“OCE has a habit of recycling top players, so we thought we’d change it up”: Mingovi talks new-look KZG

KZG has taken a chance on fresh talent and payoffs are already starting to show. The OCE squad is currently ranked sixth in the regional VRS rankings, jumping up five spots after the most recent update, and has backed up this form with advancement in the CCT Oceania group stage—this time with a new player and some shuffled roles.

The change comes at the expense of losing the squad's primary AWPer Alex "Alecc" Mackechnie, with former Ground Zero and Housebets rifler Braiden “Drox” Webb joining the KZG fold.

On July 1 KZG announced their new roster via X/Twitter. Drox would debut in the CCT Oceania Series 1, for which the squad qualified for through June’s open qualifiers.

The rebuild had officially begun, as news broke that KZG’s longtime core trio of Bailey “Estate” Tobin, Sam “Samuukxs” Hensel, and Jayden “Hassie” Hasse would be stepping away from the game, bringing an end to their two-and-a-half-year tenure.

Last season, KZG secured third at CCT Oceania Season 1, benefiting from a fortunate opening playoff draw against SemperFi who were forced to forfeit due to scheduling conflicts. This advanced KZG into an upper bracket run, where they ultimately fell to Rooster and later to SemperFi in the consolidation final.

The team also narrowly missed out on qualifying for eXTREMESLAND 2025, falling to Ground Zero and Le-Lux Esports. Wins in either series would have secured their spot in the four-team LAN event hosted in Sydney.

DFRAG spoke with KZG’s in-game captain Ming “Mingovi” O'Mallon, who shared his insights on shaping the team's future under the KZG brand, stating the team is currently in a “rebuild phase.”

When asked about who would be picking up the Big Green following alecc’s departure, Mingovi revealed Joshua “dpr” Henderson-Smith was to return to the role—until the plan changed.

“Initially the plan was for dpr to go back into AWP like old KZG, but two days in he gave up,” he said, adding that he’d be switching into an AWP-IGL hybrid role himself as a “more supportive element.”

Instead, dpr would return to a rifle and site anchor role he picked up during his one-month stint at Rooster, which Mingovi said dpr enjoyed a lot more.

Alecc had some strong performances with the AWP but proved to be inconsistent and would go missing in some of their key losses, particularly at CCT Season 1 where he sported a 0.99 rating over 14 maps.

Alecc entered the scene with considerable hype, teaming up with Ryley “Jynx” Linde to join their first Counter-Strike roster under RKON. Both players, transitioning from professional Fortnite careers, showcased their impressive raw mechanics but they never quite fulfilled their potential to be top ECL level players as both were hampered by inconsistency.

Alecc’s replacement in Drox is best known for his time with Vantage, where he spent over a year as a consistent contributor on a roster that saw frequent changes. Mingovi believes Drox has plenty of potential, describing him as “an underrated player” that he believes was “misused on Ground Zero and Housebets as an anchor.”

Drox, along with 20-year-old livewire Julien “vinhy” Dinh-Vu, would be moving into rotator roles on the CT side going forward. Drox has had a great start to his KZG campaign, embracing the role as their new star player with a 1.24 rating after 11 maps in CCT OCE Season 2.

As the sole returning player from the previous season, Mingovi shed some light on the process of rebuilding KZG from the ground up. “[Oceania] had a habit of just recycling the top players, [so we] thought we would change it up.”

The plan started by recruiting his former teammate and friend dpr, with the goal to “have a team of three experienced players and scout two players with a lot of aim potential and just teach them the game.”

As for acquiring KZG's final pieces? “The process for Vinhy and [Ben “Dearlucid” Tassell] was, honestly, just going through the ranked leaderboard on FACEIT.” Vinhy was formally playing for Pant Gang in the open division, while Dearlucid jumped straight into OCE’s top-flight, joining KZG as his first team.

Both Vinhy and Dearlucid have shown signs of strong individual play with real pop-off potential. “They exceeded expectations having this been their first proper team and season in competitive play,” Mingovi said.

KZG faces a busy Monday with a big double-header; they begin with a lower bracket clash at CCT Oceania taking on Animus Victoria, followed by the start of their ECL Season 50 Cup 2 campaign against Ground Zero.

• Read more: The Future of OCE CS2: The DFRAG Open Series

KZG is currently:

• Ming “Mingovi” O'Mallon
• Josh “dpr” Henderson-Smith
• Braiden “Drox” Webb
• Julien 'vinhy' Dinh-Vu
• Ben “Dearlucid” Tassell