Official: HEROIC benches gr1ks

Norwegian esports club HEROIC has officially announced a replacement in its Counter-Strike 2 roster. The organization benched Gleb "gr1ks" Gazin. The official announcement was published on the X social media.

When the spring season wrapped up and summer rolled in, we made changes to our starting lineup and coaching staff. That marked the beginning of a new roster at HEROIC. During this time, our management made a number of moves to get the team into the right spot. Now, we have to accept that not all the pieces we put together have fit as well as we hoped, and we take full responsibility for that. That’s why we’ve decided to make a change early in the season.

As of today, gr1ks will be stepping out of our active roster. While he brought undeniable quality to the server, his playstyle didn’t fully align with how the team is shaping up. We trust TOBIZ’s direction and are therefore making adjustments to support the team’s long-term growth.

The 19-year-old Belarusian esports athlete joined HEROIC at the end of June this year. With him, the squad placed 13th-16th at FISSURE Playgrounds 1 and IEM Cologne 2025. gr1ks' average rating over the past month is 1.01.

The vacant position in the roster was filled by Alimzhan "alkarenn" Bitimbai, who has been competing for the youth team of Team Spirit for the past year and a half. The Kazakhstani esports athlete joined HEROIC on a loan deal with the possibility of a subsequent full transfer; Bitimbai will debut for the squad at Esports World Cup 2025. At the same time, Rasmus "Scr0b" Poulsen from the club's academy will compete for HEROIC at BLAST Bounty 2025 Season 2.

Currently, HEROIC ranks 18th in the ranking of the best Counter-Strike 2 teams in the world according to Valve.

HEROIC are now:

 Andrey "tN1R" Tatarinovich
 Linus "LNZ⁠" Holtäng
 Simon "yxngstxr" Boije
 Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman
 Alimzhan "alkarenn" Bitimbai

 Tobias "TOBIZ" Theo (coach)

Origin: x.com