With North American Counter-Strike at its peak largely in part thanks to Team Liquid’s year of success, there’s still only one player from the region in the top 20 highest earners for the title. Jake “stewie2k” Yip is less thank $50,000 away from stealing spot #15 from Freddy “KRiMZ” Johansson according to esportsearnings.com.

The 21-year-old North American has already outpaced and out earned the likes of Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, Patrik “f0rest” Lindberg, Nathan “NBK” Schmitt, Filip “NEO” Kubski, Ioann “Edward” Sukharev, Jarosław “pashaBiceps” Jarząbkowski, and more in earnings for CS:GO.

While those names may carry more legacy and have maybe even hoisted more trophies or played in more finals, they also had their reign earlier on CS:GO’s lifespan or before. The game’s prize pools began to grow and grow and it seems stewie2k started to make his rise just in time to cash in a nice check. He is, however, still roughly $800,000 behind Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth who has brought in $1,470,521.90 to claim the top spot.

The former Cloud9 Major champion earned a pretty penny with that victory but has been able to continue to build upon it thanks to the strong performance of Team Liquid throughout the end of 2018 and start of 2019. His current teammates Keith “NAF” Markovic, Nick “nitr0” Cannella, Jonathan “ELiGE” Jablonowski, and Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken fall in at 24th, 33rd, 34th, and 42nd respectively.

stewie2k will get the chance to close the gap and maybe even pass KRiMZ or Robin “flusha” Rönnquist (14) by in just a few days when Team Liquid competes at ESL One Cologne. KRiMZ will at least get the chance to keep his spot as fnatic is set to attend. flusha has yet to return to activity since leaving Cloud9.

Regardless, a legacy is a close possibility for Team Liquid should they find themselves victorious at the Cathedral of Counter-Strike and it could help propel them into the organizations first Major victory in August/September.

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