SK Gaming winning ECS Season 3 Finals

COMPARING THE TRIO’S BODIES OF WORK

WHO REIGNS SUPREME?

About the author

Tomi Kovanen, more commonly known as "lurppis", is one of Finland's most prominent Counter-Strike experts. Kovanen started his career as a player back in 2004, retiring in early-2012. During his active years, Kovanen represented teams such as hoorai, Team ROCCAT, 4Kings and Evil Genuises.



Following his retirement, Kovanen has continued to be an influential member of the scene, sharing his expertise as a columnist, analyst, commentator and a frequent user of Twitter ( Tomi Kovanen, more commonly known as "lurppis", is one of Finland's most prominent Counter-Strike experts. Kovanen started his career as a player back in 2004, retiring in early-2012. During his active years, Kovanen represented teams such as hoorai, Team ROCCAT, 4Kings and Evil Genuises.Following his retirement, Kovanen has continued to be an influential member of the scene, sharing his expertise as a columnist, analyst, commentator and a frequent user of Twitter ( @lurppis ).

The first true great was thedynasty with, Fifflaren,anddominating the scene on the legendary 87-0 run, and the four-some without Fifflaren continuing together, with various different players as the fifth member, until June of this year. However, their most dominant streak ended in August 2014 with the Major victory at ESL One Cologne, and the core’s most impressive streak ran up to ESL One Katowice 2015, where withthey finished runners-up a second straight time at a Valve Major.The next dominant force was, whose body of work in 2014-2015 withandsaw many already considering them the greatest team of all-time, above their Swedish rivals, but they were not even done yet. The same core, with pronax having been replaced by, then went on another run with six tournament titles from late 2015 to early 2016, and top placings stretching until August of that year. These fnatic teams won two consecutive Majors in 2015, before olofmeister’s injury hurt their performance and internal issues led to the team’s split in August 2016.In late 2015 the next super team, asso eloquently put it, was put together, withreplacingandwithand TACO. The world’s best playerhad already joined in late July, ahead of ESL One Cologne, completing the trio of him,andthat stands to this day. Following number of close losses to the likes ofand fnatic, Luminosity became world champions at MLG Columbus 2016, and repeated in what seemed like an inevitability at ESL One Cologne 2016 three months later. It would take a roster change and nine months to claim their next titles in 2017, but again the team now representinghave finished the year with the most impressive resume of them all, winning eight titles in total. And what is more, they are still going strong.NiP’s run came at the very beginning of CS:GO, when the game was far less competitive than the previous versions of Counter-Strike as few teams were able to play full-time, and the quality of events was significantly lower. As such, many of the 19 international tournaments they won – out of 39 in total – were much smaller than the events their peers competed in later years. Not just in absolute terms, but relative as well – whereas today the calendar is over-saturated with tons of high-quality tournaments, back then there were few large ones with the Majors dominating the calendar. The core’s strongest run lasted roughly 30 months, and only three times did they fall outside of top four, signalling the kind of great consistency that allowed them to make the grand final of five straight majors and gobble up 87-0 straight map wins – two records that will never be broken.On the other hand, Fnatic won 17 international events out of 34, mostly of higher calibre than NiP’s, titles, and over a slightly shorter time-span of roughly two years. Their run included two Major championships against the Ninjas’ one, but while they were significantly more consistent than NiP at other events, they failed to make the semi-finals at three separate Majors – curiously enough, those events were the only ones that they did not make top four in during the run. No one wanted to face Fnatic in 2015 or early 2016, and they seemed destined to win in a lot of tournaments before they even began. After finally losing toat Cluj-Napoca with pronax, they wasted no time in re-charging with dennis and winning six straight titles before olofmeister’s injury. In the end, because Fnatic split up at the very top – having just placed top four at a major and second at Eleague, after months of olofmeister being side-lined – in a sense we, and the players, were robbed of what could have been. Fnatic had more left in the tank, but could not, past their apparent expiration date, make it work despite the success they were enjoying.That leaves us with SK Gaming. The Brazilians match Fnatic’s two Majors, though they only boast 13 international titles in two years of play, out of 36 total tournaments. SK have also been the least consistent of the three: they have missed top four at seven tournaments, including four finishes outside of the top eight – whereas Fnatic always made top eight, and NiP missed it just once. In these comparisons the largest knock will be the number of disappointing exits they have had – which seems ridiculous because of how consistent they have been for two years, but in truly elite company molehills do turn into mountains.All these teams are known for seemingly never giving up and always coming back from the jaws of defeat to winning. All of them have impeccable records at the biggest events and two-plus years of dominant play at the highest possible level of competition. Between them they have made the grand finals of a Major ten times, winning five of them. They are all truly great, and there is likely no right answer – unless SK go on to have so much success in the future that it puts them above their Swedish contemporaries – but I will make up my mind anyway.Cross-era comparisons are notoriously hard to make, which splits the crowd when it comes to the Ninjas – either you rank them the GOATs because of their unmatchable record, or you play the competition card and rule them out of running because of how undeveloped the scene was back then. As for SK Gaming, despite being known as one of the most consistent teams of all-time, their group stage exits devalue their otherworldly performance in this group. If you look at the results Fnatic produced despite attending 19 international tournaments in 2015, it is impossible not to marvel at their consistency – I imagine it is just about unbelievable for those were not around to witness it then. In basketball terms you might call NiP the 1960s Celtics, Fnatic the Michael Jordan Bulls of the 1990s, and SK the Tim Duncan-era San Antonio Spurs.After revisiting the records and achievements of all these teams, I will be the first to admit to allowing recency bias impact my opinion – I am guilty of having undervalued Fnatic’s run, or perhaps overvaluing SK’s consistency over the period. Looking at all the results through the lens of titles and consistency, in my opinion the two Swedish teams remain a level above that of their Brazilian peers for now. But the game is not over – while NiP’s and Fnatic’s runs are done and dusted, old enough that many of today’s fans were not around to watch them take place, SK are still alive and kicking, working to prop up their resume in their quest to become the GOATS of CS:GO. And who knows who will come along next as the Golden State Warriors equivalents?