HellRaisers has revealed its new Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster and announced its plans to transition from the European scene back to the CIS region.
The team will retain the services of in-game leader Kirill “ANGE1” Karasiow, and the recently added Žygimantas “nukkye” Chmieliauskas. The rest of its previous team has been deactivated and are now available for transfer. The Ukranian organization shared the news on its official website.
CEO Alex “Magician” Slabukhin commented that HellRaisers is excited to be back in the CIS region and is already preparing for the challenges ahead.
“Today, we want to announce that we’re returning to the CIS region, which is where HellRaisers CSGO’s path initially started,” Magician stated. “The team is at the bootcamp right now, preparing for our first games.”
Joining HellRaisers’ CSGO team are Vadim “Flarich” Karetin, Igor “crush” Shevchenko, and Alexander “scoobyxie” Marynych.
Crush and scoobyxie join from Vega Squadron, which dissolved its CSGO division following a disastrous 2019. Flarich joins following a two-year run with pro100.
The changes to HellRaisers come after a sharp decline for the team over the last season.
Hellraisers have long been a staple of the CSGO scene but established themselves as legitimate contenders at the FACEIT London Major in 2018 with a top-eight finish. Success started becoming elusive after, but the team performed fairly well at the IEM Katowice Major in March with a 12th-14th-place performance. Unfortunately, HellRaisers was devastated by the roster shuffle that followed the event.
While its new roster initially found success, that evaporated over the summer as the team consistently struggled in online leagues and qualifiers. It retained Challenger status for the StarLadder Berlin Major, but was eliminated from the first group stage with a 1-3 record.
HellRaisers step into the CIS region at an interesting time. Outside of Berlin Major finalist Avangar, the region is wide open. DreamEaters, Syman Gaming, and ForZe are looking like legitimate up-and-comers, while highly credentialed organizations like Natus Vincere and Gambit Esports are in times of transition.
The new HellRaisers are currently set to debut in the ESL Pro League Season 10 Europe Division.
