The CS:GO Year in Review

The last 12 months have been quite rough for esports. CS:GO was no exception, as the coronavirus pandemic forced all events after IEM Katowice to go online. Players and viewers have largely been stuck to their screens at home, with no real end in sight. But the year has still brought us some great and unforgettable stories. 

Our last offline event together took place in late February. IEM Katowice was the first tournament to keep visitors out, but at least the players were all still there in person. During the event, Natus Vincere and G2 Esports emerged as title prospects. On the way to the Grand Finals, G2 surpassed the 100 Thieves, mousesports, Team Liquid, and Fnatic. Natus Vincere lost to Fnatic early on and had to fight for survival in the Lower Bracket of Group A. In doing so, they booted the Ninjas in Pyjamas and FaZe Clan off the tournament. In the playoffs, they followed this up with victories over Team Liquid and Astralis. G2 and NaVi had beaten virtually every top team. Their performance inspired hope in a great and tense Grand Finals.

But in the end, Natus Vincere brought it home on a decisive 3-0 scoreline. Apart from a 13-16 loss on Dust2, Nemanja “nexa” Isaković stood without a chance. This was obviously a heavy blow to the team that, just a few months ago, had brought in some Eastern European reinforcements to the French lineup. However, Natus Vincere celebrated their first real victory with Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy on board. Unfortunately, this would remain their only significant victory in the entire year.

ASTRALIS HAVE TO REORGANIZE

In may, the CS:GO world was shook to its core. The lineup that had continually terrorized the scene since January 2018 would be broken up for an unknown amount of time. Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth both retreated from active combat after showing early signs of burnout. For months they had begged for a break, but ever since the beginning of the online competitions, they had constantly been barraged with tournaments and matches. Very quickly, the fans began to ask an important question: Who would replace gla1ve and Xyp9x?

Back when Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye had made his surprise move to North, Astralis had to find a replacement within days. After they settled for Emil “Magisk” Reif, the critics were quick to raise their voices. However, the young Dane has more than proven himself as part of the team in three Major victories now. Unfortunately, Astralis were not that lucky with their replacements this time around.

They brought in Marco “Snappi” Pfeiffer and Jakob “JUGi” Hansen as immediate substitutes. The two actually barely got to play for the team. Their debut was rather weak and in their follow-up matches, they failed to prove themselves. In July, these two were already out of the roster again. This time, Astralis put some cash on the table to sign Patrick “es3tag” Hansen and Lucas “Bubzkji” Andersen from Heroic and MAD Lions, respectively. When gla1ve got back into the starting lineup in September, Bubzkji was benched again. Even though the Danes didn’t immediately find their old form again, they soon became legitimate contenders with es3tag on board.

They broke through at the ESL Pro League Season 12 Finals. There, they got into the Grand Finals alongside Natus Vincere and secured the trophy after a perfect reverse sweep. But es3tag soon made his way to Cloud9 and Xyp9x got back into the starting lineup. So the old roster was complete again and nowadays, Bubzkji only sees the light of day when Astralis decide to go onto Nuke.

VITALITY SHOW HOW IT’S DONE WITH SIX MEN

The Danes weren’t the only ones who tried their hands at expanding their lineup. After all, other teams also had to suffer the constant pressure of online tournaments. In March, Alex “ALEX” McMeekin left Team Vitality and the organization signed Kévin “misutaaa” Rabier in his place. But there were more changes in store for Vitality. Dan “apEX” Madesclaire took over as the in-game-leader after ALEX had left that position vacant.

They struggled in their first matches with misutaaa, but the team slowly found itself and managed to enter playoffs stages once again. At ESL One Cologne, they suddenly made a dash for the Grand Finals and faced off against Heroic. Many already thought this tournament to be over, but the Danes surprised everyone with a quick 3-0 elimination. At DreamHack Open Fall, they repeated this, albeit on a much closer scoreline.

So far, misutaaa hadn’t really been up to the challenge of a Top 5 team. In October, Vitality decided to bring in a sixth man. The signed none other than Nabil “Nivera” Benrlitom. The surname should ring a bell among the most attentive Counter-Strike fans, as Nivera is the younger brother of Adil “ScreaM” Benrlitom. From the start, Vitality made it clear that they weren’t about to replace any player on the main lineup. Instead, their aim was to create a lineup in which players would be rotated in and out on a match and map basis. It didn’t take long for Nivera to appear on the server.

In almost an instant, Vitality became the top team of European CS. Even though they lost on some early maps, the eventually won their first tournament. In one fell swoop, they were victorious in their BLAST Premier: Fall Regular Season group, at IEM Beijing and at the BLAST Premier: Fall Finals. Nivera has slowly grown to be a star, but misutaaa has shown great form lately as well. Even though the Frenchmen ended their 2020 run with a Group Stage exit at the IEM Challenge, they’re still one of the hottest and most dangerous teams for the coming year.

THE CRAZIEST ROSTER MOVES OF THE YEAR

Aside from JUGi joining Astralis (temporarily), the transfer market made quite a few headlines. Aurimas “Bymas” Pipiras was an absolute newcomer in the scene, until he was suddenly signed by FaZe Clan. With zero professional experience, there was no telling whether the youngster actually had the necessary star qualities. Actually, his performance under FaZe was rather subpar. For three short months, he remained on the roster, until Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye replaced him. To the surprise of many, mousesports then signed the Lithuanian. But Finn “karrigan” Andersen definitely saw potential in the player and within weeks, he proved that Bymas was able to perform under the right conditions. Just like he has slowly raised Robin “ropz” Kool to a world-class level, karrigan is now working hard to mold Bymas into a star player as well.

In North America, things have changed a lot. The scene has lost dozens of talented players to VALORANT, which lures them in on the promise of great international career opportunities. James “hazed” Cobb, Tyson “TenZ” Ngo, Daniel “vice” Kim, Pujan “FNS” Mehta, Bradley “ANDROID” Fodor, Spencer “Hiko” Martin, Joshua “steel” Nissan… the list goes on. But more important than anyone else, Nick “nitr0” Canella has switched. The former Team Liquid in-game-leader had won trophies like ESL One Cologne 2019 just about a year ago. But now, he has decided to transition over to VALORANT. Even though he has already found quick success, he leaves behind a vacuum in the CS:GO scene. North America will require a lot of time to compensate for all these losses. One of the biggest and most promising young talents, Nathan “leaf” Orf, moved to Cloud9’s VALORANT division just a few weeks ago.

NIKO IN G2?

Arguably, the biggest news and media hype came when Nikola “NiKo” Kovač signed for G2 Esports. Ever since 2017, the Bosnian had played under the FaZe Clan banner and has won some trophies along the way. But 2020 was a bad year for the international superteam. Weak outings, missed trophies, and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer returning to the bench all spurred this change. When Kjaerbye joined the team, he didn’t bring the improvement they wanted to see. Apart from a smaller trophy at IEM New York, which they mostly won due to OG choking out in the Grand Finals, they found no real success.

But G2 haven’t really had it any easier. Even though they topped their BLAST Premier: Fall Regular Season group with a surprise victory over Astralis, they have struggled to mount deep tournament runs in recent time. This is unfortunate considering that NiKo is improving with every single match. The last months in FaZe saw him declining in the ratings, but the move to G2 has helped him regain his form.

Counter-Strike has never experienced a year quite like this one. Even in the early days, when tournaments still took place in exhibition halls, teams and players at least had somewhat of a relation to the fans. The viewers themselves also could experience the atmosphere and see their idols live on stage. We have had none of that during this year, but the Counter-Strike scene has made the best of it. The first offline tournaments since March 2020 have been announced for the coming year. Will we finally get some studio events back on track and see our favorite teams and players in the flesh again?