Fnatic drop CYPHER before PGL Budapest Major

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

Last Updated: 10/10/2025

Update (October 10th, 2025): Fnatic has confirmed that Jackasmo will replace Cypher for the CS2 Asia Championship.

However, the organisation has not clarified who will play in the upcoming major.

Original article:

Fnatic could soon be moving to an all-Ukrainian roster in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), according to claims by Vladislav Gromor.

The leaker claims that the UK-based Fnatic are about to drop their only British player in Cai ‘CYPHER’ Watson.

CYPHER is rumoured to be replaced by Mykyta ‘jackasmo’ Skyba, and Fnatic is supposedly interested in Davyd ‘Dawy’ Bibik too.

Fnatic qualified for the CS PGL Budapest Major after winning the Grand Final of Fragadelphia Blocktober.

This would have been CYPHER’s second-ever major as he was part of Into The Breach’s infamous miracle run at BLAST Paris Major 2023.

However, it seems CYPHER won’t be at the Budapest event, which is set to kick off on November 24th.

Especially as the player himself cryptically tweeted out and hinted at his annoyance.

CYPHER has only been with Fnatic for a little over two months after signing for them in late July.

He left BC.Game just days before they signed legendary AWPer, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev.

Meanwhile, Jackasmo just recently played with CYPHER and Fnatic as he subbed in for them during their major qualification.

Jackasmo filled in during Fragadelphia Blocktober as Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson couldn’t attend due to visa issues.

Speaking with Dust2us, CYPHER was full of praise for the player he unknowingly was about to be replaced by:

“Honestly, that f*cking kid [Jackasmo] is one to look out for. He is so sharp, and he’s not just sharp; his communication is so f*cking good as well.

“He’s a star, to be honest with you, and he just needs a team to show it.”

CYPHER also took to Twitter to express his support for Jackasmo, ironically saying:

“Please someone pick him up, he’s so fucking good. My GOAT.”

Fnatic’s road to PGL Budapest Major

After six long months of chasing VRS points, Fnatic finally qualified for the PGL Budapest Major by beating 9ine 3-2 in the Frag final.

But before that, their qualification seemed highly unlikely.

In fact, before Frag, VRS expert Finn ‘Mischief’ Farrer gave Fnatic only a 9.7% probability of making the major after thousands of simulations.

If SAW so much as reached the final, Fnatic would’ve been at too big a VRS point deficit to qualify.

However, SAW’s elimination in the quarter-finals opened up the door to several teams, and Fnatic took advantage.

Fnatic held their nerve to win the dramatic final 3-2 and claim the last spot in Budapest.

Fnatic will now compete in Budapest with the major running from November 24th to December 14th.

Jack Stewart, Senior Editor

In my seven years of esports writing, I've introuduced esports coverage to newspapers, interviewed some of the biggest names in the industry, and driven viewers mad with the puns in my YouTube scripts. I'm most proud of the latter.

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