days	90 days
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xsepower

Player stats

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