Damian "Kyxsan" Stoilkovski, captain of Heroic, commented on the absence of Abdul "degster" Gasanov at IEM Cologne 2024 for CS2. In an interview before the tournament, he mentioned that the team was unable to practice with stand-in Vladimir "Woro2k" Velitnyuk in time.
"The situation is unfortunate. We had trained extensively with degster—even returning to practice a bit earlier after the break. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make it here to Copenhagen. Now we can only accept the situation and try to perform our best with Woro2k. We had no time [to practice with him]—we only met for the first time yesterday and managed to discuss just the basics."
Degster could not attend IEM Cologne 2024 due to visa issues—Woro2k is substituting for him at the tournament. Earlier, degster also missed BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2024. Heroic and Gasanov explained that this situation arose due to circumstances beyond their control, as all necessary documents had been submitted well in advance.
IEM Cologne 2024 is taking place from 7 to 18 August in Germany. The 24 teams are competing for a prize pool of $1 million. Heroic will begin their tournament run from the Play-In stage, facing MIBR in the first round.