ESC Bid Farewell to Their CS2 Team After Roster Is Bought Out

ESC have officially parted ways with their Counter-Strike roster after the Polish squad was bought out by an as-yet-unnamed organisation, bringing another chapter of the storied club’s CS history to an end. The move was announced on November 15 and comes while the team sits 42nd in HLTV’s VRS and 41st in the world ranking, making this one of the stronger line-ups to leave a mid-tier organisation in 2025. 

Roster sold, temporary “FriendlyCampers” tag

The entire five-man roster plus coach has been transferred:

• Patryk “olimp” Woźniak – in-game leader

• Kamil “reiko” Cegiełko

• Dawid “SaMey” Stańczak

• Wojciech “bajmi” Strzelczyk

• Bartosz “moonwalk” Mikołajczyk

• Coach: Kacper “kapibe” Burda

Until the new organisation reveals itself, the lineup will compete under the temporary name FriendlyCampers. Their first outings with the placeholder tag are set to be the ESL Challenger League Season 50 Europe Finals, where a place in ESL Pro League is on the line, and the DraculaN 3 LAN in Bucharest. 

From los kogutos to ESC

This roster’s stint with ESC began at the start of 2025, when the organisation picked up the core of los kogutos, one of Poland’s better-known tier-two outfits. External databases note that ESC signed a lineup built around SaMey, bajmi and company in January, then later replaced Dawid “tein” Śladkowski with reiko in March, cementing the five that would now be sold on. 

Before joining ESC, many of these players had already carved out a name in regional competitions under the los kogutos banner, grinding online leagues such as the European Pro League and various CCT and United21 events. 

Recent results: strong online resume

While under ESC, the Polish squad quietly put together an impressive run across smaller events. As HLTV’s report highlights, in the last six months they: 

• Won one CCT Series event

• Claimed two Winline Insight season titles

• Captured ESL Challenger League Season 50 Europe Cup 3

Those wins helped them climb into the mid-40s in the global ranking and placed them among the most promising tier-two line-ups in Europe. 

Individually, several players have built solid statistical profiles over long careers. For example, reiko sports a 1.07 rating over more than 1,200 recorded maps, while SaMey holds a 1.06 rating in nearly 1,000 maps — numbers that underline the level of consistency bigger organisations tend to look for when recruiting. 

olimp: “ESC couldn’t give us LANs”

In a statement to HLTV, in-game leader olimp explained why the roster felt the time was right to move on. He praised ESC for a positive working relationship and good atmosphere but pointed to one major limitation: the organisation lacked the resources to consistently send the team to offline events. 

According to olimp, another organisation approached them with a buyout offer and, crucially, the promise of regular LAN appearances. For a squad that has often been labelled “online specialists”, the chance to prove themselves on stage was too important to pass up. He emphasised that ESC’s management supported the decision and that the players leave on good terms, thanking the owners for their support and memorable bootcamps. 

ESC’s long CS history

Although this is “only” the end of the current lineup, it also marks another turning point in ESC Gaming’s long relationship with Counter-Strike. ESC have fielded rosters in the series for well over a decade. Historic teams featuring Polish legends like neo, TaZ, pashaBiceps, Loord and kuben wore the ESC tag in the early 2010s, helping the organisation build a reputation in both CS 1.6 and early CS:GO. 

The organisation has been here before: in 2015 HLTV reported that ESC and their then-Polish CS:GO team parted ways, with players leaving for new opportunities after a stint in smaller online events. 

EsportsEarnings data shows ESC teams across multiple games have earned more than $340,000 in prize money, with around a third of that coming from Counter-Strike and CS2. The latest roster’s online successes added to that legacy even as the organisation once again steps back from the game at team level.

A familiar pattern in today’s CS2 economy

ESC’s decision to sell their team rather than scale up investment fits into a wider trend in 2025: maintaining a competitive CS2 roster has become increasingly expensive. In recent months, other organisations have also reevaluated their involvement. Complexity, for example, announced in August that they were exiting CS2 altogether due to financial strain, ending a twenty-year run in the game. 

The women’s circuit has faced similar pressure, with ESL Impact announcing the suspension of its all-women CS2 league after stating that its current economic model was unsustainable. In that climate, smaller organisations like ESC often struggle to fund regular bootcamps and international LAN trips for ambitious rosters.

What’s next for the players — and for ESC?

For reiko, SaMey, bajmi, moonwalk, olimp and coach kapibe, the short-term future is clear: finish out their upcoming events as FriendlyCampers, then officially unveil their new home once the transfer process is complete. With a string of online trophies and respectable rankings already behind them, they now have the chance to show their ceiling at higher-profile LANs. 

For ESC, the farewell does not necessarily mean a permanent exit from Counter-Strike — the organisation has left and re-entered the scene multiple times over the years, sometimes after long breaks, as earlier history shows.  For now, though, their team page on HLTV lists no active players and no upcoming matches, signalling at least a pause in their CS2 project. 

Whether ESC eventually rebuilds around a new Polish core or shifts its esports focus elsewhere, the outgoing roster leaves behind one more successful chapter in the organisation’s Counter-Strike story—while stepping into their own next phase under fresh colours.