Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov finally got his debut in pro Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and he showed up big time.
G2 Esports took a big gamble by contracting rising star m0nesy from NAVI Junior. In addition to a massive buyout rumored to be at $600,000, the historic squad was picking up an inexperienced player with no history at the top pro level. Now that BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022 is over, it’s safe to say that the gamble has paid off. While not the most successful tournament possible for G2, new player m0nesy took over multiple games and scored several highlights along the way.
After weeks of anticipation, G2 Esports confirmed the benching of François “AMANEK” Delaunay for m0nesy just days before the event. m0nesy’s debut tier-one match against Complexity showed signs of his inexperience. The 16-year-old performed decently, scoring 19 kills to 16 deaths. He won the majority of his duels, including going 6-1 against American AWPer Paytyn “junior” Johnson. Veteran teammate Nikola “NiKo” Kova? popped off with 32 kills to secure a 16-12 win for G2.
Now with one game under his belt, m0nesy appeared much more comfortable during his next matches at the event. He contributed greatly to G2’s unexpected stomp over Ninjas in Pyjamas, going 18-9 with 100% round contribution on Inferno. The group stage final rematch was more precarious, but m0nesy still contributed. The squads traded equal halves and eventually went to double overtime, where G2 won 22-19. The youngster’s decisive AWPing style bagged 16 kills with 66.7 average damage per round.
While most AWPers stick to mid on Mirage, m0nesy played aggressively on the B site the majority of his rounds. For A retakes, he seems to favor rotating through T spawn and piercing ramp rather than connector or jungle.
m0nesy scores insane clutch at debut, teammates react
The final test for m0nesey came during the play-in stage. After falling to Vitality in a best-of-three series, G2 faced MIBR for a guaranteed spot in the Spring Finals. G2’s 2-0 stomp featured multiple clutches from the young player. m0nesy’s clutch skills were first shown in a one-in-two site A site defense on round two of Inferno. He followed it up with the most insane clutch round so far in 2022. Four Brazilian players disappeared from the map thanks to m0nesy’s explosive AWPing and a surprising amount of patience for a rookie.
Luckily for fans, BLAST was able to show the team communications during the wild clutch. The squad’s hype appropriately died down during the important moments. No one offered m0nesy advice during the clutch, clearly showing confidence in the newest prospect.
“You are clutching this, brother,” Nemanja “huNter-” Kova? said.
Once the final AWP shot rang out, the bench exploded. Every player expressed their disbelief at such an insane sequence, including fellow star NiKo. While not every moment of m0nesy’s debut was as memorable as the insane clutch, BLAST Premier: Spring Groups proved that the young star is capable of playing at the highest level of CSGO.
