BC.Game has benched Christopher “MUTiRiS” Fernandes and António “aragornN” Barbosa just four months into their stint on the Counter-Strike 2 roster. The move sees the Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev-powered roster go down to just three members, a month ahead of their next showing at IEM Atlanta 2026.
The two benched players were among the SAW core trio that BC.Game signed in Jan. 2026 for a reported sum of $2.5 million. The Portuguese players joined s1mple and Denis “electroNic” Sharipov to form the BC.Game roster. However, the results for the squad were far below expectations. The team suffered an early exit from IEM Krakow 2026 and failed to qualify for the IEM Cologne Major 2026.
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The experiment of putting together the firepower duo of s1mple and electroNic with the SAW trio largely fell flat. The team felt disconnected throughout their stint together, with IGL MUTiRiS himself noting just weeks ago that his leadership felt constrained, describing himself as “more of an in-game leader than a captain,” according to an interview with HLTV.
Notably, the third member of the SAW core, Adones “krazy” Nobre, will remain with BC.Game for now, giving the team a three-man core that is currently ranked No. 73 in the world. That places it at an awkward position in the ranking, where the team will likely miss the plethora of tier-1 and tier-2 LAN invites across the upcoming season.
The road ahead for BC.Game
With IEM Atlanta just weeks away, BC.Game will need a full five-man roster to attend the event. Unless it can make a significant impact there, and at the CS Asia Championship, its world ranking risks slipping further into irrelevance heading into the second half of the year.
For MUTiRiS and aragornN, the benching may be a blessing in disguise. Should BC.Game be lenient with their buyouts, the duo could easily find their way back to a Portuguese roster, allowing them to build into a tactical squad again.
