After having lost players to VALORANT, coaches to exploits, the Counter-Strike scene has now lost one of its staple casters. HenryG has announced in an interview with DeKay that he will be retiring from casting, and we think we speak for a grand majority when we say we're sad to see him go.

In the interview, Henry mentions how the many days of traveling abroad and the packed event schedule have caused him to decide to step back. An argument some players have brought up as well - prime example being ALEX, who left Vitality back in March. It's almost as if one player break isn't enough...

Henry admits that he's also felt his personal level decay, and that the pace the job requires is getting too high for him. He states he's also never been one to commentate over online play, and relies on the synergy of a crowd, which is totally understandable - we want LANs back as much as you Henry. He also brings up allegations that had been made against him as a reason for hanging up the microphone.

And finally, he drops one hell of a bombshell on us, hinting at his next project, that's it's a big one and how he's excited about it. For all we know, he might be pulling a Moses on us, and have his head in the clouds 😏

We're used to roster changes, by now. We've seen some crazy ones over the years, where a player you thought would never leave finally does, like GeT_RiGhT from NiP, or someone just adds someone crazy to an already good line-up, like Lekr0 to North. Or NiKo to FaZe, according to you normies. Shaking our heads.

One thing we don't see enough is a team just straight up cutting all five players. That's some chad energy, and Cloud9 have decided to do just that. They claimed to be having a 'colossal' next chapter, taking a leaf out of Jason Lake's playbook, which sounds suspiciously like HenryG's new move.

We're just glad to finally see UKCS' finest player getting the role he deserves, playing for the new, colossal Cloud9.

North haven't quite done that, instead they've re-signed Kristou and loaned him out back to AGF. Clearly enamoured by the teenager's skills from his time as a stand-in, North didn't want to let Kristou go back and instead he may come in to help the main team rest.

But, he's not a sixth man.

He just plays sometimes when one of the other five can't.

Which sounds like a sixth man to us.

There's a bunch of PR talk about how they will closely monitor Kristou, and their 'development plan' and partnership with AGF, which is a great opportunity for those players. It's also a big rocket up the Kardashians of the current five players, who now have a talented teenager breathing down their necks.

That doesn't sound weird at all. Shut up.

• HLTV made an extensive retelling of Grim's quick rise to fame, with people comparing him to Twistzz and ELiGE. All we have to say is cya lan man.
  ‍
• And if you loved HLTV's first novel, you'll love their story on Polish prodigy mhL as well, who's called himself the next KennyS already.
  ‍
• Even though we thought it's always been there, paiN have made the move to North America.
  ‍
• The groups for BLAST Premier Fall Series have been announced. We'd tell you who the favourites are, but all we thought we knew about CS has been destroyed by online play.
  ‍
• We'd make another joke about MIBR losing here, but at this point - just like their stratbook - we've run out of material.
  ‍
• Our fellow reader and discord server member Typho did the research, and MIBR's last first place was in Week 5 of ECS Season 8 against eUnited, ATK and The Quest. Damn.
  ‍
• Reddit user SanttuPOIKA discovered those 1v1 Wingman warmup maps everybody forgot about on Mirage, meaning it might be added to the Wingman map pool.
  ‍
• Apparently there is still hope for writers wanting to turn CS professional, as our very own napz showed us how to 1v5. And he totally didn't write this.
  ‍
• If you somehow already forgot what you'd miss about HenryG now that he's gone, then worry not as Betway refreshed our memory.
  ‍
• ScriptKid is back at it again. Maybe he can work on coaches next.