One of the best CS:GO AWPers in the world, Abdulkhalik “degster” Gasanov, will test himself more often against tier-one opposition now that he’s officially a part of OG’s team for the remainder of the 2022 season.
The 21-year-old joined OG on a definitive transfer on July 15 during the player break, less than a month after he temporarily replaced Mateusz “mantuu” Wilczewski and helped OG reach the semifinals of BLAST Premier Spring Finals. Degster averaged a 1.16 rating in that tournament, according to HLTV, which convinced OG to buy him from Team Spirit and effectively replace mantuu.
Degster said in an interview with HLTV ahead of the BLAST Premier Fall Groups, the first S-tier tournament following the player break, that other teams approached him as well, but he opted to join OG because the team is willing to give him the freedom to go for aggressive plays with the AWP. The Russian AWPer wants to use his time under OG to improve his skillset and help them win big tournaments, which neither he nor OG have accomplished thus far in CS:GO.
“I think the time in OG is my time to improve myself,” degster said. “Right now we don’t have a big system because we’re playing with each other only nine days as a team. I can see that our potential is on a high level anyway, we just need to understand how we can work with each other and how we can support each other on the map.”
“It’s also really important for me as a sniper, because I need my players to understand how they can help me to do what I’m doing on the map,” he said. “If people don’t understand it and play by themselves, it’s much harder to win against top teams. For me the biggest goal is to beat top teams and to win top tournaments. I’ve never won a tier-one tournament and I really want to, I’m really excited to win it with OG.”
All eyes will be on the Russian AWPer during OG’s matches at BLAST Premier Fall Groups, his first big tournament as a full member of the international squad.
OG have been placed into Group A alongside Astralis, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Vitality. They will face the latter in the opening round tomorrow at 6am CT.
