The StarLadder Major is edging closer and closer along with the chance for another record to be broken for North America.

With a $1 million prize pool, the winners of the Major will walk away with a $500,000 check. This is huge for anyone but also an opportunity for one player in particular to make their way into the top five highest CS:GO earners(*) of all time as well as break the $1 million mark and be the first North American to do so.

(*)This is of course assuming Astralis doesn’t place well enough to get Magisk a few thousand dollars (unlikely).

Jake “stewie2k” Yip currently sits in sixth at $967,790 with Emil “Magisk” Reif fending him off in spot number five with $1,065,281 for a difference of $97,491 according to esportsearnings.com. If Liquid manage to pull off first place and money is divided evenly among the five starting players (sorry adreN), stewie will have earned enough to pass Magisk.

However, regardless of whether or not he will pass up Magisk and enter the top five, a win in Berlin will guarantee Stewie2k enough money to break $1 million dollars and join the Astralis rosters current players as the only group to have done it.

It is of course worth noting that this does NOT include salaries, sponsorship, and other sources of income and is strictly based on tournament earnings.

Liquid’s roster has made huge strides over the last three months with six tier 1 tournament victories. All five currently sit within the top 20 highest earners with Keith “NAF” Markovic, Nick “nitr0” Cannella, and Jonathan “ELiGE” Jablonowski on the heels of the core four of the Luminosity/SK Gaming/MIBR lineup who currently hold 7-10th.

A second place victory only nets $150,000 and will not provide enough to push the players ahead so it’s all or nothing for the North Americans to position themselves within reach of the top 5 highest earners titles.

They may not care so much about the money or titles, but it’s still cool to see North Americans pushing for the top after so many years being the meme of Counter-Strike.

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