CYPHER is the final player of the European squad.
BLEED has announced the final addition to the CS2 roster, acquiring Cai "CYPHER" Watson from TSM. The British player arrived after a short time on TSM. However, CYPHER played a crucial role in leading Into the Breach to the playoffs in terms of the Blast.tv Paris Major.
The current BLEED squad was assembled by Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunovic, a Serbian coach with international experience.
BLEED's CS2 roster
The team that's competing under the BLEED flag in CS2 includes:
- Hampus "Hampus" Poser
- Josef “faveN” Baumann
- Laurențiu “lauNX” Țârlea
- Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov
- Cai “CYPHER” Watson
Coach kassad chose to be very transparent in his player recruitment process for the BLEED CS2 team. On X, kassad listed his priorities in assembling the team when he made his arrival to the organization official.
"The first two positions I will be looking to fill are 1. In-Game Leader [and] 2. Sniper," he wrote back in Nov. 28. On Jan. 2, he wrote about the importance of communication between fans and organizations.
Hampus was the first player announced by BLEED. The in-game leader (IGL) came from Ninjas in Pyjamas after getting benched in October.
The team's sniper will be CeRq, a Bulgarian player who had Evil Geniuses as his last stint. Although he was once considered one of the best in the world in his position, CeRq's last few months at Evil Geniuses were below expectations.
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Kassad also made a point of explaining the sniper's hiring. "Many people doubting this [move,] but they forget [I] did exactly the same thing with jkaem in 2018," he wrote.
On the other hand, faveN joined the team after a period below expectations at BIG. At the German club, he transferred from Sprout in 2021 as "the most expensive deal for a German player." The player was temporarily removed from BIG a few times during his time in the organization.
On the Team Falcons bench, lauNX arrived on loan with an option to buy. Finally, as mentioned, CYPHER completed the BLEED roster in CS2.
Almost deals for BLEED CS2
In his communication and transparency process of building the team, kassad revealed some missed targets. On the G2 bench, Justin "jks" Savage turned down BLEED. Kassad and the Australian player worked together at Renegades and 100 Thieves.
Max "maxster" Jansson, a young promise from Ninjas in Pyjamas, had everything to be a BLEED player, but details such as the player's registration with RMR prevented the deal.
Kassad also revealed that BLEED contacted BLAST to be a part of the franchised circuit. The tournament organizer expanded the number of teams by four for 2024, but it seems that the four places already have owners.
