Ismail “refrezh” Ali, a former player for Heroic and Sprout, has joined Evil Geniuses as it begins to restructure its Counter-Strike roster. He is apparently replacing Jadan “HexT” Postma on the roster.
While this seems to be a step in the right direction for the team on paper, the CS:GO community seems less convinced, with many claiming in an April 11 thread on Reddit that the NA org is making a mistake with this change—and even worse, the roster may well be too far gone for anything short of a full rebuild to save the day.
Players were collectively baffled by EG’s decision-making, with many fearing the org’s “floundering” roster already lacks a killing blow. In particular, fans critiqued refrezh’s lack of firepower alongside a mix of teammates who have already struggled against tier-one teams.
Despite refrezh being a key piece in Heroic’s success, players are still doubting his ability to actually bring EG out of their undeniably long slump.
Before his move to EG’s top CS:GO roster this week, Refrezh’s time at Sprout failed to live up to expectations. The Dane originally took over the IGL role for the squad but stepped down from the position after just six months at the helm, stating he was struggling to balance all the responsibilities the role required.
EG has not been doing much better. Recently, the NA squad bombed out of the BLAST Paris Major Americas RMRs after losing to FURIA and Paquetá—though they were only invited to the event at the last minute as a replacement roster. The squad has been in dire straits since March 2021, with their only noteworthy win of late has been against Heroic, and even then that was just the roster’s second best-of-three win all year.
We’ll have to wait and see if refrezh makes a significant impact, but it seems the CS:GO community has already made their mind up on how little the change will add.