With the end of another year of the Counter-Strike Global Offensive competitive scene, we can now look back at the majors, tournaments and leagues that took place in 2017 to decide who the current top ranked players of CS GO are. Here is a list of the top players of this year along with videos of some of their best performances. Some are on the list by virtue of their great in-game leadership, some have put up impeccable fragshows with the rifle or the AWP while others have shown their incredible dedication to consistency and reliability. All of these qualities, whether it be individual, teamwork or support, are important factors to consider when deciding which players deserve the coveted top spots. Now is your chance to help decide who the top players actually are. Rank these players in the order that you think they ought to be and contribute to the average ranking! (If you feel I have missed anyone, write it down as a suggestion or give your reasons in the comments - I will make the changes necessary). Source(s): Wikipedia, Liquipedia, HLTV
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Marcelo "coldzera" David (born October 31, 1994) is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays for SK Gaming as a rifler and secondary AWPer. He is known as one of the best players in the world, near unmatched in incredible consistency and raw fragging.
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač (born February 16, 1997) is a Bosnian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. NiKo got very popular within the community after his impressive performances for mousesports, especially during ESEA Season 18 where he showed his incredible aim and game sense at such young age. He currently plays the role of a rifler and secondary AWPer for FaZe Clan.
Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz (formerly known as device and devve; born September 8, 1995) is a Danish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source player. Regarded as one of the best players in the world, he was ranked 20th in 2014 and advanced to 3rd in 2015 as one of the best players of the entire year. Dev1ce is known for his impact in the game and is feared by many for his awping ability.
Peter "dupreeh" Rothmann (born March 26th, 1993) is a Danish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source player. He is currently playing for Astralis as the entry fragger. He has been a core member of this lineup since the very beginning, when it started in Copenhagen Wolves in January 2013, consisting of current teammate, Nicolai "device" Reedtz, former in-game leader, Henrik "FeTiSh" Christensen, former coach, Steffen "3k2" Markussen, and former teammate, René "cajunb" Borg.
Håvard "rain" Nygaard (born August 27, 1994) is a Norwegian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source player. He currently plays for FaZe Clan as the entry-fragger. He is the longest lasting member of the lineup, having played since the team first formed under the Team Kinguin banner.
Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo (born May 30, 1991) is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source, CrossFire and Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays the role of a AWPer and In-game Leader for SK Gaming. In 2015 he was chosen the most influential person in Brazilian eSports. He is the owner of Brazilian eSports organization Games Academy.
Fernando "fer" Alvarenga (born October 30, 1991) is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays for SK Gaming as the entry fragger.
Kenny "kennyS" Schrub (born May 19, 1995) is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and a former Counter-Strike: Source player. Known for being a former Counter-Strike: Source player, kennyS is currently playing for G2 Esports since February 2017 after a player swap between EnVyUs and G2 eSports. kennyS was playing for EnVyUs since a player exchange with Titan. He was on Titan since May 2014, coming back after leaving them on May 2013, when he was replaced by Richard "shox" Papillon, who later left Titan to join Clan-Mystik, giving kennyS the opportunity to get recruited back into Titan. He is regarded as, by his fans and other players, one of the quickest and most skilled AWPers, if not even the best AWPer in the game.
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev (born October 2nd, 1997) is a Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays for Natus Vincere. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostylev is known to be one of the most talented Counter-Strike: Global Offensive players from his region, if not on the entire global scale. Despite being first known as a paramount rifler, he began to showcase his amazing potential with the sniper rifles in Amazing Gaming and HellRaisers. Having started his career in the game in 2013 with Ukrainian team LAN DODGERS, he was discovered in early 2014 after his impressive showings online especially on StarSeries IX for team Courage Gaming. Due to internal issues, however, Kostlyev parted company with the ex-Courage squad and returned to the DODGERS team that later became Amazing Gaming. In mid-September 2014, s1mple saw his career elevate to a new height as he signed for team HellRaisers, joining stars like Dosia and markeloff. In his time in HR, his first international achievement happened at DreamHack Winter 2014, beating fnatic in the group stage 16-14, which led to surprising win of the whole group. Their DHW run ended in the quarter-finals as they were dominantly beaten by Ninjas in Pyjamas, losing the series 2-0. HellRaisers parted ways with s1mple about two months later, with the main reason for the decision being s1mple's ban from ESL tournaments (a notably harsh blow to his potential due to two majors organized by ESL in 2015). His ban has finally expired on February 1, 2016. s1mple then joined the predominantly Ukrainian Flipsid3 Tactics team. Due to his aforementioned ESL ban, players like DavCost and CyberFocus were often seen standing-in for him in events managed by ESL. He left the squad on July 17, 2015 following internal problems, and later announced that he would be going inactive for the time being. However, he took a sudden U-turn to this decision only a few days later as it was announced that he would join the revamped roster of Evolution, which later rebranded to Evolution.Dark. His Evolution.Dark story didn't last long as Evolution released whole "Dark" squad after a month. However, the players would keep playing together under name of Worst Players. Just a few weeks later, it was announced that s1mple was going to stand-in for his former team, HellRaisers, which had been looking for the fifth player after the surprising departure of Dosia. Two weeks later HellRaisers attended DreamHack Stockholm 2015, which was a qualifier for upcoming Major, DreamHack Cluj Napoca 2015. The team failed to qualify despite being a big favorite for a Major spot, as they lost to Titan eSports 1:2 in the winners match, and then were upset by Vexed Gaming losing 1:2, which they had defeated just a day before 2:0. s1mple became good friends with Hiko while Hiko was playing as a stand in for Flipsid3 Tactics, who would later go on to recruit him to Team Liquid, sacrificing his university course in the process. Team Liquid, with s1mple and Hiko would go on to make it to the semi-finals of MLG Major Championship: Columbus. At the same major, s1mple was chosen for the NA vs EU All-Star Game on the NA side which would go on to win the match in overtime. s1mple was awarded the All-Star MVP.
Kristian "k0nfig" Wienecke (born April 19, 1997) is a Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He plays the dual roles of a rifler and an awper for his team North.
Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski (born July 5, 1993) is a Polish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays for Virtus.pro as the rifler.
Richard “shox” Papillon has been at the top of the pile since the early days of CS:GO, and his presence in HLTV.org’s Top 20 year rankings in the last three years is proof of that. Boasting an incredible rating of 1.13 – one of the highest among top CS:GO players -, shox is heralded as one of the most versatile players in the game, and he will be looking to inspire the team to win international silverware after clinching a major title in 2014. Shox is an incredibly talented player, known for his amazing pistol skills, astonishing accuracy with rifles and energetic AWPing style, making him an all-round player, which in his prime was carrying teams like VeryGames and Epsilon. shox started playing Counter-Strike back in the days of 1.5, having first discovered the game in 2001 at nine years of age. He then slowly moved on to each next version of the game, ending up in Counter-Strike: Source.[Citation needed] In 2008, he started making his breakthrough with a team called Creativ` and already in March 2009 he joined VeryGames for the first time. Already then he was an established top player, by many accounts even the best in the world, but the team itself ran into some problems and would be released from the organization near the end of the year. Shox would then even try out playing Counter-Strike 1.6 for a short period in 2010, but he went back to Counter-Strike: Source to represent Team ROCCAT, LDLC.com and later 3DMAX together with another current star, Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom. After only a few months in that 3DMAX team, shox left to join VeryGames once again[1] where he would sit on top of the world for about six months. And then, despite being one of the best players in the world and winning ESWC with the team, he was removed due to internal problems at the end of November 2011[2]. He would go back to team up with ScreaM in Tt Dragons at the beginning of 2012[3], and they would together switch to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive when the new game came out.
Finn Andersen (born April 14, 1990), better known as Karrigan, is a Danish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who is the in-game leader for FaZe Clan. Andersen is considered one of the best players in the world. He has also played for other teams including n!faculty, Team Dignitas, Team SoloMid, Copenhagen Wolves, fnatic, and mousesports. Karrigan was a founding member of Astralis, a player owned team established in 2015. He began playing competitively in 2006 during the Counter-Strike 1.6 era. Karrigan's brother started playing Counter-Strike around 2001 and soon afterwards he was introduced to the game. karrigan was playing competitively by 2006 and 2007 and on November 5, 2010 he joined Full-Gaming, whose teammates included Michael “Friis” Jørgensen and Timm “ArcadioN” Henriksen. In 2015 he finished a dual Master's Degree in business administration and auditing from Copenhagen Business School. He currently resides in Aarhus. Karrigan joined fnatic around March 25, 2012 and the team won many tournaments that year. With the advent of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene he joined mousesports because "the offer they gave me was really good", and he felt like the Fnatic lineup did not have what it took to be successful in the new title. Karrigan left Copenhagen Wolves and joined the Denmark-based roster of North American organization Team SoloMid. On January 25, 2015 Team SoloMid picked up Team Dignitas' CS roster.[6] In July SoloMid placed 3-4th the year's second Major, ESL One Cologne 2015. In October TSM got 5-8th at the last Major, DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015. TSM's CS:GO roster left the organization on December 3, 2015 amid internal troubles. For the next few tournaments the team competed under the name "Team Question Mark". On January 9, 2016 Team Question Mark unveiled the new organization they created, Astralis, because of a desire to have a "stable environment" in eSports. The organization was registered as an Anpartsselskab (ApS) and received venture capital from Sunstone Capital, and is angel invested by entrepreneur Tommy Ahlers. On June 5, 2016 he was denied entry into the United States to compete in the group stage of ELeague Season 1 due to new rules regarding Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) travel because he had been to Iran within the last five years. During the matches he missed the team used coach Danny "Zonic" Sørensen in his place. Astralis got 3-4th at the MLG Major Championship: Columbus in March. In July they got 5-8th at second Major, ESL One Cologne 2016. Karrigan transferred to FaZe Clan on October 19, 2016.
Tomáš "oskar" Šťastný (born June 27, 1991) is Czech professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He has been considered as one of the strongest "online" players at the moment for his impressive performances against top tier players, especially in FACEIT Pro League. He currently plays the role of AWPer for mousesports.
Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth (born September 11, 1995) is a Danish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays as a support player for Astralis.
Christopher Alesund (born May 29, 1990), known by his alias GeT_RiGhT, is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike series player. He is currently a member of Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP). He is considered one of the best Counter-Strike players in the history of the series. He began playing competitively in 2007. Alesund has previously been a member of SK Gaming, Fnatic, and Begrip. In 2007 GeT_RiGhT and Begrip placed 2nd at spiXelania 2007. In later that year he joined SK Gaming. SK placed 4th at EM II - Finals on March 9, 2008. In early 2009 Alesund joined Fnatic. Fnatic won the WEG e-Stars 2009: King of the Game. They then placed 3rd/4th at IEM Season IV - gamescom and then 2nd at IEM Season IV - Chengdu. They topped off the 2009 season with a second-place finish at World Cyber Games 2009 and a victory at World e-Sports Masters 2009. After two seasons GeT_RiGhT started a third stint at SK Gaming, and he was joined by Fnatic teammates Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl. In July 2012, in anticipation of switching Counter -Strike versions to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, he left SK Gaming and joined Ninjas in Pyjamas. GeT_RiGhT was an integral part of this dominant NiP team that went 87 matches without a loss. NiP won the ESL Major Series One 2013 spring tournament, defeating Fnatic 2-0. NiP and GeT_RiGhT finished tied for 5th-8th at ESWC 2015. The next month NiP finished 5th at ESL One Cologne 2015. GeT_RiGhT is widely considered to be one of the greatest Counter-Strike players of all time in both versions of the game. While never considered the best at aiming in the series, he is well known for his highly consistent play, success in clutch and high-pressure situations, and for popularizing the "lurker" role among teams. HLTV.org rated him as the best player of 2014 in their end-of-year rankings due to his high level of play in tournament finals and other important games.
Henrique "HEN1" Teles (born July 14, 1995) is a Brazilian profesional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is the twin brother of Lucas "LUCAS1" Teles. He plays the role AWPer for his team 100 Thieves.
Patrik Lindberg (born June 10, 1988), known by the pseudonym f0rest, is a Swedish Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. Having played competitively since 2005, Lindberg has been widely regarded within the esports scene as one of the best players in Counter-Strike history. Lindberg is best known for his four years of tenure on the Fnatic roster, which he helped bring to prominence as the dominant team of 2009, during which year the team broke the record for the highest-earning team in Counter-Strike history. Near the end of 2010, Lindberg left Fnatic and joined SK Gaming, which he remained with until July 2012. Soon after, he transitioned over to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and joined the team Ninjas in Pyjamas. Lindberg began his professional gaming career in early 2005, when he made his international debut at the global finals in South Korea for the World e-Sports Games, alongside the new Swedish team of Begrip Gaming. There, Begrip defeated all opponents, including the defending champions Catch-Gamers and won the prize pot of 50,000 USD. Following this victory, Lindberg dropped out of high school to concentrate on his Counter-Strike career. In 2005, Lindberg was nominated for the eSports Award 2005, under the categories for "Newcomer of the Year" and "Best Counter-Strike Player". In early 2006, Lindberg left Begrip alongside his teammate Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund, and signed a contract with Fnatic and became a permanent member of the team. Lindberg's first year in Fnatic proved to be successful, having the team earn upwards of $100,000 USD, which was acknowledged by Turtle Entertainment. During 2006, Fnatic won the Cyberathlete Professional League Championship, the World Tour, along with a silver medal at the Electronic Sports World Cup. Lindberg was once again nominated for the eSports Award and won the Counter-Strike Player of the Year Award. However, Fnatic faced a major slump from 2007 through 2008, as the team failed to win any major tournaments and only achieved a handful of medals. The team regained its form and chemistry in 2009, however, with the retirement of Oscar "Archi" Torgersen and Oscar "ins" Holm and the recruitment of Christopher "GeT_Right" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl. During 2009, Fnatic was the single most-dominant team, having garnered gold medal victories at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge, European Finals and World Championship, ESWC 2009, e-Stars Seoul, KODE5 and World eSports Masters. In 2009, Lindberg was nominated for the eSports Award 2009, under the category of "Regional eSports Player of the Year Northern Europe", but lost to his teammate Alesund, who won the main category for eSports Player of the Year. Fnatic could not repeat its success from 2009 in the 2010 season, however, as the team found itself at odds with the Ukrainians from Natus Vincere, with their winnings being upward of 220,000 USD. Following this underwhelming year, Lindberg, along with his teammates Alesund and Ståhl, attempted to have Fnatic replace the team's in-game leader, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, as well as its captain, Harley "dsn" Örwall, with SK Gaming's Jimmy "allen" Allén and Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström. This was, however, not approved, so Lindberg and Alesund left Fnatic and joined SK Gaming. Early 2011 proved to be slow for SK, as they failed to impress at their first event, IEM European Championship Finals, being unable to surpass the group stage, while Lindberg's previous team won the event themselves. SK Gaming managed to regain their form, however, and finished as the second highest-earning team of 2011, behind the Polish team of ESC Gaming. On July 26, 2012, it was reported that SK Gaming had gone into a state of disarray, with the head coach, Anton Budak, resigning from the organization, along with Patrik Lindberg and his teammates Robert Dahlström and Christopher Alesund. According to Budak, this came as a result of SK refusing to send the players to GameGune 2012. The following August, it was announced that Lindberg would be making a transition over to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, by joining the team Ninjas in Pyjamas, which included Alesund in its roster. From the beginning of the competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene in 2012, Ninjas in Pyjamas became the single most dominant team, having won the vast majority of the tournaments they attended, as well as maintain an 87-map winning streak for a time. Ninjas in Pyjamas has maintained their dominance for the years of 2012 and 2013. Ninjas in Pyjamas reached the grand finals of all major $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments until ESL One Cologne 2015. In August 2014 they won ESL One Cologne. At Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca where they were ousted by NaVi in the semi finals.
Olof Kajbjer Gustafsson, (born January 31, 1992) better known by his in-game name olofmeister or olofm, is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who is currently playing for FaZe Clan. He has previously played for H2k, Absolute Legends, LGB eSports and Fnatic. Olofmeister is widely regarded as one of the best CS:GO players in the world. He has won two CSGO Majors, ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015, as well as many other tournaments. Olof grew up in Tyresö. He has a brother, Karl, and a sister, Hanna. He developed an interest in playing football at the young age of four and remained active in the sport until he sustained a knee injury at the age of fifteen.[9] The injury eventually became a catalyst for his transition from playing Counter-Strike casually, into taking it more seriously. In 2012, Olofmeister quietly began his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive career in Absolute Legends and H2k without garnering much attention. It was not until teaming up with LGB eSports that he began to rise to prominence. Kajbjer joined Stockholm-based fnatic in June 2014. There, he found immediate success, helping his team to a second-place finish at the ESL One Cologne 2014 Major Championship. During one of the games in this tournament against Team Dignitas, on the map de_overpass, he gained widespread attention after winning the 29th round, with some graffiti being added to the map to commemorate this. In the months following, Fnatic saw tremendous success, and were favorites going into DreamHack Winter 2014, the following Major Championship. After advancing from a second-place finish in their group, Fnatic were seeded against rivals Team LDLC in the quarter-final. There, Olofmeister was a part of a large controversy when he was boosted by his teammates into an, unbeknownst to him, illegal position which helped his team to a win. Fnatic later forfeited the game and withdrew from the tournament. Following the event, he considered leaving Fnatic and the game all together, but wound up staying after a successful run at the ESEA Invite Season 17 Global Finals. His achievements on the map de_overpass during this year has led to many people in the CS:GO community referring to the map as "Olofpass". In February 2015, Fnatic won the IOS Pantamera tournament after beating Titan in the finals. In March, Fnatic won ESL One Katowice 2015, the first Major Championship of the year. In August, Fnatic became the first team to win two consecutive Major Championships in a row, as they were crowned champions of ESL One Cologne 2015. At DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, the third Major Championship of the year, Fnatic finished 5-8th. After Markus "pronax" Wallsten left Fnatic on the 12th of November 2015, they recruited Olof's long-time friend and former teammate Dennis "dennis" Edman. The team proceeded to win all three remaining tournaments of the year: FACEIT DreamHack Winter 2015, Fragbite Masters Season 5, and ESL ESEA Pro League Season II - Finals. Olofmeister was widely regarded as the player of the year in 2015. In January 2016, Olofmeister and his team won the SLTV Starseries XIV over Natus Vincere. On March 5, Olofmeister and Fnatic won the IEM Katowice World Championship 2016, beating Luminosity Gaming 3-0 in the finals. Fnatic placed 5–8th at the MLG Major Championship: Columbus in April. Shortly thereafter on April 8, it was announced that Olofmeister would be taking a break from competitive play due to a repetitive strain injury of a hand and would be temporarily replaced by Niclas "Plessen" Plessen; whom was shortly replaced by John "wenton" Eriksson. On August 20, 2017, Olofmeister officially signed with FaZe Clan, ending his 3 year tenure with Fnatic.
Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev (born February 4, 1990) is a Kazakh professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays for Gambit Esports as a rifler. A former Counter-Strike 1.6 player and star in Kazakhstan, AdreN switched to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in 2012, and was picked up by Virtus.pro when the Russian organization switched games as well. On June 6th, 2013, he left Virtus.Pro roster due to personal issues, and was replaced by GuardiaN. He returned to the competitive scene a month later, when Edward confirmed the line-up, that included AdreN, of a CIS superteam, Astana Dragons. After a few months though, the team would disband after failing to live up to expectations. The team would come back on March 9th, 2014, under the HellRaisers banner this time. He stayed on HellRaisers up until early September 2014, where the team strongly hinted at a roster change which would probably be the departure of AdreN. It was confirmed shortly after that he would be indeed removed from the team due to mixed results. He would then be picked up by dAT, replacing its former captain Pr1zraK. On January 15, 2015, he would leave the team and go back to HellRaisers alongside teammate flamie, as a replacement for s1mple and markeloff, with whom HellRaisers just parted ways with.
Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt (born June 5, 1994) is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike: Source player. He currently plays for G2 Esports as a rifler, focusing on being a support player. Beginning his Counter-Strike: Source career back in 2008, Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt has come a long way from his early days of aim-mapping. Joining then-team VeryGames in early 2010, NBK- was scouted by in-game leader Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans after having played in relative obscurity before a two LAN stint with Dreamrar. In Titan, NBK- truly showed what a well rounded player he is. After having previously taken on the role of an AWPer in Counter-Strike: Source, NBK- has now proven himself to be a reliable rifler in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, masterfully controlling the fine balance between aggressive and defensive play.
Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko (born October 8, 1987) is an Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is currently the team captain and in-game leader of Natus Vincere.
Ricardo "boltz" Prass (born April 10, 1997) is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays for SK Gaming, while on loan from Immortals.
Can "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş (born August 7th, 1995) is a Turkish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who currently plays for Space Soldiers as a rifler. XANTARES is known for his strong fragging abilities and quick reaction time - both of which have placed him as one of the most talented Turkish players in the competitive scene.
Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken (born November 14, 1999) is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He plays the role of a rifler for Team Liquid.
Cédric "RpK" Guipouy (born August 12, 1989) is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and a former Counter-Strike: Source player. He currently plays the role of an entry-fragger (rifler) for Team EnvyUs.
Dan "apEX" Madesclaire (born February 22, 1993) is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike: Source player. He plays the role of an entry-fragger for his team G2 Esports.
Robin "flusha" Rönnquist (born August 12, 1993) is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is regarded as one of the most consistent players in the scene, known as the cornerstone for his team as well as a star player with the ability to carry his team to victory. The Swede joined Fnatic in late 2013 and has since then won a total of three Majors as well as numerous other premier tournaments.
Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski (born July 16, 1997) is an American professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player of Polish descent, whose competitive background lies in StarCraft II. Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski began his Counter-Strike: Global Offensive career at the end of 2014, starting out with SapphireKelownaDotCom. However, EliGE was unable to secure a significant tournament win during his time there. SKDC failed to qualify for MLG X Games Aspen Invitational. In early 2015, EliGE joined the eLevate team. His first significant career milestone came at Clutch Con 2015, where eLevate finished 3rd-4th place after losing to Cloud9 in the semifinals. This was followed up by an outstanding performance at the iBUYPOWER Invitational Spring 2015, after which EliGE joined the roster of Team Liquid. His first tournament as a Team Liquid member was at the Alienware Area 51 Cup #1 where the team took second place, losing to his former team, eLevate. In April and May 2015, EliGE took first place at the RGN Intercontinental Open 2 North America and the ESWC 2015 - MSI USA Qualifier, respectively. Later in 2015, Team Liquid found success in the CS:GO Championship Series: Season 1 - Group Stage and the iBUYPOWER Invitational 2015 - Fall, while also qualifying for DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015.
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács (born July 9, 1991) is a Slovakian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is currently playing for FaZe Clan. GuardiaN is one of the only players in the CS History to perform at a very high level in all 3 games (1.6, CS:S, CS:GO). He is known for his incredible handling of the AWP. His aggressive peeks, freedom in any given team and his deadly way to turn any bad situation into a good one has brought him through times where nobody thought he would ever win the round. GuardiaN is one of the most vivid examples of a truly universal player. Before the release of Global Offensive was released in 2012, the Slovak played both CS 1.6 and CS: Source professionally. He was first introduced into Counter Strike by his brother, who bought a CD with a random FPS game on it, which was not well known at the time. He fell in love with the game on day one, so he kept playing it day in and day out developing as a player. Just a little while later he already found himself a team and took part in his first LAN tournaments. Due to the low number of CS 1.6 events at his home soil, he decided to switch onto CS: Source. He had been playing for the ranks of Reason Gaming during two years. This led him to a lot of victories while playing CS:S. Despite having been offered a spot from a number of top European teams, GuardiaN switched back to CS 1.6 and got playing for such squads as IQFIGHTERS, DEFEATERS, Corecell, and SGC as well as defending the colors of his national team. In addition, he was frequently honored with a number of different awards (both as a team member and as a player). GuardiaN moved onto CS:GO in the middle of 2012 before playing for myDGB, ePz, TCM-Gaming, 3DMAX and finally shining big in the Virtus.pro roster. He joined the ranks of Natus Vincere in December, 2013. After a 4-year long tenure with Natus Vincere, he left the organisation in August 2017 and now plays for FaZe Clan as the AWPer, taking over from Aleksi "allu" Jalli - one of the most accomplished Finnish players in CS:GO.
Jacky "Stewie2K" Yip (born January 7, 1998) is an American professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in North America, despite having only played CS:GO since the summer of 2014. On January 11th 2016, Stewie joined Cloud9. Although the initial announcement that Stewie would be joining Cloud9 was met with criticism from both professionals and the public, such as Thorin criticizing the decision, Stewie soon became known as one of the best players in Cloud9. He currently plays for Cloud9 as a rifler.
Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye (born April 27th, 1998) is a Danish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He plays the role of a rifler for Astralis.
Lincoln "fnx" Lau (born January 30, 1990) is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: 1.6 and Counter-Strike: Source player. He is versatile enough to play the a role of a lurker who sometimes alternates to become an entry-fragger.
Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski is a Polish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike player. Jarząbkowski is a part of the famous Polish group of players known as the Golden Five who were arguably one of the most successful teams in Counter-Strike and on top in terms of winnings. He currently plays for Virtus.pro.
Jesper "JW" Wecksell (born February 23, 1995) is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is known for his wildly aggressive style of play while using the AWP. He is currently the main AWPer for Fnatic.
Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom (born July 2nd, 1994) is a very successful Belgian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source player of Moroccan descent. He began to play Counter-Strike just for fun and never thought he would reach such a high level. After paying attention to some tournaments going on at the time, he began to strive to play in big teams. With a couple of lucky invites, and after being accused of hacking several times, he found his way onto several teams like VeryGames, Titan and Epsilon eSports. Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom first lit up the French Counter-Strike: Source scene in 2010 as a 16-year-old when his eLogic team did well in EPS France. The Belgian would already in 2011 become part of a 3DMAX squad together with Richard "shox" Papillon that would manage to dethrone VeryGames at MaxLan. Their paths would go separate ways when "shox" joined the big VeryGames in May 2011, but they would get back together in 2012 in Tt Dragons. After CS:GO came out, they teamed up with experienced in-game leader Steeve "Ozstrik3r" Flavigni and would embark on adventures in the new game in August. First named Epsilon, then Millenium, they would finally find a stable home in Imaginary Gaming, but ScreaM himself though made his international CS:GO debut as a stand-in for BuyKey at AMD Sapphire Prague, where he put up incredible numbers (0.97 kills per round) and awed the audience on numerous occasions.
Mikhail "Dosia" Stolyarov is a Russian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player, and the brother of Fox. He currently plays for Gambit Esports as a rifler.
Paweł "byali" Bieliński is a Polish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. byali is one of the new comers to the "Golden 5" squad along with Snax. He plays the role of an entry-fragger (rifler) for his team Virtus.pro.
Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas (born June 6, 1986) is a Polish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former successful Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays for Virtus.pro as the in-game leader.
Filip "NEO" Kubski is a Polish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, and is one of the greatest Counter-Strike 1.6 players of all time. He was part of the very successful Polish Golden Five lineup in 1.6. He currently plays for Virtus.pro where he is currently the in-game leader. He plays the role of a support rifler for his team.
Egor "flamie" Vasilyev (born April 5, 1997) is a Russian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays for Natus Vincere as a rifler.
Abay "HObbit" Khasenov (born May 18, 1994) is a Kazakh Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player.
Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson (born April 25, 1994) is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays for Fnatic as a support player. KRIMZ is regarded as one of the most consistent players in the competitive scene and is known for his clutching ability. His partnership with olofmeister in the 2015 Fnatic lineup is regarded as one of the best duos in Counter-Strike history. The ever-reliable solo site specialist, KRiMZ is fabled for his unwavering consistency and swift seizure of control. It is this, coupled with his staunch tenacity that has helped drive Fnatic’s domination at Majors, cementing KRiMZ’ status as one of the greatest support players to have ever graced the game.
Epitácio "TACO" de Melo is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, from Recife, Pernambuco. He currently plays for SK Gaming as the entry fragger.
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev (born December 28, 1987) is an Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. Currently plays for team Natus Vincere as a rifler.
René "cajunb" Borg (born December 13, 1989) is a Danish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source player. cajunb is an experienced Danish player, known for his incredible aiming abilities, but also for his lack of stability in his earlier days. Having been a part of the scene for a long time now, cajunb first got recognized as a true quality player towards the end of Counter-Strike: Source, mostly for his time in CKRAS along with his teammate FeTiSh. He plays the dual role of a rifler and AWPer for his team North.
Johannes "tabseN" Wodarz (born April 5, 1995) is a German Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: 1.6 player of Polish descent. He currently plays for BIG.
Vincent "Happy" Cervoni Schopenhauer (born November 23rd, 1991) is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source player. He is currently the Lurker for Team EnVyUs. Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer, back then known as "EMSTQD", began his professional career in December 2007 when he joined together with Ex6TenZ's team GlobalTeam. Their results were impressive, so they signed with Epsilon in February 2008. In this time they became one of the best team in the country after adding RpK and shokkk to the roster. In July, they managed a surprise victory at The eXperience LAN in Denmark, where the best Counter-Strike: Source teams were in attendance. A few months later, Happy left the team to captain his own team in 2009, Creativ’. In October 2009, Happy decided to re-join Ex6TenZ’s team called redLine, who were later signed by VeryGames, who managed to win EPS France VI, place 2nd in Dreamhack Winter and MaXlan later that year. In February 2010 Happy left VeryGames because of the importance of his academic year. In next years he was in-game leader in small teams, the most famous of them all being the 2011 3DMAX squad, which contained shox, ScreaM, and apEX, with whom he managed to place 3rd at Copenhagen Games 2011. After Counter-Strike: Global Offensive released in August 2012 he changed his nickname to "Happy" and formed a new team called PRIME in September 2012 with apEX and Maniac. Next month they got picked up by Team eXtensive! which became LDLC.com in January 2013. Due to lack of motivation and weak results Happy's LDLC decided to disband their CS:GO team in August 2013. After this Happy's formed another mix team called WE GOT GAME with players like fxy0 or GMX, and later on, adding kennyS, Maniac, and Uzzziii to the team. Eventually, they were signed by Recursive eSports before Dreamhack Winter 2013, where they showed large amounts of potential as they beat Universal Soldiers and iBUYPOWER, which led to 2nd place finish in the group behind NiP. In the quarter-finals they met fnatic, who beat them 2-1 and eventually won the whole tournament. Due to lack of financial resources, Recursive eSports have announced that they have parted company with their CS:GO division on 20th January 2014, despite this, players stuck together and created team Nameless. After this rumours started circulating around that Nameless and Clan-Mystik planned to merge their teams, the rumours proved to be true as Happy, together with Uzzziii, Maniac, along with KQLY and apEX from Clan-Mystik, joined LDLC.com in February 2014. Despite arguable lack of skill in this team, Happy has managed to lead this team to 1st place in DreamHack Valencia 2014, a decent 5th-8th placing in EMS One Katowice, where they were defeated 0-2 by eventual champion Virtus.Pro, and a surprising 3-4th placing in ESL One: Cologne 2014 after getting revenge on Virtus.Pro in the Quarterfinals and falling to eventual champion Ninjas in Pyjamas 1-2 after a 14-16 loss on last map de_cbble. In the beginning of September 2014, a few weeks after ESL One: Cologne 2014, An event known as the "French Shuffle" began as 3 former LDLC players, KQLY, apEX and Maniac signed with Titan eSports, replacing NBK, SmithZz and ScreaM. LDLC released their roster, so Happy formed a short-lived mix team called Mercenary, which contained shox, NBK, SmithZz and kioShiMa, who were picked up by LDLC after only 2 days. This team happened to be one of the best CS:GO team of all time right from the beginning, winning online matches with ease thanks to high skill level, consistent top 4 finishes on LAN tournaments, and winning the major tournament, DreamHack Winter 2014. After winning MLG Aspen Invitational, the players signed more lucrative contracts with Team EnVyUs. Since winning DreamHack Winter 2014 and signing with Team EnVyUs, Happy's squad continued to crank out impressive results, winning 5 more 1st place titles before swapping Shox and SmithZz with Titan's KennyS and apEX. The lineup was led to 4 more internation titles in 2015, a second place at the major ESL One: Cologne 2015 and a win at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2016, Happy's second major title. However, the lineup soon began to fall. KioShiMa was kicked for and up-and-coming French player, DEVIL, and IGL was given over to NBK. It was given back to Happy later, though for the first time his squad went out in groups for the next major, MLG Columbus 2016. Little would be achieved, and SIXER would replace DEVIL. The squad's run would end with a victory at WESG 2016 , though the third French shuffle would arrive soon after. After going out 3 in groups for 3 straight majors and leading poorly throughout 2016, he was not included in the so-called "French superteam" in the third French shuffle.
Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He is the in-game leader for Team Liquid and plays the role of a lurker/rifler.
Richard "Xizt" Landström (born February 22, 1991) is a Swedish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is currently playing as the in-game leader for Ninjas in Pyjamas. Xizt was only an eleven year old when he tried out Counter-Strike for the first time. Thanks to his elder brothers' fondness of the game, he stumbled upon the FPS title that was going to become one of the biggest games in esport history. After a couple of years of playing, he made a name for himself within the Swedish online cup scene with the team ChiLi, who later on would get a small sponsorship from the LAN-café spiXel. The time playing in the scene paid off, and eventually he got his first break with the team H2k in 2010. H2k won the Swedish Championship 2010, which meant a trip to Paris, France where they played the Electronic Sports World Cup 2010 against the top teams in the world. Their performance was decent, and after a while they switched both tactician and organization. They now became Lions, where Xizt would be seen from around the world. Impressive performances against the world elite made people see Lions for more than just another semi elite team, and after only four months in the organization, Xizt was snatched by the world famous organization fnatic. Once the new teams first LAN event was played, things couldn't have gone better. The team won one of the most anticipated tournaments in history of Counter-Strike, IEM Europe in Kiev, much thanks to the brilliant performance from Xizt throughout the tournament – especially in the grand final. Xizt got the Most Valuable Player award, but after the win, the team had a hard time finding their rhythm. They eventually found it though, by promoting Xizt to in game leader in March of 2012. After this fnatic pretty much dominated Counter-Strike until CS:GO when Landström decided to switch to CS:GO. In August 2012 Xizt together with f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, fifflaren and Friberg joined Ninjas in Pyjamas Xizt is a truly unique player due to his ability to handle stressful situations while maintaining extreme aim and at the same time lead the rest of his team. Xizt's ability to lead his team, read his opponents' strategies, recognize opponents' fakes and still maintain a extreme high level of play makes him an instrumental part of the NiP team. Xizt is a support rifler for the team Ninjas in Pyjamas. He created his name in his early teenage years, stealing the alias from one of his brother's friends by appending a 't' to the end. Xizt began his competitive career in 2010 with Fnatic. While he currently serves as the in-game leader in NiP, the team has frequently rotated the role across the players in the squad, most notably in 2014 by Xizt and Fifflaren.
William "draken" Sundin is a Swedish Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He currently plays the role of an AWPer for his team Ninjas in Pyjamas.
Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans (born April 30, 1990) is a Belgian professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike: Source and Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is referred as one of the best in-game leaders in CS:GO by commentators like Thorin. He is known for his leading style, which is described as very analytical and lucid.
Yegor "markeloff" Markelov (born February 12, 1988) is an Ukrainian Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. In both games he played for the famous Ukrainian team Natus Vincere. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Counter-Strike 1.6-players of all time, he revolutionized AWP-play with his extremely aggressive playstyle focusing heavily on entry-kills. While he earlier took the role of and was known as a world-class AWPer, he has recently taken on a rifler role after s1mple's recruitment into HellRaisers. Currently plays for Flipsid3 Tactics. Thanks to his performances in the last three years of CS 1.6, Yegor "markeloff" Markelov established himself as one of the best AWPers and even one of the best players in the history of the game. Before that, he spent a spell in DTS Gaming as an important part of his learning curve, but even further back he started his international rise in 2008 with his home team HellRaisers. Later he would reform that HellRaisers team from which him and Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev would make the jump to join the lineup that would become Natus Vincere at the end of 2009. From 2010 onwards, he was consistently one of the world's elite players. Although 2012 was scarce in events in comparison, he continued putting in the same level of performances without having a single below-average LAN display. Na`Vi finally made the switch to CS:GO at the end of 2012, and the already seasoned AWP star would end up making his debut in February 2013 at Mad Catz Vienna.
Tyler "Skadoodle" Latham, the main AWPer for Cloud9's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, has been playing since the game's launch. Tyler first started competing on the PC when he played Alliance of Valiant Arms with DefkoN and won ieSF 2010. Tyler got his start in CS:GO with Hold Mouse One during Season 12 of ESEA. This team would eventually be picked up by Curse, and then later became iBUYPOWER. Since then, Skadoodle has won two ESEA titles as well as one CEVO title. Next, Skadoodle hopes to bring North America its first major international championship. He currently plays the role of an AWPer for his team Cloud9.
Spencer "Hiko" Martin (born March 6, 1990) is an American professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who is currently playing for Rogue. He rose into prominence when his team finished third place in the first major CS:GO tournament at ESWC 2012 with the former Area 51. He is mostly known for his lurking, solo site play, and clutching ability. When he was young, he was an avid football, hockey and baseball player but due to a hockey injury he was unable to play sports for a summer allowing him to dedicate significant time to gaming. Starting off with the Nintendo 64, he eventually moved over to computer games playing anything he could get his hands on. Hiko has mostly funneled his competitive gaming into CS with 1.5, 1.6 and CS:GO. He got into CS through one of his friends brothers which ended up making his whole group of friends play this game.
Adam Friberg (born October 19, 1991) is a Swedish competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player currently playing for OpTic Gaming. As of 2015, he has earned approximately $748,000 in CS:GO tournament winnings. He is the cousin of Erik Friberg, a footballer who previously played for Seattle Sounders FC. Friberg previously played for Ninjas in Pyjamas where he won his only major to date, ESL One Cologne 2014. Throughout 2015, Friberg received an overload of negative attention, as he struggled to keep up with the best players in the world, like Olofmeister or his own teammates, like GeT RiGhT. Friberg's 2015 rating was 0.96, with -220 kills (4788/5008, K/D). With the NiP player's contracts were up for negotiations during the holiday season 2015, it was rumored that Friberg would retire, but these rumors were quickly denied by the organisation. In 2015 NiP severely struggled to win anything, with their only international win being ASUS ROG Winter in January 2015. On the 12th of June 2017, NiP released a statement on their website stating that Friberg would step down from the starting line-up of NiP, with Fredrik "REZ" Sterner from Epsilon Gaming replacing him. The last match Friberg played with NiP was the versus G2 in the online section of ECS Season 3 Europe, with his last LAN tournament being cs_summit Spring 2017, where NiP placed 5th-6th. Even though Friberg was no longer part of the active roster, he was still contracted to the NiP organisation, and HLTV reported that if he decides to not pick up the mouse and keyboard again, he will be offered a position within the NiP organisation. In an interview with journalist Richard Lewis however, Friberg stated that he would be open to moving to North America, on the conditions that he finds a team he truly believes in, and that he believes can bring home titles. On the 31st of July NiP released Friberg from his contract. On June 23rd, ESL released the talent for the upcoming ESL One Cologne 2017 event. For the first time, Friberg would be working on the analyst desk, alongside Janko "YNk" Paunović and Chad "SPUNJ" Burchill. On the 18th of August 2017, reports surfaced that Friberg was joining up with OpTic Gaming, following them losing several players to Cloud9. The report stated that the new OpTic team would exist of Aleksi "allu" Jalli, Friberg's previous teammate from NiP transferring from FaZe Clan, Óscar "mixwell" Cañellas who was already signed to OpTic, Emil "Magisk" Reif from NORTH and Keith "NAF" Markovic who was part of OpTic's previsous line-up standing in. The rumors were confirmed on the 21st of August. Since then, the team has been disqualified from both ELEAGUE Premier and DreamHack Masters Malmö. The team was disqualified because the majority of the team that qualified/were invited is no longer part of OpTic Gaming. The team is currently playing in the North American league of ESL Pro League Season 6. Friberg is playing for OpTic Gaming as the in-game leader.
Jordan "n0thing" Gilbert (born October 25, 1990) is an American professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who is currently inactive for Cloud9. He made his debut in Counter-Strike 1.6 and would go on to win many championships under the Evil Geniuses banner. He is the one of three players to have won nine ESEA Championships. He made the switch to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in 2013 with Team Dynamic, but fell short in his first CS:GO LAN appearance. Since then, n0thing has been a part of compLexity, and more recently Cloud9, where he has enjoyed a lot of national success.
Aleksi "allu" Jalli (born May 20, 1992) is a Finnish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He currently plays for OpTic Gaming as the lurker and secondary AWPer.
Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey (born July 26, 1994) is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. kioShiMa originates from a Counter-Strike 1.6 background, in which he made his first international appearance as a 17-year-old in his 3DMAX team at Electronic Sports World Cup 2011. His team, however, would crash out in the group stage following losses to each of their opponents; SK Gaming, Moscow Five, DTS Gaming as well as eSrael. The following months would see him slowly climbing the tiers of French teams in the game. In early 2012, he would join two known players atLaNtis and mshz in e2g, and later WCG legends HaRts and ioRek in Bizounours. The team attended GameGune 2012 in July, but kioShiMa and his team did not again manage to make an impact and fell out of the tournament in 9-12th place. The release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive followed soon after, and kioShiMa soon moved onto the new game, appearing in teams such as In Your Head and iGamerz. In May 2013, he was re-scouted by HaRts to reunite the core of the Bz team under the Clan-Mystik banner, also featuring the now notorious KQLY as a new member. The team would eventually go to win Electronic Sports World Cup 2013, marking the first big international achievement in kioShiMa's career. kioShiMa would leave the team, at that time known as Epsilon eSports, in September 2014 as the "French shuffle" began to take form. He formed a new team with former Titan members NBK, shox and SmithZz as well as LDLC.com captain Happy. The team was briefly known as Mercenary before being picked up by Happy's former organization, who disbanded their former team due to showing disappointment at the former players' behavior in regards to their new contracts. kioShiMa and his new new LDLC team would then dominate the scene in France and even became a contender for the title of the best team in the world versus Fnatic. The team would go on to win the last major of the year at DreamHack Winter 2014, as well as coming out on top at the MLG Aspen Invitational in early January. To the surprise of many, the team would leave LDLC in February in preparation for a transfer to a new organization - soon be revealed as Team EnVyUs. Fiey was a member of the active line-up until which March 3rd, 2016 in the wake of the team's long slump. He was acquired by FaZe Clan a month later replacing the recently departed Maikelele. On August 20th, 2017, KioShiMa was replaced by olofmeister on FaZe Clan.
Markus "pronax" Wallsten (born June 24, 1991) is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. He is known for his incredible reading of the opponent, leading his former Fnatic squad to three Major championships. He is currently the in-game-leader of his self-made organization known as GODSENT.
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