Qikert and His CS2 Squad Depart 1win to Compete as Independent Team Color

1win has officially parted ways with its Counter-Strike 2 roster, releasing all five players from their contracts. The lineup — headlined by Major winner Aleksei "Qikert" Golubev — stays together and now competes independently under the tag Color, as reported by ShowGamer.

Color Inherits a Tested Core

The new banner carries the same five: Qikert, Vladislav "lattykk" Vydrin, Kirill "cronuss" Savin, Alexandr "oz1k" Sevastyanov, and Nikita "reyoz" Rolzing. lattykk, a 21-year-old AWPer who has appeared on HLTV's prospect rankings, leads the squad statistically at a 1.20 rating over the past six months. cronuss follows at 1.09, oz1k at 1.08. That three-man core has logged more than a year together and capped the stretch with an MPKBK CIS LAN Season 4 title.

Qikert is the marquee. The StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 champion from his AVANGAR days has cycled through Virtus.pro and other stops since, but at 1win he anchored a lineup that peaked at No. 40 in Valve's Regional Standings earlier this year. That peak now reads as a ceiling the roster never quite cracked through. As Color, the unit hits the open market as a single, packageable asset. For an org looking to buy in on a CIS core without paying the assemble-from-scratch tax, the timing is clean.

The other arrow in Color's quiver: continuity. More than a year of overlapping practice, roles set, in-game chemistry already built. That kind of package rarely hits the market. The usual flow is org breakup, free-agent scramble, slow rebuild. Color skips the scramble and keeps the practice schedule intact.

The Split Was Already Written

1win benched the starting five at the end of July, weeks before the formal release. The squad had dropped to 63rd in Valve's Regional Standings, off a season high set earlier in the year. Color now sits 71st — workable, but with the qualifier path as the immediate priority if the unit wants to keep tournament minutes flowing while the buyout window plays out.

On the org side, 1win is rebuilding around TDK, a CIS project whose roster has featured Ax1Le, nafany, fame, and ArtFr0st. The market calculus now runs both ways. Orgs evaluate a free-agent roster core the same way any operator evaluates a competitive asset: cost, fit, ceiling, downside. The due diligence mirrors what shows up when evaluating US trading platforms beyond their headline features — the real edge is in the fine print, not the marquee. For the Color five, the resume — Major pedigree, prospect AWPer, year-long chemistry — carries weight. The ask won't be basement-bin.

Watch the Open Window

Color has tape, age, and a Major winner at the top of the card. The next move is simple: either an org absorbs the core intact before the next qualifier cycle, or the unit runs the open circuit solo under its own banner. The CIS transfer market isn't done shuffling, and this is the kind of low-cost, high-upside package that tends to attract attention fast. Keep the watch on which buyer shows up first — that domino sets the rest of the offseason.