Ex-MANA just made the finals of ESL Challenger League Season 52 Europe Cup #2. The Kosovo-based Counter-Strike 2 team knocked out BasementBoysCS2 in the semis and now sits one win away from claiming the title. What makes this run notable is the timeline. Ex-MANA assembled in early June 2026. Two months later, they're competing for a trophy in one of Europe's toughest challenger circuits.
The roster came together after cerber, BledarD, and ammar left the original MANA organization on June 2-3. Since then, the climb has been steep. By late July, ex-MANA ranked 170th globally and 208th on Valve's internal system. Their peak hit 83rd, which suggests there's room to climb higher still. Prize earnings so far total around 6,000 dollars. That sounds thin until you remember this is a two-month-old squad grinding through qualifier tournaments, not an established org with years of tournament history behind it.
Crypto's quiet return to competitive gaming
The esports world has had a complicated relationship with cryptocurrency. Major exchanges like FTX, Coinbase, and Crypto.com once flooded sponsorship money into teams and tournaments. Then FTX imploded in late 2022, and the hype cooled fast. But the category has been quietly rebuilding. Web3 projects and exchanges continue backing tournaments and rosters across multiple titles today.
Ex-MANA itself has no visible crypto ties. The team operates on a traditional esports playbook: compete, earn prize pools, land sponsors, repeat. That's a smart move for a young roster focused on building credibility through wins rather than token associations. The broader esports-crypto conversation remains unresolved, but teams like ex-MANA prove the core competition itself moves forward regardless of which sponsors show up.
A two-month-old Kosovo Counter-Strike team just reached the ESL Challenger League finals, showing esports continues to grow fast while crypto sponsorships quietly rebuild after FTX's collapse.
