The Majors are the most important events of the CS:GO year. They are the most prestigious, the one that everyone wants to win. Should a team win one, they are forever remembered for that one accomplishment. Each Major has a distinct story of what was expected to happen and what eventually did happen. As history goes on and the Majors stretch on, we see what legacies can be built. In the case of the FACEIT Major London, it could become the coronation for Astralis. The tournament that establishes their era.

For those who don’t know a coronation is the official ceremony to crown the king. In the case of CS:GO Major history this has only happened twice before. The first time was at ESL One Cologne 2015. The Fnatic roster that consisted of: Freddy ‘KRIMZ’ Johansson, Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell, Robin ‘flusha’ Ronnquist, Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer, and Markus ‘Pronax’ Wallsten.

Up to that point, their total resume included:

Major Finishes:

1st: ESL One Katowice

2nd: ESL One Cologne 2014

Top 8: DreamHack Winter 2014

International Tournaments:

1st: StarLadder StarSeries X, FACEIT Season 2, ESWC 2014, Fragbite Season 3, Clutch Con, IOS Pantamera, DreamHack Tours, Gfinity Spring Masters 2, DreamHack Summer, ESL Proleague Season 1 Finals

2nd: ESEA Season 18, PGL CS:GO Kick-off Season, Fragbite Season 4, Gameshow CS:GO League Season 2

Top 4: DreamHack Invitational 2, MLG X Games Aspen, FACEIT 2015 Finals, FACEIT 2015 Stage 2 Finals

Across that timespan, Fnatic were the best team in the world. There were times other teams came to challenge them. Virtus.Pro, EnVyUs, and TSM being the most prominent (though Titan had a good matchup against them, but weren’t the same caliber of team). Throughout all of that time though, Fnatic came out the victors. They had the most victories, the most top placings, and a Major victory.

It was a remarkable team both in it’s longevity and flexibility. The lineup lasted from the middle of 2014 when olofmeister and KRIMZ joined to the end of 2015. Most lineups have an expiration date of 6-9 months. The Fnatic lineup had lasted nearly twice as long. This was because of their insane teamwork that is arguably unmatched to this day. These were players who instinctively knew how the others played and at times didn’t need to comm to each other to know exactly what each player was doing. The other aspect that made them so great was their intense firepower unlike any we’ve ever seen.

We’ve seen plenty of lineups with a good spread of firepower. We’ve even seen teams with arguably better firepower (the later Fnatic with Dennis “dennis” Edman or modern FaZe), but what made this Fnatic so incredible was how they could shift superstar players depending on the timeline or even tournament. JW was their first superstar player with his wild aggressive AWP. KRIMZ was a solid support player who ensured Fnatic’s CT-side dominance soon after. At the same time olofmeister grew in strength until he became the best player in the world. Flusha became renowned for his Major performances. Pronax was the leader who emphasized their strengths as individuals and could make the mid-round call depending on what they did. Together they became one of the most composed and clutch teams in the world

By the time ESL Cologne 2015, Fnatic weren’t playing for an era. They were playing for something greater, a legacy that is still unmatched to this day. They ended up playing for the title of the greatest lineup of all time. The stakes weren’t set out as such before the tournament happened, but game after game, match after match, you could see how incredible Fnatic were. They made seemingly impossible comebacks after dramatic pauses and ended the trophy despite the entire world rooting against them to fail. By the end of it all, Fnatic claimed themselves as the greatest lineup in history. Not even the biggest hater could deny it, Fnatic had proven to the world they were the greatest and they crowned themselves the greatest to ever do it.

The next coronation was done by the Brazilians at ESL One Cologne 2016. The lineup that played for Luminosity and SK: Gabriel ‘FalleN’ Toledo, Fernando ‘fer’ Alvarenga, Marcelo ‘coldzera’ David, Lincoln ‘fnx’ Lau, and Epitacio ‘TACO’ de Melo. Like Fnatic, they too had won a Major before this at MLG Columbus. However the circumstances surrounding the lineups were different.

Fnatic were in the midst of their era when they won their first Major. Luminosity started theirs with the Major win at MLG Columbus. Between Columbus and ESL One Cologne, they attended four events. They bombed DreamHack Masters Malmo, but were able to rally back soon after. They won DreamHack Austin 2016, ESL Proleague Season 3 Finals, and got 2nd at ECS Finals Season 1. Soon after the Brazilians joined SK gaming which disqualified them from participating in ELeague Season 1. However they could still go to the Major and it was there that the Brazilians created their era. It wasn’t quite as long as the Fnatic era, but from Major to Major they were the best team in the world. More than that, this was the last time any five man lineup ever held an Era in their hands.

This Major victory was different from Fnatic’s. Fnatic’s coronation was a final crowning of the most legendary lineup to ever play the game. It was the end of their dynasty. In the case of Luminosity/SK Gaming’s, their coronation was more of a beginning. Though the lineup continued to change the roster, these victories marked the rise of the Brazilian core to the top of the CS:GO echelon. They never again created an era, but that core of players from then to the beginning of 2018 were always among the best teams in the world.

Where the Fnatic lineup showed an incredible depth in teamplay and ability to shift their superstars, the Brazilians created a system and culture. The system was built around the partnership of two players: FalleN and Coldzera. FalleN was the AWPer and leader while Coldzera was a once in a generational talent. FalleN’s style of play perfectly set up Coldzera. The team relied heavily on map control, information, and space. Between FalleN, TACO, and fer, they took control of the map, got kills, or got info. From there they’d perfectly hit the site and create situations where Coldzera could win the round. Fnatic were famous for being the best in the world at comebacks, but this Brazilian core took it to another level.

Now we come to the modern era. We have gone through multiple contested eras since the LG/SK era in 2016. There was the uncertainty era in 2016. Throughout 2017, SK, Astralis and FaZe fought for the throne, with no side able to take the number one spot long enough to solidify an era. At that point, people started to believe that the eras were over, that no team could ever do it again.

Then Astralis came in 2018. After Markus “Kjaerbye” Kjaerbye left Astralis, they were forced to pick up Emil “Magisk” Reif. This was the perfect move for the team as he perfectly filled the roles that Astralis needed. At the same time it shifted Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander and Peter “dupreeh” Rothmann into better fitting roles for both players. Gla1ve got better roles on the CT-side that used his intelligence and his aggression. Dupreeh got to play his aggressive space making, entry role on the T-side. Magisk himself added incredible firepower that stabilized their CT-sides and pistols. With those reconfigured roles added to Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz’s superstar AWPing and Andreas “Xyp9x” Hojsleth’s incredible support play, they created one of the best spread of talent we’ve seen across an entire team.

This only supercharged their tactical and team play approach as they rebuilt the system from the bottom up to get Magisk integrated into the lineup. Once they did, they found out that they could play six of the seven maps in the pool. Both Fnatic and LG/SK redefined the meta. Astralis were to do the same and this time it was through their tactics. Their ability to control rotations, create picks for dev1ce, stall out other teams, and create one-sided scenarios for their players absolutely dominated the world.

From April 22nd 2018 to now the have been on one of the best streaks in history. These are their results:

1st: DreamHack Marseille, ESL Proleague Season 7 Finals, ECS Season 6 Finals, ELeague Premier 2018

2nd: IEM Sydney, DreamHack Stockholm

Top 4: ESL One Cologne

Fnatic crowned themselves the greatest team in history at ESL One Cologne. Luminosity/SK was a royal ascension as they came to define CS:GO history after their victories. For Astralis, they have a chance to solidify their era and make a permanent mark on CS:GO history.

Related Articles: