Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko subs in for pro CS2 match and wins a map

Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenkko subbed in for a pro Counter-Strike 2 match and took a map off the opposition.

When it comes to big-name fans of Counter-Strike, football has quite a fair few of them. With the likes of Brazilian stars Neymar Jr. and Gabriel Jesus as big fans, with Neymar very often seen supporting FURIA, many are committed to the scene. 

Adding to the long list of CS2 fans is Arsenal’s left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, who even has his own Counter-Strike team, Passion UA. 

However, after a tech issue plagued the team during a recent pro match, Zincheko himself had to stand in for a player, and not only did he nearly help win the series, but somehow managed to take a map off them. 

During a match against Bleed Esports in the YaLLa Compas Contenders, one of Passion UA’s players, zeRRoFIX, had some technical difficulties during their first map of Inferno which led the team to lose the map. 

This saw their founder Zinchenko to step in himself for the next two maps. In the second map, Passion UA won despite being 3-10 down in the first half and losing both pistol rounds, taking it over the finish line in overtime for a 16-12 scoreline. 

The third map of Anubis was also close, with Zinchenko and Passion UA bringing it all the way through regulation, but ultimately lost the map 13-11, and the match 1-2 to Bleed. 

Right after narrowly avoiding the loss, Bleed’s head coach Aleksandar “kassad” Trifunović tweeted out, “Changes are coming, I can tell you that much.”

Later speaking to HLTV, he said that changes will be made in the following weeks after this match. “We are most likely going to shake up our lineup in the following weeks. The whole lineup was rushed due to scheduling, and it obviously has more than a few shortcomings, and the competition is brutal.”