Kyle Miller, better known as Ksharp, is a retired esports player who played Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike Source, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. At the peak of Miller's career he played for Team 3D.
The Championship Gaming Series was an international esports league based in the United States, with teams from several other countries. The CGS was preceded by the 2006 Championship Gaming Invitational, a television pilot featuring several future CGS players. The league was founded in 2007 and was owned and operated by DirecTV in association with British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) and STAR TV. It folded in 2008 after two seasons.
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.
Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional League of Legends team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 and was incorporated into Cloud9 Esports, Inc. on September 6, 2016. Cloud9 has received US$78 million in total raised equity via venture capital funding and was ranked the world's fifth-most valuable esports organization in mid-2022.
Complexity Gaming, formerly stylized as compLexity, is an American esports franchise headquartered in Frisco, Texas. The franchise was founded in 2003 by Jason Lake and is co-owned by Lake, real estate investor John Goff, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones. Complexity operates out of the Legion by Lenovo Esports Center, an esports training facility in The Star. The franchise competes in Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, FIFA, Fortnite, Hearthstone, Madden, Magic: The Gathering Arena, Rocket League, and Valorant. Complexity formerly competed in several other games, including Call of Duty, Dota 2, Heroes of the Storm, and League of Legends. In addition to competitive teams, Complexity also streams gaming sessions over Twitch. Complexity formerly maintained Limit, a World of Warcraft guild, until the end of their sponsorship deal with the guild in early 2022.
Team 3D was an American esports organization that formerly had teams competing in Counter-Strike: Source, Warcraft 3, Dead or Alive 4, Halo 2, Painkiller, and Call of Duty. Team 3D was one of the most successful North American Counter-Strike teams and briefly became a part of the Championship Gaming Series (CGS). The owner Craig "Torbull" Levine decided not to continue the team after the demise of the CGS in 2009.
NRG Esports is an American esports organization based in Los Angeles, California. It has rosters in League of Legends, Overwatch, Rocket League, Valorant, Counter-Strike 2 and a number of streamers on the internet platform Twitch.
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.
Sean Michael Gares, better known as sgares or Seang@res, is an American professional retired Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player, esports commentator and the former head coach of 100 Thieves' Valorant roster. In December 2016, he was released from TSM over a player rights controversy and played for Misfits between January 2017 and January 2018.
Shahzeb Khan, better known as ShahZaM, is an American professional Valorant player for G2 Esports. He was a former CS:GO professional player before announcing that he would be officially making the switch to Riot Games' Valorant. He would find most of his success in Valorant as he went on to win their first international LAN tournament in Reykjavík, Iceland.
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.
Jordan Gilbert, better known as n0thing, is an American retired professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. He previously played as a rifler/lurker for Cloud9. n0thing is one of the most experienced North American players. Before playing Global Offensive, n0thing was a professional Counter Strike 1.6 player. Jordan won his first LAN tournament at just 10 years old. Since then, he has grown into a major figure in the CS:GO scene. His large following has garnered him popularity outside the esports scene, even appearing on The Joe Rogan Experience.
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.
The Counter-Strike match fixing scandal was a 2014 match fixing scandal in the North American professional scene of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). It involved a match between two teams, iBUYPOWER and NetCodeGuides.com, where questionable and unsportsmanlike performance from the team iBUYPOWER, then considered the best North American team, drew suspicion, resulting in a loss for the team; allegations quickly surfaced afterwards that the match was fixed. More decisive evidence and punishments would come half a year later, after an expository article was published by esports journalist Richard Lewis.
Michael Grzesiek, better known as Shroud, is a Canadian streamer, YouTuber, former professional Valorant player, and former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player. As of April 2022, his Twitch channel has reached over 10 million followers, ranking as the eighth most-followed channel on the platform, and his YouTube channel has over 6.79 million subscribers.
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.
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.
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.
The PGL Major Antwerp 2022, also known as PGL Major 2022 or Antwerp 2022, was the seventeenth Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Major Championship. It was held in Antwerp, Belgium at the Sportpaleis from May 9 to 22, 2022. Twenty-four teams participated, with most qualifying through regional tournaments. It featured a US$1,000,000 prize pool, half of the previous Major. It was the third Major hosted by the Romanian organization PGL, after PGL Major: Kraków 2017 and PGL Major Stockholm 2021. The Major would be won by FaZe Clan, the first international team in CS:GO history to win a Major.
Tyson Ngo, better known as TenZ, is a Canadian professional Valorant player currently signed to Sentinels. He began his esports career in October 2019 as a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player for Cloud9. In April 2020, he transitioned to Valorant, playing for Cloud9. He took a break from professional Valorant in January 2021 to focus on a career in content creation, and in April 2021, he was loaned to Sentinels. He went on to win the VCT Stage Two Masters in Reykjavík later that year. In June 2021, his Cloud9 contract was bought out by Sentinels.
