We are now less than two weeks away from the start of the much-awaited IEM Rio Major in Brazil. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 17 Majors. Today we have reached ESL One: Cologne 2015.

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

ESL One: Cologne 2015 was the sixth CS:GO Major tournament in the history of the game and was held from August 20-23, 2015 in the Lanxess-Arena in Cologne Germany. The tournament once again featured a total of 16 teams and a total prize pool of $250,000.

It was announced after the tournament by Valve that the event had broken the viewership record once again. ESL One: Cologne 2015 scored highest peak of over 1,3 million concurrent viewers during the Grand Final between fnatic and Team EnVy. It was also the first ever CS:GO Major where the Swedish squad from Ninjas in Pyjamas didn’t reach the finals.

DreamHack Winter 2013, ESL One: Katowice 2015, and ESL One: Cologne 2015. Three Majors, one champion – fnatic.

The Swedish squad from fnatic did the impossible. They showed the CS:GO world what true dominance looks like. The team won three CS:GO Majors, a feat no team had been able to match at the time. More impressively, they won two of those Major tournaments back-to-back.

And they did so at a time when the game was blowing up and when ESL One: Katowice hit one million concurrent viewers in 2015. CS:GO was emerging as one of the biggest esports in the world, and fnatic were front and centre.

During the Grand final of the ESL One: Cologne 2015 Major Championship, where fnatic were up against the Frenchmen from Team EnVyUs, the Swedish roster decided to show the world an unseen strategy. Something you probably never thought you would see in a pro match, especially not in a Major Grand final.

In overtime of the first map on Dust2, the heavy-stacked fnatic squad decided to make a huge investment and go all-in on their weapon arsenal by equipping nothing more than four AWP’s in one round. Every player of the team set their sights towards middle doors for a potential peek by their opponents. And right after the round started, a completely helpless Dan “apEX” Madesclaire from EnVyUs chose to take a peek up at T-spawn, where he was met by those four snipers who all had their scope set on him.

Valve decided to immortalize the play by adding a permanent graffiti illustrating a Terrorist holding four AWP’s in his hands near T-Spawn on Dust2. However, the graffiti was removed from the map in an update in 2017.

The sold out Lanxess Arena had 12.000 fans together to cheer for whoever fnatic met. But the Swedes were used to play against the crowd and couldn’t really have asked for better conditions. JW, KRIMZ, flusha, olof, and pronax had a mental fortitude of a champion who know he can’t lose. They believed so much in their own abilities as a team, that even their opponents started believing it, feeling like there is nothing they can do.

When fnatic got intro trouble once in a while, all it took for them to come back in the match was a timeout. Nearly every time they took a timeout, they didn’t lose a single round for the remainder of the match. And that’s exactly what happened in the Grand final of the Major against Team EnVyUs, who was the only squad that was considered a threat to the Swedes.

The first map in the Grand final was Dust2, where JW and company came behind 7-14 against a French squad that was in complete control of the game. Then fnatic took one of their feared time-outs that changed everything. The Swedes fought and managed to take the game into overtime, where they drew the first blood to the series by closing out Dust2 19-15. KRIMZ and the rest of fnatic carried over the momentum on Cobblestone, where they came out on top with a 16-7 scoreline to claim the title and become the first team to secure back-to-back Majors.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"Affiliation/SKINS_reklame_Pley_tr1buq","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":480,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg"}]

Highest rated players at ESL One: Cologne 2015:

1. {cflag:SE} Robin “flusha” Rönnquist (fnatic) – 1.38 Rating 

2. {cflag:SE} Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer (fnatic) – 1.25 Rating 

3. {cflag:DK} Nicolai “device” Reedtz (TSM) – 1.25 Rating 

4. {cflag:SE} Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson (fnatic) – 1.17 Rating 

5. {cflag:PL} Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas (Virtus.pro) – 1.17 Rating 

6. {cflag:AU} Karlo “USTILO” Pivac (Immunity) – 1.15 Rating 

7. {cflag:DK} Finn “karrigan” Andersen (TSM) – 1.14 Rating 

8. {cflag:DE} Denis “denis” Howell (MOUZ) – 1.14 Rating 

9. {cflag:US} Josh “jdm64” Marzano (CLG) – 1.13 Rating 

10. {cflag:FI} Aleksi “allu” Jalli (NiP) – 1.13 Rating

Randomized anti-doping tests were conducted during the ESL One: Cologne 2015, which returned negative results for all tested players. ESL continued to implement this initiative for all of their ESL One series.

Tomorrow we take a look at the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 Major.

KRIMZ

flusha

olofmeister

Fnatic

We are now less than two weeks away from the start of the much-awaited IEM Rio Major in Brazil. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 17 Majors. Today we have reached ESL One: Katowice 2015.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"countdown-major-12-days-go-most-controversial-major-ever-played","isNewTab":false}]

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

The ESL One: Katowice 2015 tournament was the fifth CS:GO Major Championship in the history of the game and was held from March 12-15, 2015 in the Spodek venue in Katowice Poland. The prize pool was once again $250,000, similar to that of the previous 3 Majors with 16 teams gathered to find out who were going to claim the title as Major champions.

Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus.pro, Team Envyus, and fnatic were once again the heavy favorites to take home the Major trophy. But all eyes were on the Swedish squad from fnatic who were coming back after the controversial ‘olofboost’ at the previous Major (DreamHack Winter 2014).

fnatic were looking to silence their haters who criticized them for forfeiting the quarter-final against LDLC at DreamHack Winter 2014, while Envyus (ex Team LDLC) were hoping to become the first CS:GO team to win back to back Major. Ninjas in Pyjamas’ roster also went in to the tournament full of hopes and were looking to reach their fifth final appearance.

As mentioned, the Swedes from fnatic didn’t come into the Major event as everybody’s darling, but they really managed to show that they were able to bring stellar performances when it mattered the most. fnatic were the only team able to win a quarter-final without losing a single map, with their first loss coming at the hands of the equally impressive squad from Ninjas in Pyjamas in the grand final of the event. Overall, fnatic played a hell of a tournament with all five of their players stepping up to clinch their second CS:GO Major. This is how it all went down.

Before the ESL One: Katowice 2015 event, fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas had faced off against each other in two Major grand finals (DreamHack Winter 2013 and ESL One: Cologne 2014). JW and company from fnatic came out on top in the first ever CS:GO Major, while GeT_RiGhT and NiP claimed the trophy in the third.

The fnatic roster started off very strongly at the fifth Major event, humiliating Vox Eminor with a 16-3 victory and winning their next match against Natus Vincere to advance to the playoffs. Besides fnatic advancing, Virtus.pro, Ninjas in Pyjamas, and Team Envyus too progressed in the next stage of play. Here, fnatic continued their impressive form as they confidently outclassed PENTA in the quarter-final with victories on Inferno (16-8) and Cache (16-7). However, the competition was really shaping up to be arguably the most competitive yet as Ninjas in Pyjamas, Envyus, and Virtus.pro all progressed into the semi-finals.

JW and company faced Virtus.pro in the first semi-final where they continued their rampant form and stomped to a 2-0 victory (Cobblestone 19-17 and Mirage 16-8), with the Polish squad serving as the victims. In the other semi-final, Ninjas in Pyjamas defeated the Frenchmen from Envyus with a 2-0 victory to enter their fifth Major final appearance, inching towards a second Major title.

The Grand final was everything the fans had hoped for, especially the Swedish ones. Both teams were aiming to create history and would face each other in another Swedish Grand final. fnatic hadn’t dropped even a single map on their way to the final so they were slight favorites going into the matchup.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"Affiliation/SKINS_reklame_Pley_AWP_y5dwfh","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":480,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg"}]

Dust2, Cache, and Inferno were picked as the maps and the grand final was expected to break previous viewers records, which it did as two of the biggest organizations in CS:GO went head to head. In their third encounter in a Major Grand final, fnatic started off by winning Dust2 16-14 after a very close fight and looked to quickly wrap up the action on the next, but lost as NiP equalized the series score with a 10-16 victory on Cache.

On the decider of Inferno, fnatic started things off aggressively on the CT side and gained a 11-4 lead before switching sides. GeT_RiGhT and company were once again in need of a comeback to seal the championship. They fought bitterly to climb back on the scoreboard and managed to grind some rounds, but fnatic had too big of a lead to be overturned as they went on to close out the map with a 16-13 scoreline to clinch their second Major title.

fnatic’s olofmeister was awarded the MVP for his incredible and consistent performances throughout the event. The Swedish squad from fnatic truly silenced all their haters and laid a marker for the future. Their Major victory at the event was just a glimpse of what the roster was about to achieve in the following year.

Highest rated players at ESL One: Katowice 2015:

1. {cflag:SE} Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer (fnatic) – 1.31 Rating 

2. {cflag:NO} Håvard “rain” Nygaard (LGB) – 1.27 Rating 

3. {cflag:PL} Filip “NEO” Kubski (Virtus.pro) – 1.27 Rating 

4. {cflag:RU} Denis “seized” Kostin (NAVI) – 1.24 Rating 

5. {cflag:SE} Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund (NiP) – 1.20 Rating 

6. {cflag:SK} Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács (NAVI) – 1.19 Rating 

7. {cflag:PL} Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski (Virtus.pro) – 1.16 Rating 

8. {cflag:FR} Richard “shox” Papillon (Envy) – 1.13 Rating 

9. {cflag:DK} René “cajunb” Borg (TSM) – 1.13 Rating 

10. {cflag:SE} Robin “flusha” Rönnquist (fnatic) – 1.12 Rating

The Grand final between the two Swedish rosters was the most viewed match in the history of CS:GO with 980k viewers. This was a new esports record at the time for Counter-Strike.

The event also saw the debut of the Brazilian godfather Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo.

Tomorrow we take a look at the ESL One: Cologne 2015 event.

Ninjas in Pyjamas

We are less than three weeks away from the start of IEM Rio Major in Brazil. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all the previous 17 Majors.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"countdown-major-16-days-go-started-sweden","isNewTab":true}]

MVP: Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski

Map pool: Dust2, Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, and Train.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"tournaments/IEM_Katowice_ESL_k3ikvh","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: ESL IEM Katowice"}]

The second Major in history took place in March 2014. The venue was the now legendary Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. Once again 16 teams were gathered to determine, who was the best team in Counter-Strike right now? Since the first Major in Jönköping, VeryGames (Now Titan) had only improved. The roster (Ex6TenZ, NBK, ScreaM, shox, SmithZz) was dubbed tournament favorites going into the Major. The Swedish Ninjas were also among the top favorites while reigning champions from Fnatic were once again considered underdogs compared to Titan and NIP.

Group A delivered the first upset with tournament favorites Titan's exit. A 16-7 loss to Virtus.pro shocked the French/Belgian roster, who had to win the elimination match against HellRaisers to survive. But another loss forced the star-studded roster to be eliminated before the playoffs. Instead the only Polish team in the tournament, Virtus.pro made it through in first place. The roster (TaZ, NEO, pashaBiceps, byali, Snax) had only recently been assembled, but everything seemed to be clicking on home turf.

In the playoffs Virtus.pro annihilated Team LDLC 16-3, 16-8. Now all eyes were on the home crowd's favorites. Fnatic was eliminated in the Quarter-Finals, while Ninjas in Pyjamas once again had qualified for the Grand Final. This time by beating Team Dignitas with three of the legendary Astralis core (Xyp9x, dupreeh, device) on the roster.

Virtus.pro lost their first and only map in the whole event in the Semi-Final against LGB esports (with Olofmeister on the roster), but managed to win the match 2-1 to make it to the Grand Final.

You can watch the entire Grand Final between NIP vs Virtus.pro here.

The Grand Final ended with total Polish domination. The underdogs continued their miracle run in front of an ecstatic crowd. 16-9 and 16-10 were the stone-cold facts for Ninjas in Pyjamas, who lost their second consecutive Major final. Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski was awarded the tournament MVP with an immense 1.38 HLTV rating.

Virtus.pro continued to dominate CS:GO in the years to come. They earned themselves the nickname of "The Plow". They never won a Major again though.

Highest rated players at EMS One Katowice 2014:

1. {cflag:PL} Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski (Virtus.pro) - 1.38 rating

2. {cflag:SE} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/get-right","isNewTab":true,"text":"Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund"}] (Ninjas in Pyjamas) - 1.33 rating

3. {cflag:PL} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/byali","isNewTab":true,"text":"Paweł 'byali' Bieliński"}] (Virtus.pro) - 1.31 rating

4. {cflag:DK} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/cajunb","isNewTab":true,"text":"René 'cajunb' Borg"}] (Dignitas) - 1.27 rating

5. {cflag:FR} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/shox","isNewTab":true,"text":"Richard 'shox' Papillon"}] (Titan) - 1.26 rating

6. {cflag:SE} Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg (Fnatic) - 1.25 rating

7. {cflag:SE} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/flusha","isNewTab":true,"text":"Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist"}] (Fnatic) - 1.25 rating

8. {cflag:PL} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/snax","isNewTab":true,"text":"Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski"}] (Virtus.pro) - 1.20 rating

9. {cflag:RU} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/dosia","isNewTab":true,"text":"Mikhail 'Dosia' Stolyarov"}] (HellRaisers) - 1.18 rating

10. {cflag:PL} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/neo","isNewTab":true,"text":"Filip 'NEO' Kubski"}] (Virtus.pro) - 1.16 rating

Tomorrow we will be back with ESL Cologne 2014!

GeT_RiGhT

byali

cajunb

shox

Dosia

Snax

Virtus.pro

Team Dignitas

We are less than three weeks away from the start of IEM Rio Major in Brazil. To ease the waiting time, we have created a countdown series, where we dive into the history of all 17 Majors.

MVP: [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/jw","isNewTab":true,"text":"Jesper 'JW' Wecksell"}]

The first CS:GO Major to take place was the DreamHack Winter 2013. Before then there had been several big tournaments, but this marked the first time that Valve (the developer of the game) actively went into the planning of a tournament, which gave place for the "Major" term to be used. Valve announced DreamHack as the tournament organizer.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"Affiliation/SKINS_reklame_Pley_xziruo","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":480,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","url":"https://bit.ly/3CWWVHW","isNewTab":true}]

DreamHack Winter 2013 started on the 28th of November 2013. The first match to be played at a Major was Fnatic vs Natus Vincere. The tournament was dominated by Sweden, which had a total of 21 players participating including tournament favorites from Ninjas in Pyjamas. Alongside the French/Belgian roster from VeryGames, NIP was seen as the team to beat at the tournament.

In this video, you can see a comprehensive recap of the tournament.

Despite an excellent showing from Richard 'shox' Papillon, VeryGames lost one of their group matches, which ended up pairing them with Ninjas in Pyjamas already in the Semi-Finals. Here NIP dismantled the Frenchmen and qualified for the Grand Final, where they could look forward to an all-Swedish affair against Fnatic. At that time Fnatic had just switched from a Danish roster with Finn 'Karrrigan' Andersen and Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth to an all-Swedish roster with now-legendary names as Jesper "JW" Wecksell and Robin "flusha" Rönnquist. The new roster had made a flawless run at the tournament under excellent guidance from in-game leader Markus "pronax" Wallsten.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Copyright_-_Sarah-Cooper_-_JW_ar0qyd","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Sarah Cooper ESL","alt":"CS:GO, Counter-Strike"}]

In the Grand Final, it all came down to the decider map, Train. Here Jesper "JW" Wecksell (in photo) earned his nickname "Wonderchild". The young Swede annihilated his fellow countrymen going 23-8 in K-D and scoring a 2.04 HTLV rating. Fnatic won the decider map 16-2 to claim the first Major title in history. The "Wonderchild" was named the MVP of the tournament.

Highest rated players at DreamHack Winter 2013:

1. {cflag:SE} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/jw","isNewTab":true,"text":"Jesper 'JW' Wecksell"}] (Fnatic) - 1.26 rating

2. {cflag:DK} Morten 'coloN' Johansen (Reason) - 1.25 rating

3. {cflag:PL} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/snax","isNewTab":true,"text":"Janusz 'Snax' Pogorzelski"}] (Universal Soldiers) - 1.22 rating

4. {cflag:US} Spencer 'Hiko' Martin (Complexity) - 1.21 rating

5. {cflag:SE} Andreas 'znajder' Lindberg (Fnatic) - 1.20 rating

6. {cflag:SE} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/flusha","isNewTab":true,"text":"Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist"}] (Fnatic) - 1.19 rating

7. {cflag:DK} [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/players/xyp9x","isNewTab":true,"text":"Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth"}] (Copenhagen Wolves) - 1.18 rating

8. {cflag:RU} Denis 'seized' Kostin (Natus Vincere) - 1.18 rating

9. {cflag:SE} Dennis 'dennis' Edman (LGB) - 1.16 rating

10. {cflag:DK} Nicolaj 'Nico' Jensen (Copenhagen Wolves) - 1.14 rating

Xyp9x

karrigan

compLexity Gaming

When thinking about iconic CS:GO nations it would be impossible not to stumble upon Sweden. You probably think of fnatic and NiP when thinking about the iconic Swedish teams in the past, and you are not wrong. A name, however, that has been unrightfully forgotten in the world of Counter-Strike is the EYEBALLERS. Legendary duo "JW" and "flusha" will seek to add further to the EYEBALLERS legacy after it has been announced that the Hellraisers roster will be playing under the EYEBALLERS name from now on. 

Not only will "JW" be playing as a player in the active roster, but he is also the CEO of the new EYEBALLERS organization. After buying the rights from previous owners "JW" states that he will seek to strengthen Swedish Counter-Strike and to help young Scandinavian prospects: 

Whilst winning is, of course, a priority for the new EYEBALLERS roster, "flusha" further backs "JW" mission and states that there are also additional goals with the new project: 

EYEBALLERS

Robin “flusha” Rönnquist will not play under the GORILLAZ-banner going into next year, the Swede has confirmed on Monday via his [link:{"url":"https://twitter.com/flusha/status/1467886099838210053","isNewTab":true,"text":"Twitter"}]. In the announcement, flusha affirms that he’s still committed to playing competitive esports as he states “Looking for new opportunities next year”.  

The former Fnatic profile and three-time Major winner is therefore set to leave the CS:GO project, which he co-founded with Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi back in April this year. The experienced duo joined forces with suNny’s countryman and former ENCE star Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo alongside the likes of Buğra “Calyx” Arkın and Rokas “EspiranTo” Milasauskas. However, the international mix didn’t manage to find a consistent level or any particular success in the tier-2 scene.  

[slugORMA:{"slug":"flusha-sunny-back-cs-go-with-new-roster","isNewTab":true}]

Since its creation, GORILLAZ hasn’t had a stable lineup where multiple players have been in and out of the team, either on trial or as stand-ins. Some of the most renowned names are Jesper "JW" Wecksell, Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen, and Yasin "xfl0ud" Koç.

{cflag:EE} Anton "⁠supra⁠" Tšernobai (trial)

sergej

suNny

NaToSaphiX

Calyx

xfl0ud

GORILLAZ

GORILLAZ hold many great minds on the roster, with the team having both Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Miikka "suNny" Kemppi in their player arsenal. The former Fnatic and mousesports veterans seem to lead the way on GORILLAZ, which may be a great idea due to their huge experience in CS:GO. 

In a match yesterday against Sinners, GORILLAZ took a hard eco on Overpass, where they afterwards literally ran into their own death. At first, it looked like a massive fail, but it was actually a very smart and rare play. One would maybe say that they should go for the win instead of losing the round on purpose, but it's still a quite innovative play. 

In a match at Elisa Invitational Fall 2021 Regionals between GORILLAZ and X Gamer, a very unusual and rare situation occurred. In a fierce round on the A-site on Inferno, where X Gamer had managed to kill the entire GORILLAZ and just had to defuse the bomb. There was only one problem - Robin "flusha" Rönnquist. Or more like the dead body of the Swede. 

Watch the unique and very bizarre situation right here and decide whether you believe it was on purpose by the former Fnatic superstar.

You can watch all the other #POTD's from September down below.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"pley-day-september","isNewTab":true}]

ESL One Cologne 2015 was the sixth CS:GO Major, and the first one without the Swedish Ninjas from NiP in the finals. The tournament offered the world’s best players and had 12.000 fans together in the sold out Lanxess Arena to cheer for whoever fnatic met.

fnatic were used to play against the crowd and couldn’t really have asked for better conditions. KRiMZ, flusha, JW, olof, and pronax had a mental fortitude of a champion who know he can’t lose. They believed so much in their own abilities, that even their opponents started believing it and feeling like there is nothing they can do.

When the Swedes got intro trouble every once in a while, all it took for them to come back in the match was a timeout. Nearly every time they took a timeout, they didn’t lose a single round for the remainder of the match. And that’s exactly what happened in the ESL One Cologne 2015 Grand final against Team EnvyUs, who was the only squad that was considered a threat to the dangerous Swedes.

The first map in the Grand final was Dust2. JW and company were down 7-14 and up to that point, the Frenchmen was in total control of the game. Then fnatic took one of their feared time-outs that changed everything. The rest is history. fnatic took the game into overtime, and won it 19-15. The Swedes carried over the momentum on Cbble, where they came out on top with a 16-7 scoreline to claim the title.

Re-watch fnatic’s comeback and get a feel for the insane atmosphere in the Grand final of the event:

In April this year, the CS:GO world saw the rise of a new and promising roster called GORILLAZ, led by Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist and Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi. Besides the former mouz and fnatic profiles, the two experienced veterans brought in the likes of Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo, Rokas "⁠EspiranTo⁠" Milasauskas, and Niels Christian "NaToSaphiX" Sillassen.

However, the time has come for NaToSaphiX who now has been dropped by the new team, flusha has announced on Twitter this Wednesday.

- Was an insanely good time with the Gorillaz-guys. Some of the nicest people I’ve met in esports for sure and will miss them all until next time They decided to search for a guy who is more “natural” in a rifle-role, something I am not yet as I was AWP most of my career, NaToSaphiX writes on Twitter. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"natosaphix-time-heroic-could-have-worked-better-was-signed-today","isNewTab":false}]

NaToSaphiX looks forward to a new challenge following the departure from GORILLAZ, with the 24-year-old Dane expressing his desire to "start a new CS:GO journey" as an AWP + IGL or as a Rifler. The versatile player has previously represented strong teams like Heroic, mousesports and Sprout, where he showed promising abilities from time to time. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"promising-rifler-kicked-from-new-cs-go-project","isNewTab":false}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"pley-day-natosaphix-with-nasty-run-boost-kill","isNewTab":false}]

EspiranTo

Heroic

Sprout

mousesports

It's been 665 days since the conclusion of the latest CS:GO major. 

The StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 was the last major before the outbreak of Covid-19, which has delayed all major sporting events around the globe. But with the PGL Major Stockholm coming up in just 133 days, we can finally begin to be excited for the 16th Major tournament in history.

But how did it go in the last 15 events? We give you the list of all the winners and the MVPs.

DreamHack Winter 2013 Jönköping {cflag:SE} Fnatic - JW

ESL Katowice 2014 {cflag:PL} - Virtus.pro - pashaBiceps

ESL Cologne 2014 {cflag:DE} - Ninjas in Pyjamas - friberg

DreamHack Winter 2014 Jönköping {cflag:SE} - LDLC - Happy

ESL Katowice 2015 {cflag:PL} - Fnatic - Olofmeister

ESL One Cologne 2015 {cflag:DE} - Fnatic - flusha

DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 {cflag:RO} - Envy - kennyS

MLG Major Columbus 2016 {cflag:US} - LG - coldzera

ESL Cologne 2016 {cflag:DE} - SK Gaming - coldzera

ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2016 {cflag:US} - Astralis - Kjaerbye

PGL Kraków 2017 {cflag:PL} - Gambit - AdreN

FACEIT London 2018 {cflag:GB} - Astralis - device

IEM Katowice 2019 {cflag:PL} - Astralis - Magisk

StarLadder Berlin 2019 {cflag:DE} - Astralis - device

Fnatic - 3 golds - 1 silver - 2 semi-finals

Ninjas in Pyjamas - 1 gold - 4 silvers - 1 semi-finals

friberg

Magisk

Kjaerbye

device

AdreN

coldzera

kennyS

Astralis

LDLC

Gambit Esports

Spring Sweet Spring Regionals may not be a particularly big or prominent event, and the prize pool is "only" $32.000. However, the first group match game at Group C between Lilmix and GORILLAZ features no more than two iconic Counter-Strike legends. 

With Robin "flusha" Rönnquist from GORILLAZ and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund playing as a stand-in for Lilmix, they reignite the fire from their many fierce battles at fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas. 

You can watch the two Swedish legends in action right here: 

Lilmix

Since the start of the year, discussions and rumors about a new roster featuring Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Miikka "suNny" Kemppi have been floating around. Due to a lack of interest from organizations the project was delayed. Today, however, it has been confirmed by "flusha" that the line-up has been finalized for now and that an organization is ready to bring them back on to the professional Counter-Strike scene. 

In conversation with HLTV the 26-year-old "sunNy" confirms the newly founded team, as well as the fact that four out of the five players have signed with the organization: 

"Today we can finally confirm that this project is actually happening and we have started to practice. It will be a long road ahead but happy to work with these players,"  He continues by stating: "Four of us have signed and we will be starting with flusha, sergej, EspiranTo, me, and trialing Calyx as our last piece of the puzzle."

The newly shaped European roster looks as follows: 

ENCE

In January this year, the legendary Swede Robin "flusha" Rönnquist were removed from fnatic’s active roster, as the Counter-Strike veteran wished to start a new adventure with a completely new roster. The 27-year old rifler stated that he had talks with Miikka "suNny" Kemppi, and that they will partner each other in a new potential top CS:GO team.

After some months without any concrete news regarding their plans, players, and organization, several rumours can tell that they have found their complete roster. flusha and suNny have allegedly managed to sign the profiled and promising Finn Jere "sergej" Salo, who is most known for his remarkable tenure at ENCE.

It’s the website GAMEINSIDE.UA that has published a report stating that the Russian team 1win has practised and played against the newly established roster.

[link:{"url":"https://gameinside.ua/news/sergej-i-sunny-vojdut-v-novyj-sostav-flusha-sluhi/275098/","text":"Full report: sergej and suNny will join flusha's new roster "}]

If the rumours are true, the roster possesses these players:

Under just a year ago fnatic were first on HLTV´s world ranking, but today they sit at number 17. This is how fast it goes in the CS: GO world.

Four of the players, Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson, Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin, Maikil “Golden” Selim, and the coach Andreas “Samuelsson” Samuelsson was all there when the team was first in the world ranking.

As a result of the bad performances, the Swedish organization chose to bench the rifler Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and replace him with the Swede Jack Ström “Jackinho” Mattsson.

With the top-level performances, we know that this roster can produce elite players like Brollan who signed a new contract. fnatic could be the underdog to keep an eye on in this Group D.

[link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/brollan-extends-contract-with-fnatic/","text":"Read more: Brollan extends contract with fnatic"}]

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	16	46
Maps count	34	95

flusha

Player stats

Articles mentioning flusha

ESL One: Cologne 2015: First back-to-back Major win in CS:GO

ESL One: Katowice 2015: The Swedes from fnatic strike back

EMS One Katowice 2014: The beginning of the Plow

DreamHack Winter 2013: It all started in Sweden

JW and flusha to carry on EYEBALLERS legacy

flusha confirms GORILLAZ exit

Video: 200 IQ play! GORILLAZ intentionally dies to the molotov

Pley of the Day: 2000 IQ BY FLUSHA!

Throwback: fnatic win ESL One Cologne 2015

flusha and co. part ways with profiled Dane

All CS:GO Major winners

Live: Lilmix vs GORILLAZ (GeT_RiGhT vs Flusha)

Flusha and suNny back in CS:GO with new roster!

Media: sergej and suNny joins flusha’s new CS:GO project

Former elite players can surprise the favorites

Video: FalleN goes crazy in FPL!

Video: Did he cheat? – The unsolvable mystery of CS:GO’s most suspicious player

Autimatic, Flusha, and suNny project "will probably not happen"

Fnatic star on flusha exit: The old trio wasn’t paying off anymore

Video: Nemiga player dismantles fnatic trio on stream

Follow Pley