2016 played host to some amazing CS:GO. We look back at the best team of 2016.

2016 Team of the Year Winners – SK Gaming

With their incredible 2016 in the books, let’s take a look at exactly why this Brazilian squad has awed us and been awarded our 2016 Team of the Year award.

Current Roster:

Ricardo ‘fox’ Pacheco

Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo

Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga

Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David

Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo

Premier Tournament level placings:

1st (3x)

2nd (5x)

3rd – 4th (5x)

9th – 12th (1x)

It’s been an up and down year in 2016. We have seen a lot of teams rise to the occasion late in the year, but none have been as consistent as SK Gaming. With two Major wins under their belts and numerous Top 4 placings, the boys from Brazil have been in top form throughout the year. Let us take a look at their various performances throughout the year.

Starting the Year off Right

While under the Luminosity Gaming banner, the Brazilian team started 2016 strong with a 3rd – 4th finish at Starladder and a 2nd place at DreamHack Leipzig to Natus Vincere. At this point in time Luminosity was really rolling especially as a new organization on the scene.

The fact that they were a newish team and org really impresses me as to how they stuck together to go from constantly taking second or third, to winning the best event of 2016 MLG Columbus.

Major Success

MLG Columbus was the first Counter-Strike event hosted by the longtime North American Tournament Organizer Major League Gaming (MLG), and by all measures it was a huge success. The first Major in CS:GO history to feature a million dollar prize pool, MLG Columbus recorded 37 million hours watched on Twitch and two million on MLG.tv.

In front of so many eyeballs, SK Gaming (then Luminosity Gaming) put on a show going perfect in the group stage and only dropping one map the entire tournament. With such a dominant performance it looked like the Brazilian roster would be unstoppable for at least another few months.

Unfortunately for coldzera and co. their worst performance would follow up their best. Somehow, they would be upset by mouz and TyLoo of all teams to settle for not making it out of groups at DreamHack Masters Malmo.

Of course people interpreted the results differently. Some (rightly) considered the event a fluke, but others felt the Major was a fluke. The chatter proved to be nothing but noise as the roster would silence all the haters by winning DreamHack Austin less than a month later. Riding the momentum, the team would also win ESL Pro League Season 3 Finals and place second at the ECS season finals, but with a Major looming a changing of the guard occurred.

The Switch

After playing with Luminosity in all of 2016, the players decided to change orgs and sign with SK Gaming before ESL One Cologne. There was a bit of controversy with the move that led to SK Gaming not being able to attend ELEAGUE Season 1, but that did not change their dominant performance at ESL One Cologne where they dropped one map in the playoffs.

After Cologne, the two time champs looked to be unstoppable once again in future tournaments but unfortunately for Brazil that was not necessarily the case. They were in good form at ESL One NYC, but lost a thriller to Virtus.Pro in the semifinals.

Another disappointment would come in Moscow where again SK would lose to Virtus.Pro in the semifinals, but SK Gaming looked to be sharp. The surprise for SK would come at home in Brazil to the unlikeliest of opponents.

Brawl in Brazil

ESL Pro League Finals was a familiar stage for the Brazilian roster. Winning the previous season and playing on home soil made SK Gaming a logical choice to take the tournament. Unfortunately for the thousands of cheering fans in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Cloud9 cleaned the floor with SK Gaming on Mirage and Dust2.

For Cloud9 this was their signature win of the year and a milestone for North American competition. For SK Gaming this was an embarrassment.

Team of the Year

While some say that, “no one remembers who comes in second,” SK Gaming made a lot of money doing it. The original roster would finish their time together with a second place finish at IEM Oakland to Ninjas in Pyjamas and a 3rd-4th at ELeague Season 2 after losing 2-0 to Astralis when something caused the team to drop Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau and have Ricardo ‘fox’ Pacheco stand in.

Despite their recent shortcomings, SK Gaming still deserve the throne for 2016 after: winning all of the year’s majors, consistent top placings at increasingly difficult tournaments, and changing orgs midway through the year. Two players (coldzera and FalleN) for SK Gaming were formally recognized at the Esports Industry Awards and coldzera again was recognized at The Game Awards as the “Esport Player of the Year” by Olympian legend Michael Phelps.

With their spot at the upcoming ELeague Major secure, SK Gaming has a bright future for themselves in 2017. Even if they do not reach the lofty heights they made for themselves in 2016, they always have the past to look back on.

Do you think SK Gaming is the CS:GO 2016 Team of the Year? Let us know why or why not in the comments!

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