Luminosity Places Bymas on the Bench Effective Immediately

The organization gave no reason for the move, which followed last-place finishes at XSE Pro League Guangzhou and the Esports World Cup.

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Luminosity Gaming has placed Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras on the bench, with the roster change taking effect immediately. The Counter-Strike 2 organization shared the announcement through its social account, and the update was reproduced in a Reddit post.

The message addressed Bymas directly, while Luminosity thanked Aurimas for everything. The organization announced the move on August 24, leaving the international lineup with four active players.

The decision followed last-place finishes at XSE Pro League Guangzhou and the Esports World Cup. Luminosity had returned to Counter-Strike in July by signing the former Monte quartet before adding Lucas “lux” Meneghini as its in-game leader.

The lineup also failed to reproduce the form it showed at the Cologne Major, where it was still under the tutelage of Jack “Gizmy” von Spreckelsen. A leadership change added pressure to a squad that had only recently come together under the Luminosity banner.

No reason was given for Bymas’ benching. He addressed the decision in a social post, thanking the organization and his former teammates while acknowledging that his recent official performances had fallen short of his own standards.

“I’m very grateful for the opportunity to represent such an organization and I really wish the guys nothing but the best going forward. These guys were like family to me and I genuinely enjoyed spending time with all of them,” Bymas wrote.

“As for me, I’m disappointed that I couldn’t perform at the level I wanted to in officials lately. I’m going to work hard to become the player I know I can be.”

Luminosity’s 4-player lineup

With Bymas moved to the bench, Luminosity’s active roster is now:

Aleks “Rainwaker” Petrov
Aurélien “afro” Drapier
Lucas “lux” Meneghini
Oscar “AZUWU” Bell

The organization has not announced who will fill the fifth spot or whether another leadership change is planned.

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Counter-Strike 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer tactical first-person shooter developed and published by Valve. Released in September 2023, it is the fifth main entry in the Counter-Strike series and serves as a direct replacement for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Steam. Two teams, Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, compete in objective-based rounds across modes such as bomb defusal and hostage rescue. Built on the Source 2 engine, the game introduced volumetric smoke physics, revised weapon handling, and a new sub-tick server architecture. It inherited all cosmetic items from its predecessor and features both a map-specific Competitive mode and a numerically ranked Premier mode.