Kassad: “In the CIS, they’re destroying as many talents as they are creating”

The coach of Bleed Esports' Counter-Strike 2 team, Aleksandar "kassad" Trifunović, harshly criticised the academy rosters in the CIS region. He stated that the organisations sign contracts with players that are only beneficial for the clubs, while young esports athletes receive minimal salaries. Kassad shared these thoughts on the Last Free Nation Counter-Strike podcast.

"In the CIS, they’re destroying as many talents as they are creating. You know that in the past few years, many great players have emerged in the region — YEKINDAR, FL1T, fame, donk, sh1ro, m0NESY. And that’s not even all of the young talents.

It’s so sad that so many players have been locked into contracts with academies for several years, receiving minimal salaries and with maximum buyout clauses. All these kids are the potential future donks and sh1ros. They are stuck in the academies. And all the teams are connected, with the same companies behind them. They don’t sell players to each other.

When you ask how much a player costs and try to buy them, they quote outrageous amounts. For example, they might say $100,000. You wonder why the player is so expensive, like what the hell, but you’re willing to pay because the player is really good. You go back to the club, and now they say: ‘Sorry, now it’s $175,000.’ They just make up random amounts to avoid selling players."