Nikola “LEGIJA” Ninic made an unbelievable hero play in Envy’s match against forZe. Only equipped with a scout, the veteran manage to kill the entire enemy team in an outstanding individual round.

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/StupidPoliteTrayStoneLightning]

LEGIJA

Envy

forZe

The article series honours some of the most iconic plays in the history of CS:GO, which all got immortalized by Valve.

The Swedish CS:GO team of Fnatic is one of the most renowned and biggest teams in the history of the game, and has for many people been equal to high success when talking about competitive Counter-Strike. 

During the Grand Final at the Major Championships at ESL One Cologne in 2015, where Fnatic was up against the superstars from Team EnVyUs, the Swedes decided to bring in a completely new and unseen strategy – Something, you only think you’ll see in a non-pro server. 

In overtime on the first map on Dust2, the heavy-stacked Fnatic team decided to make a heavy invest and go all-in on their weapon arsenal, by equipping no more than four AWPs in one round. Every member of the roster set their sights towards middle for a potential peek by the Counter Terrorists. Right after the round start, a completely unaware and almost helpless Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire from EnVyUs chose to take a peek up at T-spawn. He was met by these four sniper rifles who all had their scope set on him, and the rest is history...

You can watch the iconic encounter right here. 

Valve decided to immortalize the play by adding a permanent graffiti illustrating a man holding four AWPs in his hands near T-Spawn on Dust2. However, the graffiti was removed from the map in an update in 2017. 

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Fnatic

We are less than one week away from the start of the last ever Major in CS:GO history. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 18 Majors. Today we have reached DreamHack Winter 2014.

 Cache, Cobblestone, Dust2, Inferno, Mirage, Train, Overpass.

DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was the seventh CS:GO Major tournament in the history of the game and was held from October 28 – November 1, 2015 in the Polyvalent Hall venue in Cluj-Napoca Romania. Like the previous Majors, this one also featured a total of 16 teams and a total prize pool of $250,000.

The final Major of 2015 came to an end with Team EnVyUs claiming the title on Romanian soil. It was the first ever Major final to not feature either Ninjas in Pyjamas or fnatic. The Frenchmen from Team EnVyUs defeated Natus Vincere in the grand final and took home the $100,000 first place prize.

Results for Team EnVyUs weren’t satisfying for the organization in the period 2015, so they decided to release Richard “shox” Papillon and Edouard “SmithZz” Dubourdeaux to sign Dan “apEX” Madesclaire and Kenny “kennyS” Schrub from Titan.

It turned out to be a great roster move from the organization as the new roster went on to win IEM Season X – Gamescom right after the change was made. Additionally, NBK, Happy, kioShiMa, apEX, and kennyS reached the Grand final of the following Major in Cologne but lost to fnatic. Nevertheless, the rest of 2015 ended up being a success for the Frenchmen.

They became champions in two big tournaments (DreamHack Open London and Gfinity Champion of Champions) before winning the Major in Cluj-Napoca. There, the Frenchmen from EnVyUs had to defeat some really strong teams such as fnatic, Team Dignitas, G2, and NAVI on their path to the title.

apEX and company from EnVyUs started off their playoffs run with a 2-1 victory over the Swedes from fnatic in the Quarter-finals, eliminating them out of the tournament. Next up, Team EnVyUs would take upon their fellow countrymen from G2, who secured their semi-final spot with a 2-0 victory over Virtus.pro. In the other quarter-finals, TSM lost 0-2 to Ninjas in Pyjamas, while NAVI defeated Luminosity Gaming with a 2-0 result.

The first semi-final match of the Major began with a victory for G2, who took down kennyS and company on Dust2 with a 10-16 scoreline. EnVy came back on Inferno after three overtimes, closing out the map 25-21 to force the decider. The decider of Cache saw apEX’s troops confidently close out the map 16-7 to secure themselves a spot in the Grand final, where they would face off against NAVI who came out on top with a 2-0 victory over NiP in the second semi-final.

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The Grand finalists were chosen and it was time to find out who would claim the title as Major champions. The first map of the series was Train, where NAVI started off miserably and found themselves behind 0-7 on the scoreboard. NAVI managed to pick themselves up and added six rounds of their own on the scoreboard, before EnVyUs went to halftime with a 9-6 advantage.

In the second half, NAVI finally found their footing and moved ahead to a 10-11 lead before kennyS and company answered back. The remaining rounds on the map were fiercely contested, with rounds going back and forth. However, it was EnVy who took the first map 16-14.

Cobblestone was EnVyUs’ map pick and the Frenchmen started things off strongly, cruising to a 7-0 lead with full momentum. In a similar fashion to Train, GuardiaN and company from NAVI woke up after being down 0-7 and fought to get five rounds on the scoreboard before halftime.

The second half ended up being even worse than the first for NAVI, as the Frenchmen went on to just bulldoze every attempt NAVI made to take either of the sites. A few rounds came close, but the sheer pressure of EnVy’s lineup proved to be great, and the Frenchmen managed to clinch the map 16-5 to claim the Major trophy. EnVyUs’ AWPer,

Highest rated players at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015:

1. {cflag:DK} Philip “aizy” Aistrup (Dignitas) – 1.55 Rating

2. {cflag:SK} Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs (NAVI) – 1.30 Rating 

3. {cflag:PL} Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski (Virtus.pro) – 1.29 Rating 

4. {cflag:FR} Kenny “kennyS” Schrub (EnVyUs) – 1.23 Rating 

5. {cflag:RU} Georgi “WorldEdit” Yaskin (FlipSid3) – 1.22 Rating 

6. {cflag:DK} Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen (TSM) – 1.18 Rating 

7. {cflag:BR} Marcelo “coldzera” David (Luminosity) – 1.18 Rating 

8. {cflag:NO} Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad (G2) – 1.16 Rating 

9. {cflag:BA} Nikola “NiKo” Kovac (MOUZ) – 1.16 Rating 

10. {cflag:SE} Robin “flusha” Rönnquist (fnatic) – 1.15 Rating

Tomorrow we take a look at the MLG Columbus 2016 Major.

kennyS

apEX

kioShiMa

NBK-

After their 2021 merger, OpTic Gaming and Envy Gaming today announced, that going forward the Organization will only focus on OpTic Gaming. As a result, the legendary Envy brand is now retired in Esports.

In CS:GO, Team Envy won the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 Major to forever set their mark in the history books with legendary players such as Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Vincent "Happy" Cervoni Schopenhauer, and Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt on the roster. The team also managed to reach the Grand Final of the other Major in 2015, ESL One Cologne.

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The retirement of the brand is explained in the video below, where Founder and Chief Gaming Officer at Envy Gaming, Mike Rufail talks with Hector 'HECZ' Rodriguez, CEO of OpTic Gaming about the upcoming changes. In the video Mike Rufail also spoke about the future, and that the Organization could be willing to get involved into CS:GO once again.

- Taking the OpTic brand into new territory in the future is something that we are looking at. Maybe potentially taking a game like Counter-Strike, we both miss it. We have to manage resources, so right now it is something, that we keep our eyes on. We are not saying, that we are going to pick up a Counter-Strike team right now. Or are we? Hector 'HECZ' Rodriguez asks the last question in this quote, before the two underlines, that they are looking at the landscape of esports right now.

OpTic has also had a history in Counter-Strike. The Organization had its biggest success winning the ELEAGUE Season 2 in 2016 ahead of Astralis. In 2019 OpTic disbanded its roster, and has not since been involved in CS:GO.

The scene was a Europe minor qualifier for the PGL Major Krakow 2017. The Frenchmen of Team Envy were facing the Poles of Kinguin in a Bo3. After getting absolutely obliterated 16-2 on their map pick of Nuke, Team Envy had to win on Overpass to push it to a deciding third map.

At 10-9 in favor of Kinguin, the French had to eco. This is when Alexandre "xms" Forté took a page out of his teammate "ScreaM"'s book and started tapping heads. He turned five measly bullets into five headshots, which had never been done before, and has never been replicated in an official match.

Team Envy ended up winning the Bo3 and eliminating Kinguin from the tournament.

Buğra "Calyx" Arkın is no longer on contract with Team Envy, the Turkish player has announced on his Twitter. Calyx will therefore enter free agency, after having represented the NA-based organization since January 2020.

The 22-year old rifler is ready for a new CS:GO adventure, as he states that he’s “very excited to find a new team and reach higher goals and get back to pracc and officials. I am open to offers from EU/NA”

Calyx’s 13-month tenure at Team Envy wasn’t very successful with the team lacking both silverware and deep tournament runs, but also a functional and solid organization behind them. The Turkish international was the highest rated player for the team in 2020, presenting an impressive 1.14 Rating.

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Team Envy at Flashpoint 2 - Calyx and co. managed only to win one match at the $1 Million event

Calyx

The fnatic team of 2014-2015 is remembered as one of the greatest of all time, but the “fnatic era” was actually closely contested by the French powerhouse Envy.

No era-worthy team has ever had their number one ranking challenged as fiercely as Envy fought fnatic for the spot. While it was ultimately the Swedes who won the war, they didn’t claim every battle and had a few results gone the other way, it might now instead be remembered as the Envy era.

This is the story of one of the greatest rivalries in CS:GO history, and how it defined an era.

Despite the fact that the current constellation of Envy has only participated in one tournament since its construction, Envy now decides to take a step back from Counter-Strike. 

The players who have been placed on the transfer market are: 

Whilst it is sad that we will not get to experience more from this interesting and talented line-up, it makes the transfer market ever so interesting going into a new year of Counter-Strike. Especially Noah "Nifty" Francis, who supposedly was set up to be the rosters star player will be interesting to follow, as he seeks to continue his career elsewhere. 

The news of Envy stepping down from the Counter-Strike scene is to many surprising as co-owner and Chief Gaming officer Mike "hastr0" Rufail stated in November 2020 that they had reserved more funds towards their Counter-Strike team and that they were ready for the 2021-season. 

Having a Major win under their belt after winning DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca, it is sad to see Envy as an organization give up on their Counter-Strike team, but hopefully, the talented players from their roster will find a new and more ambitious place to prove their skillsets. At least, it seems as if "Nifty" is ready for a new journey elsewhere. 

Nifty

Thomas

MICHU

He was once a strong profile in the CS:GO scene who competed on the very top, playing on some of the biggest teams in G2 and Team Envy with teammates as Richard "shox" Papillon and Cédric "RpK" Guipouy. He’s also the individual in the history of CS:GO who holds the highest headshot percentage (Top 30), presenting a staggering 65.8% throughout his career. The name is Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom.

ScreaM was known for his unreal mechanical aim, which often looked more like an aim hack due to the incredible and relentless precision from the Belgian international. The man was unstoppable with the AK-47, and used the gun as his own one-tap machine, tapping the opponent’s heads time after time.

In June 2020, the 26-year old one-tap legend shifted into CS:GO’s rival game, as he joined a high number of pros who decided to quit their CS career to join Valorant.

Read more. "Over 200 professionals have left the CS:GO scene in 2020" 

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/over-200-professionals-have-left-cs-go-scene-2020/"}]

shox

G2 Esports

Frederik “acoR” Gyldstrand and company will now face off against the loser of fnatic vs. MIBR in the lower bracket semi-finals. The Danes won 2-0 on Mirage (16-11) and Overpass (16-7) which resulted in elimination to the Envy squad who finish the tournament with a 7-8th place and $15.000.

acoR finished the game on top of the scoreboard and delivered an overall rating of 1.38, 85.8 ADR, and a 43-29 score to advance his team into the next stage.

Fredrik "roeJ" Jørgensen who is the oldest player on the MAD Lions team was very happy with their performances and hopes they can keep the level for the next game. 

“Really good team effort in this match and most of the things worked out as we wanted. Just got to keep this level now for the next game.” The 27-year-old Dane wrote on his Twitter after the game.

acoR

MAD Lions

Both MAD Lions and Envy has to win to advance in the Flashpoint 2 tournament.

The two teams face each other at 15.00 (CET).

Flashpoint 2 returns Monday with the playoffs. Until then you can enjoy this video, with all the best highlights from the tournament so far.

Virtus.pro

Team Dignitas

MIBR

Gen.g and Envy meet each other in a crucial elimination match in the huge $1.000.000 event. The winner advances to the playoff, while the losing team heads home empty-handed. 

Gen.G

MIBR showcased a brilliant performance in the matchup against Envy. The Brazilian side defeated their opponent from Envy 2-1 by victories on Nuke (16-12) and Inferno (16-9).

MIBR played very well throughout the match and didn’t look like a team that only has played together for some weeks. Besides playing well together, MIBR’s strong individuals in kNgV- and trk popped off and were two big factors in this impressive win. kNgV- were especially dominant today putting up an imposing stat line 75-50 k/d, 92.8 ADR, 1.42 rating.

Checkout these impressive individual highlights from the match by the MIBR players.

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/CorrectPowerfulWoodpeckerTF2John]

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/BlatantDifferentAntGivePLZ]

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/BlitheWiseThymeTinyFace]

[twitchVideo:flashpoint/clip/ObedientNastyPresidentWTRuck]

MIBR’s next game will be against the Russian team forZe in the vital consolidation final on the 19th of November.

kNgV-

Alencar “trk” Rosatto produced several hero plays in the first map in the matchup against Envy, which MIBR lead 1-0.

Watch trk close out two close round all by himself.

It was a one-sided affair in today's matchup between BIG vs. MIBR. The German team took down MIBR, dominating Mirage (16-2) and Dust2 (16-2) in the opening match in Group B.

BIG made light work of MIBR and so did Florian “syrsoN” who led the action with a 1.47 rating, and 58-29 K-D. On the other team Leonardo “leo_drk” Oliveira had a disappointing game delivering a rating on only 0.65, and 27-52 K-D.

MIBR will now compete in the lower bracket against Envy on Friday 13th, while BIG face-off forZe in the Group B upper bracket final where the winner advances to playoffs.

syrsoN

leo_druNky

Envy lost their first official match since June despite dominating the first map of the series. forZe made an impressive comeback to win on Mirage (16-10) and Nuke (16-11)

Bogdan “xsepower” Chernikov dominated the server with a 1.49 rating, 96.1 ADR, and a 63-37 K-D.

The Russian team will now progress to Group B’s upper final, where they will face off the winner of BIG vs. MIBR.

xsepower

It’s Group B that kicks off Flashpoint 2. The first game in the big and prominent tournament starts 14:30 (CET) and the matchup is between forZe and Envy. It has been ages since the Envy franchise and its peak 2015 where they managed to win a major. The team haven’t played a game in nearly five months, and the Russians from forZe are therefore huge favourites in this opening group match.

It’s time for more Counter-Strike! Watch Flashpoint’s introduction of each team in frag clips:

The first match of the tournament will start tomorrow at 14:00 (CEST) where forZe face off Envy.

Video: German veteran produces beautiful ace

Watch LEGIJA create some magic with his scout.

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The legendary 5 bullet ace!

Profiled Turkish player confirms free agency

Fnatic vs EnVy: The rivalry that defined a CS:GO era

ENVY places entire roster on the transfer list!

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MAD Lions eliminates Envy from Flashpoint 2

Live: MAD Lions vs Envy (Flashpoint 2)

Video: See all the highlights from Flashpoint 2 so far

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Brazilians takes down Envy at Flashpoint 2

Video: Brazilian magician puts MIBR in front 1-0

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BIG take down MIBR in the opening game.

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Are you ready for Flashpoint 2 tomorrow?

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