In the modern day of professional Counter-Strike, very few AWP-ers are able to show the level needed to be considered proper stars. With the T-sides being a rifle’s playground, meaning most AWP players are forced to either play the AK-47 or turn into ‘support turrets’, and how difficult establishing a stable CT-side economy is, the general statistics of most players wielding the most expensive gun in the game have suffered quite significantly.
Regardless of whether one wants to focus on the number or not, having just Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut, Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, Dmitry ‘sh1ro’ Sokolov, and Danil ‘molodoy’ Golubenko amongst the 20 highest rated players in Big events so far in 2026 proves a point: Very few AWP-ers are able to get out of their shells and dominate the server.
Excluding the above-mentioned names, teams like Natus Vincere, TheMongolZ and Aurora could be argued to have some of the best possible options out there in players like w0nderful, 910 & woxic, but outside of the limited list of names, many teams seem to be struggling with finding a true ‘X-Factor’ with the AWP.
Extremely high buy-outs on the truly high caliber AWP-ers, as well as the incredibly limited amount of proven names who are still able to make the difference, has left most teams with two main options:
- Putting faith into a well-known name, that has not been playing at the peak of its capabilities or is past its prime
- Taking a chance on a young an inexperienced player, hoping they turn out to be ‘a molodoy’
Three of the teams that have made an AWP change, are G2 Esports, FaZe Clan, and Heroic, and in this article we will take a look at the difference in their strategic approach towards the problem at hand, and provide an evaluation on its potential efficiency.
JBOEN to FaZe Clan
The narrative around FaZe Clan has changed massively. From the organization that used to always get the best of the best, the management has now shown its clear intentions of searching for a diamond in Tier 2 & Tier 3 CS as of late. What started with the pick-up of Jabuk ‘jcobbb’ Pietruszewski, and kept going with the opportunity for Ryan ‘Neityu’ Aubry, has now reached its culmination point with the acquisition of BIG Academy’s AWP – Jason ‘JBOEN’ Nielsen, on a loan deal.
The 20-year-old Dane has been considered one of the brightest talents in Europe over the course of the last 9 months, but was definitely not one of the names many expected to see on a team with Twistzz & frozen, or at least not that soon.
After starting his professional career in December of 2022, the AWP-er went through multiple lower tier formations like Astralis Talent, Preasy & Volt before joining BIG’s academy team in September of 2025. Prior to joining FaZe, he had just 13 LAN events on record, but standing out are tournaments like Digital Crusade DraculaN S2 (1.46 rating), as well as the Dreamhack Knockout Atlanta 2025 & Skyesports Chennai Esports which he played with BIG’s main team, and was still one of the best performers on the team.
JBOEN is a rare example of a youngster, who’s able to put better numbers on the board on LAN (1.14 rating & 0.72 KPR), in comparison to his online showings (1.09 rating & 0.71 KPR). He’s got that electric style of an AWP-er who knows how to take initiative, but is a surprisingly composed player when needing to take a step back, and provide support for his teammates.
In his debut event for FaZe, JBOEN posted a 1.18 rating, 0.79 KPR during XSE Pro League Guangzhou 2026, and looked ready for the chaotic and freeflowing brand of Counter-Strike that was on show. Considering FaZe’s weird VRS position, lackluster results, and alternative options, getting a young, presumably cheaper, player on loan, with a potential bigger upside, as well as an option to buy him out, seems like a good move. The young Dane is definitely not the one player who should be expected to save the entire project, but could quickly become part of a three-man-core that could be here to stay with frozen and Twistzz.
R1nkle to G2 Esports
The 25th of June will definitely stay in my memory for a while as the day of “eternal confusion”. This is the best description for what I felt when I saw G2 Esports’s announcement for moving Alvaro ‘SunPayus’ Garcia to the bench, in favor of 21-year-old ex-NIP AWP-er – Artem ‘r1nkle’ Moroz.
Regardless of being one of the team’s most consistent pieces, the secondary caller, as well as one of the few players on the lineup, whose individual performance would not drop, but rather improve in important games, the Spaniard departed the team, and was replaced by r1nkle, who came back after nearly 3 months away from the server, after getting benched on NIP on the 15th of April.
Instead of focusing on why SunPayus might’ve not deserved the removal, I’ve decided to search for the method to this decision’s madness. I won’t lie, if it wasn’t Eetu ‘sAw’ Saha making the call, I would’ve probably struggled to see any logic in a move like this, but the one thing we know for the Finnish tactician is that he never shies away from a challenge, and knows how to develop a player, taking the most of them.
sAw was a key figure in the careers of players like Spinx, NertZ, SunPayus, tn1r & degster. Some of them were massive prospects, which sAw scouted and developed, and others – players who were expected to fade away, but got brought back and ended up showing a surprisingly high level of play. Years go, r1nkle was considered to be one of Europe’s elite AWP prospects, but the last 2 years on NIP did not show the face of the impudent, confident & fearless AWP, but rather a shy, uncalculated, and insecure player, who would often times exude instability.
The most obvious difference between SunPayus & r1nkle is the younger player’s tendency to take more initiative on the CT-sides, as well as his pure skill with the rifle, and world class reflexes. However, there is no doubt who’s the more complete player, and this is where sAw’s gamble comes into the conversation.
R1nkle is aggressive, he is assertive, and knows how to make his presence conquer the server, but his self-confidence seemed to be on an all-time low during his last couple of months with the Ninjas. G2 and sAw have put their money on a more volatile AWP, who could potentially find a higher ceiling, and develop into the world class star that was promised to NIP in 2024.
I’m not sure if I can call this one a ‘slam dunk’ move, but it definitely could prove to be one of pure genius…. Or naivety.
Honorable mention: MartinezSa to Heroic
Not as risky as r1nkle’s G2 acquisition, or as unpredictable as JBOEN’s transfer to FaZe. Unlike the other two moves mentioned in this article, the 25-year-old Spaniard joining Heroic is what traditional sports would frame as a “blockbuster move”. The only ‘asterix’ behind Antonio Martinez’s signing to Heroic is the question around the level of his English.
This is MartinezSa’s first English-speaking team, after he decided to “delay” his European debut by joining 9z from Movistar Riders in December of 2023. However, after coming back to Spain in July of 2025, he quickly reminded everyone of his undeniable talent, and capability of dominating the server. MartinezSa is the type of player who could be classified as a “CS:GO AWP-er” – brave, confident, and willing to take chances.
Very few wielders of the “big green” are willing to pull off the same aggressive moves, and purchase the gun as much as him. The Iberian is the typical 50%+ AWP kills, p250 on every T-side pistol, glass-cacon on the first CT-side buy round type of player. A pure AWP-er, who has finally decided to get out of his shell and give the international scene a real go.
According to GentleMate’s head coach – djL, MartinezSa has always been an incredibly vocal player, someone who’s calling his shots, and helping his teammates around the map – proactive in his gameplay, but also in the communication department. Time might be needed, for his English to reach a close-enough level to his wielding of Spanish, but as soon as the Spaniard gets comfortable within Heroic’s system, with international, proven pieces around himself, he looks bound to cause a lot of issues for to many.