120 Fun Facts About CS:GO

Which studio co-developed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive with Valve, having begun by porting its predecessor?

The console port of Counter-Strike: Source grew into a full sequel once Valve saw the opportunity.

In which month and year was CS:GO first released for Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360?

CS:GO launched in August 2012 (21 August) on Windows, OS X, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, priced at $14.99, after a closed beta that had started the previous November.

In CS:GO's Arms Race mode, a kill with which weapon wins the match?

Arms Race hands players a new weapon after each kill; the final tier is the golden knife, and the first player to score a kill with it wins the match.

A full CS:GO Competitive match is a best-of how many rounds?

A full CS:GO Competitive match is best of 30 rounds: the first team to 16 round wins takes it, with sides swapping after the first 15 rounds; pro play added overtime when a match reached 15-15.

CS:GO's Competitive skill ranks were based on which rating system?

CS:GO's skill groups were based on the Glicko rating system (a modified Glicko-2), which tracks a rating plus a confidence interval rather than a single Elo number; Valve never published the exact formula.

Which mode equips everyone with only an SSG 08 and a knife on a low-gravity map?

Flying Scoutsman gives every player only an SSG 08 sniper rifle, nicknamed the Scout, and a knife, with gravity lowered so players float through long jumps.

In Retakes mode, how many Terrorists defend the planted bomb against four Counter-Terrorists?

Players pick a loadout card at the start of each round instead of buying weapons.

Which equipment new to CS:GO kills an enemy in one shot at close range?

The taser (Zeus x27), new to the series in CS:GO, kills any enemy in a single hit within a few metres; it held one shot and was discarded after firing.

Which popular community mod has players complete obstacle courses with advanced strafing and jumping?

Kreedz Climbing, usually shortened to KZ, is a community mod in which players race through obstacle courses using advanced strafing and jumping; it began on Counter-Strike 1.6 climb maps before moving to CS:GO servers.

What was the name of the August 2013 update that introduced weapon skins and cases to CS:GO?

The Arms Deal update of August 2013 introduced weapon skins, weapon cases and keys; the skin economy it created helped push CS:GO's player count past every earlier Counter-Strike.

Which purchasable events, accessed via passes, gave players objectives and an upgradeable coin?

Operations were time-limited events bought via an operation pass; each gave players missions and a coin that upgraded from bronze toward diamond as objectives were completed, with some revenue going to the community map makers.

What did the October 2014 update add that plays the round MVP's own soundtrack for everyone?

Music kits, added in October 2014, replace the default soundtrack, and the round MVP's kit plays for everyone; kits can be borrowed from teammates, sold and traded on the Steam Community Market.

Which classic map was remade and re-released in February 2016 as part of Operation Wildfire?

Nuke was rebuilt and re-released on 17 February 2016 alongside Operation Wildfire; Valve said the goals were to balance the map and make it more visually appealing.

What did a player need to link to their account for CS:GO Prime matchmaking in 2016?

Prime matchmaking launched in April 2016 and required linking a verified phone number to the Steam account, aiming to keep legitimate players away from cheaters and from high-skill players smurfing on alternate accounts.

In October 2016 consumable "graffiti" items replaced which older customisable feature?

Sprays, the series' older paint-on-wall feature, were replaced in October 2016 by consumable graffiti items that can be bought, traded and applied a limited number of times; glove skins followed a month later.

Which publisher released a censored version of CS:GO in mainland China in September 2017?

Perfect World published the censored mainland Chinese version of CS:GO in September 2017; skulls were censored and the hammer and sickle was removed from Cache and Train.

What was CS:GO's hidden matchmaking score, introduced in November 2017, called?

Trust Factor, introduced in November 2017, is a hidden matchmaking score built from a player's behaviour across Steam and CS:GO; Valve has never shown players the number or the full list of what feeds it.

In which month and year did CS:GO become fully free to play?

CS:GO went fully free to play on 6 December 2018; anyone who had already bought the game was upgraded to Prime status automatically, while new free accounts had to earn or buy Prime.

What was the name of the battle-royale mode added to CS:GO in late 2018?

The same update replaced the old Scaleform interface with the Panorama UI.

Operation Shattered Web (November 2019) was notable for introducing what to CS:GO?

Operation Shattered Web (November 2019) brought new character models and a battle pass: purchasable agent skins replaced the default player models, and weekly missions earned stars to unlock rewards.

CS:GO source code leaked in April 2020 alongside the code for which other Valve game?

Valve confirmed the leak was genuine but said current builds were not at risk.

How much per month did the "CS:GO 360 Stats" subscription cost when it launched in May 2021?

CS:GO 360 Stats launched in May 2021 at $0.99 a month, offering round-by-round match stats that had previously come with an operation pass; players noted free third-party sites already offered similar data.

In 2019 Valve made new keys untradeable after concluding key trading was being used for what?

In October 2019 Valve said key trading had become money laundering by fraud networks, stating 'nearly all' key purchases that ended up traded on the marketplace were fraud-sourced, so newly bought keys became untradeable.

In July 2018 Valve disabled case opening in which two countries over their gambling laws?

Valve disabled case opening for players in Belgium and the Netherlands in July 2018 after regulators in both countries ruled that tradeable loot boxes broke their gambling laws.

In the 2014 match-fixing scandal, iBUYPOWER deliberately lost to which team?

iBUYPOWER deliberately lost a CEVO Professional match to NetCodeGuides.com in August 2014; seven people were permanently banned from Valve Majors, though other organisers later let them compete.

Which iBUYPOWER player escaped the Major ban because he took no payment, and later won a Major?

Tyler 'Skadoodle' Latham escaped the ban because he had taken no payment for the thrown match; he went on to win a Major in January 2018 as his team's AWPer, while the bans ended two top in-game leaders' careers.

The 2020 coaching scandal involved coaches exploiting a bug to do what?

Coaches exploited a spectator bug that froze their camera at a chosen spot, letting them see parts of the map they should not have and relay enemy positions; the Esports Integrity Commission sanctioned dozens of coaches.

How much does the AWP sniper rifle cost in the Counter-Strike buy menu?

The AWP costs $4,750 in the buy menu; a single shot to the chest or head kills an opponent even through full armour, which is why teams save up for it on full-buy rounds.

The first significant TV rights deal for CS:GO put the ELEAGUE Major 2017 on which US cable network?

Turner followed up with Esports 101: CSGO and a docu-series in 2018.

CS:GO won an eSports title-of-the-year prize at which awards ceremony in 2015?

CS:GO took the eSports Game of the Year prize at The Game Awards 2015, and was nominated for Best Esports Game at the same show in 2017 and from 2019 to 2022.

The first Valve-recognised CS:GO Major, DreamHack Winter 2013, was held in which country?

DreamHack Winter 2013, held in Jönköping, Sweden, was the first Valve-sponsored Major; its $250,000 prize pool was partly funded by community purchases of the eSports case introduced with the Arms Deal update.

Which team won the first CS:GO Major in 2013?

Fnatic won DreamHack Winter 2013, the first CS:GO Major, in an upset over the Swedish rivals who had gone 87-0 on LAN the previous year; Fnatic would win two more Majors in 2015.

Which team's CS:GO lineup put together an 87-0 LAN map winning streak in 2012-13?

Ninjas in Pyjamas won 87 consecutive LAN maps from CS:GO's 2012 release into 2013; GeT_RiGhT, part of that lineup, was HLTV's best player in the world in both 2013 and 2014.

Ahead of MLG Columbus 2016, Valve permanently raised the Major prize pool from $250,000 to what?

Valve raised the Major prize pool from $250,000 to $1,000,000 starting with MLG Columbus 2016, and at the same time the number of Majors per year dropped from three to two.

Which Brazilian team won MLG Columbus 2016 to become the first non-European Major champion?

Luminosity Gaming, led by FalleN, won MLG Columbus 2016 as the first non-European Major champion; the same roster won the next Major, ESL One Cologne 2016, playing under the SK Gaming banner.

Gambit Esports, the first CIS team to win a Major (2017), was mainly players from which country?

Three of Gambit's five Kraków 2017 players, AdreN, mou and Hobbit, were from Kazakhstan, alongside Dosia and Zeus, so the win also counted as the first Asian team to win a Major.

Which team won the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, the first North American Major winner?

Cloud9 beat FaZe Clan in an overtime decider to win the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018, the first North American Major title; Boston was also the first Major with 24 teams and the first split across two cities.

Which Danish team won the most CS:GO-era Majors, with four?

Astralis won four CS:GO Majors: Atlanta 2017, London 2018, Katowice 2019 and Berlin 2019, the last three making them the first team to win three Majors in a row.

Why was ESL One Rio 2020, planned as the first South American Major, never played?

ESL One Rio 2020, due to be the first Major in South America, was postponed from May to November 2020 and then it was cancelled because of COVID-19; Brazil had to wait until IEM Rio 2022.

Which team won PGL Major Stockholm 2021 without dropping a single map, a CS:GO first?

Natus Vincere, led by s1mple, won PGL Major Stockholm 2021 without dropping a single map, the first team to do so at a Major; the final against G2 peaked at about 2.75 million concurrent viewers.

s1mple, HLTV's No. 1 player in 2018, 2021 and 2022, is from which country?

Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev is from Ukraine, born in Kyiv; he won his first Major title and the MVP award at Stockholm 2021.

Which organisation won PGL Major Antwerp 2022, the first international roster to win a Major?

FaZe Clan, with players from five different countries, beat Natus Vincere 2-0 in the PGL Major Antwerp 2022 final to become the first international roster to win a Major.

Under which neutral name did Virtus.pro compete at IEM Rio 2022?

Virtus.pro competed as Outsiders because Russian-owned organisations were barred from using their branding after the invasion of Ukraine; under that name they beat Heroic 2-0 in the IEM Rio 2022 final.

Which French organisation won BLAST Paris 2023, the final CS:GO Major?

Team Vitality, with home-country star ZywOo, beat dark horse GamerLegion 2-0 in the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023 final, the last Major played on CS:GO.

How old was ZywOo when he first won HLTV's Player of the Year, for 2019?

Mathieu 'ZywOo' Herbaut was 19 when HLTV named him the best player of 2019, his first full year with Team Vitality; he won the award again for 2020.

Where was the first Counter-Strike 2 Major held in March 2024?

PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, played at the Royal Arena in March 2024, was the first Counter-Strike 2 Major; the second went to Shanghai that December.

Who designed the map Dust II for the original Counter-Strike?

David Johnston, who had already made the original Dust during the 1999 beta, designed Dust II; it arrived with Counter-Strike 1.1 in 2001 and received its first major visual overhaul in CS:GO in October 2017.

The original Counter-Strike began in 1999 as a mod for which Valve game?

Counter-Strike began in June 1999 as a Half-Life mod by Minh Le and Jess Cliffe; it grew so popular that Valve bought the rights and hired both of them.

Counter-Strike: Source (2004) was developed by Valve with which studio, later famous for Left 4 Dead?

It was a remake of the 2000 original on the then-new Source engine.

On what date did Counter-Strike 2 replace CS:GO on Steam?

Counter-Strike 2 replaced CS:GO as a free update on September 27, 2023; the invite-only beta had begun on March 22, 2023, the day the game was announced.

Support for which operating system was dropped when Counter-Strike 2 arrived?

Counter-Strike 2 dropped support for macOS, along with DirectX 9 and 32-bit operating systems, when it launched in September 2023; all 167 of CS:GO's achievements were removed at the same time.

What is the numerical ranking used in Counter-Strike 2's Premier mode called?

Premier mode in Counter-Strike 2 ranks players with a numerical CS Rating, shown in colour-coded tiers from grey up to gold for 30,000 and above; regular Competitive kept the old per-map skill groups.

Under Valve's rules, who holds a team's Major qualification spot?

Valve ties a Major spot to the players, not the organisation: if at least three of the five stay together the spot follows them, which is how EnVyUs lost its 2017 Major-qualifier place when three players moved to G2 Esports.

Since 2017 the Major group stages have used which tournament format?

Majors have used the Swiss system for group stages since ELEAGUE Atlanta 2017: teams with the same record meet each round, three wins advance a team and three losses eliminate it.

Which high-profile French pro was VAC-banned in 2014 while playing for Titan?

Hovik 'KQLY' Tovmassian was VAC-banned in November 2014 while playing for Titan, days before DreamHack Winter 2014, which cost the team its place at the Major; VAC bans are permanent.

Where is CS:GO's co-developer studio based?

Hidden Path Entertainment, CS:GO's co-developer, is based in Bellevue, Washington, a short drive from Valve's own headquarters in the Seattle area.

In which year was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive first revealed to the public?

Development had begun in March 2010 as Hidden Path's console port of Counter-Strike: Source, and the reveal came on August 12, 2011.

Roughly how many people had access when CS:GO's closed beta began in November 2011?

CS:GO's closed beta opened on 30 November 2011 to about 10,000 people who had received keys at showcase events; it widened only once client and server stability problems were fixed.

Which platform got CS:GO in September 2014, more than two years after the other versions?

The game launched on Windows, OS X, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on August 21, 2012, with Linux trailing behind.

Why did Valve drop its plans for cross-platform play between PC and consoles in CS:GO?

Valve dropped PC-console cross-play so the PC and Mac versions could be actively updated without waiting on console certification; the console versions consequently froze in place while the PC game received updates for over a decade.

What did two lawsuits filed in mid-2016 accuse skin-betting sites and Valve of encouraging?

The two 2016 suits accused Valve and skin-betting sites of encouraging underage gambling and alleged undisclosed promotion by streamers; Valve responded by cutting the sites off from Steamworks, and several closed.

In Counter-Strike 2, a standard match ends when one team wins how many rounds?

Counter-Strike 2 matches are first to 13 round wins, a maximum of 24 regulation rounds, down from CS:GO's 30-round matches where 16 wins took the game.

How many maps make up the Premier mode pool in Counter-Strike 2's pick-and-ban system?

Premier uses the seven-map Active Duty pool, with teams banning and picking down to one map before each match; Premier also replaced CS:GO's 18 skill groups with a numerical rating, while Competitive ranks players per map.

CS2's revised loadout lets a player bring how many weapons in total into a match?

Counter-Strike 2's loadout holds 15 weapons per side: five pistols, five mid-tier weapons such as SMGs and shotguns, and five rifles, with players choosing which alternatives, such as the M4A4 or M4A1-S, to bring.

Which map did Valve rebuild from the ground up as an 'Overhaul' for Counter-Strike 2?

Dust II was a layout-unchanged 'Touchstone' map and Nuke got the 'Upgrades' treatment with new Source 2 lighting and materials.

Who composed the new music for Counter-Strike 2?

Mike Morasky, Valve's in-house composer who also scored Portal 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, wrote Counter-Strike 2's new music; a soundtrack album followed on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings label.

Roughly how many Counter-Strike loot boxes were reportedly opened during 2023?

A case tracker cited by Eurogamer and Dot Esports counted about 400 million Counter-Strike cases opened during 2023, generating roughly US$1 billion in key revenue in that year alone.

In Counter-Strike 2's Wingman mode, how many round wins does a team need?

Wingman in Counter-Strike 2 is first to nine round wins, a maximum of 16 rounds, played two-versus-two on a single bombsite; Retakes, by contrast, is decided at eight.

About how many Steam reviews from CS:GO masked the wave of negative CS2 reviews at launch?

CS:GO's roughly 7.5 million existing Steam reviews carried over to Counter-Strike 2, masking the launch backlash; Rock Paper Shotgun estimated that CS2's own reviews alone would have shown a 'mixed' 59% rating.

What was Counter-Strike 2's invite-only beta, opened to select CS:GO players in March 2023, called?

The Limited Test, Counter-Strike 2's invite-only beta, began on 22 March 2023 for selected CS:GO players, widening in stages through the summer before the full launch that September.

What do CS:GO players call experts using low-ranked second accounts, a habit Prime matchmaking targeted?

Smurfing pits experts against beginners; with fewer such accounts getting in, Prime matches turn out more evenly balanced.

Which Soviet symbol was removed from the maps Cache and Train in the version of CS:GO released in China?

The hammer and sickle disappeared from both maps in the Chinese build, which also censored skulls and had to disclose the odds of its loot boxes.

Which Competitive Skill Group sits at the very top of the CS:GO ranking ladder that starts at Silver 1?

The Global Elite is the last of the Skill Groups players earn and display in Competitive mode, while the 2v2 Wingman mode hands out its own separate rank.

Which map from the original Counter-Strike took Cache's place in CS:GO's competitive pool in March 2019?

Vertigo is set on top of a skyscraper in an unnamed city, and it kept its competitive slot until Train took over in January 2025.

Which American CS:GO organisation was bought in 2017 by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and moved to Texas?

Complexity set up in Frisco after the sale, 14 years after Jason Lake founded the team in 2003.

In Counter-Strike 2, gunshots and hand grenades can reshape which battlefield obstacle in real time?

Smoke clouds in Counter-Strike 2 grow to fill the space around them and can be altered in real time by bullets or a grenade blast.

Which Valve-run service lets CS:GO fans upload their own maps and weapon skins for the community to judge?

Steam Workshop uploads can pay off: when Valve adds a community-made skin to a weapon case, its creators are paid.

Which Counter-Strike league's anti-cheat software was caught secretly mining bitcoin on its users' PCs?

ESEA's co-founder confirmed the report on the forums, by which point about $3,700 worth of bitcoin had been generated.

Which designer, known online as Gooseman, built the first Counter-Strike mod with Jess Cliffe as a student?

Minh Le borrowed his nickname from a hero of the 1980s cartoon The Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, and Valve hired him in 2000.

In which CS:GO mode do players automatically receive armor and defusal kits, with team damage switched off?

Casual mode also runs a simplified economy and lets players drop in and out, which is why Valve pitches it as the place to learn the fundamentals.

Who claimed the Intel Grand Slam in 2019 by winning four big CS:GO tournaments in just 63 days?

Team Liquid finished the job in July 2019, the quickest any team had completed the Grand Slam.

Which organisation founded by ex-League of Legends pro 'ocelote' signed NiKo for its CS:GO team in 2020?

G2 Esports was founded in Spain in 2014 as Gamers2, taking its shorter name the following year and settling in Berlin.

The Brazilian five who won MLG Columbus 2016 were hired that July by which German organisation?

SK Gaming announced the signing only days before the lineup won ESL One Cologne 2016, so the German brand owned a Major title almost at once.

Which CS:GO team, built on the Australian squad Vox Eminor, was bought in 2016 by NBA player Jonas Jerebko?

Renegades had signed the Australian roster in June 2015, and the franchise changed hands after its founders were banned from owning a League of Legends team.

Which team's run to the 2019 Katowice Major final turned a fan song by Finnish duo The Verkkars into a viral hit?

ENCE lost that final, but the song named after the team's chant became the fourth-most-popular track in Spotify's Finnish top 50.

Which CS:GO map set in a Middle East-inspired town began as the community map de_cpl_strike?

Mirage was remade by Valve from Michael 'BubkeZ' Hüll's original in 2013 and went on to feature at every CS:GO Major.

Which name did Valve give the redesigned CS:GO interface that replaced the older Scaleform menus?

Panorama launched as a preview in June 2018, and Valve called it the biggest change to CS:GO's look and feel since the game came out in 2012.

Which CS:GO bomb-defusal mode upgrades a player's gun only after a kill in the previous round?

Demolition has teams take turns attacking and defending a single bombsite, working up to stronger weapons such as sniper rifles.

CS:GO's Arms Race mode is a variant of which kill-to-upgrade mod from earlier Counter-Strike games?

Gun Game hands players a new weapon after every kill, a formula Arms Race keeps, with instant respawns built for close-quarters fights.

Which skin-betting site was exposed in 2016 as owned by TmarTn and Syndicate, two YouTubers who promoted it?

CSGO Lotto's owners had not disclosed their stake in the videos, and Valve blocked the site from Steam only to lift the ban days later.

Which CS:GO matchmaking platform, founded in London in 2012, was bought alongside ESL in a $1.5 billion deal?

FACEIT and ESL were acquired together by Savvy Games Group, owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and merged into the ESL FACEIT Group.

Which Brazilian team, co-founded by poker pro André Akkari, reached the semi-finals of the 2022 Rio Major?

FURIA went that far in front of a home crowd, its best Major result at the time, only five years after the club was founded.

Which security system, launched with Counter-Strike in 2002, at first banned cheaters for only 24 hours?

Valve Anti-Cheat bans later stretched to one year, then five, and became permanent once VAC2 arrived in 2005.

Which organisation's 2001 Winter Championship in Dallas became known as the first Counter-Strike 'Major'?

CPL, the Cyberathlete Professional League, put up $150,000 for that Dallas event and ran twice-yearly tournaments until it shut down in 2008.

Which organisation signed NRG's CS:GO roster a day before ESL One New York 2019 and saw it win the event?

Evil Geniuses had been out of Counter-Strike since dismissing its long-standing squad in 2012, so its comeback began with a trophy.

For which in-game item has Valve released a design for every team at a CS:GO Major since Katowice 2014?

Stickers fund the scene directly: half of each purchase goes to the team or player shown and half to Valve.

Which CS:GO map, added in late 2020, was created as a homage to the classic map de_aztec?

Ancient is set in an archaeological site, probably in Central America, and it took Train's place in the competitive pool in May 2021.

Which community-made map did Valve buy from its creators in 2022 to replace Dust II in the competitive pool?

Anubis went from the least popular competitive map to a favourite choice at the 2023 Paris Major.

Which Danish AWPer, real name Nicolai Reedtz, made HLTV's top three players five times between 2015 and 2020?

dev1ce was also an exceptional badminton player, but at 14 he turned down Denmark's big clubs, citing a knee injury and a greater passion for video games.

Which Swede, real name Christopher Alesund, did HLTV rank the best CS:GO player in the world in 2013 and 2014?

GeT_RiGhT is credited with popularising the lurker role in competitive play, and he joined the HLTV Hall of Fame in 2025.

Which Swedish star famously defused a bomb on Overpass milliseconds before a Molotov would have killed him?

olofmeister only took the game seriously after a knee injury at 15 ended his football, and he went on to win two Majors in 2015.

Which Brazilian did HLTV name the best CS:GO player in the world in both 2016 and 2017?

coldzera took the first of those awards in his first full year as a professional, having signed his first contract only in August 2015.

Which French AWPer, once considered CS:GO's best sniper, announced his retirement at the 2023 Paris Major?

kennyS bowed out one day after his 28th birthday, breaking the news just before a semi-final on home soil.

Which Brazilian two-time Major winner, real name Gabriel Toledo, also founded the organisation Games Academy?

FalleN was chosen as the most influential person in Brazilian esports in 2015, a year before he won both of his Major titles.

Which Danish rifler is the only player to win five CS:GO Majors and to have played in every one ever held?

dupreeh won his fifth in 2023 with a new team, beating the record of four he had shared with three former teammates.

Which Canadian, real name Michael Grzesiek, left pro CS:GO to become one of Twitch's biggest streamers?

shroud, once known as mEclipse, left the starting roster in 2017 and had more than 11 million Twitch followers by 2025.

Which American was named MVP of the ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018 and later became a full-time Twitch streamer?

tarik had already won ELEAGUE Season 2 with a different lineup, and in 2022 he signed with Sentinels as a content creator.

Which American, later a Major champion, signed his first big CS:GO contract hours after his 18th birthday?

Stewie2K had flown to Los Angeles at 17 to chase a career, was signed on a departing captain's recommendation, and won a Major two years later.

Which Norwegian, the longest-serving member of any CS:GO lineup, joined his team in its Team Kinguin days?

rain was hired by Team Kinguin in May 2015, when it was one of the first organisations to experiment with international rosters.

Which Estonian star played Call of Duty as a sniper before joining mousesports to play CS:GO in 2017?

ropz lifted a string of trophies with mousesports and was regarded as the MVP of the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals.

Which Canadian rifler did HLTV name the MVP of both ESL One New York 2018 and IEM Sydney 2019?

Twistzz took the New York medal even though his team lost the final there, then earned the Sydney one as a tournament winner.

Which American rifler, born Jonathan Jablonowski, did HLTV rank the No. 4 player in the world for 2019?

EliGE traces his competitive streak to childhood, when he played his older brother's games determined to become better than him.

Which Russian AWPer, born in May 2005, did HLTV rank as the seventh-best player in the world for 2022?

m0NESY was only 17 when he collected his first HLTV MVP medal at a big event, and he climbed to second in the 2024 ranking.

Which Russian teenager, known for his aggressive style, was named HLTV's Player of the Year for 2024?

donk won it at 17 in his first full year as a professional, having first picked up Counter-Strike at the age of four.

Which Polish 'Golden Five' member did HLTV users vote Counter-Strike's greatest player of the decade in 2010?

NEO was rated by HLTV as the best player in the world for 2011, the year after that vote, and went on to win a CS:GO Major with Virtus.pro in 2014.

Which American veteran, a Counter-Strike 1.6 star before CS:GO, later guested on The Joe Rogan Experience?

n0thing, real name Jordan Gilbert, first made his name in Counter-Strike 1.6 as the star player of a top American team that signed him in 2008.

Which rifler was reunited with his cousin NiKo when the two became CS:GO teammates in October 2020?

huNter was already on the team when NiKo arrived after three and a half years elsewhere, and the cousins reached a Major final together in 2021.

Which Dane, real name Andreas Højsleth, was part of the first lineup to win three CS:GO Majors in a row?

Xyp9x, nicknamed the Clutch Minister, won those three in a row in 2018 and 2019 on top of an earlier Major title in 2017.

Which CS:GO map, added in March 2017, was the first new official map since Overpass in 2013?

Canals takes place in a city inspired by Venice, with a layout that breaks from traditional Counter-Strike level design.

Which Danish captain, real name Casper Møller, wanted to be a professional handballer before an injury?

cadiaN spent five months on a team's bench while working on TV coverage of the game, then became a captain and won ESL One Cologne in 2020.