SK Gaming is a professional esports organization based in Germany that has teams across the world competing in different titles. SK is particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike (CS) tournaments. SK's Brazilian CS team won the ESL One Cologne 2016 Major. SK currently has players and teams competing in League of Legends and Hearthstone. SK Gaming was founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players in Oberhausen.
Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP) is a professional esports organisation based in Sweden that is best known for its Counter-Strike teams. In 2012, the team reformed with a Counter Strike: Global Offensive lineup upon the release of the game. Aside from Counter-Strike, the organisation has teams in Valorant, Rainbow Six Siege, FIFA, Rocket League, Fortnite Battle Royale and League of Legends. They formerly had teams in Overwatch, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Paladins.
Patrik Lindberg, known by the pseudonym f0rest, is a Swedish esports player who is considered to be one of the best Counter-Strike players in the world. Having played competitively since 2005, Lindberg has been widely regarded within the esports scene as the greatest player 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. In 2020, Lindberg left NiP to join Dignitas.
Christopher Alesund, better known as GeT_RiGhT, is a Swedish Counter-Strike player who is currently a full time streamer. During his time as a member of Ninjas in Pyjamas, he was considered one of the best Counter-Strike players in the history of the series. He began playing competitively in 2007 and has previously been a member of SK Gaming, Fnatic, Begrip Gaming, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Dignitas.
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, League of Legends 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 most CS:GO Major Championships won at 4.
Adam Friberg is a Swedish former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player who last played for Dignitas. 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 CS:GO Major, ESL One Cologne 2014.
Ladislav Kovács, known professionally as GuardiaN, is a Slovak former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S) and Counter-Strike (CS) player. He is known for being one of the best players with the AWP and one of the best players overall. He played for team Natus Vincere (Na'Vi) for most of his career in CS:GO until entering free agency in February 2021.
Robin Rönnquist, better known as flusha, is a Swedish former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He previously played for teams such as fnatic and Cloud9. flusha has won 3 CS:GO majors: Dreamhack Winter 2013, ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015.
ESL Pro League Season 5 was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It is the fifth season of the ESL Pro League, and has an overall prize pool of $1,000,000. For the first time, the Finals will take place in Dallas, Texas, from May 30 to June 4, in the Verizon Theatre. Teams from two continents, North America and Europe competed in fourteen team leagues to attempt to qualify for the Finals over a ten-week regular season. Europe's season began with Natus Vincere defeating Astralis and ended with Team EnVyUs defeating Astralis. North America's season started with Cloud9 defeating Rush and ended with Renegades defeating Rush. In the finals, G2 Esports was crowned Season 5's champion after winning a best of five series against North.
Nicolai Hvilshøj Reedtz, better known as dev1ce, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Astralis. On his first stint in Astralis, he became the first to win 4 majors in CS:GO, and to win 3 majors consecutively. He is regarded as one of the best players of all time, consistently playing at a very high individual level since 2014.
Richard Landström, better known as Xizt, is a Swedish former professional Counter-Strike player and coach who is the current head coach of Ninjas in Pyjamas.
ESL One Cologne 2018 was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. In July 2018, sixteen teams from around the globe competed in an offline (LAN) tournament that featured a group stage and playoffs with a US$300,000 prize pool. It would be the second consecutive year since Cologne 2016 in which Valve decided to pass up on the historic tournament series as a Major host in favor of the FACEIT Major: London 2018.
Nikola Kovač, better known as NiKo, is a Bosnian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for G2 Esports. NiKo is often cited by many professionals and analysts alike to be one of the greatest players of all time in the history of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and the best rifler in the history of Global Offensive, and his 8x HLTV Top 20 Player Of The Year placings put him as joint 2nd for most top 20 player appearances in Global Offensive history.
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 18 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.
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.
ESL One Cologne 2019 is a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. In July 2019, sixteen teams from around the globe competed in an offline (LAN) tournament that featured a group stage and playoffs with a US$300,000 prize pool. This event and Intel Extreme Masters Season XIV - Chicago were the last events before teams playing at StarLadder Major: Berlin 2019 took a month break before heading to the Major.
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.
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.
