The 2025 season started with some of the hottest roster moves we have seen in years. There was so much hype and excitement to see which players would be changing their teams in the Counter-Strike off-season moving into 2025, and some of them have already started to show positive results, despite us only being a few months into the year.
So what I wanted to do for the SkinClub community was give my thoughts and opinions on the roster moves and say which ones have been the best so far in my eyes and why. I will rank each move to the present moment and what I feel are the positives and negatives of it, and what it means for the rest of the season.
Rez to GamerLegion
The legend that is Fredrik “REZ” Sterner has been one of the positive lights on the Swedish scene, first joining Ninjas in Pyjamas back in 2017 and making a big splash. But after that, as the old team was falling apart, roster move after roster move just saw them struggle, and at one point he was even made to be the AWPer, which made no sense…
Now, when people think of him going to GamerLegion, they would say no, this is a bad move—he is going down the order of teams. But NiP is no longer an elite organisation in Counter-Strike, and GamerLegion have one of the coaches who has been able to make pieces work so well time and time again in ashh, someone who KNOWS how to build good teams.
Rez adds a lot of experience to this young team; he has been fragging out better than his recent level over the last year, and he has a smile on his face again when I was doing interviews with him at Katowice. They had a strong showing at Katowice, they qualified for Dallas, and I expect them to do well at ESL Pro League as well.
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 7/10!
This is a move that works well for both sides and will yield positive results throughout the year. On this move, I got no understanding of the money involved or what was left on his contract, but his stock wasn’t at the highest, and he had served his time in NiP jail, so I guess it would have been reasonable.
EliGE to FaZe
One of the most hyped and talked about moves of the off-season was who FaZe would get to replace Robin “ropz” Kool, and they went and found themselves another North American addition, similar to what they did with Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken a few years ago, by adding Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski.
For EliGE, this move is huge; it gives him the chance to be fighting for trophies again, which was almost impossible except at Sydney when CS2 first came out during his Complexity adventure.
While this roster move is hyped, it comes at a great cost for FaZe and karrigan in how many pieces need to move positions and change up roles. Now, I spoke to Håvard “rain” Nygaard about this, and he seems to be enjoying everything he is learning. As someone who hasn’t changed his position so much since 2016/17, he now has a new way of looking at the game. But FaZe are a championship-level team, and while EliGE adds huge firepower, it also opens up a chance for frozen to be back at his best, but the holes left by ropz and the stylistic change that FaZe need to go through will take some time for them to have a real chance to be successful.
BLAST Bounty was rough. Top 8 at the recent Katowice for their first LAN as a team isn’t bad, but then PGL Cluj-Napoca is going to hurt, and we saw that in the loser interviews that both karrigan and EliGE gave me… growing pains are real here!
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 6/10!
Less than Rez, you might say??? Yes, because right now it is tough, and while EliGE is a huge addition, I can assume he wasn’t a cheap addition, and it hasn’t been as positive as was thought. I expect it to pay off later in the year rather than right now, but currently this is my rating.
jottAAA to Eternal Fire
Eternal Fire really stepped up in 2024, but they looked like they had hit a point where they were not developing. Out goes longtime member Buğra “Calyx” Arkın, and in comes Samet “jottAAA” Köklü. jottAAA, for those who didn’t know, was once an Eternal Fire Academy team member, much like Ali “Wicadia” Haydar. The difference here is that jottAAA went to Sangal to gain more experience before being asked to join back in, and so far, for his role and position, he has gone above and beyond what was expected of him, and far better output than Calyx, who he replaced.
jottAAA is a player right now who is playing far beyond his role. He is adding a lot of positive energy to the team as well—his voice is well heard and respected in the team. Engin “MAJ3R” Küpeli, the in-game leader of Eternal Fire, told me in an interview that jottAAA is bringing exactly what was missing for the team, and that is already starting to show.
This is a move where he was also on loan to Sangal, which means I can only assume the cost involved in getting him back was nothing, and this was just a positive move for everyone involved!
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 9/10!
The fact he was on loan to Sangal and originally a member of Eternal Fire, what he is adding to the team, the positive results they’ve already seen, and the way he is playing his role and position—this is a HUGE win.
HeavyGod to G2
Big boots to fill as the G2 Army had to go through losing one of the most valuable pieces in the Counter-Strike world. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač finally made the move to Falcons, and G2 tried their best to prepare for it, considering a lot of the roles NiKo played were covered by Mario “malbsMd” Samayoa in his previous team, but the addition of Nikita “HeavyGod” Martynenko, who goes back to an international team after his time at Cloud9, has potential.
Overall, I am positive in every way about HeavyGod and what he can do. He will play and learn any role and position, and going back into anchor roles on G2 takes him back to his previous roles on OG. It puts malbsMd into NiKo’s roles, but it doesn’t paint the full picture of the voice that is lost with NiKo not being there and EVERYONE now needing to step up more, because losing NiKo hurts the whole team—from Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski to Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas, even the young goat himself Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov and especially his cousin, his brother in arms, Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač.
Focusing on what HeavyGod adds: the positivity he brings, he can be the motivator when TaZ can’t call a timeout, he is loud, he is hype, he is a great communicator, he speaks English, Ukrainian, Russian, and Hebrew, and he can naturally anchor better than what malbs has shown. The results so far have been rough—BLAST Bounty was so back and forth, they could have lost in the first game to B8, but they had the quality to keep them alive, eventually falling to Eternal Fire who made the finals. Katowice wasn’t easy: 0-2 vs VP and then Falcons and FaZe—tough games, so you can’t hold that against them… Now they had a lot of time to grind, they’ve been on bootcamp, and they need to show a stronger level at ESL Pro League.
This is similar to the EliGE move in that it will take some time, but HeavyGod is not and won’t be the problem with the results this team delivers.
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 7/10!
HeavyGod will do what needs to be done. He can be a difference maker for the team in clutch situations as well—he has moments where he will pop off, so the move is good. The problem is going to be how the rest of G2 adapt to losing NiKo, but we are talking about HeavyGod to G2, not the team as a whole.
Spinx to MOUZ
Honestly, when the year started, I was worried for Lotan “Spinx” Giladi. It was rumoured he wanted to leave the team before the start of Cologne, but they went on to win it. Then he still leaves at the end of the year because something could not be fixed—at least that is what I interpret from all the interviews—and then obviously if you can get Ropz, you get Ropz.
Suddenly out of nowhere, Spinx finds himself getting the golden opportunity for MOUZ, but it was a weird turn of events. He replaces their in-game leader, but he won’t be leading, and that means a lot of moving and shifting within the team.
So Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin becomes the in-game leader, which he said he wanted to do back when he was 14 in a reality TV show called Gamerz. Ádám “torzsi” Torzsás & Dorian “xertioN” Berman take over extra responsibility in the team, and then Spinx comes in—and they even win their first tournament, something I NEVER expected!
Let’s look at why this move is so good, though. Spinx is not only a Major champion, but he becomes the most experienced player on the team, even more so than Brollan, who we have seen and heard about for a long time. Everyone except Spinx and Brollan come from the MOUZ Academy roster, and despite having some time on the professional level, this level of experience—this BIG championship-winning experience, not smaller ESL Pro League and BB Tournament wins—is so important.
His voice, the way he plays, fits into this team very well so far, and it is 100% a big firepower upgrade. Now, the sample size is very small, but he had some standout games for the team and was instrumental in them lifting their first big event, the arena trophy at PGL Cluj-Napoca.
Many could fault the move of changing in-game leader, especially someone who is regarded very highly like Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek, but what we saw so far is positive. They just didn’t have to fight against one of the elite teams such as Vitality, NAVI, or Spirit.
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 9/10!
A huge move that gives MOUZ what they need, and we only have one event to look at, but it did result in a win. It is a very small sample size, but I can only go off what we saw. For now, this is a big one!
Ropz to Vitality
This is the move of all moves, and credit to Vitality for being able to do this again. When you can get Robin “ropz” Kool, you get ropz, at all costs. But as ropz had his contract with FaZe running out, Vitality didn’t need to buy him at all—he went there as a free transfer, the same way Vitality got Shahar “flameZ” Shushan. These are big moves at a low cost.
Now, ropz was looking for a change, and he is a complete player, one who understands every aspect of the game. The praise that he receives is incredibly high. Some people said that it would be a risk to take him because he slowed down a bit after his insane start to Counter-Strike 2. You can call it a slump, but he certainly has the quality to pull himself out of any slump, and a new team could easily do that.
Even before the move, during the incredible run to the final that FaZe had at the Perfect World Shanghai Major, ropz was looking like he was back. He dropped the highest rating he had had since ESL Pro League S17 in March 2023, where he had a 1.27 rating; at the Major, he dropped a 1.22, but the impact was unreal!
Ropz is a player who has won it all. He won it in style with FaZe back on their incredible 2022 run, already holding the Katowice, Cologne, and Major trophies, as well as an Intel Grand Slam, and he wanted to bring the missing trophies to his new teammates as well, which he did in a BIG way at Katowice 2025… the second event with his new team.
Imagine going from BLAST, where they lost to Eternal Fire, where they still looked a bit uncomfortable on their T sides, but that all changed in Katowice, where they only dropped a map to FaZe and even 3-0’d Spirit in the grand final, dominating donk… this is something for everyone in the Counter-Strike scene to get hyped about!
We now have Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and ropz on the same team, backed up by a flameZ in some old positions. Their CT sides are working so well, and as they improve and understand the new way of playing their T sides, this could be a year where Vitality dominate consistently!
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 10/10!
Vitality got him on a free transfer, he is one of the best players in the world, he is looking happy and like he is enjoying the new changes in his life from coming to a new team, and he gets to play with one of the greats in ZywOo as well… this is the BEST move of 2025, and I think I will still be saying the same when it comes to the end of the year as well! Huge V for ropz, Huge V for Vitality, and the V is certainly for Victory!
NiKo to Falcons
Last but certainly not least is a move we touched on a bit earlier with HeavyGod and G2. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač finally grows his wings and flies off to the Falcons, joining the Saudi Arabian organisation.
This is probably one of the hardest moves to rate because when you have a player like NiKo on your team, the expectations are so high, but at the same time the expectations are so low for Team Falcons because of how bad their first rosters were. They were buying their teams to get slots in the Valve Ranking System, and with the ENCE Core, it was rough. They cycled through players and still found little to no success.
Even with all of what I said above, NiKo still wants to join, and he joins one of the great coaches of the game, Danny “zonic” Sørensen, who has certainly been on community fraud watch, alongside 4x Major winner Emil “Magisk” Reif and the newly paid-for Heroic core of René “TeSeS” Madsen, Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov & in-game leader Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski.
For players like degster and kyxsan, NiKo’s voice and experience is going to be huge and so important for their development. Degster told me in an interview on stage at PGL Cluj-Napoca that NiKo is going to be a mentor to him.
This is a huge move, and while the field of competition was not the strongest at PGL Cluj-Napoca with Vitality, NAVI, and Spirit missing out, they did manage a 2nd place finish. NiKo himself picked up the MVP even with finishing 2nd, and he showed that he can still take over games on the new team.
The start to the year at BLAST Bounty and Katowice were honestly disappointing, but they showed they can make improvements with more time together and even a short amount of time. The good thing is that NiKo is going to be able to elevate all the players around him.
BanKs bang for buck roster move rating – 8/10!
Only 8? How? Well, when we talk BanKs bang for buck, NiKo is expensive. The rumours are out on what it cost even with a short amount of time on his contract—around $1.2M—then his monthly I would guess he could be one of the highest-paid players in the game right now, but this is purely a guess, and for sure I would pay that if I had the money because this is NiKo!!! Now we need to look at how well the rest of the year goes and how they do against some of the bigger teams here. I am really going to look at how he helps kyxsan out with the mid-round calls.
So here we have it, my BanKs bang for buck roster move ratings for 2025 so far. If you liked this, then let me know on X or Instagram and I would be happy to do a part 2 of this, touching on some of the other roster moves in the Counter-Strike world!
Until then, keep grinding and enjoy the games. I will be back with more videos and articles exclusively on SkinClub for you all!
