9z already showed some exciting Counter-Strike this year.
If South America were to build a super team in CS2, Franco "dgt" Garcia from 9z certainly would be part of the lineup.
The rifler is undoubtedly the best Counter-Strike player ever from Uruguay and has proved over his long tenure with 9z — five years and three months at the time of this writing on August 2024 — that he's good enough to play against the best players in the world.
Many offers to leave 9z came along these five years, but dgt has always opted to stay while he saw some of his great teammates leave to join other teams. Now, after G2 recently picked up the Guatemalan star Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa, perhaps more European teams will start looking into the Americas to sign talented players with good English.
While an offer from a team as big as G2 sounds attractive to dgt, he's more than happy to stay in 9z and win one big tournament for Latin America first, he told esports.gg at BetBoom Dacha CS2 2024 in Belgrade, Serbia.
"I've considered leaving 9z to challenge myself to give my 100% on another team as well and see if I also play well there, but the truth is I'm very happy with my teammates and the organization," dgt said. "Maybe if a team like G2 comes knocking, who knows, but I'm still improving my English and I don't know if I'm on that level yet. My dream is to win a big trophy with 9z and help them become a stable top-10 team."
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9z dgt wants to leave a mark and pave the way for future Latin American players
Like the two-time Major champion Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo, who paved the way for Brazilian Counter-Strike in the transition from CS 1.6 to CS:GO, dgt also wants to leave his mark in the region.
Nowadays, the life of a South American pro is hard as they must eventually move to Europe to improve their game and consequently be away from their family and friends at home. The conditions in South America aren't good enough yet to retain players there all year as there is a lack of infrastructure and money to fully support the scene.
However, dgt thinks that if he leaves his mark, maybe future Latin American players will have at least a bit of an easier journey.
"When you grow up in a place and you see how hard it is in comparison to other places, you want to leave your mark and pave the way for the future generation, so it's at least a bit easier for them," dgt said. "I love our region and the passion that we Argentinians, Brazilians, Uruguayans, and Chileans have."
9z are looking to redeem themselves at BetBoom Dacha after an early elimination from IEM Cologne earlier this month. The South American mix certainly have what it takes to do better as they already showed good Counter-Strike at IEM Dallas in May.
On that occasion, they defeated MOUZ, Team Liquid, and Vitality, and only lost to G2, who won the tournament, in the semifinals. 9z will play against Falcons on their BetBoom Dacha debut on Aug. 24 and try to grab one of the two spots in the playoffs versus Falcons, paiN, and BetBoom.
That's all for now. Stay tuned to esports.gg for more BetBoom Dacha CS2 2024 content live from Belgrade.