FACEIT Season 9 Set for August 5 With Soft Elo Reset

FACEIT Eases Into Season 9 After a Rough Reset Season

FACEIT has announced that Season 9 of its competitive Counter-Strike 2 ladder will kick off on August 5, according to reporting from HLTV. The new season brings a soft Elo reset, meaning every account will see their rating adjusted, but players can restore their standing by completing 10 placement matches.

The approach is notably gentler than what greeted players at the start of Season 8, when the platform pushed through a harder reset specifically aimed at curbing top-end Elo inflation and nudging out inactive players who had been sitting on old ranks without playing. Whether the softer touch this time around satisfies the community is still an open question, though FACEIT has clearly heard the feedback. The platform also opened a vote for the possible return of half-time voice chat between opposing teams during the first week of the new season, giving players a direct say in at least one feature.

BLAST Sorts Out the Liquid Situation for Bounty

Over on the tournament side, BLAST issued a clarification this week regarding Team Liquid’s participation in the Bounty event after Liquid announced they would need to use Roland “ultimate” Tomkowiak rather than new signing Georgi “Jorko” Mitev. BLAST’s statement, as reported by HLTV, confirmed that “Team Liquid are allowed to use 3 or more of the following players at the BLAST Premier Bounty: malbsMd, EliGE, NAF-FLY and Ultimate,” effectively clearing the path for Liquid to compete with their new AWPer.

Separately, BLAST revealed the draft order for Bounty Season 2. The 32-team event’s live draft show was scheduled for Friday at 19:00, with 3DMAX earning the first overall pick. The bottom 16 seeds were set to select their opponents for the online stage beginning July 21.

Roster and Coaching News Fills Out the Week

The week brought a handful of roster moves worth tracking. killazoo departed OG and was announced as the new assistant coach at HEROIC. Wildcard picked up MAD as a new analyst. Over at Spirit Academy, k0gaSs completed the roster. SAW Youngsters added M1KA and ner0.

On the competition side, fnatic claimed the ECL Season 52 Europe Cup 1 title. NRG won FRAG St. Clair without hallzerk in the lineup, which is a notable result regardless of the event’s stakes. Falcons also released voice comms from their Cologne Major run, which tends to draw significant viewer interest whenever teams make that material public.

UK Locks In ENC Roster, HLTV Adds Round Swing Feature

The United Kingdom finalized its roster for the Europe West qualifier of the Esports Nations Cup, which ran July 17-19. The lineup includes Oscar “AZUWU” Bell, Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen, Cai “CYPHER” Watson, Owen “smooya” Butterfield, Sebastian “volt” Maloș, and Marco “MMS” as coach, per HLTV. smooya remains one of the more recognizable names in UK Counter-Strike and his inclusion gives the squad a recognizable veteran presence.

On the data side, HLTV introduced a new Round Swing insights feature this week, which adds another layer to how fans can analyze momentum shifts within individual maps. The addition continues HLTV’s ongoing effort to surface more granular match statistics for a community that has never been short of appetite for that kind of breakdown.

KRIMZ also shared some candid perspective this week, stating “I was going to retire” in comments that surfaced on HLTV. He remains active, but the admission is a reminder of how close the scene sometimes comes to losing players who have defined its history.