Dignitas CS:GO - One of the final stops before the greatest roster core of all time climbed the mountain to win their first major.
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, Emil "Magisk" Reif and Peter "dupreeh" Rasmussen all linked up with the storied organisation as one of their last stops before becoming Astralis, just before representing TSM (or North/OpTic for Magisk).
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Dignitas have a history of contracting noteworthy pros and future CS:GO personalities alike, they have a good eye for quality players. Maikel "Maikelele" Bill (GODSENT) and Finn "karrigan" Andersen (Mousesports) stopped in for stints with the team, and legendary desk/casting talents Jacob "Pimp" Winneche and Henry "HenryG" Greer logged into the server for the old, pre-rebrand robo logo.
Dignitas's European rosters saw reasonable success, but their most recent North American experiment sputtered out, resulting in the organization releasing their CSGO division on August 29th, 2018.
f0rest firepower?
But that is their history, this is the present. The story about Dignitas making moves to get back into CS:GO with their new brand was first reported by DeKay, who you may recognize as one of the most reliable journalists in the scene when it comes to breaking news and rumours that have a tendency to become confirmed fact.
You're likely familiar with many of the names mentioned in this report. Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærlih, Adam "friberg" Friberg, Richard "Xizt" Landström, and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg.
The latter three are some of the oldest and most recognizable faces in CS:GO. friberg may be a free agent now, but he played an enormous role in the development of Heroic into a serious contender in EU, while f0rest has been a beacon of consistency for the Ninjas for longer than any player in CSGO history.
Xizt has been on the Fnatic bench since August 21st of this year. It should be noted that the three have had considerable success together previously, winning a major at ESL One: Cologne in 2014.
The former and likely least familiar is hallzerk, a 19 year old Norwegian AWPer that has been plying his trade for Nordavind most recently. He has a 1.22 HLTV 2.0 rating in the last 3 months and will have a lot to prove as he seems to be the first confirmed member of the roster, despite it only being on a trial basis. Fun fact: he has the longest "legit" win streak known to FaceIt, 136 games over 4 months in 2018!
Digging deep (in their wallets)
I have a really hard time believing that Ninjas in Pyjamas are going to let f0rest go for anything short of record transfer fees in his current form. Personally, I consider him to be the greatest Counter Strike player of all time, no other player has been as good as he is for as long as he has been. Sure, there are players that are individually more skilled now, but he has gotten NiP results for YEARS.
However, not all good things last forever, so it's not completely out of the question that NiP may be truly considering shopping the best beard in Counter Strike while he still has value.
With all of that being said, if Dignitas can get him away from NiP, then in my opinion the other pieces truthfully make a lot of sense (pending the unannounced fifth). Xizt knew he was underperforming in his later Fnatic days, so I think that he is itching for another shot in the server representing a tier one organization. Friberg is the perfect fit to mastermind a project, he just has a knack for building teams out of thin air. And hallzerk is an elite talent within the ranks of the new generation, so this project would be consistent with what many top teams are doing, surrounding their young guns with a wealth of experience.
Dignitas's new roster
The rumored CS:GO roster:
- Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærlih (acquired on trial basis)
- Adam "friberg" Friberg (free agent)
- Richard "Xizt" Landström (needs Fnatic buyout)
- Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg (needs NiP buyout)
- TBD
If true, this is yet another team with a long CSGO history breaking out the kevlar once more. It's exciting for sure, but I really don't want to see the career of a true legend like f0rest fizzle out in a failed project.
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