The Best CS2 Players Without a Team in Summer 2026: Is There Still a Future for Them on the Pro Scene?
The second season of 2026 is officially underway in CS2, and in previous pieces we broke down the loudest transfers of the off-season. Now it’s time to turn to the players who ended up without a team: some had their club contracts expire, some were benched, some asked to be put on the transfer list and never got an offer, and a few have been waiting for their shot for a very long time. Let’s go through each case one by one and try to work out where these players could pick their careers back up. Here we go.
Justinas "jL" Lekavičius
- Reason for inactivity: contract with NAVI expired
- Status: free agent
- Age: 26
This is probably one of the most surprising outcomes of the entire off-season — especially after jL’s successful loan spell with MOUZ across two events. xelex, another newcomer, said the Lithuanian helped him settle into tier-1 and that the two clicked instantly. Practically nobody doubted that the Mice were simply waiting for his NAVI contract to run out so they could pick him up for free, but it never happened. jL hasn’t said anything publicly on the matter, so there’s no telling whether the news blindsided him the way it blindsided the rest of us. So what now?
One thing is clear: jL fully intends to come back to professional CS. He was already tearing it up for the Lithuanian national team at the Esports Nations Cup 2026 in July. Sure, the level of competition there is a long way from tier-1, but showing up at all proves that the MVP of the first CS2 Major misses competitive matches and wants back on the pro scene. Given how likeable and easy-going he is, he could slot into absolutely any roster, and he’ll certainly get a chance to prove himself. We can easily picture him in Aurora if the Turks fail to adapt to an international lineup, in FURIA after FalleN’s departure, even in Falcons in place of TeSeS or karrigan (assuming NiKo takes over the calling). The list could go on forever, which is exactly why we’re waiting for his full comeback so eagerly.
Laurențiu "lauNX" Țârlea
- Reason for inactivity: asked for permission to look for a new team
- Status: benched at FUT
- Age: 21
This one also has a claim to being one of the most unexpected outcomes of the IEM Cologne Major 2026. Yes, the young squad missed the playoffs — but were they ever supposed to make it? It was the guys’ first Major, their first stickers, their first Cologne; obviously it was tough on them. They had a very respectable first half of the year, taking the title at PGL Bucharest 2026 and playing interesting CS with a style of their own. The Romanian was one of the team’s brightest sparks and gave them the emotional spark they needed, so nothing pointed to an ending like this.
There are rumors that lauNX isn’t the easiest guy to deal with, but not a shred of information about internal conflicts has ever leaked. Maybe it’s precisely that fog hanging over the situation that has kept other organizations from taking a closer look at him. Given how young he is, a good offer should come sooner or later, though it’s hardly worth expecting it from a notional top-7 side. G2, FaZe, Liquid, HEROIC, Aurora again, or the next round of shuffles at NIP, Fnatic or Astralis, on the other hand, would all be perfectly decent landing spots.
Klimentii "kl1m" Krivosheev
- Reason for inactivity: loan spell at MIBR ended
- Status: benched on G2 Ares (academy)
- Age: 20
You couldn’t call the latest Latin American experiment with integrating European players a failure. MIBR put up decent results — they even reached the playoffs at some serious events — but they were wildly inconsistent in the server. That was hardly the Russian AWPer’s fault, and yet keeping that roster together made no real sense. As for his individual form, kl1m was legitimately good, and in places outright excellent. He finished second on the team in rating and rarely disappeared for a full map — something plenty of tier-1 AWPers are guilty of.
So what’s next for kl1m? Frankly, it depends on a huge number of factors, the biggest of them being the visa problems facing Russian players. Then there’s his attachment to G2: the Samurai bumped the price on their academy graduate significantly after his strong tier-1 showings. The most realistic and most favorable option might be a promotion to G2’s main roster if r1nkle’s integration doesn’t work out.
Abdul "degster" Gasanov
- Reason for inactivity: waiting for an offer worth taking
- Status: free agent
- Age: 25
And of course we can’t leave out another Russian AWPer whose career has turned into an endless wait for “a better offer.” It went that way after he left Spirit, then again after OG, and now after his Falcons contract expired. Usually a stretch of inactivity that long puts organizations off signing a player entirely, but in Abdul’s case it shouldn’t be a problem. He has proven more than once that he can come straight out of inactivity and start shredding servers from day one: a long break from competitive CS seems to do the opposite of dulling him — it lets the beast out of its cage.
Western analysts have spent well over a year wondering why a player of degster’s caliber isn’t getting calls from Liquid, FaZe, G2 and other teams that clearly have an AWP problem. We don’t understand how that’s possible either, but we’d like to believe his career isn’t finished and that we’ll see him at tier-1 events again. He’s also going through a difficult stretch in his personal life connected to the health of people close to him — we wish them all nothing but good health.
Caner "soulfly" Kesici
- Reason for inactivity: the organization dropped its Turkish roster
- Status: benched at Aurora
- Age: 22
Aurora went through an unexpected shuffle at the end of 2025: jottAAA expressed a desire to leave the Turkish squad, and the team had to find a replacement. soulfly got the honor of joining his countrymen, and it has to be said — he handled the job superbly. He was thrown to the tier-1 wolves and never lost his head. That lineup took 5th–6th at IEM Krakow, made the playoffs at PGL Cluj-Napoca, finished second at ESL Pro League S23, placed 3rd–4th at BLAST Open Rotterdam, reached the playoffs at PGL Astana and went 3rd–4th at the Cologne Major.
For six months of tier-1 play, that résumé is simply staggering. No, he wasn’t the headline star, but he was superb in the anchor role, and it was never an easy one. It stings to accept that he’s unlikely to reach the heights of his early career again, but he shouldn’t be left without a team. It probably won’t be a tier-1 side, but you’d like to think Aurora won’t stand in the way of a transfer. Our guess is that sooner or later the Turkish players will want to get back together — and soulfly has absolutely staked his claim to a spot in that team.
Simon "yxngstxr" Boije
- Reason for inactivity: moved to the bench
- Status: benched at HEROIC
- Age: 21
Another rather unfair situation, this time involving a young Swedish talent. He was benched back in January 2026, but Alkaren’s visa problems left the team without an AWPer and the kid was pulled straight back into the lineup. A fairly skilled rifler by trade, he spent seven months on the AWP at the organization’s request — and may well have created a lot of problems for his future career in the process.
Now he either has to commit to being an AWPer for good, or move back to the rifle after seven months of practicing a different role. Either path will take serious work, and for potential buyers it becomes one more “but” to weigh before pushing a transfer through. We hope everything works out and that he ends up in a good team again — we sincerely wish him that.
Álvaro "SunPayus" García
- Reason for inactivity: moved to the bench
- Status: benched at G2
- Age: 27
The most anticipated and the most absurd transfer of the summer turned out to be one and the same, and it happened at G2. Everyone and their dog criticized the Spaniard for whiffing easy shots after he joined the Samurai, but the moment SunPayus was replaced, the whole conversation flipped to how important he was as the team’s second caller and how well he clicked with coach sAw. There are two reasons for that: the Spaniard had visibly improved individually in his final matches, and the man brought in to replace him was r1nkle.
A swap for r1nkle of all people was probably the last thing Álvaro saw coming, and it’s simply impossible to walk past that decision without a dose of skepticism. And when you look at the AWP choices Liquid and FaZe have made, one thing becomes obvious: SunPayus has no business thinking about retirement at 27. If it weren’t for the rumors about Gentle Mates leaving CS behind, they could easily have taken the Spaniard in. Worth remembering, too, that it was a similar Spanish roster — Movistar Riders — that got SunPayus to tier-1 in the first place.
Evgeniy "FL1T" Lebedev
- Reason for inactivity: contract with VP until 2027
- Status: benched at VP
- Age: 25
Unlike FL4MUS, FL1T never managed to escape VP’s holding cell, and by the looks of it he won’t until the contract runs out. Plenty of people wanted to see him in PARIVISION, but agreeing terms for HObbit’s move proved easier than agreeing terms for his. Even so, we consider that just about the best available path forward for the Rio Major champion.
Only a reunion with Jame and dastan lets both sides squeeze the maximum out of the deal. FL1T wouldn’t need any time to adjust to a system he knows inside out; as the second voice in the old VP, he’d actually be able to get the young players into the exact brand of CS that won them a Major that much faster. Whether it happens, only time will tell. But we see practically no other route back to tier-1 for FL1T.
Helvijs "broky" Saukants
- Reason for inactivity: moved to the bench
- Status: benched at FaZe
- Age: 25
“You cannot step into the same river twice” — no line fits broky’s career better. His return to FaZe crossed out everything we remembered about this player. The one man who “believed” in him more than anyone left to conquer other peaks, and broky himself likely has no idea what the future holds. The main worry is that he has already won every trophy that matters, and there’s barely any motivation left to prove anything. Grinding FACEIT turned into pure hell for pros a long time ago, so getting his form back won’t be easy either.
To keep his career going, he needs to land in the right project with the right people. We hope we’ll see the Latvian in action again, but the odds aren’t especially good.
Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy
- Reason for inactivity: moved to the bench
- Status: benched at VP
- Age: 26
He’s probably the only player on this list with virtually no chance of continuing his career. It’s sad to admit, but the one option available to him was a reunion with electroNic and s1mple at BC.Game — and things over there have taken an even more interesting turn since. You can see Ilya gradually moving into content and media, and that’s most likely where he’ll stay. It’s hard to imagine any top team needing a player like him, and Perfecto himself is hardly going to want to spend forever touring local LANs to farm VRS points.
Alex
Alex is an author and esports observer with more than seven years of experience. He specializes in analyzing new releases in the world of computer games, gaming services, and in-game economies. Alex shares practical experience and an expert perspective on the development of gaming, helping readers understand complex mechanics and stay up to date with the latest news.
