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, making it the oldest esports organization in the world.
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.
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.
Virtus.pro (VP) is an international esports organization founded in 2003 in Russia and acquired by Armenian investors in 2022. The organization has players competing in such games as Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Rainbow Six Siege, PUBG Mobile, and Warface.
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.
Mikail Bill, better known as Maikelele, is a retired Swedish professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He has played in teams like qwerty, G2 Esports, Team Kinguin, LGB eSports, Ninjas in Pyjamas, mousesports, UnWanted, ESG!, FaZe Clan, SK Gaming, Team Property, Red Reserve, Digital Chaos and GODSENT.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Jacky "Jake" Yip, better known as Stewie2K, is an American streamer and professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. As a member of Cloud9, he became the first North American to win a Valve–sponsored major in CS:GO.
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.
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 7x 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, 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 Natus Vincere. He is considered to be one of the best players in Counter-Strike history.
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 the lineup, having played since the team first formed under the Team Kinguin banner.
The Intel Extreme Masters Season XVII – Rio Major 2022, also known as IEM Rio Major 2022 or Rio 2022, was the eighteenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championship. It was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between October 31 and November 13, 2022. Outsiders won the Major, defeating Heroic in the grand final 2–0.
