El1an and sstiNiX join FORZE

One of the breakout organizations of the past few seasons, FORZE, has revamped its CS:GO lineup with the signing of Dmitry “sstiNiX” Khlebnikov and Aleksei “El1an” Gusev for the second half of the season and, of course, the transition to CS2.

There is no doubt that this is a somewhat unexpected move by the community and fans of the team, as this pair of players come to replace two great players. They are Andrey “Jerry” Mekhryakov and Aleksandr “zorte” Zagodyrenko, who has been moved to the “Inactive” list of the Russian organization. Moreover, this move comes after FORZE announced on their social media that they are open to receiving offers for Jerry, zorte, and Vladislav “Krad” Kravchenko.

FORZE announce the signing of El1an and sstiNiX

Through a statement on its official Twitter account, FORZE announced the signing of El1an and sstiNiX ahead of the second half of 2023 and the transition to CS2.

The time for change has come

Aleksei “El1an” Gusev and Dmitry “sstiNiX” Khlebnikov join FORZE! The players are already practicing with the team, and tomorrow will debut in their first official game under our flag. pic.twitter.com/gSPNb0yTab

— FORZE Esports (@forzegg) July 20, 2023

As we note, the statement references the fact that both players are already practicing with the team and will debut in the next few hours.

On the other hand, this marks the end of an era of Jerry and zorte in FORZE, two of the oldest members of the Russian squad. On the other hand, everything seems to indicate that Krad would remain in FORZE’s starting lineup if no other movement occurs in the coming hours.

About Jerry

There is no doubt that the most surprising move is that of Jerry, as the 25-year-old Russian has been a part of the organization for 6 years now. Jerry has been FORZE’s IGL for all these years, and, in addition to leading the team to be among the best in the Tier 2 scene, the player achieved the feat of 1779 official maps played with the same team.

Moreover, it is worth noting that Jerry managed to lead FORZE to the Grand Final of the BLAST Pro Series Moscow, while they won the Copenhagen Games 2019 and the DreamHack Open Winter 2019. On the other hand, concerning recent results, FORZE finished within the TOP 8 in the ESL Pro League S17 and was very close to qualifying for the Legends Stage of the Paris Major.

About zorte

On the other hand, we have zorte, who came to FORZE in the 2021 season and, no doubt, immediately established himself as a top AWPer. During his two years with the team, zorte had a 1.13 Rating, according to HLTV, but in recent weeks, there was a lot of talk about a possible transfer to Evil Geniuses. However, it all remained rumors, as EG decided to replace their lineup another way.

About the new signings

Now, talking about the new signings, we will start with El1an, a 24-year-old Russian AWPer who was one of the key pillars of Entropiq’s promotion between 2021 and 2022. However, El1an’s effectiveness and performance were not the same when facing Tier 1 teams, so his performance decreased greatly in the last few months.

Now, sstiNiX, on the other hand, is only 18 years old, and his experience is not his main virtue, of that there is no doubt. The Russian has not yet been part of a large organization and has only played 87 official maps, according to HLTV. However, the young IGL showed good skills in CCT tournaments together with INVSN Team.

Header: FORZE