F0rest’s return to CS:GO pro play isn’t what fans had envisioned

The CS:GO community expectations for f0rest’s brief return to the professional scene as a stand-in for Fnatic at IEM Dallas were high. The legendary Counter-Strike player, however, failed to live up to them.

Fnatic were eliminated from IEM Dallas on May 29—the tier-one tournament’s opening day— following losses to MOUZ and the South American mix of 9z. While f0rest didn’t have much time to practice with Fnatic as he was called nearly last-minute to replace KRIMZ and fans can’t pin the elimination solely on him, he struggled to hold his own individually and is set to be one of the lowest-rated players of IEM Dallas.

F0rest was the lowest-rated player of Fnatic throughout their short IEM Dallas campaign by a considerable margin. RoeJ, the second-lowest-rated player on the team, finished with a 0.97 rating, according to HLTV.

Related: IEM Dallas CS:GO 2023: Scores, brackets, results

The legendary player has been away from the professional scene in terms of playing full-time since Dignitas benched its entire CS:GO division in May 2022 and proceeded to leave the scene altogether one month later. Ever since then CS:GO fans kept saying—especially on Reddit—that f0rest could still hold his own on tier-one should any team give him the chance.

“I still 100% believe he could fit on a top 10 team if he grinded/wanted too,” one fan wrote on Reddit following the announcement of f0rest’s return for IEM Dallas. “Awesome, hope f0rest performs well to remind everyone he can still play in tier one,” another fan wrote.

This narrative was also embodied by f0rest during an interview with Thorin in September 2022. He compared himself with veteran soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo and said he’d be able to perform despite being 34 years old.

“Put me in FaZe and I’m certain I would perform at a level that shocks people, I’m not done [playing tier-1 CS:GO],” f0rest said.

While it’s unfair to make any alterations to f0rest’s legacy under the bus because of just one bad performance as a stand-in, it’s fair to say that he, at the very least, needs more preparation if he wants to hang around the tier-one scene of Counter-Strike nowadays after all the time away.