After IEM Katowice victory – The Rise of Gambit Esports

Gambit Esports were crowned champions of what is easily one of the most famous CS:GO tournaments of the entire scene in the form of IEM Katowice.

The team also has an elaborate history, and for the organisation it was not the first major title. Time to dive into the reasons for Gambit Esports their greatness and see how it all started.

Once upon a time…

The organization began with a League roster back in January 2013. They picked up the former Moscow Five roster and with that set their first step into the esports scene. CS:GO came into the mix three years later. Gambit acquired a roster that was built up from mainly HellRaisers players. They started off strong with a respectable performance at MLG Columbus 2016, managing to place 9-12th at the main event itself after successfully taking on Renegades and Cloud9 in the qualifiers.

Throughout the year the line-up changed ever so slightly, as wayLander was let go. Hooch’s career with the team was also quite short-lived, being let go half a year later. The two people that swooped in and ended up taking their places (with great success) were Zeus and Hobbit. Hobbit is still a part of the successful team to this very day. As this line-up kicked off, they swiftly impressed by taking the win at the Acer Predator Masters 3, taking three maps in a best of five and not granting even one to their opponents Team Kinguin.

This greatness continued, as a mere eight months later in July 2017, they became the first CIS team to win a major. They did this with a 2-1 result in the Grand Final. One of the key players in achieving this legendary feat was undoubtedly mou. He stood out above the rest of his team and was also an incredibly reliable anchor.
Entering a slump

It has to be reiterated however that the entire team brought an admirable performance to the table. The only thing that might be remarked upon was that Dosia or Zeus lagged behind just a tad. Zeus and Kane ended up departing the team, which was not something anybody saw coming.

It came down to Gambit kicking their coach, a decision Zeus could not stand by. This led to him moving away from Gambit. Luckily for him, less than a month later they both found their place in Natus Vincere. From this point on, Gambit entered a slump. None of their performances matched the level that they achieved in 2017. They participated in tournaments but the team was fractured, with players and coaches transferring around or being released left, right and center. It took them four years to find themselves back at the top of the CS:GO scene, their success starting up again back in the middle of 2020.

2020 and onwards

This is more of the Gambit that people know and love. It is required though that people know a little bit about the history of the current roster however. It was originally the Gambit Youngsters roster, their team of (you guessed it) younger players that were making exceptional advances. They managed to stay in the weekly top 30 HLTV ranking for 12 consecutive weeks. Logical, when you look at their track record. A consistent place in the top results of most events they participated in was an easy feat to pull off for the young talents.

So on October 5 2020, the organisation promoted Gambit Youngsters to its main roster. Clearly the right decision, since the team got themselves into the HLTV top 20 on 16 November, 2020; it only took them one and a half months to pull that off. They have not fallen out of the top 20 ever since, instead now sitting comfortably at spot number 4. This ranking is a direct result from their recent IEM Katowice 2021 number one placement. Something many players had dreamt of and could barely believe. It took great skill but, with players such as Hobbit and Sh1ro being at their best game, a logical result.

So goes the story of Gambit. Whilst it has undoubtedly been tumultuous at times, they have managed to find stability and through that, greatness. They deserve to be proud of their achievement, and it will be exciting to see what the future might hold for these talented players.

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Image Credit: Gambit Esports
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