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.
Mouz, formerly mousesports, is a professional esports organisation based in Germany. It fields teams in several games but is particularly known for its CS:GO team. MOUZ was one of the founding members of the G7 Teams. MOUZ's League of Legends team currently competes in the ESL Pro Series, having formerly competed in the European Challenger Series.
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.
Olof Kajbjer Gustafsson, better known as olofmeister, is a Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for FaZe Clan. He has previously played for H2k, Absolute Legends, LGB eSports, Fnatic, and FaZe Clan. Gustafsson is widely regarded as one of the best CS:GO players in history. He has won two CSGO Majors, ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015, as well as many other tournaments.
ESL One Cologne 2016, also known as ESL Cologne Major 2016 or Cologne 2016, was an Electronic Sports League Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. It was the ninth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and was held at the Lanxess Arena In Cologne, Germany from July 8–10. It featured 16 teams from throughout the world competing. Cologne 2016 had the second consecutive major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
Peter Rothmann Rasmussen, better known as dupreeh, is a Danish professional Counter-Strike 2 player for Team Falcons. He has played for Team Dignitas, Team SoloMid, Astralis, Team Vitality and Heroic. In 2023, he became the first and only player to win 5 majors in CS:GO, and to win 3 majors consecutively. Due to the Blast Paris Major 2023 being the last CS:GO major as a result of the subsequent PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 being played in the upcoming Counter-Strike 2, Rasmussen is the only player to participate in every CS:GO major.
Fabien Fiey, better known by his in-game name kioShiMa, is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player.
ELeague, shortened as EL, and stylized as ΞLEAGUE is an esports league and American television show that airs on TBS. It was announced in September 2015 as a partnership between Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG. The name "ELeague" was officially unveiled later that year.
ESL Pro League Season 4 was a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament run by ESL. It was the fourth season of the ESL Pro League, and had an overall prize pool of $750,000. For the first time, the Finals took place in South America – São Paulo, Brazil, from October 28 to October 30. Teams from two continents, North America and Europe competed in fourteen team leagues to attempt to qualify for the Finals. Europe's season began with FaZe Clan defeating Team X and ended with Team Dignitas defeating Virtus.pro in a best of three 6th place decider. North America's season started with Cloud9 defeating Team Liquid and ended with Immortals defeating Echo Fox. In the finals, Cloud9 defeated SK Gaming 2–1 to become the ESL Pro League Season 4 Champions and take home $200,000 prize money; this upset would also mark the first time a North American won an international premier event since iBUYPOWER won ESEA Season 16 - Global Invite Division in 2014.
The ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2018 or Boston 2018, was the twelfth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship and the second organized by ELEAGUE. The group stage was held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 12 to January 22, 2018, and the playoff stage took place at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts, United States from January 26 to January 28, 2018. It featured 24 professional teams from around the world, as ELEAGUE and Valve agreed to expand the Major from the usual 16. All 16 teams from the previous major, PGL Major: Kraków 2017, directly qualified for the Major, while another eight teams qualified through their respective regional qualifiers. Boston 2018 was the fifth consecutive Major with a prize pool of $1,000,000. This was also the first CS:GO Major to take place in two cities.
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.
ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017, also known as ELEAGUE Major 2017 or Atlanta 2017, was the tenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It was organized by ELEAGUE and held in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from January 22 to 29, 2017. It featured sixteen professional teams from around the world. Eight teams directly qualified based on their top eight placement in the last major, ESL One Cologne 2016, while another eight teams qualified through the ELEAGUE Offline Major Qualifier. ELEAGUE Major was the third consecutive Major with a prize pool of $1,000,000.
List of events in 2018 in esports.
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.
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.
Håvard Nygaard better known as rain, is a Norwegian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for FaZe Clan. He is the longest lasting member of any Counter-Strike lineup, having played since the team first formed under the Team Kinguin banner in 2015. He is widely considered to be one of the best entry fraggers in Counter-Strike history.
Robin Kool, better known as ropz, is an Estonian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for FaZe Clan. Kool has played in eight Majors and won the PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
