The official retrospective · Russian esports · 2001—2015
THE RED, THE WHITE, AND THE
BLUE OF RUSSIAN ESPORTS.
For a brief window between 2011 and 2013, five players from a Moscow apartment made the rest of the world
look slow. Moscow Five — M5 — won IEM Kiev, swept IEM Hanover, took WCG bronze in Busan, and
finished top-four at the second-ever League of Legends World Championship. This is what they did, before
a founder's arrest ended the run and the roster became Gambit Gaming.
2012IEM VI World ChampionsHanover · 5–0 group · undefeated · $50,000
2012Worlds S2 SemifinalistLeague of Legends · 3rd–4th · $150,000
2011WCG CS 1.6 BronzeBusan, Korea · behind ESC & SK
2011TI1 Top SixThe International 2011 · Dota 2 · $35,000
01 · Origin
From a 2001 Counter-Strike squad to the biggest name in CIS esports.
Moscow Five was founded in 2001 by Dmitry ddd1ms Smilianets around a
Counter-Strike 1.6 project. Its first big result — bronze at the
Hitachi Extreme Championship in Belgrade in 2004 — was followed by five quiet years.
The organization went dormant in 2005.
In February 2011, Smilianets brought it back by signing the entire ex-Meet Your Makers
CS 1.6 roster: Dosia, ed1k, Fox, ROMJkE, xek. Within eight months M5 was ranked in HLTV's
world top five. By the end of that year the organization had also entered
Dota 2 and taken top-six at the first-ever The International in Cologne.
The League of Legends project arrived last, in December 2011. It would spend the next
thirteen months turning a niche Russian esports label into a household name in Europe, North America,
and Korea.
The original LoL roster in team kit — Darien, Diamondprox, Alex Ich, Genja, and Edward. The white
jerseys, red M5 crest, and navy shoulder panels became the visual identity of the era.
2001Founded in Moscow by Dmitry Smilianets around Counter-Strike 1.6.
2004First international win — Hitachi Extreme Championship, Belgrade.
2011Organization revived; CS 1.6, women's CS, and Dota 2 divisions launched. WCG bronze in Busan. ESWC bronze for the women's team in Paris.
2012Peak year. IEM Kiev champions in January. IEM World Championship winners in Hanover in March. Season 2 EU Regional Finals champions at gamescom. Semifinal at Worlds in Los Angeles. 8th-highest-earning team on the planet — $340,721 across 38 events.
Jun 2012Smilianets arrested in the Netherlands in a US indictment connected to a major card-data theft case. Sponsorship dries up.
Aug 2012CS 1.6 division closed on 13 August. Manager Konstantin groove Pikiner keeps the LoL team running through year-end.
Jan 2013The LoL five leave M5 as a unit and become Gambit Gaming. The organization goes inactive.
02 · The divisions
Five rosters. One crest. Every one of them left a mark.
M5 competed in more than a dozen titles across its life, but its reputation was built on five: League of Legends, Dota 2, Counter-Strike 1.6, CS:GO, and the women's CS 1.6 squad known as the Moscow Five Angels. Each has its own record.
League of Legends · 2011–2013
The five who steamrolled Europe.
Fifteen tournaments together. Six titles. Top-four finishes in fourteen of fifteen. 108–53 lifetime game record. A jungler drafted out of solo queue who invented modern counter-jungling. And a mid-laner whose team motto — "See hero, kill hero" — is still quoted a decade later.
TopDarienEvgeny MazaevPopularized Renekton, Fiora, Shyvana, Malphite, and Warwick in the top lane. Signature swagger.
JungleDiamondproxDanil ReshetnikovRecruited from solo queue at ~1,750 Elo, playing only Udyr and Trundle. Invented the tracking ward and counter-jungling meta.
Mid · CaptainAlex IchAlexey IchetovkinThe spearhead. Wide-open champion pool, endless aggression, and the team's de facto motto: "See hero, kill hero."
BotGenjaEvgeny AndryushinSteady AD carry. Nicknamed the "time lord" in Brazilian coverage for his lane-phase discipline.
SupportEdwardEdward AbgaryanFormerly GoSu Pepper. The only non-Russian of the five, and the man who told the team to sign Diamondprox.
CoachHalbuaVladimir BorodinHead coach through the run.
Signature results
Date
Event
Placement
Prize
Jan 2012
IEM Season VI · Kiev
🥇 1st (2–1 vs TSM)
$12,000
Mar 2012
IEM VI World Championship · Hanover
🥇 1st · undefeated
$50,000
Jun 2012
DreamHack Summer 2012
🥈 2nd
$10,000
Jul 2012
ESL European Challenger Circuit · Poland
🥇 1st
$15,000
Aug 2012
Season 2 EU Regional Finals · gamescom
🥇 1st (2–0)
$40,000
Oct 2012
Season 2 World Championship · Los Angeles
🥉 3rd–4th (lost 1–2 to TPA)
$150,000
Dec 2012
IGN Pro League Season 5 · Las Vegas
4th
$3,000
The line-up disbanded from M5 on 9–10 January 2013 and re-emerged the same month as Gambit Gaming, going on to win IEM Katowice in their first tournament under the new banner.
Dota 2 · 2011–2015
A top-six finish at the first International — and a roster nobody could keep together.
M5's Dota 2 project launched on 31 March 2011. Four months later it finished 5th–6th at
The International 2011 in Cologne — the first TI ever held — for a $35,000 payout. What followed was three years of roster churn: an exodus to Darer in early 2012, a rebuild for TI2012 that missed the playoffs, and a revival era through 2014–15 that put M5 on the podium of GIGABYTE Challenge and StarLadder-adjacent events.
Notable players
Dread · Andrey Golubev — captain of the original TI1 squad.
NS · Yaroslav Kuznetsov — later a well-known caster and streamer.
LighTofHeaveN · Dmitriy Kupriyanov — sold to Na'Vi in June 2011 for $5,000; won TI1 with them.
ARS-ART · Sergey Revin — carried across the 2011 and 2014 rosters.
Silent · Airat Gaziev — later a two-time TI-winning coach with Team Spirit.
Vigoss, PGG, Admiration, Bl00DAnGeL — the TI2012 core.
Key placements
Aug 2011 · 5th–6th at The International 2011 — $35,000. 4–3 record vs MYM, MUFC, Na'Vi, Mineski, OK.Nirvana, EHOME.
Apr 2012 · 2nd at StarLadder StarSeries S1 — $3,000.
Jul 2012 · 3rd at StarLadder StarSeries S2 — $2,500.
Aug 2012 · 13th–16th at The International 2012 — no prize; roster disbanded weeks later.
Aug 2014 · 1st at GIGABYTE Challenge #7 — $1,973.
Dec 2014 · 1st at Trilogy Cup — $7,000.
Jan 2015 · 1st at Moscow Cyber Stadium Open — $7,955.
Division prize total across all rosters: $58,000+. The February 2012 defection of NS, Santa, God, and Dread to Ivan ArtStyle Antonov's new Darer organization is often mistakenly attributed to M5 itself — Goblak and ArtStyle were Darer players, not Moscow Five.
Counter-Strike 1.6 · 2004, 2011–2012
The team that made the modern M5 possible.
Counter-Strike is where everything started, and where the org's founder still points when asked about the crest. In 2011 the ex-MYM roster gave M5 back-to-back titles at ASUS Winter, MSI Beat IT! Russia, and the WCG 2011 Russian Qualifier — then delivered bronze at World Cyber Games 2011 in Busan, the best result by a Russian CS team at a world championship since 2004.
Core roster (2011–2012)
Dosia · Mikhail Stolyarov — went on to win the PGL Krakow 2017 Major.
ed1k · Eduard Ivanov — HLTV's #12 player of 2011.
Fox · Sergey Stolyarov — the only player to appear in both M5's 1.6 and CS:GO line-ups.
ROMJkE · Roman Makarov.
xek · Alexander Zobkov — replaced by hacker · Roman Abramov in March 2012.
Dec 2011 · 🥉 3rd World Cyber Games 2011, Busan — $3,000.
Dec 2011 · 1st ASUS Final Battle of the Year.
Jan 2012 · 3rd IEM VI Kiev.
The men's division closed on 13 August 2012, and manager groove Pikiner said publicly: "This CS roster is where it all started. These players are the foundation of the organization that is now considered the most famous team in Russia."
Moscow Five Angels · Women's CS 1.6 · 2010–2012
Beautiful, and world-class.
In late 2010 the entire EYESports women's roster moved into M5 and became the Moscow Five Angels — the sister squad to the CS 1.6 team, and one of the strongest women's Counter-Strike lineups on the planet during their run. They won the Rockstar Female World Cup, took E-Sport Universe, and delivered a bronze medal at the ESWC 2011 world championship in Paris — the highest world-championship finish ever earned by a Russian women's CS team.
Core roster (2011–2012)
Son1a · Sofiko Tsaava — AWPer, later capped for the Russian women's national CS team.
tATu · Alla Kurysheva — brought over from EYESports.
Melkaya · Kristina Vilyamovskaya.
Vendetta · Veronika Albasheeva.
Mosya · Taisia Efimova.
Former: Stanislava Zotkina — played through 17 March 2012.
Key placements
🥇 Rockstar Female World Cup — champions.
🥇 E-Sport Universe — champions.
Feb 2011 · ASUS Winter, Kyiv — 25,000 ₽ prize.
🥉 Oct 2011 · ESWC 2011, Paris — world championship bronze, $4,000.
Jan 2012 · Rockstar World Cup, Stockholm — €5,625 prize.
Jul 2012 · Girlz Open Cup, Kyiv.
The Angels ran alongside the main CS 1.6 squad and accounted for roughly $11,430 across two prize events on Esports Earnings' books — a modest number that dramatically undersells their reputation, which was built on world-championship placings and packed live crowds. Their bronze at ESWC 2011 in Paris remains one of the defining moments in Russian women's Counter-Strike history.
CS:GO · 2014–2015, 2019–2020
A quieter chapter — but never a missing one.
M5 re-entered Counter-Strike in October 2014, this time in CS:GO under CEO Maxim Nirvana Zalilov. The main roster — AERO, brain, Foking, Fox, spaze (later nrk, then pipsoN) — competed through the CIS Rising League, Uprise Champions Cup, the MCS Open Season 1 Finals, and the ESL One Katowice 2015 CIS Qualifier.
Jan 2015 · MCS Open Season 1 Finals — reached the playoff bracket before spaze departed for COMEBACK.
Jan 2015 · ESL One Katowice 2015 CIS Qualifier — 12–16 loss to GGWP.
Competed in the CIS Rising League #2, Uprise Champions Cup S2, and Rising Tornado #2 in the first half of 2015.
Fox · Sergey Stolyarov became the only player to bridge M5's 1.6 and CS:GO eras.
The CS:GO era never scaled to the org's earlier heights — combined earnings sit near $4,400 across all rosters — but it is the last chapter where an M5 team was competing under the crest, and the M5 Academy project of 2019–2020 was Smilianets's post-release attempt to rebuild.
03 · In their words
"See hero, kill hero."
Alex Ich's playing style and strengths were Moscow Five's: a wide and never-ending champion pool, including new picks and used in new manners; unleashed aggression; an intimidating aura of certainty regarding the imminence of victory.
— GameSpot / onGamers
At Kiev they did a snowball strat, basically games were pretty boring since we just copied that once we saw it. If you look at the VODs, they were just complete stomps from about five minutes on.
— TheOddOne, TSM · IEM Kiev 2012
When M5 were at their most dangerous, they would steamroll opponents before 25 minutes.
— GameSpot / onGamers
You don't know what the fuck they're thinking. And that's what makes them so dangerous.
— James "2GD" Harding on the Russian style
These players are the foundation of the organization that is now considered the most famous team in Russia. I doubt the League of Legends and Dota 2 rosters could exist today without the Counter-Strike team.
— Konstantin "groove" Pikiner, on closing the CS 1.6 division · 13 Aug 2012
After we beat M5, we all thought we would win the Championship. Don't look down on any team — when you let down your guard, they will always bite you hard.
— MiSTakE, Taipei Assassins · after knocking M5 out of Worlds 2012
04 · Legacy
What survives when the org doesn't.
The counter-jungle era
Diamondprox's habit of putting a ward inside the enemy jungle to track the opposing jungler — trivially obvious in 2026 — was a Moscow Five invention. It became the base of professional early-game strategy for years afterwards, cited in retrospectives by ESPN and Dexerto alike.
Champions unlocked
Darien pioneered or popularized competitive Renekton, Fiora, Gangplank, Shyvana, Malphite, Warwick, and top-lane Lissandra. Alex Ich set mid-lane trends with Malphite, Kha'Zix, Evelynn, and Master Yi. Multiple picks were banned specifically against them for months.
The Gambit continuation
When the org went inactive in January 2013, all five LoL players moved to Gambit Gaming as a unit. They won IEM Katowice in their first tournament under the new name. The Gambit brand — still active in the CIS — is Moscow Five's direct descendant.
A template for CIS esports
ESPN Brasil's retrospective titled the team "o time que foi a base do LoL competitivo" — the team that was the foundation of competitive LoL. Nearly every serious CIS org that followed — Na'Vi, Virtus.pro, Team Spirit, Gambit — inherited pieces of the Moscow Five playbook, whether they wanted to admit it or not.
