Coach kassad returns to build Bleed’s first lineup in CS2

Aleksandar “⁠kassad⁠” Trifunović was hired as Bleed’s CS2 head coach on Nov. 28 and will also be picking the players to form a roster.

This will be the Serbian’s first time as a coach in the new game as he switched from coaching to being a full-time analyst in tournament broadcasts at the end of 2021. Kassad has an extensive résumé as a CS:GO coach, having worked for Cloud9, MOUZ, and most notably Renegades and 100 Thieves between 2016 and 2020. He was a part of the Renegades roster that became the first and only Australian team to reach the semifinals of a Major at the StarLadder Berlin Major in September 2019.

Kassad’s return to coaching will come alongside Bleed’s entry into Counter-Strike esports. The Singaporean organization is most known for its projects across VALORANT and Dota 2, and most notably made headlines in 2023 for signing yay, the best VALORANT player in the world in 2022, in September.

“After long consideration, I decided to once again take the position of head coach and jump back into the competitive environment,” kassad wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Nov. 28. “Finding the right personnel and putting the team together are my first priorities. There isn’t much time to gather up the squad before the next season starts, so there is a lot of work to be done in a very short period of time.”

Kassad also said he’ll start building Bleed’s CS2 team by filling the in-game leader and sniper positions. The plan is to build a European-based squad, kassad revealed in an interview with HLTV on Nov. 28, but that doesn’t mean he won’t look into other regions to sign players.

Kassad hopes to build a team to start competing in a month or so, he told HLTV. This would allow Bleed to sign up for the open qualifiers to the PGL Copenhagen CS2 Major in 2024.