Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) is an anti-cheat tool developed by Valve as a component of the Steam platform, first released with Counter-Strike in 2002.
ESL Gaming GmbH is a German esports organizer and production company that produces video game competitions worldwide. ESL was the world's largest esports company in 2015, and the oldest that is still operational. Based in Cologne, Germany, ESL has eleven offices and multiple international TV studios globally. ESL is the largest esports company to broadcast on Twitch.
Titan was a professional esports organization founded in September 2013. Titan formerly sponsored teams in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2, Quake Live, and Smite. CEO and founder Damien Grust announced the organisation's dissolution on 13 January 2016, citing financial issues.
DreamHack Winter 2014 was the fourth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship, held from November 27–29, 2014 at Elmia in Jönköping. It was organized by DreamHack and sponsored by Valve. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000. The eight quarter-finalists from the previous Major, ESL One Cologne 2014 received direct invitations, while qualifiers were held for the remaining spots.
Electronic Sports League Major Series One Katowice 2014, also known as EMS One Katowice 2014, was the second Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. The tournament was held from March 13–16, 2014 at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. It was organized by Electronic Sports League and sponsored by the game's developers Valve. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000. The Polish roster of Virtus.pro won the event by beating Ninjas in Pyjamas in the finals. EMS One Katowice 2014 was streamed on Twitch and had a peak of over 250,000 concurrent viewers.
DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 was the seventh Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship that was held from October 28 – November 1, 2015 at the Sala Polivalentă in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. It was organized by DreamHack with help from Valve and the Professional Gamers League. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000.
ESL One Katowice 2015, also known as Katowice 2015, was the fifth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship, held from March 12 to March 15, 2015, at the Spodek Arena in Katowice, Poland. It was the first CS:GO Major of 2015. It was organized by Electronic Sports League with sponsorship from Valve. The tournament had a total prize pool of US$250,000. The defending champion was Team EnVyUs, whose roster had won the previous Major as Team LDLC.com.
Team Envy was an American esports franchise based in Dallas, Texas, owned by Envy Gaming. Founded in 2007 as a professional Call of Duty team under the moniker Team EnVyUs, they fielded rosters in Counter-Strike, FIFA, Fortnite, Gears of War, Halo, League of Legends, Chess, Magic: the Gathering, Overwatch, Paladins, PUBG, Rocket League, SMITE, StarCraft, Super Smash Bros., Street Fighter and Valorant. Following the merger between Envy Gaming and OpTic Gaming, Envy Gaming retired the Team Envy brand in June 2022, shifting all of them to the OpTic Gaming moniker.
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.
Kenny Schrub, better known as kennyS, is a French former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He was named "eSports Player of the Year" at The Game Awards 2015. He was considered the best sniper in the game, and Duncan Shields, a Counter-Strike analyst, has called him the best player in the game prior to the sniper being changed. Some of his previous teams include Titan, VeryGames, Team LDLC.com, Recursive eSports, Clan-Mystik, Team EnVyUs and G2 Esports. He was a professional Counter-Strike: Source player before transitioning to Global Offensive in 2012. Schrub announced his retirement from competitive Counter-Strike on May 20, 2023, before the semifinal between Team Vitality and Apeks at the Blast Paris Major in Paris.
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.
Vincent Cervoni Schopenhauer, better known as Happy, is a French professional Valorant coach for M80. He formerly played professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) as a lurker/rifler for Team LDLC. As the in-game leader for Team Envy, and before that Team LDLC, Happy won two CS:GO Majors – DreamHack Winter 2014 and DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 – and finished second at another – ESL One Cologne 2015, a performance record that led to him being ranked as one of the best players in the game's history. Happy is considered a star of the French CS:GO scene and along with Ex6TenZ, one of the country's best in-game leaders. Before CS:GO, he played Counter-Strike: Source under the name EMSTQD.
Edouard Dubourdeaux or SmithZz is a French former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and former Counter-Strike: Source player.
Wiktor Wojtas, better known as TaZ, is a Polish Counter-Strike 2 coach and former Counter-Strike and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, who is currently the head coach for G2 Esports. He is one of the "Golden Five" group of Polish CS players who won many tournaments with a number of different esports teams. He has played for Virtus.pro, AGAiN, Universal Soldiers, ESC Gaming, Frag eXecutors, Vitriolic, Wicked eSports, Meet Your Makers, and Pentagram G-Shock. Wojtas has been playing professionally since 2004.
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.
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.
Richard Papillon, better known as shox, is a French professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for Nakama Esports. He is considered one of the greatest players in Global Offensive history, known for his high skill and longevity in the scene, and featured in HLTV's Top 20 Players list from 2013 to 2016. He has won over a dozen international tournaments, as well as one Major Championship: DreamHack Winter 2014.
Marcelo Augusto David, better known as coldzera, is a Brazilian professional Counter-Strike 2 player for RED Canids and a former professional Counter Strike: Global Offensive player. He was named the best CS:GO player in both 2016 and 2017 by CS:GO news website HLTV.
Professional Counter-Strike competition involves professional gamers competing in the first-person shooter game series Counter-Strike. The original game, released in 1999, is a mod developed by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess Cliffe of the 1998 video game Half-Life, published by Valve. Currently, the games that have been played competitively include Counter-Strike, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero (CS:CZ), Counter-Strike: Source (CS:S), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), and Counter-Strike 2 (CS2). Major esports championships began in 2001 with the Cyberathlete Professional League Winter Championship, won by Ninjas in Pyjamas.
The OL Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Décines-Charpieu in the Metropolis of Lyon, France. Owned by OL Groupe, the arena opened in November 2023 and is mainly used for sporting events and concerts. It is located near the Parc Olympique Lyonnais stadium and training complex.
