- He helped his team take second place in the ESL Challenger League Season 41
- The team continued to perform very well in the second-tier CS:GO during the year
- However, lollipop21k’s performance dropped during the rest of 2022
Igor “lollipop21k” Solodkov is parting ways with 1WIN, putting an end to the six-month-long stint he had with the organization.
Lollipop21k leaves 1WIN
As the year is coming to a close, so do the contracts of many professional players. The CS:GO community is no exception to that and Igor “lollipop21k” Solodkov leaving his team 1WIN is just one of the many players that will not search for new opportunities. The team announced that the 26-year-old Belarusian player is leaving the team, putting an end to his six-month stint with the organization.
During his relatively brief time with 1WIN, Solodkov helped the team achieve success almost immediately after replacing outgoing Stanislav “fostar” Ostashevskiy. The new player helped his team place second in the ESL Challenger League Season 41. But that was just the start of 1WIN’s rise, as the team took many more top places in other tier-two events. This included a second-place finish in CCT Central Europe Series 1, third in the very next iteration of Challenger League, and second in CCT North Europe Series 1.
1WIN’s top performance this year was an appearance at the IEM Road to Rio Europe RMR. It was the team’s shot at top-tier Counter-Strike for the year and 1WIN managed impressive victories against forZe and G2. Unfortunately, this was not enough for 1Win to qualify for the Major.
It seems Solodkov and 1WIN’s performance dropped off in the latter half of the year. However, this could be attributed, at least partly, to the fact the team had tough opposition in the face of Bad News Eagles and Sprout. 1WIN suffered elimination from CCT Central Europe Series 4 in 5-8th after a loss to Astralis. They did however ensure their presence in Challenger League Season 44 by defeating LDLC and IKLA in the relegation tournament.
Solodkov’s performance also quickly dropped fast shortly after the team’s very first success when he joined it. For the rest of his time with 1WIN, the player remained second-lowest rated. However, he stated in an interview that he was a source of motivation and hype within the team, going on to say that “this team really needed a person like this.”
This positive attitude seems to continue with the player as he thanked the organization and his former teammates for the time spent with them. He also said he is a free agent looking for new opportunities.
