Danish CS2 team Sashi Esport has signed two Australians, Tynan “TjP” Purtell and Jordan “Hatz” Bajic, so it can switch from the Europe VRS to the Asia VRS. The goal is an invite to the PGL Major Singapore 2026. Two Danish players, Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen and Casper “Cabbi” Jensen, are on the bench. According to the original HLTV report, the two will be out of the starting lineup “for the coming month.”
That timing is what upset people. The Sashi Asia VRS switch lasts just long enough to cover the invite window. Within hours, players, casters and rival organizations were calling it a loophole.
Sashi’s New CS2 Roster for the Asia VRS
| Player | Nationality | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand | Denmark | Stays |
| Rasmus “Zyphon” Nordfoss | Denmark | Stays |
| Anton “Anlelele” Huynh | Denmark / Vietnam | Stays |
| Tynan “TjP” Purtell | Australia | Joins from THUNDER dOWNUNDER |
| Jordan “Hatz” Bajic | Australia | Joins, last official match July 2024 |
| Mikkel “MistR” Thomsen | Denmark | Benched |
| Casper “Cabbi” Jensen | Denmark | Benched |
Anlelele makes the move possible. He plays under the Danish flag but also holds Vietnamese citizenship. Valve puts each team in the region where most of its players come from, and Australia falls inside the Asia VRS. Anlelele plus two Australians makes three of five, which is a majority for Asia.
TjP comes from THUNDER dOWNUNDER, the Australian side that qualified for IEM Cologne 2026. Hatz used to play for Renegades. He hasn’t played an official match since July 2024.
Why Sashi Left the Europe VRS for Asia
In the Europe VRS, Sashi sits 54th with 1,122 points. Europe gets 18 of the 32 Major spots, which leaves Sashi far outside the invite places. In the Asia VRS, the same points would make Sashi the region’s fifth-best team. Asia has five spots, so fifth is the last one.
| Region | Spots at PGL Major Singapore |
|---|---|
| Europe | 18 |
| Americas | 9 |
| Asia | 5 |
| Total | 32 |
There’s a catch. The new lineup has to play five matches together before it shows up in the Asia standings at all. After that, the team has about four weeks left before the November 2 VRS cutoff decides who gets invited.
Can Sashi Actually Qualify for the Singapore Major?
The odds are low. VRS analyst Finn “Mischief” Farrer gives Sashi a 13.25% chance of a Major invite through Asia. He bases that on the LAN events left on the calendar before the snapshot. For comparison, BC.Game made a similar region move and he has them at 83%.
| Team | Asia VRS outlook (per HLTV projections) |
|---|---|
| TYLOO | Close to a lock |
| The MongolZ | Close to a lock |
| BC.Game | Close to a lock (83%) |
| FlyQuest | Next in line |
| Lynn Vision | Most at risk if Sashi climbs |
| Sashi Esport | 13.25% |
Our October 2026 VRS rankings breakdown showed the Asia race was already tight before this news. A few points either way can move a team in or out of the top five.
How the CS2 Community Reacted to the Sashi Region Swap
Falcons star Nikola “NiKo” Kovač posted: “It’s not too late to do something about this.”
Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken compared the move with BC.Game’s. “The main difference… is that none of the bc.game players used a hidden dual nationality,” he wrote. “What’s happening here is more suspicious.”
Håvard “rain” Nygaard kept it short: “more region abuse? sashi absolutely zero shame lmao.” Caster Graham Pitt called the move disgraceful and asked Valve to look at both region swaps and dual nationality rules. Esports event founder Daniel “Mavrick” Lang raised the same issue, warning about teams “switching regions mid-season.”
Organizations piled on too. BLAST, Luminosity and BC.Game all posted jokes about it, and Luminosity said it would be ordering “ancestry tests” for its own roster. Analyst OlyMeister had a different take: “Good move cause this is the most anyone has ever talked about Sashi.”
Most of the anger comes down to two points. First, Sashi has said openly that the change is temporary, so it has no plan to keep competing in Asia after the Major. Second, Anlelele’s Vietnamese citizenship was never shown on the team’s roster, which made the move look more opportunistic than BC.Game signing two known Mongolian players.
BC.Game, Liquid and Wildcard Made Similar Moves First
Sashi isn’t the first team to do this. BC.Game moved to the Asia VRS after signing Mongolians Senzu and mzinho, and critics said that pushed an Asian team out of a Major spot. Liquid and Wildcard also changed regions earlier in the cycle.
Valve has already closed one loophole. In January 2025 it changed how multi-regional teams are assigned. A team that qualifies through more than one VRS now counts for the region with more Major spots, in this order: Europe, then Americas, then Asia. That rule doesn’t cover what Sashi did, which is changing the roster’s majority shortly before a cutoff.
Can Valve Close the VRS Region Swap Loophole?
Right now, a team can switch regions before the cutoff without any penalty, as long as the new roster plays five matches. Valve publishes the standings model in its official VRS GitHub repository, and nothing there stops a short-term swap like this one.
The fixes people are suggesting are simple. One is to lock each team’s region at a fixed date well before the snapshot. Another is to dock points from any team that switches mid-season. As of October 5, 2026, Valve hasn’t said anything about Sashi’s move.
FAQ: Sashi Asia VRS Move
Sashi ranks 54th in Europe, far from a Major spot. Moving to Asia puts its points in the fifth and final invite place for PGL Major Singapore.
Australians Tynan “TjP” Purtell and Jordan “Hatz” Bajic. MistR and Cabbi are on the bench.
Anlelele holds Vietnamese citizenship. Along with the two Australians, that gives the team a three-player majority from the Asia region.
November 2, 2026. Valve sends all 32 invites from that snapshot.
No. Sashi says MistR and Cabbi will be out for about a month, which covers the invite window.
