Natus Vincere, commonly referred as abbreviated name NAVI, is a Ukrainian esports organization based in Kyiv. Founded in 2009, the organization has teams and players competing in various games, such as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, FIFA, Brawl Stars, World of Tanks, Paladins, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Clash of Clans, Apex Legends, Rainbow Six Siege, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Fortnite, and VALORANT.
Aleksi Jalli, better known as allu, is a Finnish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for JANO. He previously played for Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan as their AWPer. He has also played for 3DMAX, mousesports (mouz), ENCE, Rats of the Year, Team Curse, RAIDERS, The Hawks, and Team WinFakt.
Anders Blume is a Danish Counter-Strike commentator and co-founder of RoomOnFire. He has been present as a caster at all of the Valve sponsored CS:GO Majors, with the exception of EMS One Katowice 2014. He has worked for a wide variety of tournament organisers including Electronic Sports League (ESL), Dreamhack and Gfinity. He is more often than not paired with Auguste 'Semmler' Massonnat, also a co-founder of RoomOnFire and Jason "Moses" O'Toole, for his casts. He is famous for his energetic casts, including the use of what has become his catchphrase, "Are you kidding me?". In 2015, he won the Golden Joystick award for esports icon of the year.
Filip Borys Kubski, better known as NEO, is a Polish professional Counter-Strike 2 coach and former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike player. NEO is considered to be one of the best players in Counter-Strike history. He was also one of the "Golden Five" group of Polish CS players. Most recently he was the coach for FaZe Clan. He has played for Virtus.pro, AGAiN, Universal Soldiers, ESC Gaming, Frag eXecutors, Vitriolic, Wicked eSports, Meet Your Makers, and Pentagram G-Shock. Kubski has been playing professionally since 2004.
Astralis is a Danish esports organization. Best known for their Counter-Strike 2 team, they also have teams representing other games, such as FIFA and Rainbow Six Siege. The parent group of Astralis is the Astralis Group, who previously managed Origen and Future F.C. before the merger of all teams under the Astralis brand. Astralis Group became the first esports organization to conduct an initial public offering, and is traded as ticker Nasdaq Copenhagen: ASTRLS. Astralis's CS:GO team holds the record of the most CS:GO Major Championships won at 4.
Nikola Kovač, better known as NiKo, is a Bosnian professional Counter-Strike 2 player who plays for Team Falcons. NiKo is often cited by many professionals and analysts alike as one of the greatest Counter-Strike players of all time and the best rifler in the history of Counter-Strike:Global Offensive. He has been named a Top 20 Player Of The Year by HLTV eight times, tying dev1ce for the 2nd for most top 20 player appearances in Global Offensive history. NiKo is widely considered as one of the most mechanically skilled players in Counter-Strike and has been in contention for the title of the best player in the world at multiple periods throughout his career.
Counter-Strike Major Championships, commonly known as the Majors, are Counter-Strike (CS) esports tournaments sponsored by Valve, the game's developer. The first Valve-recognized Major took place in 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden and was hosted by DreamHack with a total prize pool of US$250,000 split among 16 teams. This, along with the following 19 Majors, was played in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. As of the 2023 release of Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), Counter-Strike esports, including the Majors, are played in CS2.
The Intel Extreme Masters Season XIII – Katowice Major 2019, also known as IEM Katowice Major 2019 or Katowice 2019, was the fourteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the world championship for the thirteenth season of the Intel Extreme Masters. It was held in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland from February 13 – March 3, 2019. Fourteen teams would qualify for the IEM Katowice Major 2019 based on their top fourteen placements from the last Major, the FACEIT Major: London 2018, while another ten teams would qualify from their respective regional qualifiers. The top eight teams from the London Major ("Legends") received a bye to the second phase of the group stage while the other sixteen teams ("Challengers") had to go through the first and second group stages in order to reach the playoffs. It featured a US$1,000,000 prize pool, the seventh consecutive Major with that prize pool. It was hosted by ESL, their first Major since 2016. This event was the start of the second season of the Intel Grand Slam.
Oleksandr Olehovych Kostyliev, better known as s1mple, is a Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Falcons, on loan from Natus Vincere. He is considered to be one of the best players in Counter-Strike history.
Emil Hoffmann Reif, better known as Magisk, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Falcons. He has won four majors in total, three in a row, a record he achieved with Astralis.
Russel David Kevin Van Dulken, better known as Twistzz, is a Canadian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Liquid. He has previously played for top teams such as Team SoloMid, Misfits, and FaZe Clan. Twistzz was named the MVP of ESL One New York 2018 and IEM Sydney 2019 by HLTV.
Blast Premier is a Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) professional esports league launched in 2020. It is primarily based in two regions: North America and Europe.
Robin Kool, better known as ropz, is an Estonian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Vitality. Kool has played in ten Majors and won the PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
Mathieu Herbaut, better known as ZywOo, is a French professional Counter-Strike player for Team Vitality. He is considered one of the best players in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive history, having been ranked the No. 1 player in the world by HLTV in 2019, 2020 and 2023. He is the youngest ever HLTV Player of the Year at 19 years old, and only the second player after coldzera to be named the HLTV Player of the Year in their first full year as a professional player. He is also sometimes nicknamed "The Chosen One" due to being born on the day of the original Counter-Strike game's commercial release.
Heroic is a Norwegian esports organization with teams competing in Counter-Strike 2, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, Sim racing and Rainbow Six Siege.
Imperial Esports, or simply Imperial, is a Brazilian professional esports organization. It is best known for its Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, which is made up of veteran players from the Brazilian scene, such as FalleN, fer, fnx, boltz and VINI. While the team has changed over time, the 2022 team, nicknamed "The Last Dance" gained popularity in the run-up to the Rio 2022 Major. The organization also has a Crossfire team.
Helvijs Saukants, better known as broky, is a Latvian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for FaZe Clan as the AWPer and a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player.
Ilya Osipov, better known as m0NESY, is a Russian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for G2 Esports.
Valerij "b1t" Vakhovsjkyj is a Ukrainian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Natus Vincere and a former Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player.
