Gentle Mates leave Counter-Strike as roster returns to Iberian Soul

Gentle Mates is out of Counter-Strike. HLTV reported on August 7, 2026, that the French organization had officially announced its withdrawal from the game and no longer backs the Spanish roster it signed in August 2025. The report gives no reason for the decision.

The players did not wait for a new employer to keep competing. On the day the exit became official they were already at the Esports World Cup open qualifier, entered under the name they carried before the French club arrived: Iberian Soul. Four of them are the Spaniards who wore the Gentle Mates jersey all season. The fifth is a Dutch stand-in, a temporary player, who has been told this tournament is his last with the group.

The announcement closes a file that had been open in public for more than six weeks, and it leaves a team that HLTV ranked 43rd in the world on August 3 looking for a name, a sniper and someone to pay its travel.

Results as listed by HLTV on August 7, 2026; qualifier field as reported by HLTV on August 3, 2026.

A year under the French club

Gentle Mates signed the roster in August 2025, according to HLTV. The group was older than the contract. It had been coached since January 2024 by deLonge, first under the KOI name, with which it played the PGL Copenhagen Major, then as Iberian Soul. A Major is one of Counter-Strike's flagship tournaments, and invitations to it depend on a team's position in the Valve Regional Standings, the ranking kept by the game's publisher and usually shortened to VRS.

Under the French organization, whose name the scene often shortens to M8, the team became a regular of the second tier of the circuit. HLTV's summary of the year shows a side that reached the last days of many tournaments without settling among the elite.

The pattern is plain in the table. Seven of the eleven results are podium or semi-final finishes at smaller tournaments, and the four appearances at the larger events all ended in the group stage, the opening phase from which only some teams advance.

The Major that slipped away in April

The season's main target was the IEM Cologne Major. According to HLTV, the team played the second-tier circuit to collect ranking points, held a good position in the VRS early in the year and stayed in contention for an invitation until just before the cut-off of April 6.

It then fell short. HLTV's report of April 21 names two tournaments, BC Game Masters and Stake Ranked Episode 1, where disappointing finishes dropped the team out of the invitation range in the final days. The same outlet's August article speaks of a period of inactivity and poor results at key events before the Major. It was not the first near miss: the roster had also come close to the StarLadder Budapest Major, HLTV noted.

The first change followed two weeks after the cut-off. On April 21, HLTV reported that Gentle Mates had benched deLonge, ending an eight-month stint leading the organization's squad. No reason was given and no replacement was named. On HLTV's own ranking, which is separate from Valve's, the team stood 38th on April 20.

Six weeks from sale talks to exit

The withdrawal was not a surprise by the time it was made official. On June 23, HLTV reported that Gentle Mates was leaving Counter-Strike, citing statements posted on X by Gotaga, one of the organization's co-founders, and described the sale of the roster as under negotiation and unresolved. The team was 29th on HLTV's ranking of June 22.

The roster was not sold as a block. On July 7, HEROIC announced the signing of MartinezSa, the team's AWPer, the player who carries the sniper rifle and often decides rounds alone. HLTV's report of that day gives him a rating of 1.17 across 59 maps over the previous three months and notes that the move puts him on an English-speaking roster for the first time. It mentions no transfer fee. The same report describes Gentle Mates as an organization that had been looking to leave the game while seeking a buyer for the whole roster during the off-season, the summer break between tournament seasons.

The ranking followed the uncertainty down. Gentle Mates was 37th on July 6 and 43rd on August 3, the list published before the qualifier. HEROIC, MartinezSa's new team, is 30th.

Then came the announcement of August 7. HLTV's report says the organization no longer backs the roster and adds nothing on what Gentle Mates intends to do next. It also records that deLonge, benched since April, has announced that he is a free agent, meaning he is under contract with no team and may sign anywhere.

Who plays as Iberian Soul now

The lineup HLTV lists under the Iberian Soul name has four players from the Gentle Mates five: alex, mopoz, sausol and dav1g, all Spanish. CRUC1AL, from the Netherlands, fills the fifth seat as a stand-in. The coach is djL, a Swede.

A player's account of the past weeks came the same evening. Speaking to HLTV after a match at the qualifier, alex said MartinezSa's departure happened quickly and left no time to prepare. The team had a Stake tournament on its calendar and needed a fifth player, he said, and it chose CRUC1AL. He described the current five as more of a mix than a real team, said the Dutchman had been told this event would be his last with them, and said he was very grateful to him.

On the staff, alex said djL is the team's official coach. HLTV's June report had listed another name, repk3ys, in that role.

The long-term replacement is an open question that alex answered frankly. The Spanish AWPers he could think of already have teams, he told HLTV, so the group is forced to look abroad, although he would prefer to keep an all-Spanish lineup and expects that to be very hard.

Playing without a paycheck behind them

What the loss of an organization means in practice is the part of the interview that carries furthest. Without one, alex said, players pay out of their own pockets to attend an event such as this qualifier. He called that mentally hard and said it is difficult to focus on the game without an organization. HLTV wrote that the team has struggled to stay motivated since losing Gentle Mates' support.

He did not criticize his former employer. "I just want to thank them for the time we had," he told HLTV, calling the conversation with the club a tough one and adding nothing further.

The team is in talks with some organizations, he said, without naming any, and he expects the matter to be settled soon. The players know the situation from experience: HLTV's interviewer recalled that the group had gone eight months without an organization the last time it happened.

A qualifier with four places for 64 teams

The tournament where all this is unfolding is the open qualifier of the Esports World Cup's Counter-Strike event, played on LAN, that is, with every team in the same hall and not online. HLTV reported on August 3 that 64 teams had registered for four places in the main event, a competition with US$2 million in prize money. The other 28 places went to teams invited through the VRS, all of which accepted, the outlet said. The main event runs from August 12 to 23 in Paris, where the Esports World Cup moved this year, according to HLTV's report of May 20.

The groups were published on August 3 with the roster still listed as Gentle Mates, in Group H with fnatic, FKOMAR and 6666. Four days later it took its seat as Iberian Soul.

The first day, August 7, went both ways. Iberian Soul lost its opening series to 6666, then beat FKOMAR 2-0 without conceding a single round, HLTV reported. With one defeat on the board, the format leaves no margin: the next lost series ends the tournament. The schedule shows a second meeting with 6666 on August 8. After the day's matches, alex said the team is not yet at the level it wants and needs to get better.

The setting adds a detail. Gentle Mates is one of the 40 clubs of the Esports Foundation's 2026 Club Partner Program, the US$20 million scheme that funds selected clubs with up to US$1 million each to grow their brands and audiences. The foundation's release of March 31 names the French organization on that list and states that membership does not guarantee qualification for the Esports World Cup. The Counter-Strike roster that could have carried the club's colors in Paris is trying to get there under another name and at its own expense.

What is settled and what is not

Three things are fixed on August 8. Gentle Mates has no Counter-Strike team. MartinezSa is a HEROIC player. And the four remaining Spaniards are staying together, with djL as coach, under the Iberian Soul tag.

The rest depends on decisions not yet announced. No organization has said it is signing the group. CRUC1AL's spell ends with the qualifier, by alex's account, which leaves the fifth seat empty afterward. Gentle Mates has given no reason for leaving.

For the players, the nearest date is the only certain one: a best-of-three against 6666, and behind it a bracket in which four teams out of 64 earn a place among the 32 in Paris.

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