In the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, 2018 was a breakout year for some of the most dominant talents we have seen since the game’s release in 2012.



Last year allowed us to see the breakdown of the meta-bending FaZe line-up which threatened to revolutionise the traditional model upon which the professional scene is built. The FaZe team was an enigma, an amalgamation of players who were at one stage the best in their role, into a team under the tutelage of Karrigan, the master mind behind the success of the TSM and Astralis team.

Faze’s ill-fated “super-team” at the E-League Major in January of 2018.

(Image Credit: E-League)

Karrigan was at the helm of a ship comprised of GuardiaN, NiKo and Olof, to be held together by the entry-fragger Rain. FaZe was home to: (in order) the best IGL of ’17, arguably the greatest AWP player in the history of CS:GO, the 21 year old phenom boasting a silver medal in the HLTV player of the year ranking for 2017, the ’15 player of the year and possibly most well known Counter-strike player, all to be glued together by the Norwegian. One could not be faulted for asking the question, “what could possibly go wrong?”. Everything, if history is anything to go by.



The FaZe Era was brought to an abrupt stop by a Cloud9 team, running on the essence of the American dream during the ELeague Major in late January. Before the Major, Cloud9 were stalling in the doldrums of the HLTV World Rankings, struggling to make headway from their position of 5th.

Major Winning Cloud9 team celebrating their over-throwing of the FaZe line-up. (image credit: https://in.ign.com)

While prominent members of the community, such as Richard Lewis and Duncan Shields, had America’s wonder-kids as dark horses for the event, the team’s 0-2 record to start the tournament, had even the firmest C9 fans changing their Reddit flair. The outside hope for the title even had history against them: no American team had won a modern Major in the sport.



Ultimately Cloud9 would go where none from NA had gone before (nor since) and hold aloft the ELeague trophy. Their victory would show the cracks in the concept of the FaZe team: without well thought out strategy, the team of superstars was struggling to tie up what should have been a formality, against a team which they had previously conquered with relative ease. The tournament marked the beginning of the super team’s fall from power with their stars failing to perform at their previous level.

This Cloud9 team would fall off dramatically just a few months later with their star-players; Tar1k and Stewie2k, jumping ship to the MIBR (Made in Brazil) lineup after the major. This moment of “abandonment” doomed the American roster to mediocrity. With their two best performers leaving, Cloud9 were demoted out of the HLTV Top 20 before picking up some EU veterans in the form of Flusha and K1oshima. Cloud9’s success and subsequent failure, paved the way for a resurgent Team Liquid roster to attempt to keep NA relevant.

Karrigan’s team would turn against him in the winter months, kicking him out of the team after a suspected rebellion from the franchise player, NiKo.

Karrigan then fell to the depths of a 42nd ranked Envy team.

The dominant Astralis roster with their coach, Zonic. (Image credit:_)

From the ashes of an insecure FaZe Era rose the Astralis roster, destined to become the most dominant team in the modern age of the competitive scene. Currently sitting aloft the team rankings for an outstanding 65 straight weeks, the team, lead by Gla1ve, is proof that the traditional concept of an IGL leading a star player with an entry fragger and support style player, is still competitive. To merely say they are a competitive lineup is near heresy in its understatement of this lineup, their Bo1 (Best of one) match record is impressive in itself, however, paired with the roster’s record of winning 7 of their last 8 LAN tournaments, the sheer domination of this team’s run starts to show.



Since the team’s poor showing in the aforementioned E-League Major, finishing in 12-14th place, the Danish super-team have devastated the competition with their reliability; only failing to make the semifinals once since their one man roster switch. This run’s legitimacy cannot be called into question either. Astralis have faced every challenger and try as they might, Goliath stands tall. Facing adversity both in and out of the game, Astralis move into 2019 as the definitive number one team.

Simple at Blast Pro Series.

(Image credit: s1mple)

One 21 year old, however, will hope that 2019 will send some fairer winds to the Ukraine. The most skilled player of all time, Aleksandr Kostliev, or s1mple to his 365 thousand Instagram followers; ventures into 2019 as the best player in his sport spurred on to success by the heart and soul of the CIS region.

So, 2018, you were good to us. We saw the reigns passed from world number 1 to another, we saw two amazing NA teams rise to the top, we were blessed to watch amazing tournaments (exclude Face-It London from that count!), we even saw Forsaken volunteer to demonstrate the effectiveness of Valve’s Anti-Cheat! In 2019, may we be lucky enough to watch the scene reap the benefits of going FTP and in the new year, perhaps David will beat Goliath, but until then we will be left guessing who will rise up to claim the throne.