Many aspiring pro players regard joining an organization to play professional CSGO as a dream. There is no set age at which you must achieve your goals; some people do it earlier, others later, and some people never do. Sadly, because of his age, the 17-year-old Rūdolfs “rud” Osmanis will have to turn down a huge opportunity. Due to his inability to join the new organization because of his age, the former SOS player must regrettably leave the roster to consider other possibilities.
Being forced to give up such an opportunity in a region where organizations ready to invest in CSGO are few and far between, this is nothing short of a gut punch for the budding player. After being added to the team along with Javier “Ping” Griffiths to replace Kirk “Tadpole” Stephens and long-time member Matas “Extinct” Strumilaalong to provide new dynamic and a shift in the team’s playstyle just a few weeks ago, an org quickly expressed interest in the mix. rud, though, would be unable to sign on because of his age. This choice comes across as unsurprising at a time when tier 1 organizations are signing players as young as sixteen.
LFT [EU/RU]I'm Stepping down from @SOS_CSGO due my age as I sadly won't be able to sign with their new org.
With that said I'm still motivated to grind and I will be looking for new opportunities as Awper!
DM's are open 📩❤️
— Rūdolfs🇱🇻 (@RudCS4) October 17, 2022
Although the aforementioned core did not play many matches together, they still managed to qualify for the Kayzr League, beating Royals 2-0 in the open qualifier finals. The group triumphed over EC Brugge in the tournament’s opening match as well.
Currently, there’s no information on who will be called up to fill the void left by rud’s departure.
UKCSGO reached out to rud for a comment on the move:
Why weren’t you able to sign with the org ?
So the org we where gonna sign for is working with a betting sponsor, and the owner wasn’t comfortable with signing anyone under 18 because of that, which is a bit strange because I’ve never heard that a betting sponsor would hinder a contract signing for anyone under 18 in any sports or esport teams, but as there isn’t many salary opportunities for UK teams the guys just had to agree with it, I cant complain about that.
What is your next step?
I will be looking for a new team and in the meantime grind pugs to get FPL-C.
Anything else you want to add?
I enjoyed the short time i had with the guys at SOS, I learnt a lot especially from artist and biscu. I wish them the best of luck in the future!
