"Sources Say" is a new column that will ideally come out weekly, but we'll see how it goes. It will focus on discussions and behind-the-scenes developments I can confirm or plainly just feel confident are happening, even if they don't lead to any official moves. "X team are targeting Y player," or "A player has been practicing with B team," -- that type of stuff.​





FACEIT ​announced today via HLTV that the Minor roster lock had not been changed since July 1. On that day, teams were sent the rule book, which had allegedly been approved by Valve. This leaves me questioning why Casdueh, the coach of OpTic, wasn’t aware of this new rule change that allows Minor participating players to join Major teams ahead of the FACEIT London Major. Even further, why didn’t a member of any other team respond or contact him privately to explain the rule had changed? I’m not saying FACEIT is lying, but I am disappointed if not one team had reviewed the Minor rules before participating. That’s particularly unprofessional.





Assuming all of the teams did receive this updated rulebook, I’m left with a few simple criticisms. First, when a public figure like Casdueh speaks about the rule, jump in front of it and make it publicly clear with a statement as soon as possible. The longer you let fans run with the premise that rules changed unexpectedly, the more difficult it will be to re-write the narrative. Responding to random Reddit comments doesn’t suffice. Second, when a rule of this magnitude is adjusted, that is worthy of an announcement regardless. The Made in Brazil (former SK Gaming) lineup played two of the last three Majors without its official five-player lineup because the old iterations of this rule. A rule change of this magnitude is significant for past reasons alone and absolutely effects how teams assemble their lineups for the Major. A number of sources have explained that many Minor participants had no idea the rule changed.





Sure, you can argue that they should read the rulebook themselves, but why not play it safe with an announcement?





On to the juicy stuff...





--While the team didn’t knock anyone’s socks off, Cloud9 showed some promise at the ELEAGUE ​CS:GO Premier by showing some fight. For all of those reading this that mindlessly upvoted images and tweets referencing Cloud9 and ScreaM, sorry but it’s not very likely. I’m told, at least at the time of writing this, that Cloud9 hopes to extend the loans on both Golden and STYKO so they can play the Major with Cloud9. After that, the team intends to reevaluate. I’m not sure what the FACEIT rules are on loaned players playing in the same event, but I’m assuming Cloud9 has already done that homework. Of course, there is always a possibility that Mousesports or Fnatic declines to loan the players further in hopes to sell them to an actual buyer ahead of the Major. I’m just telling you the team's current plan.





--A number of people have asked me when I expect snatchie to join Virtus.pro, and I don’t really have an answer at this time. I do know VP intends to attend IEM Shanghai with morelz, which lines up with the fact the team practiced with him all week. I would imagine that after the event is when VP makes the switch, assuming AGO and Virtus.pro finalize an agreement. This is real life, and things can always change. The most discussed player to replace snatchie is szpero, but there is an chance he instead rejoins Kinguin.





Here are a few other small tidbits for the people who follow the deeper ends of the Counter-Strike spectrum:





--Word is that kalle is making a return to CS:GO with a lineup that includes mikk1s, shadow, goffee, and FliP1.





--Another returning player is a veteran player from Russia in VofkiN who will play with OxxolinE, lauti, hatex and XANATOS.





Photo courtesy of Turner Sports/ELEAGUE