CS2 2026 Rostermania Recap – Everything You Need To Know

As the festive break approached at the end of last year, Counter-Strike fans across the globe were eagerly awaiting a prophesied storm of roster changes at the top level of the game. Whilst the 2025/26 “Rostermania” period was perhaps not as explosive as we were expecting, there were a number of big, important changes made that are more than worth talking about. Today, we’re going to take a quick look at some of the more important roster moves from the winter break, so you can head into the new season informed.

100 Thieves

We’re starting the recap with one of the most interesting prospects in CS at the moment – 100 Thieves. After his unceremonious benching from FaZe Clan, Håvard “rain” Nygaard has teamed up with another couple of legends (namely Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander) to build a brand new international roster.

Alex “poiii” Nyholm Sundgren, William “sirah” Kjærsgaard, and André “Ag1l” Gil make up the rest of the squad, with dev1ce on the big green, and rain stepping into the IGL role for the first time in his career. Bolstered by the experienced gla1ve in the coaching spot, 100 Thieves are looking to grind together and prove that rain and international rosters are a match made in heaven.

9INE

After benching Josef “faveN” Baumann and deciding not to continue with Mădălin-Andrei “MoDo” Mirea after the end of his contract, 9INE have made a new pickup for the season. Bartosz “bnox” Niebisz has joined after a six-month stint on Eternal Fire. Still on the lookout for their fifth player, 9INE will be looking for a more successful year in 2026.

paiN 

After a mostly lacklustre 2025, paiN Gaming moved Franco “dgt” Garcia and David “dav1deuS” Tapia Maldonado to the bench. In their place, the roster has returned to an all-Brazilian lineup with the additions of Vinicius “vsm” Moreira and Guilherme “piriajr” Barbosa. Whilst the previous roster did make it to a third-place finish at the BLAST Austin Major 2025, it will be consistency and deep runs that the new lineup will be searching for throughout the first season of ‘26.

GamerLegion

GamerLegion has undergone a significant strategic overhaul in the last few weeks, with both an IGL change and their coach stepping down. Longtime GL coach Ashley “⁠ash⁠” Battye has stepped away from Counter-Strike for a while, due to burnout. Alongside this, the organization moved Erik “ztr” Gustafsson to the bench, and Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski returns to the helm of GamerLegion. It’ll be interesting to see if this new tactical approach will be able to unlock a little more from Milan “hypex” Polowiec, as GL have seemed a difficult team to AWP for, of late.

NIP

Ninjas in Pyjamas have made the somewhat surprising decision to move Michel “ewjerkz” Magalhães to the bench. In his place, Artem “cairne” Mushynskyi joins from Inner Circle. After a 2025 spent grinding an awful lot of VRS tournaments, NIP are looking to truly break into the Tier One scene once more.

Astralis

One of the most storied organizations in Counter-Strike, Astralis have had a pretty rough ride of it for some time now. Heading into 2026, it would appear that there is no change to that particular portion of the status quo, as the org has made the decision to go international for the first time. 

With both Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz and Emil “Magisk” Reif leaving the squad, Astralis have finalized their new roster with the additions of Swedish AWPer Love “phzy” Smidebrant and Lithuanian rifler Gytis “ryu” Glušauskas. After his time on G2, will IGL Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen be able to take another international lineup to victory?

Also, as something of a footnote, Martin “stavn” Lund has announced that he has left Astralis and is looking to make a return to professional CS.

BC.Game

Will 2026 be the year that Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev returns to Tier One CS? BC.Game clearly hope so, with a significant number of roster changes made in the offseason. Gone are Nemanja “nexa” Isaković, Andreas “aNdu” Maasing, and Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski. In their place, the SAW core of Christopher “MUTiRiS” Fernandes, António “aragornN” Barbosa, and Adones “krazy” Nobre. Also, Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas has joined as coach.

This VRS core offers a high chance for s1mple and Denis “electroNic” Sharipov to grind their way into the upper echelons of professional Counter-Strike throughout the year. The only question that remains is whether this significant shakeup work in their favor.

M80

Over the winter break, M80 made the decision not to continue with Jadan “HexT” Postma, instead opting to pick up ex-Wildcard rifler Joshua “JBa” Barutt. M80 continue to look like an exciting prospect, and will be hunting for deep runs throughout the coming season.

Spirit

Another one of the teams on everyone’s lips at the moment, Spirit made a couple of pretty hefty roster changes over the offseason. Longtime IGL Leonid “chopper” Vishnyakov is gone, as is Ivan “zweih” Gogin. In their place, two familiar names return to the starting lineup. Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotia rejoins, alongside Boris “magixx” Vorobyev, who now steps into the IGL role. With these changes comes an undeniable increase in firepower. No doubt Spirit will be hoping that this added baseline of fragging potential will be enough to let Danil “donk” Kryshkovets shine to the fullest of his potential.

PARIVISION

Speaking of zweih, he wasn’t long without a home after his departure from Spirit. PARIVISION have picked up the young rifler, moving Andrey “AW” Anisimov to the bench. Hopefully for the ex-Spirit player, operating under Dzhami “Jame” Ali’s system will activate him and give him the space and structure needed to grow in confidence and skill.

AURORA 

AURORA have made a change in the offseason, opting to bench Samet “jottAAA” Köklü and add relatively unknown Caner “soulfly” Kesici to the main roster. After a disappointing year for the Turkish team, they’ll be hoping for much better results heading into the first season of 2026.

The MongolZ

Over the Christmas period, we fans of Counter-Strike got our answer to the question of whether Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold would be returning to the main roster of The MongolZ. The answer, ostensibly, is no. Instead, the admittedly impressive stand-in Unudelger “controlez” Baasanjargal has been left by the wayside, and Anarbileg “cobrazera” Uuganbayar has been picked up.

His lack of return to the Mongolian squad notwithstanding, Senzu has announced that he wants to return to the top level of CS, and has even suggested that he would be open to AWPing. It remains to be seen how he – and The MongolZ – progress throughout the year.

HEROIC

HEROIC have made a roster change. Crazy, right? This time, Simon “yxngstxr” Boije has found his way to the bench, with Tim “susp” Ångström being picked up. After a disappointing 2025, HEROIC will be looking to find their feet as a team capable of hanging with the big boys at the top of the game.

Fnatic

After benching aggressive, space-taking rifler Cai “CYPHER” Watson earlier in 2025, Fnatic have benched Benjamin “blameF” Bremer in the search for a more aggressive, space-taking rifler. Of course, they did the natural thing and picked up…Pavle “maden” Bošković.

They are reportedly looking for a more entry-centric, aggressive playstyle as they head into the new season. As a UK Counter-Strike fan, I am saying nothing.

So, there you have it. A quick rundown of some of the bigger roster moves over the 2025/26 winter offseason. If you’re looking to get your level up to the point that you might be the next talent to be scouted, make sure you get yourself familiar with the roles in team CS, perfect your utility usage, and get your solo-queue grind on. Good luck, and have fun!