Degster Joins OG

Abdul “degster” Gasanov has officially joined OG Counter-Strike: Global Offensive roster, the European esports organization announced on Friday, July 15. The news came less than a month after degster stood in for OG during BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022.

OG have officially signed former Team Spirit player degster as the primary AWPer and replacement for Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski, who got benched from the lineup this Friday. Although huge news, degster’s transfer to OG hardly comes off as a surprise due to rumors of the two parties reaching an agreement that have been floating around for the last few weeks.

To make room for degster, OG benched mantuu, as the only remaining member of the team that came together under OG back in 2019. This effectively ends mantuu’s two-and-a-half-year-long tenure in the European lineup.

The 20-year-old Russian will now team up with Shahar “flameZ” Shushan, Nemanja “nexa” Isaković, Adam “NEOFRAG” Zouhar, and Maciej “F1KU” Miklas, completing the rebuilding process which began in May with the signing of NEOFRAG and F1KU.

As reported by the organization, degster sparked interest in OG with his performances as a stand-in during BLAST Premier: Spring Finals. In Lisbon, degster helped OG reach semi-finals with wins against ENCE and Natus Vincere while averaging the team-highest 1.16 rating.

However, degster was even before that considered an elite-level player but decided to leave Team Spirit after the Russian organization relocated to Serbia.

Degster started his professional CS:GO career in 2019 with ESPADA, who he played for from April 2019 to January 2021, when ESPADA disbanded and released its roster. Shortly after, degster got picked up by Team Spirit, who he joined in January 2021 as a loanee and signed a permanent contract in March.

Since joining Spirit, degster has established himself as a key player for the Russian team, helping the squad win numerous high-profile tournaments. Most notably, he won DreamHack Open January 2021: Europe, made semis at Intel Extreme Masters XV – World Championship, and helped Team Spirit place top-four at PGL Major Antwerp 2022 in May 2022.

However, despite the team’s success, degster decided to leave Spirit after the Russian team relocated to Serbia. The AWPer cited his reluctance to spend extended periods in Serbia. At the same time, Spirit further revealed the degster, and the rest of the team disagreed on how the team should function in-game, leading to his departure from the roster.

At the time, degster stated that he would like to join an international roster rather than joining another Russian-speaking lineup. He would, however, reconsider this decision had he gotten an offer from Natus Vincere, yet that never happened.

By signing degster to the roster, OG acquired one of the best and most sought-after free agents in the scene. But besides signing degster for his talent, OG’s acquisition makes a lot of sense, mainly because degster has already proven that he fits in well with the rest of the team.

By helping OG finish top-four at BLAST Premier: Spring Finals 2022, he has helped OG to their most notable tournament finish of the year.

The new team, which has now made its fourth roster change of the year – following the signing of NEOFRAG, nexa, and F1KU, is now set to make its debut next month. OG is slated to attend BLAST Premier Falla Groups, where OG will join 11 other teams vying for the lions’ share of the $177,500 prize pool.

The CS:GO tournament will run on August 19-28 and welcome only partnered teams in Astralis, BIG, Complexity, Evil Geniuses, FaZe, G2, Heroic, Natus Vincere, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Team Liquid, and Team Vitality. The six teams will all receive an invite to the BLAST Fall Finals, while the rest will get invited to the BLAST Fall Showdown, scheduled for October 19-23.