Popular French organisation Gentle Mates has entered Counter-Strike 2 with the signing of the Iberian Soul roster. The organisation got its start in VALORANT, and has since expanded to Call of Duty, Rocket League, and League of Legends amongst other disciplines.

Consisting of Alejandro “alex” Masanet, Alejandro “mopoz” Fernandez-Quejo Cano, Pere “sausol” Solsona Saumell, David “dav1g” Granado Bermudo, and AWPer Antonio “MartinezSa” Martinez, the Spanish roster that made up Iberian Soul has been making waves in Tier 2 recently. Eligible for Wildcard invites due to their victory at epicLAN 45, where they played with UK CS legend Owen “smooya” Butterfield as a stand-in for the Kettering-based LAN, Iberian Soul has also won the OMEN Roman Imperium Cup I, Exort The Proving Grounds Season 2, and Galaxy Battle 2025 Phase 3 in recent months.

A run that has seen them rise to 29th in the global VRS standings and 20th within Europe (As of August 4th), the roster is expected to climb further in the September release of VRS, putting them just outside of the StarLadder Budapest Major qualification spots. 

Considering they are also yet to play DraculaN Season 1 in Bucharest, Romania and StarLadder StarSeries Fall 2025 in Budapest, Hungary, the team has a fantastic opportunity to climb further in the rankings and claim a spot at the biggest event in the second half of 2025. Currently one of the best teams in tier two CS, the squad does have the right pedigree for picking up big results in Tier 1. The core of the team that used to compete together on Movistar Riders (alex, dav1g, and mopoz) won ESL Challenger Valencia and finished in the top four of IEM Cologne back in 2022. MartinezSa has also achieved big results, having reached the top four of IEM Dallas in 2024.

More movement in Counter-Strike 2

Gentle Mates isn’t the only organisation making moves in Counter-Strike 2 at the moment. FUT Esports, another team well-known for successes in VALORANT, has made a change to its new roster, benching Kevin “misutaaa” Rabier less than a month after signing the ex-NAVI Junior team. misutaaa will be replaced on the team by Laurentiu “lauNX” Tarlea, with FUT now hoping it will be able to activate the potential shown by the Romanian when he first burst onto the scene in 2022 with Sprout for the IEM Rio Major cycle.

German organisation BIG has also undergone changes, benching coach Robin “ScrunK” Ropke after less than a month with the organisation. Its also made a change to its active roster, with David “prosus” Hesse returning to the team after a second stint on BIG Academy and Can “kyuubii” Ali being demoted in his place.

Brazilian organisations are also busy making moves, with Felipe “skullz” Medeiros joining Imperial to replace Portuguese star Jose “Shr” Gil, and AWPer Rafel “saffee” Costa being benched by MIBR after two years with the team.