Yesterday, we reported on a shocking incident that unfolded at the award ceremony of CAGGTUS Leipzig, where CS2 pro Maurizio “MAUschine” Weber slapped an opponent during the live broadcast, receiving a 10-year suspension from DACH CS Masters and Fragster as a result.
Erstaunlicherweise dulden wir keine Tätlichkeiten gegen andere Spieler auf LAN und haben entsprechend gehandelt.
MAUschine ist für mindestens 10 Jahre gebannt und der Vorfall wurde zusätzlich an ESIC gemeldet. Falls es nicht klar wurde: Wir finden Gewalt ziemlich scheiße und… pic.twitter.com/HIIYk2TmzX
Now, ESIC has stepped in, and the situation has gotten a whole lot worse for the German content creator.
Following an investigation into the situation, the ESIC has confirmed in a statement that it is issuing a permanent ban on MAUschine for physically assaulting Spidergum at the aforementioned CS2 tournament on 20 April 2026.
A counter strike player known as MAUschine has been handed a 10 year ban after sucker punching a member of the winning team pic.twitter.com/1GEmvv85m2
“Physical violence in any form will result in the strongest possible sanctions,” the ESIC said in a statement. “A live esports event is a professional sporting environment. Participants are expected to meet the highest standards of conduct. Crossing the line into physical aggression (particularly in a public, on-stage setting) is not a lapse in judgment; it is a serious integrity violation that fundamentally undermines the safety of players, officials, and the credibility of competition itself.”
The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) has issued a lifetime ban to Maurizio “MAUschine” Weber following an on-stage assault at the CAGGTUS LEIPZIG Event.
The incident, widely circulated and clearly documented, involved physical violence against another participant in a live… pic.twitter.com/PoYTL7iOQf
According to the ESIC, the sanction prohibits MAUschine from participating in any capacity across all member events worldwide, marking this as one of the most extensive bans the body has ever issued for physical violence.
In its statement, the ESIC described the incident as “clearly documented” and called it “one of the most severe breaches of the ESIC Code of Conduct.”
“The lifetime ban imposed reflects the gravity of the offence and ESIC’s commitment to ensuring that individuals who engage in violent conduct are removed from the competitive ecosystems of ESIC’s membership.”
What started as a regional LAN event with no prize money on the line has now cost this man his entire competitive career, and potentially a lot more, should Spidergum decide to pursue legal action.
Spidergum has since been active on social media, celebrating his team’s win and poking fun at MAUschine for being, in his words, “better at slapping than AWPing.”
Krank hab alles erlebt 😂 B3B Caggtus CS2 Sieger. Volltreffer von Mauschine besseres aim als mit der awp und vorallem on Stream pic.twitter.com/4UqDl3UseX
Valve has officially shipped the Animgraph 2 update to the CS2 live servers earlier today, and early reports suggest it’s triggering significant FPS spikes for gamers regardless of their PC specs.
Prominent CS2 content creator ‘ThourCS2’ shared a before-and-after performance comparison following the Animgraph 2 update, noting an approximate 5% increase in both average FPS and 1% lows.
However, the X user points out that he is running high-end hardware, including a 9800X3D and an RTX 5070, and claims that the FPS increase is likely to be higher on low-end PCs.
On My PC (9800X3D + RTX 5070), I have noticed FPS Improvement of 5% in both Average and 1% Lows.
My PC is already very optimized, so the improvement will be way more in a low or mid end PC. pic.twitter.com/2bmCqEVD4K
For the uninitiated, Animgraph 2 is a complete overhaul of CS2’s animation system that improves visual clarity while reducing CPU and network load, leading to more responsive gameplay and potentially higher, more stable FPS.
For the past few weeks, Valve has been testing the waters by initially shipping out Animgraph 2 to a beta branch of CS2. The update had been available since early April as an opt-in “animgraph_2_beta” build.
After nearly three weeks of beta testing, fixing underlying bugs, and fine-tuning the system, Valve officially launched Animgraph 2 to the live servers on April 20, 2026.
The Bigger Picture
When CS2 launched, one of the most common complaints from the game’s community was the added system load that came with the Source 2 engine. As a result of the improved visuals, many players who used to be able to run CSGO smoothly for years found themselves struggling to run CS2 on their hardware.
While Animgraph 2 is unlikely to bring your FPS back to the CSGO era, it is definitely a step in the right direction. Players on low or mid-tier PCs should see a significant increase in their CS2 FPS moving forward.
Additionally, the fact that this update also delivers better-looking third-person animations for character models at the same time makes it a huge win for Valve and the entire CS2 community.
Siddhant Praveen Joshi, known online as Shreeman Legend, officially joined Team Apex Gaming (TAG) as a Founding Member on April 19, 2026. This came in one of the biggest announcements the Indian gaming community has seen this year. The move goes far beyond a standard creator deal. In fact, it signals a deeper, long-term stake in the organization.
Who Is Shreeman Legend?
Shreeman Legend is one of India’s most recognized gaming content creators, celebrated for his Marathi commentary, GTA Roleplay streams, and a fiercely loyal fanbase known as the #ShreemanFamily. He runs multiple YouTube channels covering gaming livestreams and lifestyle vlogs. Over several years, he has earned massive respect across platforms. His journey started with earning Rs. 8,000 a month. Now, he owns multiple vehicles and has built the Shreeman Legend Foundation. As a result, this reflects how far he has come in the Indian gaming space.
What Is a Founding Member Role in Team Apex Gaming?
A Founding Member is a distinct tier within Team Apex Gaming’s launch structure, and it is specifically different from being a regular content creator signing. This title means Shreeman Legend plays an active part in shaping the identity, direction, and culture of the organization. He helps build it from the ground up. He is not simply creating content under the TAG banner. TAG’s official announcement video, titled “THE MAN THE MYTH THE LEGEND!”, described him as “a true pioneer who commands absolute respect and has carried the community for years”.
Team Apex Gaming’s Current Member Structure
Here is how Team Apex Gaming’s founding roster breaks down as of April 2026:
Member
Role
Jonathan Gaming
Founder & Star BGMI Player
SSR Vlogs
Content Creator
Shreeman Legend
Founding Member & Content Creator
Jonathan Gaming leads the org as its primary BGMI esports athlete, while Shreeman Legend anchors the content and community side of the organization. This structure shows that TAG is being built as a full-scale content and esports empire. It is not just a competitive squad.
Shreeman Legend’s Responsibilities in Team Apex Gaming
His core responsibilities center on content creation, community building, and expanding TAG’s reach in the vernacular gaming audience. This is particularly across Maharashtra and the wider Hindi-speaking belt. As a result, fans can expect more engaging live streams. In addition, there will be collaborations with other TAG creators and a bigger push on community events as part of his role. Shreeman himself stated in his announcement that Jonathan handles the top-level competitive gameplay while he focuses on entertainment. Both are working together to deliver results for the fans in the future.
What This Move Means for Indian Esports
This signing positions TAG as a serious dual-threat organization that competes hard on the esports stage while also dominating the content game. TAG’s official BGMI roster reveal and their competitive debut at BMPS 2026 in May are right around the corner. There are EWC 2026 slots on the line. As a result, Shreeman Legend’s presence as a founding member gives the org a massive community-driven platform going into a crucial competitive season.
For Indian gaming as a whole, this kind of collaboration between a top esports player and a veteran content creator under one org roof is a sign of the industry maturing into a full entertainment and competitive ecosystem.
Valve pushed the AnimGraph 2 update to Counter-Strike 2 on April 21, 2026. The animation system spent nearly three weeks in beta before the full release.
Beta Testing Started April 1
Players who opted into the beta branch got access on April 1, 2026. Valve asked for bug reports by email before going live. The Counter-Strike 2 Twitter account announced the final rollout on April 20.
Full Animation Rebuild
AnimGraph 2 is a ground up rebuild of CS2’s player animation system. Every third person animation got rewritten from scratch. Valve made adjustments based on beta feedback.
The system cuts down on CPU and networking costs. Some players on older rigs reported FPS gains up to 8%. Frame stability jumped too. Dust2 benchmark tests showed 1% low FPS going from 256.9 to 324.
Movement Looks Different Now
Counter strafing animations work better. When you hit the opposite key to stop, your character leans into the momentum and plants their legs.
The old animations looked wonky. Players appeared to ice skate across the map. There was a gap between what the server registered and what you saw on screen. The new system makes it obvious when someone has stopped to shoot.
Valve updated first person animations back on July 28, 2025. That patch covered weapon deploy, firing, reload, and inspect for all guns.
Teammates Can See More Animations
Knife pullouts now show up in third person. Before this, only you could see the animation. Same deal with weapon reloads. Other players can watch you reload now.
Air crouching looks smoother in both views.
Grenade Lineups May Break
Player height on slopes got completely redone. The old system gave different results depending on which direction you approached a ramp.
Some nade lineups will need fixing. If your jump throw requires standing on uneven ground, it might not work anymore.
Bug Fixes
The patch notes include several fixes. Viewmodel animations got minor tweaks. Weapon deploy logic changed. Knife attack transitions work properly now. Dual Elites actually fire in third person.
Silent ladder climbing is dead. You used to be able to tap movement keys and climb fast without sound. Ground smoothing where slopes meet flat surfaces changed too.
Grenades don’t scale weirdly anymore after you drop and pick them up. The halftime crash when swapping from CT to T is fixed.
Visibility Through Walls
GPU based occlusion checks went in. This stops players from showing through thin walls when they shouldn’t be visible.
The goal was bringing CS2 movement closer to how CS:GO felt. Players complained CS2 felt floaty during fast strafes and peeks. AnimGraph 2 fixes that by making everything feel more planted.
KRAFTON India Esports has announced the onboarding of Cohort 2 for its Rising Stars Programme 2026, adding nine new creators to its growing talent development pipeline. The initiative focuses on nurturing emerging esports creators with structured support and competitive opportunities.
Strong response from creators across India
The programme received over 2,500 registrations from creators nationwide, showing high interest in structured esports growth opportunities. With this new cohort, KRAFTON continues to build a strong base for future esports talent in India.
New creators join the programme
The nine creators selected for Cohort 2 include Chirag Dua (ESWanted), Tanmay Sipahiya (K9xKnighT), Rohit Saxena (NebulaKRATOS), Jatin Kumar (4TRxJatinOG), Aarush Sharma (InfinixTRHydrO), Jasleen Kaur (LExJasleen), Sohail Shaikh (Hector), Akshay Kumar (WELTwJusty06), and Mohit Kumavat (iQOORGExLevi11).
What the programme offers
The Rising Stars Programme follows a structured model that helps creators grow step by step. Participants will get:
In-game resources like room cards
Guidance to improve gameplay and content
Regular tournament exposure
A chance to move into the Elite Rising Stars tier based on performance
“As the ecosystem grows, creators need more than moments of visibility – they need consistent opportunities to compete, improve, and stay relevant. With Rising Stars 2026, we have built a system that combines structured support with regular competitive exposure. Cohort 2 is an important part of that pipeline, allowing more creators to enter the system and earn their way forward through performance.” — Karan Pathak, Associate Director – Esports, KRAFTON India
Launched in 2025, the programme has already shown strong results. Participants created over 1,260 content pieces and 648 live streams, while gaining more than 218,000 followers combined. Some players from the first batch even reached the Quarterfinals of BGIS 2026.
With Cohort 2, the total number of Rising Stars now reaches 16, showing KRAFTON’s continued investment in grassroots esports development.
This programme is a big step towards building a strong esports ecosystem in India. It gives new creators a clear path to grow, compete, and succeed in the industry.
On April 21, 2026, in a meeting room in New Delhi, three Korean executives, one Indian fund manager, the Indian Commerce Minister, and the Korean Minister of Trade sat down together and signed off on the largest India-focused capital pool ever raised by an Asian technology-led platform. INR 6,000 crore. Four investment themes. Two governments. One message, delivered at the scale at which such messages actually land.
KRAFTON, the Korean publisher most Indian readers know as the company behind BGMI, announced alongside Naver Corporation and Mirae Asset Venture Investments that the Unicorn Growth Fund was now formally live, managed on the ground by MAVI’s India team, and ready to start writing cheques into Indian technology platforms, consumer businesses, AI and software companies, and deep tech. The official line from the announcement, delivered by KRAFTON Global CEO CH Kim, was clear: India is no longer a consumption market in the KRAFTON worldview. India is a creator economy, a development hub, and a partner market at the same level Korea and Japan have historically operated at in Asia.
For a company most Indian gamers think of as the BGMI company, this is a significant sentence. It is also the sentence KRAFTON has been working toward for nearly a decade.
The Ten-Year Build
Here is what most casual observers miss about KRAFTON in India.
The company has been operating in this country, in some form, since 2018. It launched PUBG Mobile, watched the title become a generation-defining cultural event, navigated the 2020 ban, rebuilt the title as BGMI with an India-specific operational model, navigated a second suspension in 2022, came back online in 2023, and has since run an uninterrupted competitive and commercial operation that few foreign gaming publishers have matched anywhere in Asia. Through all of that, KRAFTON kept investing, kept localising, and kept expanding beyond the game itself.
The numbers tell the story. KRAFTON has invested in NODWIN Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi, and Kuku FM, each of which has become a category leader in its own segment. NODWIN is the dominant tournament organiser in South Asian esports. Loco is the country’s largest dedicated gaming live-streaming platform. Pratilipi is the world’s largest multi-language storytelling platform. Kuku FM has become the default audio storytelling service for Indian-language content. None of these are gaming investments in the narrow sense. They are infrastructure bets on the broader Indian internet economy.
Beyond that portfolio, KRAFTON India launched the Krafton India Gaming Incubator to fund and mentor Indian game development studios, something no other foreign gaming publisher of comparable scale has done in this country. The company ran a 128-college nationwide campus tour integrating collegiate esports into 130+ institutions across India. It runs BGIS 2026, which remains the single largest mobile esports tournament in the country by viewership. It runs BMPS 2026, which feeds directly into the PUBG Mobile World Cup at Esports World Cup 2026 in Riyadh.
That is not a publisher operation. That is an ecosystem operation. KRAFTON stopped being just a game publisher in India years ago. The Unicorn Growth Fund is the formal admission of what has been true in practice since at least 2021.
Why This Announcement Is Different
Several foreign technology companies have committed large sums to India over the last decade. Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon have all run multi-billion-dollar India programmes through cloud, consumer, and enterprise products. What is different about the Unicorn Growth Fund is the specific combination of who is doing it, what they are funding, and how the capital is structured.
This is not a CSR initiative. It is not a strategic investment arm buying stakes in individual companies. It is a formal fund, with a named fund manager, with a defined thematic mandate, and with a capital pool size large enough to meaningfully shape the growth-stage venture environment in India for the next five years. At INR 6,000 crore (roughly $720 million at current exchange rates), it sits comfortably alongside the largest dedicated India venture funds run by domestic managers. It outsizes every India-focused fund ever raised by an Asian tech-led platform, which is the detail the press release is proud of and which is also the detail that matters strategically.
Look at the geographic logic. Japanese capital has been present in Indian venture for two decades, largely through SoftBank, which operates globally and does not frame itself as a Japan-India axis. American venture capital dominates the top of the Indian cap table. Middle Eastern sovereign money has arrived in the last three years, with mixed results and significant volatility. Chinese capital, for reasons everyone understands, has been effectively shut out since 2020.
Korean capital, at this scale, is new. KRAFTON and Naver together represent two of the largest technology companies in South Korea. Naver operates the country’s dominant search engine, the largest webtoon platform in Asia, a sprawling commerce and fintech business, and a rapidly-expanding B2B AI and cloud operation. Naver Corporation is, functionally, the Google of Korea, with some of its own distinct businesses that Google does not operate. Between KRAFTON and Naver, the Unicorn Growth Fund brings to Indian founders a technology stack, consumer reach, and platform expertise that no single American VC and no single Japanese investor individually carries.
That is the part of this story that deserves more attention than the press cycle is likely to give it.
The Four Themes, Read Carefully
The fund’s mandate covers Technology Platforms, Consumer Discretionary, AI & Software, and Deep Tech. These are the four themes listed in the official release, and they are worth reading carefully because the choice says something about how KRAFTON and Naver are seeing India.
Technology Platforms means consumer internet, digital marketplaces, and next-generation platform infrastructure. That is the territory KRAFTON already knows through its existing investments in Pratilipi, Kuku FM, and Loco. Consumer Discretionary covers digitally-native brands and new-age consumer businesses serving India’s rising middle class. That is a category Indian domestic VCs have been active in for a decade, and it is a category where Korean expertise in content, commerce, and consumer branding (Naver’s core strength) could genuinely add value beyond the cheque.
AI and Software is the broader category of generative AI, applied AI, enterprise SaaS, and developer tooling. This is the category where Indian founder talent is globally competitive right now but capital access at growth stage remains constrained. Deep Tech, meaning semiconductors, space-tech, robotics, advanced materials, and frontier science, is the most ambitious piece and the most telling. Deep tech is not where KRAFTON’s operational expertise lives. Including it in the mandate signals that the fund is not just being used as a strategic vehicle to support KRAFTON-adjacent businesses. It is being used as a broader bet on Indian technology capability.
Puneet Kumar, CEO of MAVI India, said in the announcement that India is “at an inflection point” and that the next decade will produce “a new generation of Indian technology champions built in India, for the world.” That is a specific phrasing. “Built in India, for the world” is different from “serving India.” The first is an export framing. The second is a consumption framing. KRAFTON and Naver, via MAVI, are picking the first.
What Indian Founders Actually Get
The capital is the headline. The structural value is everything else.
Portfolio companies of the Unicorn Growth Fund will have access to KRAFTON’s and Naver’s combined product, AI, gaming, and platform expertise. They will also have a route into Korean and broader Asian markets. That second piece is the part Indian founders have been asking for from foreign capital for years and rarely actually receive.
Consider what that means practically. An Indian AI startup backed by a typical American fund gets capital, a board seat, and introductions to American enterprise customers. Useful, but not distinctive. The same startup backed by the Unicorn Growth Fund gets capital, a board seat, introductions, and a structured route into the Korean enterprise market through Naver’s B2B relationships, plus potential integration paths into KRAFTON’s gaming and entertainment stack if the product is relevant. That is a different proposition. It turns the investor from a financial partner into an operational one.
For consumer companies, the value is even more obvious. Naver’s expertise in content, search, commerce, and fintech platforms directly maps to problems Indian consumer startups are solving. A digitally-native Indian D2C brand with a Naver relationship gets a credible path into Korean retail, Korean content partnerships, and Korean consumer behaviour data that simply does not exist inside American venture networks. For deep tech and AI companies with global ambition, Korea is one of the few markets globally where enterprise customers will actually pilot Indian hardware and Indian AI at meaningful scale. That is a door most Indian founders have not historically had access to.
This is why the “platform and market access” framing in the announcement is worth more than the capital number. The capital will deploy. Capital always deploys. The market access is the part that is structurally rare.
Why KRAFTON Specifically
The Indian esports reader might reasonably ask why KRAFTON, a gaming publisher, is the anchor on a fund that will invest in semiconductors and space tech. That is a fair question. The answer is a combination of historical commitment and strategic identity.
Historically, KRAFTON has been the most active foreign publisher in India by almost any metric you choose. The BGMI audience in India is the largest mobile gaming audience of any single market that KRAFTON operates. The KRAFTON India Gaming Incubator has backed and mentored more Indian game studios than any other foreign-led programme. The company has maintained senior leadership in India through CEO Sean Sohn with consistent long-term signalling about the market’s importance. The commitment is not new and is not opportunistic.
Strategically, KRAFTON under CH Kim has been explicit about moving beyond being just a gaming publisher. The company owns PUBG STUDIOS, Striking Distance Studios, Unknown Worlds, Bluehole Studio, inZOI Studio, and others. It has a growing presence in multimedia entertainment and deep learning. It describes itself in its own communications as “a tech-forward company with world-class capabilities.” That is not marketing fluff. That is a deliberate identity reset. The Unicorn Growth Fund is consistent with that reset. It is what it looks like when a company decides its identity is not defined by the products it ships but by the ecosystems it helps build.
Naver’s involvement completes the picture. Where KRAFTON brings gaming, interactive entertainment, and community platform expertise, Naver brings consumer internet, AI, fintech, and content platform expertise. Between them, they cover most of the technology stack that an Indian technology founder is likely to need a partner for. The division of labour is clean, and MAVI as the on-ground manager brings the Indian investment discipline that neither Korean parent could realistically build quickly in Delhi or Bangalore.
The Quiet Geopolitical Note
This fund was announced on the sidelines of the Korean President’s official visit to India, during a week that included strategic bilateral discussions between Korean leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with senior members of his Cabinet. That timing is not accidental. Governments coordinate with industry on these things, and the presence of both Piyush Goyal and Korea’s Minister of Trade Dr. Jung-Kwan Kim at the announcement meeting confirms that the Unicorn Growth Fund has been blessed by both governments as a signal fund for the Korea-India technology corridor.
What this means in practical terms is that future Korea-India technology cooperation, whether in semiconductors, space tech, defence, or AI, now has a flagship capital vehicle to point to. When Korean companies want to structure India investments, they have a template. When Indian founders want to explore Korean partnerships, they have a credible fund with formal government backing on both sides as an entry point. When trade talks between the two countries move into technology cooperation language, both ministries can cite the Unicorn Growth Fund as evidence that private capital is already doing the work.
That is not a small thing. Most bilateral technology cooperation announcements between countries are structural rather than operational. They produce MOUs, working groups, and joint press statements without translating into deployed capital for years. The Unicorn Growth Fund is operational from day one. It has a name, a size, a manager, and a mandate. It is, in that specific sense, already working where most bilateral announcements are still talking.
What This Looks Like Five Years From Now
Project this forward, and the picture gets genuinely interesting.
If the Unicorn Growth Fund deploys at the cadence a typical $720 million growth-stage fund deploys, somewhere between 15 and 25 Indian companies will have KRAFTON, Naver, and Mirae Asset on their cap tables by 2030. A meaningful percentage of those will be in AI, deep tech, or consumer categories where Korean strategic partnerships could accelerate them into global markets faster than domestic Indian routes would. A meaningful percentage of those will also, predictably, fail, because venture capital is venture capital. But the ones that succeed will carry a Korea-India operational signature that almost no other venture-backed Indian company currently carries.
For KRAFTON specifically, the India bet will have matured from “the company that publishes BGMI in India” to “the strategic capital partner for Korean engagement with the world’s largest technology talent pool outside the United States and China.” That is a different kind of company. It is also, notably, a kind of company that could credibly IPO a second time in a decade on the strength of its India and Southeast Asia positioning alone.
For Indian founders, the fund will have provided a genuine alternative to American venture capital at growth stage, with Asian market access and technical expertise that American capital structurally cannot offer. For Indian esports specifically, the KRAFTON ecosystem will have continued to run BGMI, BGIS, BMPS, and the Krafton India Gaming Incubator, but the parent company’s India identity will have expanded far enough that the gaming operation becomes one arm of a much larger Indian presence rather than the full expression of it.
That is the interesting future that the Unicorn Growth Fund announcement makes more plausible than it was yesterday.
The Honest Takeaway
KRAFTON has been the most committed foreign gaming publisher in India by every measurable standard for the last half-decade. Launching BGMI was the easy part. Rebuilding it after the 2022 suspension took longer. Investing in NODWIN, Loco, Pratilipi, and Kuku FM took capital and patience. Running the Krafton India Gaming Incubator, the 128-college campus tour, BGIS, and BMPS took operational discipline that most foreign publishers would not sustain. That is the resume KRAFTON walked into the Delhi meeting room with.
The Unicorn Growth Fund is what comes next. Not because gaming in India is no longer important to KRAFTON, which it clearly is, but because KRAFTON has decided that being the best gaming publisher in India is not the full expression of what the India opportunity actually represents. The fund is not a departure from the gaming business. It is an expansion of the thesis that got KRAFTON into the Indian gaming business in the first place, which is that this country is going to produce the next generation of globally competitive technology companies, and early commitment to that will compound.
Six thousand crore is a real cheque. Two governments standing behind the announcement is a real signal. A fund manager with proven India discipline is a real operational choice. KRAFTON and Naver being the anchor strategic partners is a real alignment. Every piece of this fits, and the combination is stronger than any single piece on its own.
KRAFTON spent a decade learning how India worked. The Unicorn Growth Fund is what they learned with. For Indian founders, Indian gamers, Indian developers, and the broader Indian technology economy, that is genuinely good news, and it is the kind of good news that does not often come wrapped in a press release of this scale.
KRAFTON Inc. and Naver Corporation have announced the launch of a new India-focused growth fund worth INR 6,000 crore. The vehicle, called the Unicorn Growth Fund, is the largest India-focused capital pool ever raised by an Asian technology-led platform.
The fund was announced in New Delhi on April 21, 2026. It will be managed and advised by Mirae Asset Venture Investments (MAVI), the Mirae Asset group’s private investment platform.
The Delhi Meeting Behind the Launch
The announcement followed a high-level meeting in New Delhi. Those present included Union Minister for Commerce & Industry Piyush Goyal, Republic of Korea’s Minister of Trade, Industry and Resources Dr. Jung-Kwan Kim, the global CEOs of KRAFTON and Naver, and the CEO of MAVI India.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the President of the Republic of Korea’s official visit to India. That visit included strategic bilateral discussions between the Korean leadership and Prime Minister Narendra Modi with senior members of his Cabinet.
Where the Money Will Go
The Unicorn Growth Fund will focus on four themes that the partners see as central to the next decade of India’s technology economy.
Technology Platforms: consumer internet, digital marketplaces, and next-generation platform infrastructure.
AI & Software: generative AI, applied AI, enterprise SaaS, and developer tooling.
Deep Tech: semiconductors, space-tech, robotics, advanced materials, and frontier science.
The fund will invest primarily in growth-stage companies. The goal is to back Indian founders building category-leading companies with global ambition. Portfolio companies will also get access to product, AI, gaming, and platform expertise from KRAFTON and Naver, plus a route into Korean and broader Asian markets.
Leadership Comments
Puneet Kumar, CEO of Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India) Private Limited, said: “India is at an inflection point. Over the next decade, we expect a new generation of Indian technology champions built in India, for the world. As fund manager and advisor of the Unicorn Growth Fund, Mirae Asset is privileged to bring together KRAFTON and Naver’s strategic capabilities with our on-the-ground investing platform in India.”
Soo-yeon Choi, Global CEO of Naver Corporation, said: “India is rapidly emerging as a global hub for digital innovation, powered by exceptional talent and a vibrant startup ecosystem. Building on our experience investing in leading Indian platforms, NAVER sees strong potential to support the next generation of AI-driven companies with global ambition. Through the Unicorn Growth Fund, we aim to combine capital, technology, and strategic partnerships to help Indian innovators scale globally.”
CH Kim, CEO of KRAFTON Inc., said: “India is one of the most important markets for KRAFTON, not just for its scale but for its potential as a global game development hub. With a strong base of young, skilled technology talent and improving digital infrastructure, we see India evolving from a consumption-driven market to a creator economy for gaming. The Unicorn Growth Fund reflects our long-term commitment to this ecosystem.”
Why This Matters for Indian Startups
KRAFTON is not new to India. The company has already built a deep presence here through BGMI, the Krafton India Gaming Incubator, and earlier investments in Indian startups such as NODWIN Gaming, Loco, Pratilipi, and Kuku FM.
Under CEO Sean Sohn, KRAFTON India’s strategy has focused on localization, talent development, and long-term ecosystem building. The Unicorn Growth Fund extends that approach beyond gaming and into the wider Indian tech economy.
This is also the first joint venture of its kind bringing KRAFTON, Naver, and Mirae Asset together in India. The fund builds on the initial announcement made late last year and now has formal backing from both governments.
About Mirae Asset Venture Investments
MAVI is the Mirae Asset group’s private investment platform. It has backed leading Indian technology companies across consumer internet, fintech, mobility, healthtech, and SaaS. MAVI will lead investment decisions for the Unicorn Growth Fund in India.
About KRAFTON
Headquartered in South Korea, KRAFTON Inc. was established in 2007. The company is home to studios including PUBG STUDIOS, Striking Distance Studios, Unknown Worlds, Bluehole Studio, and inZOI Studio, among others. KRAFTON describes itself as a tech-forward company with world-class capabilities, expanding into multimedia entertainment and deep learning alongside its core gaming business.
About Naver
Naver Corporation is South Korea’s leading internet company. It operates platforms across search, commerce, fintech, and content. Building on its consumer foundation, Naver is now expanding into B2B opportunities in AI and cloud, strengthening its role as a global technology partner.
Tomáš “oskar” Šťastný announced his retirement from professional Counter-Strike. The Czech AWPer posted the news on X, closing out a career that began in Counter-Strike 1.6 and stretched across more than two decades of competitive play.
In the post, Oskar said he no longer has the energy or motivation to continue as a player. He pointed to 20 years of experience as the reason he believes he can contribute to teams in a new role. He is currently open to opportunities as a head coach, assistant coach, or analyst.
MOUZ Years Were the Highlight
Oskar’s best years came during his time at MOUZ (then known as mousesports). He won four Big Events with the German organization. He was also the first Czech player to attend a Valve Major, qualifying for PGL Major Kraków 2017.
EN: I am officially retiring from playing, tough decision to make after all those years but it had to come one day eventually.
Looking back on my turbulent career (doing wrong decisions), I’m proud of everything I’ve achieved, it's more than I could have ever dreamed of when I… pic.twitter.com/2aO3vGf3dd
His AWP play during 2017 and 2018 put him alongside some of the best snipers in the world at the time. The MOUZ roster of that era, which included ropz, was one of the stronger European sides of the period.
Life After MOUZ
Oskar left MOUZ in 2019. The years that followed took him through several organizations: HellRaisers, Sprout, and SINNERS. His stint with SINNERS was the most notable of the post-MOUZ period. The Czech side came close to qualifying for the Shanghai Major but could not secure the spot.
He was ranked the 6th-best player of 2018 by analyst Thorin and received the MVP award at ESG Tour Mykonos 2017 and V4 Future Sports Festival Budapest 2018.
In his retirement post, Oskar reflected on a career he described as “turbulent,” and said he had made some wrong decisions along the way. Still, he called his achievements more than he ever imagined when he started.
No team has been announced yet. Oskar is listed without a team as of his retirement date.
On April 12, 2026, French insider Sebastien “KRL” Perez reported that Finn “karrigan” Andersen would be leaving FaZe Clan for Team Falcons after IEM Rio. Within hours, TalkEsport corroborated it. Within a day, FaZe’s Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken confirmed on his Discord that karrigan “wasn’t kicked” and that the move had been “sudden” to the rest of the roster. By the end of the week, the deal was being treated as functionally done, with karrigan replacing Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski as Falcons’ in-game leader and reuniting with Nikola “NiKo” Kovač and coach Danny “zonic” Sørensen for the first time since 2018.
It is, on paper, a standard roster move in a year that has seen a lot of them. It is, in practice, the closing of a five-year chapter that defined the modern FaZe Clan organisation. Because here is the honest read: the FaZe Clan of 2021 to 2025 was not just a team karrigan played for. It was a team karrigan built. He arrived in February 2021 to rebuild the roster. He left in April 2026 after leading it through its highest peak, its slow collapse, and a final public offer to step down that FaZe did not quite take him up on.
Falcons did.
The Architect, Not the Frontman
Counter-Strike has a specific kind of player whose value is structural rather than statistical. karrigan has been that player for a decade and a half.
Finn “karrigan” Andersen began his competitive career in 2006 during the CS 1.6 era, playing for Danish teams before transitioning to CS:GO with mousesports in 2012. He was a founding member of Astralis in 2015, the player-owned organisation built out of the ex-TSM core. His first FaZe stint began in October 2016 after Astralis benched him, an episode that produced four years of good results without a Major trophy and ended with a second benching in 2019. He rebuilt his career at mousesports, then returned to FaZe in February 2021 as a free agent.
That return was the moment modern FaZe began.
The roster karrigan assembled around himself in 2021 was, by the metrics of the era, unprecedented. Five nationalities: Denmark (karrigan), Norway (Håvard “rain” Nygaard), Latvia (Helvijs “broky” Saukants), Canada (Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken), and Estonia (Robin “ropz” Kool). No CS:GO Major had ever been won by a fully international lineup. Every previous Major winner had been either fully or predominantly single-nationality: Astralis was Danish, SK Gaming was Brazilian, Fnatic was Swedish, Cloud9 was American, NAVI was CIS. The assumption across the scene was that the language and cultural overhead of an international roster would always cost you just enough strategic cohesion to prevent it from winning the biggest trophies.
karrigan disproved that in about fourteen months.
The Run That Built the Brand
Between February 2021 and November 2023, FaZe Clan won nearly every major trophy it entered.
IEM Katowice 2022, February 2022: beating G2 Esports 3-0 in the final. ESL Pro League Season 15, April 2022. PGL Major Antwerp 2022, May 2022: the first Major won by a fully international roster in CS:GO history. karrigan, at 32, became the oldest player ever to win a Major at that time. rain took MVP with a 1.24 HLTV rating. IEM Cologne 2022 followed later that summer. ESL Pro League Season 17 in February 2023, which completed the Intel Grand Slam Season 4 for a $1 million bonus, secured in record time. IEM Sydney 2023, the first premier CS2 event after the transition. Three consecutive S-tier trophies in late 2023.
That is not a good run. That is the defining run of an era. Every CS:GO team since 2015 had been asking whether you could build a championship roster on mixed nationalities. FaZe, under karrigan, answered that you could, and then answered it again, and then answered it five more times for certainty.
At the 2022 Antwerp Major post-match, karrigan said something that sounded like hyperbole at the time and has aged into understatement: “Never back down, doesn’t matter how hard life hits you. All I wanted in my life is to make history, an international team to win a major, and we fucking did it in here.” The international team structure he pioneered has since become the default assumption rather than the exception. Team Vitality, Team Spirit, MOUZ, NAVI, and Falcons all now operate multinational cores. The template FaZe built under karrigan is the one the rest of the scene copied.
The Slow Collapse
Nothing lasts in Counter-Strike. The FaZe run did not either.
In 2024, FaZe made the finals of both Majors: PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 and Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, losing both. IEM Chengdu 2024 was the one bright spot, with karrigan at 34 becoming the oldest player to win an S-tier CS2 trophy. The second half of 2024 was a steady decline. By the end of the year, ropz had left for Team Vitality in what has since been called one of the best transfers in Counter-Strike history. That departure gutted the roster’s ceiling without obviously reducing its floor, which is the worst kind of loss for a team built on structure.
2025 was a year of runner-up finishes. StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, November 2025: second place, 1-3 loss to Vitality. ropz, on the other side, lifted his first Major. Austin Major 2025: quarter-final exit to The MongolZ. By early 2026, the results had degraded faster than the roster signings could stabilise. David “frozen” Čerňanský had joined but was increasingly frustrated with the trajectory. jcobbb was being pushed to adapt as a rookie AWPer-adjacent piece. broky’s form had dropped noticeably.
The IEM Cologne 2026 Major qualification campaign was the ending nobody wanted. FaZe exited PGL Bucharest early, missed DraculaN Season 6 cuts, and fell at HLC Belgrade PRO against a BIG roster that most analysts had not considered a serious obstacle. The combined point total left FaZe outside the ranking cutoff for the Major. First time they had missed one in karrigan’s tenure.
After PGL Bucharest, karrigan gave the interview that ended the chapter. “I think it’s the first time where I have to consider where I am, in myself, in my life. These results are by far below what I accept as a leader of this team, as a player who’s been in FaZe for a long time, so I understand. I have also told FaZe that if I need to step down, I’m ready to do that. They should not. There is something wrong right now. So if I’m stepping down, let’s do that. I just want FaZe back at the top, with or without me.”
Read those words carefully. That is a captain offering his own exit to save the roster. It is also a captain publicly stating that FaZe’s leadership is the problem. Both readings are true. The question was never whether karrigan had offered to leave. The question was whether FaZe would take the offer, and if they did not, whether someone else would.
Three runners-up finishes. ESL Pro League Season 22. BLAST Rivals 2025 Season 2. BLAST Bounty 2026 Season 1. Each of those silver medals tells the same story: a roster with enough individual firepower to reach any final and enough structural ambiguity to lose the final to a team with a clearer plan. m0NESY and NiKo have both been publicly frustrated with the gap between Falcons’ roster quality and the trophy cabinet.
karrigan is what Falcons have been missing. That is not opinion. That is what every Counter-Strike analyst since January has been saying explicitly. Falcons have every rifler and sniper combination money could buy. What they have not had is a captain whose strategic identity is non-negotiable enough to organise the stars into a consistent map pool. kyxsan, for all his individual competence, was never going to be that person on a roster that included NiKo and m0NESY. karrigan is.
There is also a personal thread. This signing reunites karrigan with NiKo for the first time since 2018, when the pair were the core of the 2017-2018 FaZe roster that infamously lost the Boston Major final to Cloud9 after leading 15-11. karrigan and NiKo have both carried versions of that loss for the last eight years. A trophy at Falcons in 2026 or 2027 would close that loop in a way neither of them could close it separately.
The reunion with zonic is the structural one. karrigan and zonic were on the same Astralis roster in 2016. zonic is the coach who built the 2018-2020 Astralis dynasty, the most dominant CS:GO era any team has produced. Pairing the strongest active IGL in the game with the strongest active coach is the kind of move orgs make when they have decided they are done finishing second.
What FaZe Loses
Here is the hard part for FaZe Clan as an organisation.
The brand has been culturally iconic in esports for over a decade. FaZe Clan itself is a global entertainment company with interests far beyond Counter-Strike. None of that changes when karrigan leaves. What changes is the specific asset that karrigan built inside that brand, which is the modern FaZe CS identity.
That identity was: first international Major winner, the team that proved structural coaching beat nationality clustering, the roster that ran the Intel Grand Slam in record time, the late-career proof that a 32-year-old IGL could still win at the highest level. Every one of those things is directly attributable to karrigan’s work between 2021 and 2023. The remaining FaZe roster (NiKo is gone to Falcons, ropz is at Vitality, rain is at 100 Thieves, Twistzz and broky are what is left of the core, plus frozen, jabbi, jcobbb, HooXi, phzy, ryu, Staehr as the wider bench) is not the team karrigan built. It is the team that survived the team karrigan built.
Post-karrigan FaZe is now a rebuild. It has to find a new IGL, potentially restructure around Twistzz as the longest-tenured veteran, and replace the strategic identity that made the brand worth following for five years. Reports indicate FaZe is targeting Turkish AWPer Özgür “woxic” Eker to replace broky, with additional roster shuffles expected through the BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 1 window beginning April 29.
The team that missed the Cologne Major, lost its IGL, and is now sorting out its own starting five in public is not the FaZe that won Antwerp. It is the FaZe that exists after the architect leaves with the blueprint.
The Blueprint, Specifically
What exactly does karrigan take with him when he walks into the Falcons practice room?
A specific map pool philosophy built around Mirage, Inferno, and Nuke, with high-confidence picks that have carried him through every lineup he has led. A calling style that is notably adaptive rather than rigid: karrigan is famous among analysts for reading opponents within the first two rounds of a half and shifting strategy on the fly rather than running pre-baked defaults. A developmental philosophy that has produced some of the best young players of the last decade: frozen at mousesports, ropz at mousesports and FaZe, broky at FaZe, each of whom reached world-class level under his direct mentorship.
That developmental piece is the underrated part. Falcons has m0NESY, who is 20 years old and arguably the best AWPer in the world on his day, and who has not yet had an IGL capable of fully utilising him. kyousuke is 19 and still developing. karrigan’s track record suggests both players get a level-up inside the first six months of his tenure that is difficult to quantify but shows up on the scoreboard.
NiKo, at 28, is the veteran star who has spent his career alternating between being the best rifler in the world and being a roster’s emotional and tactical centre of gravity. He has never played under a coach-IGL pair as strong as zonic and karrigan. The last time he did, it was karrigan himself at FaZe between 2017 and 2018, and that version of NiKo was already elite. A 2026 NiKo with eight more years of experience, in a system built around him by a coach and IGL who both know how to maximise him, is a frightening proposition for the rest of Tier 1.
The Money Angle
This cannot be ignored, because it is the structural story underneath the move.
Team Falcons is funded through Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund via Savvy Games Group, which also owns ESL FACEIT Group, which runs the Esports World Cup, which has a $75 million prize pool in 2026. Falcons have been the most aggressive CS2 buyer in the scene for the past eighteen months, paying salaries that most other organisations simply cannot match. The decision to replace kyxsan with karrigan, regardless of whether that is framed as a roster upgrade or a statement signing, is a cheque that FaZe Clan was structurally not going to match.
karrigan, at 36, is in the final contract window of his playing career. He has publicly said he wants to keep playing, but the window for a late-career Major is narrow. Taking the Falcons offer is, in pure career terms, the correct move. The trophy ceiling is higher, the roster is younger, and the organisational structure is more settled than a collapsing FaZe project.
Twistzz, incidentally, turned down Falcons a few years ago citing moral concerns about a Saudi-backed organisation. That has been widely discussed in the fallout from karrigan’s move, with fans noting the gap between the two veterans’ stated positions. It is a legitimate conversation. It is also a conversation about which many working esports professionals have reached different conclusions, and karrigan’s conclusion is not out of step with where most of Tier 1 has landed.
What This Move Actually Is
This move is not a roster change. It is a transfer of institutional knowledge.
karrigan spent five years building a specific kind of team at FaZe: international, adaptive, developmentally focused, structurally cohesive. He built it from the ground up after the 2019 benching nearly ended his career. He won a Major with it. He won three more S-tier trophies with it. He kept it competitive through a CS2 transition that destroyed several other legacy rosters. He watched the best player on the roster (ropz) leave for Vitality. He watched the team miss a Major for the first time in his tenure. He offered to step down. FaZe did not take the offer decisively enough. Falcons did.
The FaZe Clan roster that still carries the FaZe jersey starting April 29 at BLAST Rivals 2026 Season 1 is not the FaZe that won Antwerp. It is the aftermath. Some of those players (Twistzz, broky) were there for the peak. Most of them were not. The project that defined modern FaZe was karrigan’s project. He is taking it to Riyadh.
What FaZe has to do now is the same thing every team has to do when an architect leaves. Find a new one. That takes time FaZe does not have, budget FaZe cannot match, and institutional memory that walks out of the building when the architect does.
The Actual Story
The actual story is not that a 36-year-old IGL is switching teams. That happens regularly in Counter-Strike. The actual story is that Falcons, after eighteen months of collecting elite stars, just signed the one person in the scene who has repeatedly proven he can turn a collection of stars into a championship-winning system. And they signed him from the organisation he built, in the week after that organisation missed its first Major in five years.
If Falcons wins a Tier 1 trophy in the next twelve months with karrigan, the post-move narrative will write itself. It will be the story of the captain who finally got the roster his leadership deserved. If Falcons does not win a Tier 1 trophy in the next twelve months with karrigan, the story will be harder. The question will shift from whether karrigan was the missing piece to whether Falcons was the wrong puzzle. Neither of those outcomes is currently predictable.
What is predictable is what happens to FaZe. The brand will continue. The jerseys will continue. The revenue streams will continue. The specific competitive identity that karrigan built between 2021 and 2025, the thing that made FaZe matter in Tier 1 for the last half-decade, is in the process of being disassembled. He is walking out with the only copy of the blueprint.
Five years, one Major, three S-tier trophies, one Intel Grand Slam, one public offer to step down that got taken up by someone else. That is the FaZe karrigan chapter. It closes after IEM Rio 2026. The next page belongs to Falcons.
FaZe have confirmed the exit of Finn “karrigan” Andersen. The veteran in-game leader leaves after five years with the organization. His departure closes the chapter that gave FaZe their first Major title in Counter-Strike.
The announcement lines up with reports linking karrigan to Falcons. If that move goes through, he will play alongside his former FaZe teammate Nikola “NiKo” Kovač once again.
A Return That Paid Off
Karrigan rejoined FaZe in February 2021 after two years at MOUZ. He stepped into the slot left by Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer. It was his second run with the team. His first spell ran from 2016 to 2019, and the results never quite matched the hype.
This second stint was different. Karrigan lifted eight notable LAN titles during this period. The biggest of those was the Antwerp Major in 2022. He also claimed the Intel Grand Slam Season 4 in 2023.
Today I’m leaving FaZe Clan to start another journey. Representing this team and its fans has been a complete honor. I came back to FaZe for a reason, to create history, and that we did, especially in 2022. It’s always been a privilege to wear this jersey, with it comes the…
Beyond trophies, he guided FaZe to three more Major grand finals: Copenhagen, Shanghai, and Budapest. IEM Chengdu 2024 turned out to be the final event he would win with the team.
The Budapest Run and the Fall After
The Budapest final came at the tail-end of a tough stretch. Robin “ropz” Kool had already left for Vitality on a free transfer. FaZe almost went out in Stage 1 of that Major. They picked up form as the tournament went on. The run ended with a 3-1 loss to Vitality in the grand final.
FaZe chose not to make changes in the off-season. The reasoning seemed simple: capitalize on the Budapest form. It did not work out. The same issues returned once the new season began. A dreadful run of form saw them fail to qualify for the Major for the first time since FaZe entered Counter-Strike in 2016.
Karrigan Opened the Door Himself
Speaking to HLTV at PGL Bucharest, karrigan did not try to dress it up. “With these performances, it’s not good enough,” he said. “So if I’m stepping down, let’s do that. I just want FaZe back at the top, with or without me.”
What the Falcons Move Looks Like
Reports say karrigan is headed to Falcons. The move would reunite him with NiKo for the first time in years. The Bosnian rifler currently plays alongside m0NESY, TeSeS, kyxsan, and kyousuke at the Saudi-backed org, with zonic as coach. Adding karrigan gives Falcons a proven IGL.
FaZe Look to the Next Era
Karrigan’s exit lands just days after FaZe named Niclas “enkay J” Krumhorn as their new head coach. That signals the start of a rebuild.
FaZe have not yet said who will fill the IGL role. According to recent reports, the team is expected to play with Ryan “Neityu” Aubry, the benched ENCE player, in the coming weeks. The likely events for his trial are BLAST Rivals Season 1 from April 29 to May 3, and IEM Atlanta from May 11 to 17.
The current FaZe roster is:
David “frozen” Čerňanský (Slovakia)
Helvijs “broky” Saukants (Latvia)
Jakub “jcobbb” Pietruszewski (Poland)
Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken (Canada)
Niclas “enkay J” Krumhorn (Germany, coach)
The next few weeks will say a lot about where FaZe land next.
