FORZE Esports Bench Krad

On Thursday, July 20, FORZE Esports announced the signing of Aleksei "El1an" Gusev and Dmitry "sstiNiX" Khlebnikov as a part of the rebuild process and recently unveiled another change, moving Krad to the bench. The 24-year-old was initially reported to remain on the team, but the organisation and the player had a change of heart earlier today, moving the player to the transfer list.

Krad joins Andrey "Jerry" Mekhryakov and Aleksandr "zorte" Zagodyrenko on FORZE’s bench. The latter two have been moved from the active lineup on Thursday to make room for the sstiNiX and El1an, who joined the Russian CS:GO team as a part of the rebuild process.

The major roster overhaul comes shortly after FORZE gained some traction in their competitive endeavours. After a five-month dry streak, during which FORZE haven't won a single tournament, the Russian squad placed top four at BetBoom Playlist. Freedom, won their first tournament of the year in late May (CCT Online Finals #1) and made the semifinals of ESL Challenger Katowice 2023 ahead of the summer break.

Yet despite the late resurgence, FORZE decided to freshen up its roster with the young prodigy, sstiNiX, and an experienced AWPer, El1an. The changes also led to the departure of Jerry, who has been with FORZE since September 2018, and zorte, who was let go after nearly 2.5 years. Krad, as the latest announced departee, has been with FORZE for just over seven months, having joined the Russian team in December 2022.

Throughout his stint with FORZE Esports, Krad has averaged a 1.02 performance rating and has helped the team qualify for the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 and ESL Pro League Season 17. Yet despite the achievements FORZE have accomplished in May, the team had to explore their options.

Adding sstiNiX does seem a bit risky as he's an unproven 18-year-old who has just 87 official matches under his belt. He was most recently a part of INVS stack, with who he has competed in some lesser online events but has never before appeared in top leagues.

On the other side, El1an is one of the most accomplished Russian players, mostly known for his stint with Entropiq, who he helped reach top-10 in the global CS:GO rankings, serving as the star player of the team. Most recently, El1an was a member of K23, with who he competed in mostly smaller events and various qualifiers without achieving much success.

FORZE has already played their first games with the new-look roster at Russian Cybersport League 2023: Regular Season, where they're currently unbeaten, sporting a perfect 6-0 record with wins against VIBE (2-0), K23 (2-0), ex-Invictus Gaming International (2-0), Insilio (2-0), ARCRED (2-0), and Cosmo (2-0).