



By Tomi “lurppis” Kovanen

With 2016 coming to an end, it’s time to look back and reflect on all that happened during the year. In the case of CS:GO, that means taking stock of the roster swaps that headed around the world. Here were the five biggest movers in 2016.

View photos Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz (ESL) More

Peter “stanislaw” Jarguz to OpTic

Though OpTic also picked up Óscar “mixwell” Cañellas and Tarik “tarik” Celik in 2016, neither was a true catalyst to bigger and better things. As soon as stanislaw completed the roster, however, OpTic made solid top six finishes at ESL One New York and ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals. Following a last place exit at DreamHack Winter, the team stormed through ELEAGUE to win the championship and placed second at ECS Season 2 Finals. Effectively, OpTic went from a good North American team to an international semi-contender. What more could you ask for from an in-game leader pick-up?



View photos Timothy “autimatic” Ta (Cloud9) More

Timothy “autimatic” Ta to Cloud9



While Cloud9’s in-game leader Jake “Stewie2K” Yip might be a fan-favorite over autimatic, it is unquestionable that the addition of the latter is what allowed Cloud9 to become a top team. Stewie2K took some time to settle in at the top level of Counter-Strike, and his team put together no meaningful results through August. But once autimatic joined, Cloud9 went on a run of six top four finishes, including the ESL Pro League Season 4 Finals win. The team has fallen off a cliff since, but the duo should help Cloud9 remain competitive throughout 2017.

View photos Emil “Magiskb0Y” Reif (SK Gaming) More

Emil “Magiskb0Y” Reif to dignitas



I suggested in July that Magiskb0Y would be a good fit in dignitas, and that turned out to be true, to say the least. Once he replaced Jesper “TENZKI” Plougmann, the Danes made top four at SL i-League StarSeries Season 2 Finals and DreamHack Open Bucharest and got their one big win of 2016 at EPICENTER: Moscow, where they bested Na`Vi and Virtus.pro in best-of-three series. Much like Cloud9, dignitas have since fallen off, at least partly due to an incredibly busy travel schedule, but most of us expect them to bounce back once given some time to work on their tactics-heavy game. In short, Magiskb0Y made dignitas a contender in no time.



View photos Team Liquid at ESL One Cologne 2016 (ESL) More

Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev to Liquid



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