The Worst Transfer Window in CS2 History? Review of Controversial Summer 2025 Transfers
Before diving into the review, we want to say that all dissatisfaction and disappointment should primarily be attributed to the community’s inflated expectations. Therefore, we don’t want to go into full hate mode, but rather try to analyze the situation with a cool head. After all, real life isn’t HLTV fantasy (unless you’re Falcons, of course), but even they have a long road ahead to their dream team. Speaking of Falcons and more successful summer changes, you can read about them in this material. Well, let’s start analyzing those events that raise many questions among the majority of the community.
FaZe
Out: s1mple
In: broky
Transfer Rating: 3/10
First and foremost, we want to talk about FaZe, who always aim only for the highest places but haven’t been able to get close to a trophy for over a year. After a fairly good result at BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 and praised reviews from teammates about s1mple’s play, everyone was expecting his potential transfer. But almost immediately after the Major ended, it became clear that this wouldn’t happen. Kostylev left a comment on social media saying “It’s hard to get out of prison,” which made everyone think that NAVI set an unreasonable price tag for this transfer.
Subsequently, insiders reported that NAVI wasn’t asking for any large sums for half a year of their main star’s contract, and this fact caused even more bewilderment. Why couldn’t FaZe buy out s1mple? Maybe they didn’t want to? But what about all the praise during the loan period? As we know, there are more questions than answers. Obviously, they’re related to the organization’s financial problems – an organization that once entered the market similarly to Falcons, but now can’t afford to buy out a player from the bench, even considering that this player is s1mple.
Okay, let’s not delve into the organization’s internal affairs, but in our view, even signing a young talent would have looked much more logical than bringing back broky, primarily from a psychological standpoint. You believed in your sniper until the very end, and before the main tournament in every player’s life – you kick him with the words “s1mple is our only chance to show results.” No matter how well broky rested and returns to his previous level, where he was one of the best snipers in the world – this roster will achieve nothing.
The veterans are obviously riding out their time and don’t even expect to catch up with Vitality, and reaching playoffs isn’t what you want to continue playing for after such a bright career. They went all-in back in spring, and this bet neither set them back nor multiplied their investment. In our view, this is the worst outcome that didn’t give them anything new. FaZe needs a global restructuring, and this is obvious even to them.
NAVI
Out: jL
In: makazze
Transfer Rating: 5/10
The first half of 2025 literally screamed about fatigue and the expiration of this roster’s shelf life. Therefore, NAVI’s announcement about promoting their main academy star wasn’t a surprise. By the way, the NAVI Junior roster had huge success and won many tier-2 and tier-3 tournaments recently. Why “had”? Because the other 4 players are put up for transfer, since due to VALVE rules, two rosters from one organization cannot participate in tournaments, and by VRS points – this roster is not far from a Major invite.
Returning to the main team – the reshuffle turned out to be extremely controversial. Starting from the community’s claims about makazze’s dark past with match-fixing to losing the team’s main moral engine. Besides quality play, jL was an important emotional link who could win insane clutches and give strong boosts to his teammates. Throughout last season, it was clear that such moments from the Lithuanian became much fewer, and instead of the usual smile, we saw emotions in the form of eye-rolling and facepalms.
Perhaps the academy player will be able to compensate for jL’s loss in gameplay terms, but NAVI’s problems were clearly not in the game. Therefore, we believe that B1ad3’s pupils will continue to show good play and reach playoffs, but in current realities, it’s not even certain they’ll be able to return to the top-5 world ranking.
Liquid
In: flashie (coach)
Transfer Rating: 4/10
After signing siuhy to the IGL position, many talked about Liquid’s full return to the world CS elite. As we know, this didn’t happen even close, and it became clear that there are much more problems. On paper, the roster is indeed decent, but ultimate is still extremely unstable, and NAF has long lost his prime, much like Magisk in Falcons.
However, according to Liquid, everything is fine with them and no reshuffles are required. We’d like to ask this organization about their ambitions: do you really expect to compete with Vitality, Falcons, MOUZ, The MongolZ, etc. with this roster? Or would you be quite satisfied with a couple of playoff stages and one or two bright victories over top teams? Judging by their passivity in this transfer window – the answer suggests itself.
Yes, acquiring the former NAVI analyst who was involved in the team’s success in 2024 is a decent move. But again: what makes you think he’ll be a good coach? These are completely different roles, and we shouldn’t forget that he worked in pair with B1ad3. Yes, he’ll definitely bring something new to Liquid, but there won’t be such an experienced colleague nearby, and games are won by players, no matter how good a coach, analyst, or psychologist you have.
degster is waiting for his chance on the market, and according to rumors, Liquid didn’t even approach him. s1mple is sitting on the bench, who would bring not only gameplay but also morale, experience, and a huge fanbase that Liquid is actively losing every day. Also, magixx and FL4MUS went to the bench, and they’re fine with English, so why not try to rejuvenate the roster instead of NAF? Apparently, the organization’s ambitions in CS are no longer the same, and the bosses have focused on successes in other disciplines.
HEROIC
Out: xfl0ud, SunPayus, SaW
In: nilo, gr1ks, TOBIS
Transfer Rating: 5/10
Traditionally, HEROIC were the most active during the off-season and again reassembled half the roster. Having lost their sniper and main coach, the Turk xfl0ud was benched, who switched places with nilo. Honestly, it’s absolutely unclear why this happened, as the Turk was one of the best statistically. We assume there might have been problems with English communication or some personal issues.
Furthermore, HEROIC decided to add another Belarusian to the roster – young sniper gr1ks, who played only at tier-2 level throughout his career. Perhaps they were inspired by TN1R’s success, who also hadn’t played at tier-1 before. For the coach slot, they took a specialist from MOUZ NXT, who had a hand in the careers of many quality players.
On paper, everything looks decent, but how it will work in practice – we’ll see. At the moment, we gave this transfer 5 out of 10, as it’s obvious that the departed sniper+coach duo is currently weaker than the incoming one. However, we’re not writing off this roster, but on the contrary, will be happy to follow their development. We don’t exclude that the assembled mix will find the right chemistry and be able to fulfill the set tasks.
G2
Out: Snax, TaZ, hades
In: SunPayus, SaW, MATYS
Transfer Rating: 5/10
At the time of writing this material, there were no official announcements of this transfer yet, but the rosters are already confirmed by ESL in the form of an IEM Cologne application. What’s known for sure – huNter is the new captain and probably the main character in the future G2. Will the older Kovač manage to rebuild? Was this his personal desire or were circumstances forcing it? And again, only questions.
At the moment, we’ll take a wait-and-see position and only note that saying goodbye to the Polish VP legends looks like the right decision. Signing MATYS is also a good move, as he was once considered the main European talent. But the team lost experience, which may be catastrophically lacking against current top teams.
