groove steps down as Sports Director of Gambit

Gambit has officially announced Konstantin "groove" Pikiner's resigning from the post of the organization’s Sports Director. In the future, the 39-year-old Russian will focus only on the coaching duties of the CS:GO roster, which he has been carrying out for the past year and a half in addition to his managerial work.

The announcement of groove stepping down as Sports Director followed shortly after rumors about the club's intentions to sell their roster. As of now, the information published by insider Alexey "OverDrive" Birukov has not been commented on by any representative of the Russian organization.

groove was appointed as Gambit’s coach in the fall of 2020, but initially worked in tandem with Ivan "F_1N" Kochugov. Pikiner became a permanent coach after PGL Major Stockholm 2021 because of Kochugov’s ban by Valve, due to which he could not attend any Major and Major-qualifying events.

With groove as head coach, Gambit topped the HLTV.org’s world ranking for several months at the beginning of 2021 after victories at IEM Katowice 2021, IEM Summer 2021 and BLAST Premier Spring Final 2021.