Writes about way too many things. Has way too many opinions. Wants to tell all the interesting stories in the world.

May 21, 2019

We all have a good idea which are the best teams in the game, but what about the different nations? The center of Counter-Strike gravity tends to shift over time between the countries and continents, and it can be difficult to identify who’s truly the best. We’ve crunched the numbers and busted some myths for you based on the recent HLTV rankings – here’s what we found:

Interesting findings The Scandinavian narratives are not entirely accurate – Remember how everyone was saying that Swedish Counter-Strike isn’t what it used to be, and the insane depth of Denmark is the model to be commended? Well, this may not entirely hold up to scrutiny. While Astralis are clearly the best-ever CS:GO team (at least where 2018 is concerned), the rest of the Danish delegation keeps falling further and further behind. Even in terms of young talent, Sweden seems to be holding more promise with Brollan and REZ. Size does not matter – The recent explosive growth of Finland and Bulgaria shows that you don’t have to be a massive nation with hundreds of millions of people to become part of the CS:GO elite. It might take some time – Anders famously called it in early 2018 that 2019 could be a breakout year for Finnish Counter-Strike – but strong foundations can definitely get you to the top.