Double Poney — the organization-less French Counter-Strike team — have found a home after almost one year since they got their start. On Wednesday, HEET announced via Twitter that they had signed the Double Poney roster. This move was first reported by 1pv.fr in early January. The roster had previously been passed over by Team LDLC and Karmine Corp.
HEET are a lesser-known Belgian organization. They currently field a British/Danish team in VALORANT. This move marks their entrance into the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene.
“Signing DBL is a huge step for us as an organization, but I am 100% sure that it is the right step,” HEET COO Jasur “Jazz” Avizov said in a statement on their website. “This will be a long-term project for us, which will give us a lot of experience and a lot of possibilities.”
The time has come…#FeelTheHEET @Xtrfy – #GamesForest pic.twitter.com/9sOftj7wLt
— HEET (@HEET_Gaming) January 19, 2022
HEET acquires the Double Poney roster
The Double Poney roster was formed in the wake of Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro and Aurélien “afro” Drapier being cut from the LDLC roster. They began the French project team with G2 Esports’s Audric “JACKZ” Jug, bodyy’s former G2 teammate in Lucas “Lucky” Chastang and Thomas “Djoko” Pavoni. After JACKZ returned to G2, the team had a brief stint with Counter-Strike legend Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt. The final piece of the puzzle was a previously undiscovered player, Pierre “Ex3rcice” Bulinge.
Double Poney showed consistently strong results in Tier 2 tournaments, slowly rising in the world rankings. A win against Team Vitality at the Flashpoint Season 3 Regional Major Rankings event catapulted them into the public eye. Since then, Team Vitality have pivoted to an international roster, making Double Poney the highest-rated all-French team according to HLTV’s rankings.
“There were a lot of talks within our company about us joining the CS:GO scene in the past few months,” Avizov said. “At that time we felt the teams available for us didn’t fit into the project we envisioned for various reasons. However, as soon as we started looking into the DBL Poney roster we instantly were convinced that this team would fit into our family.”
The team’s main goals this year are to qualify for a Valve-sponsored major, stay at the top of French Counter-Strike and shoot for top 15 on the HLTV rankings, according to the statement.
Double Poney will debut under the HEET banner at Malta Vibes Knockout Series 5.
The HEET roster is as follows:
Lucas “Lucky” Chastang
Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro
Aurélien “afro” Drapier
Thomas “Djoko” Pavoni
Pierre “Ex3rcice” Bulinge
Roquigny “matHEND” Matthieu (coach)
