A homage to the moments, Majors and metas that built Counter-Strike from a Source 2012 launch into the longest-running esport on earth.
Lanxess Arena hosts the next CS2 Major. Vitality, Spirit, NaVi and FaZe headline the upper bracket. With the new sticker rotation system, only the printed Cologne 2026 holos will retain the legacy crafting behavior — driving renewed collector interest.
BLAST takes the Major back to American soil for the first time since ELEAGUE Boston. Capsules feature redesigned Texas-themed art and the playoffs sell out the Moody Center. The Austin sticker capsule introduces "shimmer" foil treatment for the first time.
Spodek hosts the 25th anniversary of IEM Katowice. Team Spirit beat MOUZ in a 5-map thriller. The post-CS2 generation (donk, jimpphat, torzsi, w0nderful) takes over the podium. $1M prize pool, Spodek sold out.
Pros adapt to volumetric smokes (HE through smoke clears, molly-jiggles, smoke-bounces from C4-detonations), MR12 format (max 24 rounds + OT), and new utility cooldowns. Anubis enters the active duty pool alongside Inferno, Mirage, Nuke, Vertigo, Ancient and the reworked Overpass.
Team Spirit (chopper, sh1ro, magixx, zont1x, donk) storm Shanghai. 17-year-old danil "donk" Kryshkovets turns into the most feared rifler on the planet. Shanghai capsules are Asia-first and crash the regional marketplace in minutes.
NaVi follow up Copenhagen with another deep run. MOUZ (with Jimpphat, torzsi, Brollan, xertioN and siuhy under coach Sycrone) confirm themselves as the second-best team on the planet. donk (Team Spirit) starts to look like the most feared rifler of the new era at just 17.
The first CS2 Major. NaVi (Aleksib, jL, w0nderful, b1t, iM) defeat FaZe in three maps. w0nderful AWP performance becomes legendary — his 1v3 on Inferno final is the closing image of the new era. First CS2 capsule (Copenhagen 2024) launches.
Valve replaces CS:GO with CS2 in a forced upgrade — every inventory carries over, but the old client is gone forever. Source 2 engine, sub-tick servers, redesigned smoke physics (volumetric, HE-clearable, molly-jigglable), remastered Mirage / Overpass / Nuke / Vertigo / Ancient, and a redesigned HUD.
ZywOo, apEX, Magisk, dupreeh and Spinx close the CS:GO chapter with a clean French Major. GamerLegion (with then-rookie iM as the breakout star) reaches the final from open quals. Capsules sell out in hours; the Paris 2023 Holo Sticker hits the moon after CS2 launch.
Valve opens the Counter-Strike 2 Limited Test to a small subset of players based on Trust Factor and playtime. First look at Source 2 maps, the new responsive smokes, sub-tick servers, MR12 format and updated UI.
Brazil hosts the long-awaited Major at Jeunesse Arena. Russian roster Outsiders (Jame, fame, FL1T, qikert, Qpaka) shock everyone by lifting the trophy. The 18,000-strong crowd is the loudest in CS history — and the moment Imperial (the new MIBR/coldzera supergroup) gets eliminated brings the venue to tears.
FaZe Clan (karrigan, ropz, broky, rain, Twistzz) finally win a Major after years of near-misses. Karrigan, IGL since 2014, ends the longest "no Major" career drought of any tier-1 IGL.
FaZe become the second team ever (after Astralis) to win the Intel Grand Slam, bagging the $1M bonus. The international super-team formula works. Cologne crowd is back at full force after COVID.
NaVi (s1mple, electronic, Perfecto, b1t, Boombl4) go 13-0 in the playoffs. s1mple finally lifts a Major trophy and wins MVP after years of bridesmaid finishes. Avicii Arena packed at 60% capacity, $2M prize pool — biggest CS event to date.
Online-era Gambit (sh1ro, Ax1Le, nafany, interz, Hobbit) sweep the IEM Katowice 2021 grand final 3-0 and announce themselves as the new #1. sh1ro and Ax1Le become household names overnight.
ESL's long-planned Rio Major is postponed indefinitely as the pandemic shuts down LANs worldwide. The Brazilian scene, set up for a homecoming, has to wait two more years. Capsule preview art leaks but is never printed in the original form.
LAN CS dies for 18 months. Heroic, Vitality, Astralis and NaVi trade regional titles. Online play reshapes scouting (players signed without LAN proof), changes anti-cheat priorities, and accelerates BLAST building a permanent broadcast studio in Copenhagen.
Astralis become the first team to win three consecutive Majors. AVANGAR (AdreN, Jame, qikert, buster, Dosia) shock the world reaching the final. Last LAN Major before COVID shuts everything down for 18 months.
ENCE shock the world running to the final with the Allu / Aerial / xseveN / sergej / Aleksib squad. Astralis still win comfortably, but the Cinderella run produces some of the era's loudest crowd moments.
Astralis trash Na`Vi at SSE Wembley. The Danes' tactical CS reaches god tier with dev1ce, gla1ve, dupreeh, Magisk and Xyp9x. dev1ce wins MVP. The team's grenade timings on Nuke and Mirage are still studied in 2026.
Cloud9 (Stewie2K, autimatic, RUSH, Skadoodle, tarik) beat FaZe in overtime on Inferno to give North America its first Major. Stewie2K's scream and tarik's flashbang IGL calls still echo in NA fan memory. First Major with a $1M prize pool.
Astralis with dev1ce, gla1ve, dupreeh, Magisk and Xyp9x set the standard for tactical CS: Intel Grand Slam, four Major trophies, dominance unmatched. Coach zonic becomes the most influential non-player in CS and defines the modern "sixth man" role.
Gambit (HObbit, mou, AdreN, Dosia, Zeus) beat Immortals 2-1 to claim the most unexpected Major of the era. Zeus, written off as a relic of 1.6, lifts the trophy. Immortals (NTC, kNg, boltz, steel, HEN1) become the surprise Cinderella.
Astralis win their first Major. device's clutch on Train and Snax's 1v3 on Cobblestone are still in every highlight reel. Atlanta marks the moment utility-heavy, default-driven CS overtakes raw aim.
Coldzera leaps off Mirage palace and quadkills mid-air with the AWP — a 1v4 clutch that turns the series and instantly becomes the most-watched clip in CS history. It still tops "greatest CS plays of all time" lists in 2026.
SK become the first team since Fnatic 2015 to win two Majors in a row. Brazilian CS dominance peaks. Liquid reach their first Major final and lose in straight maps, but a generation of NA fans is born.
Brazil arrives. coldzera, FalleN, fer, fnx and TACO win their first Major on US soil. The Nationwide Arena erupts as FalleN delivers his "Não é da nossa cultura perder" speech. This Major is widely considered the start of the modern stat-tracked, sticker-driven era.
EnVyUs avenge Cologne and lift the trophy in Romania, beating Na`Vi 2-0. The new capsule format with autographed player stickers reshapes the skin economy and creates the first true "investable" Major stickers.
Fnatic with olofmeister, KRiMZ, JW, flusha and pronax crush NiP 2-0. Olof wins his first Major. Katowice 2015 stickers (especially the foil variants) become four-figure assets within years.
Olof wins back-to-back Majors and cements Fnatic as the first true CS:GO dynasty. KRiMZ runs up the MVP charts. Lansdowne Arena (later Lanxess) sells out and the Cologne crowd becomes infamous for its volume.
Months after the Overpass controversy, LDLC (the future EnVyUs core: SmithZz, NBK-, Happy, kioShiMa, shox) finally claim the Major in Jönköping, beating NiP 2-1 in the final. French CS has its first trophy.
Spodek Arena hosts its first CS Major. Virtus.pro — Snax, NEO, TaZ, Byali and pashaBiceps — stun NiP in straight maps in front of a delirious Polish crowd. The Spodek chant ("Polska, Polska!") becomes legend, and Katowice 2014 stickers eventually become the most valuable item class ever printed in CS.
Olofmeister boosts to a pixel-perfect spot on Overpass that breaks the map's sightlines, allowing him to peek without being seen. Fnatic forfeit the match after community uproar and Valve patches the boost days later. The incident creates the first formal rule on 'illegal boosts' in pro CS.
Valve's first sponsored Major. Fnatic (JW, flusha, schneider, pronax, Devilwalk) dismantle the legendary 87-0 NiP lineup at Elmia in Jönköping. A modest $250,000 prize pool launches the format that defines CS for the next decade.
A single update creates an entire virtual economy. Weapon finishes, cases protected by paid keys, StatTrak counters, and the Steam Market unlock skin trading at scale. Within a decade, the cumulative trade volume of CS skins crosses $50B and items like the Karambit | Case Hardened "blue gem" sell for over $1M privately.
After a closed beta beginning in late 2011, Valve and Hidden Path ship CS:GO across PC and console. The community reception from 1.6 and Source veterans is brutal — recoil, movement and netcode all feel off. Within two years it would become the most-played FPS in esports history and the foundation of a $40B+ skin economy.
The full list of legends moved to its own page — with HLTV + Liquipedia sources per player and a search box.
The list of Steam profiles you\u2019ve analyzed now lives inside the Tracker page, right next to the rest of your watchlist.
OPEN TRACKER \u2192