Nemanja "nexa" Isaković and his troops of OG will be participating at the IEM Cologne Play-in instead of FORZE. The news has just been announced by ESL on their official Twitter profile. The event is one of the biggest events of the year for the five Russian players of FORZE and they will surely be gutted having been forced to give away their spot at the event to OG. 

The reason why FORZE can not compete at the IEM Cologne play-in is due to visa issues for the five Russian players, as well as their Russian head coach. Per the official rulebook of ESL, the next-highest ranked team, according to the official ESL World Rankings, will be picked as the replacement. 

Next in the rankings were OG, who have undergone plenty of changes as of late. With their in-game leader "nexa" back at the wheel, as well as the addition of three new players, OG are surely an exciting team to follow as they replace FORZE at the IEM Cologne Play-ins beginning July 26 later this month. 

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nexa

forZe

The trio of Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas, Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, and Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjă will continue on OG, who has been active on the transfermarket to complete their lineup for the second part of the season.

Dion "FASHR" Derksen (FNATIC) and Nils "k1to" Gruhne (BIG) joins the roster, where Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas is the only surviving player from the lineup that played at the Paris Major.

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković will return to the roster after having spent time off since the start of the year, while AWP'er Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjă's stand-in performance at IEM Dallas was enough to convince the management of OG to continue the partnership with the Romanian, who was on a free transfer after Copenhagen Flames went bankrupt earlier this year.

FASHR

regali

k1to

F1KU

It looks like the third major overhaul of the OG lineup is about to take place this summer. Yesterday OG announced that they have transfer-listed Adam "NEOFRAG" Zouhar and Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov.

The announcement was in line with what the rumors had already predicted. [link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/36500/sources-og-to-rebuild-around-f1ku-nexa-regali","isNewTab":true,"text":"HLTV"}] and 1pv.fr had reported that OG intended to build their new lineup around Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas, Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, and Iulian "⁠regali⁠" Harjău. Romanian regali has played on the team as a stand-in and will be able to move to OG on a free transfer after Copenhagen Flames went bankrupt earlier this year, while nexa is set to return to the lineup after having spent time on the bench since February.

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With his contract expiring, Shahar "flameZ" Shushan's has been linked with a move to Team Vitality leaving Maciej "⁠F1KU⁠" Miklas as the only current member of the lineup who is set to continue.

OG ended their announcement stating "more updates around the roster are coming soon".

In a blow to OG’s hopes of qualifying for the BLAST Major Paris, the team’s captain, Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic, has been forced to temporarily step back from the team for personal reasons.

The news was announced by the organization on Twitter, where they also revealed that Nikolaj “niko” Kristensen will be joining the team’s starting lineup for the rest of the Major circuit, starting with today’s closed qualifier.

OG has been seeded for the BLAST Paris Major RMR closed qualifier B, which begins today. The team remains determined to qualify for the main event, but the absence of their captain will undoubtedly be felt.

niko, who has previously played for Heroic, is a talented player in his own right and will hopefully be a valuable addition to OG’s roster in this period. However, he will have big shoes to fill in the absence of the team’s respected leader.

This is OG’s lineup for the BLAST Paris Major RMR closed qualifier B:

Astralis came out on top and qualified for the BLAST Spring Final after they took down OG in an intense match. The game came down to an overtime decider where the Danes from Astralis secured themselves their first big win in 2023. OG´s IGL Nemanja "nexa" Isaković talked with BLAST after their disappointing loss to Astralis. 

- I think that the main problem on our CT side right now is that we make too many individual mistakes or that we leave too many gaps to the opponents. Astralis basically knew how to explode our playstyle. We said to ourselves that if we could somehow just grab a couple of rounds we could bring it back on the T-side.

Watch the full clip with the OG IGL here:

[twitchClip:FairHeartlessCourgetteTBTacoLeft-8C9bNntxCiXnplqc]

Read more about the Astralis vs. OG game in the article below:

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Poland has hosted a CS:GO Major four times, while Sweden, USA, and Germany have done it three times. But who should host the 20th edition of the World Championship of CS:GO? 

In May 2023 Paris and France will host the event for the first time, while the location of the second CS:GO Major of the year has yet to be revealed. At the BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi, we asked Nemanja "nexa" Isaković, Keith "NAF" Markovic, and Emil "Magisk" Reif.

The three players gave very different answers which could have something to do with their nationality... For Emil "Magisk" Reif a CS:GO Championship on home soil would be 

- We are the country in the world with the most Majors. The Danish fans deserve a Major in Denmark, but I'm obviously biased so that's me. But I am glad that Brazil also had one. It was an amazing Major and an amazing experience. For me, it is time for a Danish Major to be honest.

Denmark currently hold the record for most CS:GO Championships. 21 times a Dane has won a CS:GO Major, while Sweden is at 20. Emil "Magisk" Reif won a CS:GO Major three times with Astralis in 2018-19.

You can see what NAF and nexa had to say in the video below.

Magisk

Team Vitality

Team Liquid

According to the often-precise transfer insider Aleksey "OverDrive" Biryukov, OG are on the market for a new player going into the upcoming season. Something he revealed on his Twitter yesterday, leaving no hints on who’s the man to be sacrificed on the current OG squad.

The rumours of a potential roster change come after a year where OG already have made a large number of changes with no less than four new players having been introduced to the team this year.

First it was Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic in January, then a double signing in Maciej “F1KU” Miklas and Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar, and lastly Abdul “degster” Gasanov who arrived right after the player break. The young roster with nexa at the helm never really managed to hit the ground running despite the promising lineup.

With OverDrive stating that OG are on the lookout for a new rifler, the spotlight must be on F1KU and NEOFRAG as the most obvious players to be demoted. nexa is the IGL, flameZ has been a standout performer together with degster, being two players OG won’t sack anytime soon.

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We have reached out to OG for a comment on the rumours, however, they haven't replied to the request.

NEOFRAG

degster

flameZ

From the outside perspective, it looks like the in-game leader role on G2 is quite a task to take on your shoulders. Throughout the last 12 months’ time, no more than three individuals have given their attempt in leading the iconic G2 banner.

But is it harder to be an IGL in G2 than in any other team? and why have they struggled to find their footing in 2022?

That’s something we asked the former G2 IGL, Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic on the media day at BLAST World Final.

- I think that it’s hard to play in a team where I feel right now after they brought m0NESY they have three star players or like three playmakers. I think it’s going to be hard for any in-game leader to integrate a functioning system when you have three pieces that want all the spotlight, and want all the good roles, the OG captain says to Pley.gg and continues:

- It’s up to them to kind of restructure the way they want to play or maybe actually find the piece that’s going to put his foot down and take them in the right direction. So yeah, I think that’s mostly been their problem throughout the year.

You can watch the rest of the interview with nexa down below.

G2 Esports

While OG is considered underdogs before their opening match against Heroic at BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi, the pressure is not of for the OG players according to in-game leader Nemanja "nexa" Isaković who looks forward to getting an answer if the team is on the right path or not during the event.

- This tournament will decide a lot of things for us going into the next season. We actually will know, if we are on the right path or if we need to change our approach to the game. Or swap some roles around and then figure out how to make things work better for the next season, nexa told Pley.gg at the Media Day before BLAST World Finals start tomorrow. 

It's now four months since Abdulkhalik "degster" Gasanov joined the roster to complete the revamp of the new lineup with Maciej "F1KU" Miklas and Adam "NEOFRAG" Zouhar having joined the team two months prior. The results have not been great though with early exits from the IEM Rio Major and BLAST Fall Finals. 

- The adjustment period has been a bit rough. We had some really good showings and some really poor ones, so our goal for the next season is trying to get that consistency and see how far we can take it from there, nexa explained.

You can see the full interview with OG's in-game leader, where he also talks about the BLAST Ranking system and their upcoming opponents in Heroic.

Heroic

On Thursday, Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic and his troops from OG got eliminated from the BLAST Premier Fall Final in Copenhagen, Denmark, without winning a single map at the event. It was Ninjas in Pyjamas who handed them a 0-2 defeat to send them packing from the tournament with a 7-8th finish.

After the match, our reporter caught up with the OG captain to talk about what went wrong for the team, and why he thinks they haven’t been able to perform at a decent level for some time.

In the interview, we hear the Serbian IGL say that he believes the team lack too much individual firepower outside of the efforts of Abdul “degster” Gasanov and Shahar “flameZ” Shushan.

Watch the interview with nexa after their exit at BLAST Fall Final right here:

OG has now got two opportunities to qualify for the BLAST Fall Finals event later this year after their win against FaZe.

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After the match we spoke with in-game leader Nemanja "nexa" Isaković, who hailed the performances of his teammates, while also admitting, that there are still many things to improve for the newly formed roster.

Ten days ago OG announced the transfer of the profiled AWPer Abdul “degster” Gasanov after a successful BLAST Spring Final Lisbon campaign, where the 21-year-old Russian ended up as one of the top individual performers.

However, the thing with transfers is that there’s almost every time one person who comes out on the “losing side of things”. In this case, that person is Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski. [link:{"url":"https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/out-of-og-mantuu-can-start-playing-csgo-like-himself-again-1879912/","isNewTab":true,"text":"In an interview with Luis Mira and Dexerto"}], mantuu opens up about the benching and how he has experienced a lack of communication between him and OG, despite having represented the team since 2019. 

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In the interview, manutuu also touches on his own role on the server, while playing under the leadership of both Aleksib and nexa and how he wanted to “fix some things in himself” in order to fit in nexa’s playstyle.

You can read the entire interview right [link:{"url":"https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/out-of-og-mantuu-can-start-playing-csgo-like-himself-again-1879912/","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}].

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mantuu

Aleksib

NAVI returned to the top of CS:GO with an impressive tournament in Lisbon. A massive victory against FaZe ignited s1mple and the rest of the gang to perform like we saw last year. Perhaps a little unexpected for the NAVI side themselves, as s1mple said during a press conference before the tournament.

You can see the press conference, where s1mple also mentions the benching of Boombl4.

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We also spoke with NiKo, who talked about his own role, and how the G2 roster is developing. 

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OG did surprisingly well in the tournament, where the team even had to field a stand-in. In-game leader Nemanja "nexa" Isaković talked about the OG rebuild, and how the team had tried to sign both YEKINDAR and jks.

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One of the key stories of the whole event was the new in-game leader for NAVI, Denis "electroNic" Sharipov. 

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Team Vitality made it all the way to the Grand Final, but in the end apEX and his men had to realize, that NAVI was on another level.

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s1mple was delighted with the win, and also told, that he hoped, that Viktor "sdy" Orudzhev would repeat his stand-in role at the upcoming IEM Cologne.

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s1mple

apEX

NiKo

After OG's impressive upset over s1mple and the rest of NAVI at BLAST Spring Final Lisbon, we got the chance to speak with the man calling the shots at OG - at least on the server - Nemanja "nexa" Isakovic. 

In the interview, nexa touches on the recent rebuild of the roster, where he revealed that NEOFRAG and F1KU weren't their first options. Further down that road, the Serbian also revealed YEKINDAR's price tag on Virtus.pro. 

You can watch the entire interview down below. 

YEKINDAR

Natus Vincere

In one of today’s early matchup at the European Major Qualifier, we saw OG take on the underdogs from Unique. The two sides both faced elimination going into the Bo3 series with the losing team having to head home empty-handed.

The vital battle began on Overpass – a map where OG has managed to post an impressive 80% win rate in the last 3 months’ time. It was therefore maybe a bit surprising Unique decided to pick it for the opener. Because it was also OG, who came out the best with the Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic-led squad picking up a quick 10-5 halftime lead.

After the switch, Unique was more competitive, presenting a solid T-side where they got several fine executes. However, it wasn’t enough against a well-playing nexa who led his OG team to a 16-10 opening win.

OG closed down the series on their own map pick of Ancient, despite an awful start to the map where they went down 10-5 on the T side. But as we saw on the first map, it was OG’s defence that had to save them as they carried out a stellar 11-1 run to clinch the 2-0 victory.

OG – Unique 2-0 | | PGL Major Antwerp 2022 Europe RMR A

16-10 (Overpass) | {cflag:RS} nexa - 1.56 Rating / 28-12 K-D / 90.1 ADR

16-11 (Ancient) | {cflag:PL} mantuu – 1.36 Rating / 25-13 K-D / 77.1 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RS} Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic | 1.42 Rating / 49-30 K-D / 93.8 ADR

After the two amazing opening games of Group B, the winners' match of MIBR vs. OG was up next, and it could almost only be a fantastic game judging by what the teams showed in their opening matches. The map that was agreed upon was Ancient, the same map that OG had just played versus Astralis, and it was up to the Brazilians to show that they could do a better job than Danes did. OG started out on the CT-side, just like the previous game.

MIBR started out great as they convincingly took the pistol round, but their success was short-lived as OG were able to win the following force-buy round. Led by the flourishing duo of "valde" and "flameZ" who both had huge multi-kills, OG dominated the start of the game. MIBR kept fighting back with some great entries that also led to bomb plants, but "nexa" and "niko" had now started hard-fragging as well which made it so much harder for the Brazilians to hold the bombsites they had taken. "nexa" and co. went to the break with a commanding lead of 13-2.

The second half pistol much-needed went the way of MIBR, who were now four for four in pistol rounds on the day. Still behind by ten rounds, MIBR had a long way back into the game but managed to catch on fire with five straight rounds to start the half, before being stopped by the Deagles of OG. The Brazilians kept looking incredibly solid on their CT-side, but they were just too far behind, which meant that "nexa" and his soldiers were able to pull it across the line at 16-9.

MIBR – OG (0-1) | BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022

nexa {cflag:RS} – 1.51 Rating / 22-13 K-D / 90.1 ADR

niko

valde

MIBR

After the massive upset by MIBR, we had the second match of the day featuring two more-evenly matched teams: The Danes of Astralis squaring up against the new-look OG, who recently swapped their old IGL of "Aleksib" for "nexa". It was a bit expected that the brawl would take place on Inferno, as it is often the decider map, while also being one that both teams have a history of picking, but after the bans, it ended up being the battleground of Ancient that was chosen. OG started as the CT's while Astralis had to be the aggressors.

OG got off to the best start as new IGL "nexa" led by example in a magnificent 1v3 pistol retake. Astralis didn't allow OG to turn that into a snowball as they put their name on the scoreboard after three rounds of play as well. The Danes were able to do what the OG side wasn't and put a bit of space between the two at 6-3. The balance in the game turned around when "mantuu" was able to get his hands on an AWP, which Astralis had a hard time dealing with. OG took the last six rounds of the map and thus went to halftime with a 9-6 lead.

OG kept pressuring their lead as they secured their second pistol round win on the map and converted that into an 11-6 lead. The Danes had a hard time stopping their opposition even though "blameF" had multiple triple-kill rounds around the B-site. Astralis was able to take a couple of rounds, but they suffered massive casualties every time they when they were finally able to get on the board. OG kept up their speed and fueled by a heavy-hitting "nexa" they took the map win at 16-8.

Astralis now have to play for survival versus Na'Vi while OG move on to the winners' match against MIBR.

Astralis – OG (0-1) | BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022

nexa {cflag:RS} – 1.88 Rating / 27-9 K-D / 108.6 ADR

Astralis

The highly-anticipated swap deal between OG’s Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen and Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic from G2 was confirmed Sunday evening by the two organizations. The transfer consisting of the two profiled in-game leaders has been rumoured since December last year when several reports could tell that the teams were eager to exchange captains.

Aleksib is not the only new face on G2 as the big organization also confirm the signing of the former Vitality head coach Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam. The 33-year-old tactician takes over the whelm after Damien "maLeK" Marcel’s move to Evil Geniuses back in late December.

G2 and OG will now field the following two rosters going into the 2022 season.

{cflag:BA} Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač

{cflag:FI} Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen

{cflag:FR} Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam (coach)

{cflag:RS} Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković

{cflag:DK} Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså

{cflag:DK} Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen

{cflag:PL} Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski

{cflag:DK} Casper "⁠ruggah⁠" Due (coach)

Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković from G2 will switch places with OG’s Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen going into the new 2022-season.

That has been reported by [link:{"url":"https://www.1pv.fr/news/137051-done-deal-aleksib-to-join-g2-nexa-to-join-og","isNewTab":true,"text":"1pv.cs"}] and [link:{"url":"https://www.dexerto.com/csgo/","isNewTab":true,"text":"Dexerto"}] this Wednesday in a joint report, stating that a trade between the two profiled in-game leaders has been confirmed by the two organizations.

If the rumours are true about the signing of Aleksib, it will be the second transfer move this year for G2 due to the prior addition of Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov from NAVI. The two newcomers are set to link up with the Bosnian superstar Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, his older cousin Nemanja “huNter-“ Kovac and Audric "⁠JaCkz⁠" Jug.

On the other hand, nexa will take over a rather questionable lineup at OG, due to the heavy rumours of the star player Valdemar “valde” Vangså

heading to Evil Geniuses. Down below you can see the rumoured rosters.

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{cflag:BA}  Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač 

{cflag:DK} Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså 

{cflag:PL} Mateusz "⁠mantuu⁠" Wilczewski 

{cflag:IL} Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan 

{cflag:DK} Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen 

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After their exit from BLAST World Finals, we talked with in-game leader Nemanja "nexa" Isaković about the next season, and what G2 needs to be able to make the last push and win trophies.

You can see the interview down below, where nexa talks about the need for a dedicated AWP'er to help the team.

	30 days	90 days
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nexa

Player stats

Articles mentioning nexa

OG takes the place of FORZE at IEM Cologne Play-in

OG buy k1to and FASHR

Media: OG to rebuild roster around trio

Setback for OG: nexa sidelined due to personal reasons

nexa: We make too many individual mistakes

Magisk: I think it is time for a Danish Major

CS:GO insider: OG are searching for a new rifler for 2023

nexa on G2 IGL role: It's hard when you have three pieces that want the spotlight

nexa: This tournament will decide a lot of things for us

nexa after elimination: The firepower of degster and flameZ is not enough

nexa after FaZe win: This is a big scalp for us

mantuu on OG benching: It was weird for me; There was never a talk

Watch all the best from Pley.gg's coverage of BLAST Premier Spring Finals in Lisbon

nexa on OG rebuild: We tried to get YEKINDAR and jks

OG survive another day at European RMR

OG secure Group B final spot over MIBR

OG brush aside Astralis

Official: G2 acquire Aleksib and XTQZZZ; OG bring in nexa

Sources: G2 and OG to complete nexa – Aleksib trade

nexa: Another star on the team would take the pressure off NiKo and make us more consistent

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