According to sources close to Sheep Esports, Norwegian organisation Apeks are expected to transfer list their CS2 their roster. Just under a month after announcing that they would continue with Martin “STYKO” Styk, Apeks management have decided to put their squad on sale. As far as we are aware, Apeks aim to continue competing in Counter-Strike and it will be interesting to see which direction they take their roster in, whether it be continuing with an international project or a return to a Norwegian focus.
This news would mean that some team members STYKO, Tim “nawwk” Jonasson, Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad, Aleksandar “CacaNito” Kjulukoski and Ådne “sense” Fredriksen would be up for sale, with Apeks already announcing STYKO’s departure on X.
We are unsure what that means for coach Torbjørn
“mithR” Nyborg or Alexander
“Altekz” Givskov who we
reported had signed for the organisation just a week ago.
Since Kingpin Esports rebranded to Apeks in January of 2019, the Norwegian organisation initially stuck faithful to their region, signing young Norwegian prodigies as well as veteran rifle star jkaem. They didn’t stick entirely to their region, however, with sprinklings of other Scandinavian talent such as Dennis “dennis” Edman and twin brothers Joakim “Relaxa” Gustafsson and Fredrik “FREDDyFROG” Gustafsson. However, it was in 2022 when the organisation first dipped their toes into international Counter-Strike, making the key signing of STYKO from FunPlus Phoenix.
In their quest to enter the top tier of Counter-Strike, Apeks made some ambitious signings and these had varying levels of success. French legend Richard “shox” Papillon was not a particularly productive signing but the arrival of North Macedonian leader Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski and Lithuanian rifler Justinas “jL” Lekavičius. It was with these two that Apeks achieved their biggest milestone in Counter-Strike, not just playoffs but the semi-finals at the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023, the final Major for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Since the Major, both have since left the team, heading to Heroic and Natus Vincere respectively, leaving us with the roster we see today, with sense and CacaNito in their place.
This current iteration of Apeks has had some promising results, qualifying for the first CS2 Major in Copenhagen earlier this year being a highlight. But this time, under the leadership of sense, they were not good enough to reach the Playoffs, falling short in the Challengers Stage, picking up one win over AMKAL. Outside of that, 2024 has been disappointing for Apeks, failing to make a big impact on the CS2 scene.
The Norwegian organisation also have an academy team in CS2, Apeks Rebels, which features some young talent from across Scandinavia - the most well-known player being Marcus “Q-Q” Krolak-Henriksen, who was acquired from MOUZ NXT. Again, we are unsure what this news means for the Academy side, will they be promoted or dropped as well? Only time will tell.
