Counter-Strike fans saw SAW and Portuguese CS2 shine as Cloud9 withdrew from ESL Pro League Season 19, opening a historic new chapter.
I still remember the week it happened. I was scrolling through Counter-Strike news after a late-night pug, and the headline hit me like a flashbang: Cloud9 had withdrawn from ESL Pro League Season 19, and SAW would take their place. For most international fans, it was a small roster note. For me, a regular Portuguese CS2 player who has followed SAW through every up and down, it felt like the whole scene had been handed a second life. In 2026, looking back, that last-minute invite looks less like luck and more like the beginning of a crucial chapter.
SAW was preparing for its second EPL appearance. The first had come in Season 17, when Tiago “JUST” Moura from KOI was on the team. By Season 19, Rafael “arrozdoce” Wing had been in the lineup for a year, and captain Christopher “MUTiRiS” Fernandes believed the team was in its best moment ever. I spoke with him—well, I read every word of that esports.gg interview like it was a tactical briefing—and his calm confidence stuck with me.
“We’ll have Major, EPL, and BLAST. This is tier 1,” MUTiRiS said. “With these tournaments, we start to normalize these things, but what we are doing is not normal. This is SAW’s and the Portuguese scene’s best moment. We are at this level, but we want to step forward, and that’s the most difficult part.”
He was right. It was historic. For years, Portuguese CS had been a proud but underfunded corner of the map, known for passionate fans and occasional giant-killing runs. SAW reaching tier-1 events regularly was not supposed to be normal. Yet there they were, sharing air with the biggest orgs in the world.
The EPL invite arrived only a week before the competition began. That is not how most teams prepare for a tier-1 LAN. But MUTiRiS saw it as a pure positive. “Can only be a good thing,” he said. “If we do well, it’s good for our evolution to see that the things we are doing are correct. If we don’t do that well, it’s time to analyze and see what we are doing well and bad. For me, it’s always positive. It’s different when you know you have a tournament in a month or a week. We tried to give our best in the last week. What we defined as our main goal was going through the group stage.”
That mindset mattered. As an ordinary player, I know how easy it is to tilt when plans change. A last-minute tournament invite would have sent my team into panic mode. SAW treated it like a chance to test their system.
The group was “accessible,” according to MUTiRiS. It was full of European teams that knew each other well. SAW were set to face 3DMax, a team that had beaten them two weeks earlier. MUTiRiS admitted the match would be balanced, but he also believed SAW had more quality. “The group is accessible because we already evolved as a team,” he said. “We think we are at a good level to play against these teams. This is all blah, blah, blah. What really matters is in the server.”
That last line is the most Portuguese CS2 sentence I have ever read. Talk is cheap. The server is truth.
| Theme | MUTiRiS’s view | What it meant for SAW |
|---|---|---|
| Last-minute EPL invite | Always positive | Chance to prove their progress |
| Group draw | Accessible | Confidence without arrogance |
| Main goal | Pass group stage | Clear, realistic target |
| Major experience | Time heals everything | Motivation, not trauma |
The Major was the emotional heart of it all. At PGL Major Copenhagen, SAW made history for Portugal. In the Opening Stage, they started 2-0 and were one best-of-three away from advancing. Then came three straight defeats. They finished 2-3. I watched every round of that collapse with my hands over my mouth. It was the kind of run that can break a team.
MUTiRiS, however, refused to let it become a scar. “Time heals everything,” he told esports.gg. “In that moment, it was very frustrating to everyone. We were very close. Today, no one remembers the Major. What we can do is see what we can improve. The young players reacted very well. For me and rmn as more experienced players looking for the young players, they can have more EPLs and more Majors. For us, our career will be shorter. We are already 31. For me and rmn, it’s harder because I never know when it will be my last tournament. I try to play as it will be the last and enjoy these types of events.”
That quote hit me harder in 2026 than it did when I first read it. Two years later, I am still grinding CS2, still watching SAW, still hoping the Portuguese scene keeps growing. The 2026 season is already moving fast, but I often think about that 2024 EPL run. It taught me that opportunities rarely arrive on schedule. Sometimes they appear a week before the event, after another team withdraws, and all you can do is prepare, trust your teammates, and play like it might be your last server.
So here is what I take from SAW’s second EPL appearance, even now:
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🎯 Late chances are still chances. SAW got the invite a week early and set a clear goal: escape the group.
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🧠 Confidence needs humility. MUTiRiS called the group accessible, then added that only the server matters.
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💔 Heartbreak can be fuel. The Major’s 2-3 finish hurt, but the team chose analysis over regret.
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⏳ Time is the real opponent. For veteran players, every tier-1 event could be the last. That makes each round precious.
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🇵🇹 A scene grows through belief. SAW’s run was not just about one roster. It was about showing Portuguese players what is possible.
In 2026, I still queue into CS2 with the same mix of hope and frustration. But when I see SAW’s name in a tier-1 conversation, I remember that week in April 2024. I remember MUTiRiS saying their moment was not normal. I remember a team that turned a last-minute invite into a statement. And I remember that in Counter-Strike, the most important matches are always the ones you almost did not get to play.