The Best CS:GO Teams of All Time

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive has existed for more than 7 years now. The game has garnered a respectable fan base and, most importantly, grown a worldwide esports scene. During those years, many legends have been created. Some of the pro teams and players managed to maintain their place at the top for months or even years. We’ve taken a closer look at all top lineups and tried to find the best CS:GO teams of all time!

THE ORIGINAL NIP

Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund and his colleagues remained undefeated for 87 offline maps in a row. In 2012, following the release of the game, GeT_RiGhT, Richard “Xizt” Landström, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson and Adam “friberg” Friberg made the jump from Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source. As the ‘Ninjas in Pyjamas’, they competed and succeeded in the earliest tournaments, more than any other team. On LAN, they won 87 maps in a row and established themselves as one of the best rosters in the world.

But it took them some time to get the first Major win. In 2013, they lost to fnatic in a closely contested Grand Finals and in Katowice, they had to admit defeat to Virtus.pro (who had also ended their infamous win streak). At ESL One Cologne 2014, the great miracle happened – the Swedes managed to topple their domestic rivals, fnatic, in the Grand Finals. GeT_RiGhT finally held the single most important trophy of his career in his hands and remains ingrained in our collective esports memory for this.

But everything has to end at some point. Following the signing of Aleksi “allu” Jalli in place of Fifflaren, they still made a Major Finals, but the ‘NiP magic’ slowly faded away. For years, the core players tried to find a perfect fifth man. During that time, the team plummeted and even fell out of the Major Top 8.

2015 FNATIC

Who could possibly forget the quadruple AWP peek on Dust2? This play was immortalized on the old map and is often cited when talking about ‘disrespect’ in esports. Maybe this is the best way to describe the fnatic of old, as they were often called arrogant or pretentious – despite their success giving them every right to be. 2015 fnatic consisted of Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer, Freddy “KRiMZ” Johansson, Robin “flusha” Rönnquist and Markus “pronax” Wallsten.

The team was already going strong in 2014. But during the DreamHack Winter Major, they caused a huge scandal. Being close to defeat versus LDLC, they suddenly pulled out an illegal boost. The Frenchmen didn’t understand what was happening to them, but olofmeister was able to basically view the entire map and just dished out headshots all over the place. This way, fnatic turned the match around. However, this action was later deemed to be a violation of tournament rules and the players decided to forfeit the match.

2015, they re-engaged. After ESL One Cologne 2014, they got their next Major Grand Finals appearance during ESL One Katowice 2015. There, they got out on top, courtesy of a MVP-worthy performance by olofmeister, netting the second Major trophy for the organization. They remained a dominant force until the next Major. During ESL One Cologne 2015, they were already heralded as favorites and expectedly made their way to the Grand Finals. Everyone has heard of the ‘Four-AWP Death-Squad’, which waited in T Spawn of Dust2 for any Envy player daring to peek. With their third Major trophy, fnatic got a huge lead over the scene and set a record that held for years to come.

LUMINOSITY / SK GAMING

One of the teams attempting to throw fnatic off the throne as most successful CS:GO team of all time was Luminosity Gaming. Gabriel “Fallen” Toledo and his players attended some big events and even managed to make playoffs at ESL One Cologne 2015, but they were never title contenders. In Winter of 2015, this rapidly changed.

Following the signing of Lincoln “fnx” Lau and Epitacio “TACO” De Melo, they entered the FACEIT Stage 3 Finals and quickly lost a 0-16 map to fnatic. Obviously, this was a huge punch in the guts, but this made their follow-up matches even more impressive. EnVyUs, NiP and TSM fell as the Brazilians found themselves in the Grand Finals versus fnatic. Suddenly, they had a legitimate chance of winning a meaningful trophy, but fnatic didn’t let that happen. The Swedes got a 2-1, but still Fallen and company managed to announce themselves internationally. In Spring of 2016, they got two second place finishes. IEM Katowice was the last tournament at which LG lost to fnatic.

During MLG Columbus, they finally broke through. Even though they didn’t have to face fnatic, they decimated mousesports, NiP, Virtus.pro and Team Liquid on the way to the Grand Finals. On the first map, they got a 19-17 overtime win and broke Natus Vincere, who conceded the second map on a 2-16 scoreline. Their first Major win was in the books and at ESL One Cologne 2016, the players (now under SK Gaming) followed this up even more dominantly. Unfortunately, SK then fell victim to the rulebook. During the ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017, they had to field a stand-in, as their new players wasn’t eligible to play. When they finally managed to attend a Major with their full lineup, they had already lost their spot as the best team in the world.

ASTRALIS

For almost three years now, the Counter-Strike scene has remained in the clutches of one particular Danish team. Astralis are and have been the best team in the world, which they even managed to prove during the coronavirus pandemic. Their journey through CS:GO history was marked by countless trophies and, most importantly, four Major victories. So they’re even ahead of fnatic, but they had to fight hard to earn this status.

Before they were a powerhouse, they stood in the shadows of fnatic and NiP for years. They were known to choke, easily making playoffs and then crumbling under the pressure. This issue has accompanied them through a lot of tournaments and Majors, until they eventually pulled through in 2017. With Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, they had finally found an in-game-leader who impressed both as a tactician and an individually skilled player. Finn “karrigan” Andersen had lacked in the latter department. At the ELEAGUE Major, they suddenly found themselves in the Grand Finals against Virtus.pro. There, gla1ve commanded a ballsy push onto Train’s A Site in the last round of the last map, earning them the trophy.

Afterwards, things got quiet around the Astralis camp. Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjærbye, the Major MVP, dipped in form. At the end of the year, he looked for a way out and the Danes hastily had to sign Emil “Magisk” Reif. For many fans and experts, this was a bold move, as the young player hadn’t proven to be competitive on this level. However, these opinions on him quickly flipped.

Magisk quickly grew into one of Astralis’ centerpieces. With him on board, they won the FACEIT London Major 2018 and got both Majors in 2019. So they’re the most accomplished CS:GO team of all time – but does that automatically make them the best?

WHAT’S THE BEST TEAM OF ALL TIME?

When fnatic dominated the scene, nobody could compete with them. They acquired trophy over trophy and regularly humiliated their opponents with uber-performances. Three Swedish lineups managed to rise to the top under fnatic. After all this time, Freddy “KRiMZ” Johansson and Robin “flusha” Rönnquist are still star players. Only very few can actually claim to be this consistently good. At DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019, they eliminated NiP, Astralis and Vitality to win the trophy. But in the years since their Major wins, they took a dive and had to make lots of roster changes to even get back into the Top 20.

Astralis are ahead of them in this regard. Obviously, they lost a few tournaments even during their prime. But they’ve never fallen this low. Counting out the recent online tournaments, Astralis have kept themselves in the Top 5 since April 2018. No other team has managed to achieve this feat so far. So maybe, they actually deserve the title of ‘best CS:GO team of all time’.