Last reviewed: August 6, 2026 by the CS2Bet editorial team.
The second season of HLTV Prospects has reached its conclusion, officially graduating one of the strongest classes of young Counter-Strike talents in recent years. The graduation list captures the exact structural moment several of 2026’s breakthrough narratives converted from prospect-tier to established T1 status.
The graduating class
The full graduates list:
- xKacpersky (Kacper Gabara) — Ninjas in Pyjamas
- dziugss (Džiugas Steponavičius) — FUT Esports
- dem0n (Dmytro Myroshnychenko) — FUT Esports
- Krabeni (Aulon Fazlija) — FUT Esports
- cmtry (Nikita Samolotov) — FUT Esports
- xiELO (Vladislav Lysov) — PARIVISION
- nota (Emil Moskvitin) — PARIVISION
- cobrazera (Anarbileg Uuganbayar) — The MongolZ
The FUT quartet story
The FUT graduation is the loudest structural signal of the entire class. Four players from the same organisation graduating simultaneously reflects exactly the breakthrough IEM Cologne Major 2026 delivered — FUT’s perfect 3-0 Stage 2 run, the G2 advancement Bo3 win, and the closely-contested Vitality Stage 3 R1 loss converted the Turkish organisation’s rookie-heavy roster from ‘promising’ to ‘proven at T1 stakes’ inside a single tournament window.
The subsequent lauNX transfer-speculation narrative compounds the graduation’s structural weight. HLTV graduating four FUT players simultaneously signals the prospect-scouting community sees the entire lineup as structurally validated, which directly compresses the organisation’s retention leverage.
The PARIVISION Jame-framework validation
xiELO and nota’s simultaneous graduation validates the entire PARIVISION structural approach. dastan’s adapted coaching framework around young talent + Jame’s veteran calling layer + zweih’s public ‘Jame is one of two CIS captains capable of building around young players’ endorsement — all three feed into the Prospects graduation as the concrete external recognition of the framework’s success.
xiELO and nota specifically stepped up during PARIVISION’s 2026 T1 rise. The graduation confirms they’ve crossed from prospect to established T1 competitor.
xKacpersky and the NIP rebuild
NIP’s cairne bench earlier in 2026 was framed as part of the ongoing structural reset. xKacpersky’s graduation adds an interesting counter-signal: the organisation has developed at least one prospect into T1-recognised status even amid the leadership churn (THREAT GM departure, roster iterations). The rebuild framework isn’t producing consistent T1 results yet, but the talent-pipeline layer is delivering.
cobrazera and the MongolZ succession
cobrazera’s graduation from The MongolZ prospect layer is the structural signal APAC Counter-Strike needed. The MongolZ have been the region’s most consistent T1 presence, and the pipeline producing cobrazera into recognised T1 territory confirms the structural sustainability of that presence. Whether cobrazera stays at MongolZ or becomes a transfer-market target is the next question — but the graduation itself validates APAC’s roster-development framework.
The HLTV Prospects institutional value
Rather than simply recognising strong statistics, the Prospects programme identifies players who have successfully transitioned from promising into established T1 competitors. The Season 2 graduation class is unusual in the breadth of organisations represented — five different orgs graduating simultaneously (NIP, FUT, PARIVISION, MongolZ) captures a wider Counter-Strike talent-pipeline moment. 2026 is producing more T1-recognised graduates than most recent seasons — a positive structural signal for the CS2 competitive layer as a whole.