The Best Counter-Strike Rosters of All-Time
September 18, 2024 - PirateSwap CrewCS is an unusual game in that teams are really… fluid. Brands change, rosters stay. For example, the Brazilian championship core of the days of yore played under three different brands: Luminosity, SK, and MIBR. That’s why we want to take a look at the best rosters of all time. None of that “Virtus Pro with Jame and Snax are the same thing.”
In this article, we’ll look at the 10 best 5-man rosters in Counter-Strike history. Ready?
10. EnvyUs
Made up of Vincent "Happy" Schopenhauer, Nathan "NBK-" Schmitt, Fabien "kioShiMa" Fiey, Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, and Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, this roster had an extremely strong run in 2015 as they won the DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015, and numerous other top-tier tournaments, before breaking up in the 2017 French Shuffle.
9. Vitality
Another French(ish) team is Vitality, where apEX appears again along with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Emil “Magisk” Reif, and Lotan “Spinx” Giladi. The team had a great run in the spring of 2023, winning the BLAST.tv Paris Major and IEM Rio in the span of a month. The summer brought the unfortunate departure of dupreeh, but nevertheless, when on their game, this roster was absolutely unstoppable, courtesy of ZywOo’s heroics.
8. 2019 Liquid
The best team to never win a Major, the 2019 Liquid squad consisting of Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken, Nicholas “nitr0” Canella, Jonathan “Elige” Jablonowski, Keith “NAF” Markovic, and Jake “Stewie2k” Yip absolutely dominated the scene, winning 9 tournaments in 9 months, including an IEM Grand Slam. Unfortunately, the big one got away from them, and the team eventually fell apart during the 2020 pandemic.
7. Luminosity/SK Gaming
Consisting of Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo, Marcelo “coldzera” David, Epitacio “TACO” Melo, Lincoln “fnx” Lau, and Fernando “fer” Alvarenga, the Brazilian roster dominated Counter-Strike in 2016, winning both Majors that year. After some conflicts, fnx left, and the mantra of “No fnx, no Major” came to be. Their dominant run didn’t last the longest, but it left a big mark on Counter-Strike.
6. Major-Winning FaZe
FaZe has been a team that for the longest time would be the bridesmaid and not the bride, but in 2022, they managed to break their curse in Antwerp with a roster consisting of Finn “karrigan” Andersen, Robin “ropz” Kool, Twistzz, Havard “rain” Nygard, and Helvijs “broky” Sauntas. Continuing the run, they managed to win the Intel Grand Slam, along with a few other tournaments. This core’s run ended when Twistzz left the team to rejoin Liquid.
5. s1mple’s Na’Vi
Led by Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, the Major-winning roster also featured Denis “electronic” Sharipov, Kiril “Boombl4” Mikhaylov, and Valerij “b1t” Vakhovskjyj. The team was on an absolute tear in 2021, winning not only the Stockholm Major, but also multiple IEM titles, resulting in them winning the Intel Grand Slam. The roster eventually fizzled out as the team transitioned to an international roster… that also won the Major and is now in the process of potentially cementing themselves in the Top 10.
4. Early CS:GO NiP
The famed early CS:GO Ninjas in Pyjamas, featuring Christopher “GeT_RighT” Alesund, Adam “friberg” Friberg, Patrick “f0rest” Lindberg, Richard “Xizt” Landstrom, and Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson, are best known for starting CS:GO esports with a banging 87-0 map-winning streak. Despite the Swedes’ dominance in the early days, they were cursed with losing Major finals for two years before winning their first and only Major in 2012. The roster eventually fell apart in late 2014 when Fifflaren left the team.
3. 2015 fnatic
Another Swedish team on our list, the 2015 fnatic roster featured Robin “flusha” Ronnquist, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Markus “pronax” Wallsten, and Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson. Winning both 2015 Majors, they became the first roster to repeat a Major title in Counter-Strike history, and the first team to win three titles as three of the five players also won a Major in 2013, with olofmeister and KRIMZ being the new additions. The team was also very close to winning a Major earlier, as DreamHack Winter 2014 ended in controversy surrounding the Olofpass incident, which eliminated the heavily favored hometown team from Major contention.
2. Golden Five
The Polish Five of Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski, Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas, Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski, Filip “NEO” Kubski, and Paweł “byali” Bieliński were the longest-running Counter-Strike roster of all time, playing together. Their biggest success has to be their Katowice Major 2014 win, but also plenty of other tournaments and high finishes in the Major. They may not have the most wins, but their sheer longevity has them placed second on our list, as they played together for over five years, spanning back to their days as Universal Soldiers in 2013 until their slow death that started in 2018 with the benching of TaZ.
1. Astralis
Who else but the team of dupreeh, Magisk, Nikolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, and Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth. They won three Majors (London 2018, Katowice 2019, and Berlin 2019), the first IEM Grand Slam, countless tournaments, and dominated the Counter-Strike scene for years. Four of them (with Magisk being replaced by Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye) also won the 2017 Atlanta Major. The Astralis era was beyond insane, and while the placement of the teams below it can easily be argued, these damn Danes can’t be argued with. They’re the GOATs.
There they are: the top 10 best Counter-Strike rosters of all time. For more like this, check out our list of the best Counter-Strike players in history and, if you’re into sniping, the best AWPers in CS. GLHF!
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