ENVY owner hastr0 eyes return to Counter-Strike esports

North American esports organisation ENVY is eyeing up a return to Counter-Strike esports.

The development comes after the organisation’s owner, Mike ‘Hastr0’ Rufail, revealed ENVY has started looking at opportunities to field a roster in Valve’s first-person shooter title.

In a social media post on April 15th, Rufail confirmed ENVY has started to ‘explore all opportunities and will jump on the right one’ when it becomes available.

Team Envy is no stranger to the world of Counter-Strike. The organisation first fielded a roster in 2015 during the Global Offensive era, notably winning the DreamHack Cluj-Napoca Major in the same year.

The organisation fielded a roster until January 2021 when the team disbanded following the decision to put its Counter-Strike operations on hold.

Four years later, Rufail re-acquired the ENVY brand from OpTic Gaming to relaunch the organisation he founded back in 2007. In addition to teasing a return to Counter-Strike, ENVY has expanded into several titles including Apex Legends, Super Smash Bros. and Marvel Rivals.

In March, the organisation announced a merger with fellow organisation Native Gaming resulting in Dean Duro becoming a co-owner of ENVY alongside Rufail.

In the months following Rufail’s re-acquisition of the ENVY brand, the organisation has returned to one of the most prominent names within North American esports.

With plans to return to Counter-Strike in the works, there’s a high chance the organisation continues to expand into other esports titles after unveiling rosters across multiple genres.

Following Team Falcon’s multi-million-dollar acquisition of Ilya’ m0NESY’ Osipov, the door to acquire some notable free agents is open.

After earning the MVP award at PGL Bucharest, Abdulkhalik ‘degster’ Gasanov is looking for a new home along with several other names that would act as solid foundations of a team capable of competing in international tournaments.