As the start of the ELEAGUE Major nears, we take a look at the 20 players that will make history this weekend by being a part of the first ten CS:GO Majors.

The Major story started in 2013, when Valve decided to allow the CS:GO community to support the competitive side of the game through the purchases of eSport cases and keys. The financial influx derived from in-game items was used to support the first Major DreamHack Winter 2013.

From that November till today, a lot of things changed regarding Majors: cases and keys were replaced by stickers, team graffiti were added and the qualification system has been prolonged as lower ranked teams fight for a chance to play at the big stage through the Minor system. However, something that hasn't changed - despite the rise of the prize pools of various independent events - is the prestige of attending a Major.



20 players attended every CS:GO Major

Earlier this week we took a look at the rookies - the ten players that will soon be playing their first CS:GO Major - but maybe even more interesting is the ever-shrinking list of the tried and tested players that attended every Major since 2013 - the veterans.

In this article we will take a look at the 20 players that attended the nine previous Majors and will be present at the ucpoming one in Atlanta, recapping their history and assessing how they stand going into the tournament.

Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell

Robin "⁠flusha⁠" Rönnquist

The list starts with the GODSENT duo flusha and JW. The two Swedes started CS:GO on the edge of the Swedish top scene, but would soon end up being the biggest underdog Major winners to date. Despite Markus "⁠pronax⁠" Wallsten joining the team just a few weeks before the tournament in Jönköping, fnatic managed to make history by upsetting their countrymen NiP in the grand-final of the tournament.



Despite GODSENT's struggles, JW and flusha keep the Major record alive

The team slumped after that Major, losing to LGB in the quarters of Katowice 2014, but turned it around soon by picking up Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer and Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson and creating probably the most dominant roster of CS:GO. That iteration of fnatic won two more Majors - ESL One Katowice 2015 and ESL One Cologne 2015 - making JW and flusha the two most successful Major players in CS:GO.

After the summer break of 2016, the duo left fnatic to rejoin pronax's GODSENT, and were forced to go through the Minor system in the last minute due to KRIMZ returning to fnatic.

Despite looking shaky throughout the second half of the year, GODSENT turned up in the Major qualification cycle, winning the European Minor in Bucharest and 3-0'ing the Major Qualifier in Atlanta - keeping JW and flusha on this exclusive list.

Freddy "⁠KRIMZ⁠" Johansson

Olof "⁠olofmeister⁠" Kajbjer

fnatic's olofmeister and KRIMZ make the second Swedish Major duo on the list. Their rise to fame came from their time at LGB, a loose, aim-heavy team that made it to a top8 finish at DreamHack Winter 2013 and one-upped that result at the following Major EMS One Katowice 2014. In Poland, LGB were the only team to take a map off of the home crowd favorites and eventual champions Virtus.pro, but LGB came to an end before the summer of that year. That saw olofmeister move to fnatic and he suggested that the team should sign KRIMZ as well.



KRiMZ rejoined olofmeister and dennis after a failed experiment with GODSENT

The storied partnership of olofmeister and KRIMZ was the backbone of the success fnatic had in 2015, but the somewhat lesser results at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca (5-8th), MLG Columbus (5-8th) and ESL One Cologne 2016 (3-4th) saw the two split up for a short period of time, with KRIMZ initially joining GODSENT.

A stint in which KRIMZ struggled in GODSENT followed before he decided to return to fnatic and rejoin olofmeister. That move resulted in fnatic getting the ELEAGUE Major spot (due to the 3/5 rule) just a couple of days before the European Minor was set to start - allowing for this Swedish duo to skip the grueling qualifying process.

The Virtus.pro roster

The Polish squad started their Major story under the Universal Soldiers banner, but their success in CS:GO came after switching to Virtus.pro and attended EMS One Katowice. At the second CS:GO Major, that was held at Katowice, Poland, the home team was in sublime form, lifting the trophy after destroying NiP in a memorable grand final.



Virtus.pro started their string of great Majors at Katowice in 2014

From that point onwards, Virtus.pro have been known as a team that always perform at the Majors, proving that time and time again. Excluding DreamHack Winter 2013, Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski and co. made the playoffs of every Major, with four top4 finishes and three top8 finishes.

Their two 2016 Majors were especially interesting, seeing that they went out from Luminosity/SK Gaming at both events, but put up a good fight both times - showing their resilience at the big stages.

NEO, Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas, Jarosław "⁠pashaBiceps⁠" Jarząbkowski, Paweł "⁠byali⁠" Bieliński and Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski are also the only five players that attended every Major to date with the same roster.

Vincent "⁠Happy⁠" Schopenhauer

Nathan "⁠NBK-⁠" Schmitt

The two Envy players Happy and NBK- didn't play together at the start of their CS:GO careers, but still share a good part of their Major histories. NBK-'s first Major run was ended after the memorable semi-final against NiP. Happy's impact at the same event wasn't noted to the same degree, despite him making the playoffs with Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub and Mathieu "⁠Maniac⁠" Quiquerez in the Recursive lineup.

Happy rose to prominence at the next two Majors - EMS One Katowice 2014 and ESL One Cologne 2014 - where he lead the less talented French team LDLC to 5-8th and 3-4th finishes, while NBK-'s Titan wasn't able to get out of the groups.

The two joined forces after that, creating the new LDLC lineup that ended up winning the first Major they attended - DreamHack Winter 2014. After swapping LDLC for EnVyUs, the two Frenchmen finished 3-4th at Katowice '15 and then 2nd ad Cologne '15 - losing to their rivals fnatic in a thrilling grand final.



NBK and Happy lifted both of their Major trophies together

Their second Major win came at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca, where the team brute-forced their way through their opposition, showing how effective the aggressive EnVyUs style of play can be if the players are at their peaks.

The team and the levels of both NBK- and Happy dropped off in 2016, where EnVyUs ended 13-16th at both Majors, meaning they had to qualify for the upcoming one in Atlanta. At the ELEAGUE Major Main qualifier, EnVyUs was 0-2 before picking up three consecutive wins over some of the weaker teams at the tournament (Spirit, TyLoo, Vega Squadron) to make it through - and keep NBK-'s and Happy's record alive.

Edouard "⁠SmithZz⁠" Dubourdeaux

Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon

G2's SmithZz and shox shared all Majors but one - ESL One Cologne 2014 which shox attended with Epsilon, the third best French team at the time. The Epsilon squad was nicknamed 'shoxilon' due to Papillon's impact on the team's success, but despite being a one-man army they still managed to make it to the playoffs, outdoing SmithZz's team at the time - Titan.

After that tournament and the French shuffle, SmithZz and shox joined forces and played with NBK- and Happy, sharing success in late 2014 and early 2015. Mid-2015, "⁠⁠" and shox returned to Kévin "⁠Ex6TenZ⁠" Droolans in Titan, but wouldn't record more Major success - going out in the group stage of the following four Majors.

Playing under the G2 banner, the duo also had to go the full length in the Major Qualifier, barely edging Immortals after an Overtime on Cache.

Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen

Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth

Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz

The Danish trio of Xyp9x, dupreeh and device started their Major journey in CPH Wolves, but only managed a 5-8th finish at DreamHack Winter 2013. Things picked up after the team switched to the dignitas organisation, as they made top four at Katowice '14 and Cologne '14, but despite many roster changes - couldn't better a semi-final finish.



The "Double D" partnership and xyp9x made the playoffs of every Major

The core of dignitas, TSM and now Astralis had it's biggest heartbreak at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015, where they were considered one of the favorites - but only finished 5-8th after they underperformed massively in the quarter-finals against NiP. Their last Major - ESL One Cologne 2016 - was a tough one as well, due to them being forced to use Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander as a stand in for Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye, who was roster locked, and their coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen as a substitute for dupreeh who ended up in a hospital due to an appendix infection.

Despite that, the trio is one of seven players in the history of CS:GO to make the playoffs of every Major yet - with the Swedes JW, flusha, KRIMZ and olofmeister capping off the list.

René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg

cajunb is one of the names that many would not expect on the list, as the Dane was on and off of the dignitas lineups earlier in CS:GO, but always managed to find a way to the big tournaments with the help of Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche, gla1ve and Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, playing under n!faculty and CPH Wolves at DreamHack Winter 2013 and ESL One Cologne 2014, respectively.

"The Cleaner" rejoined device and co. in late 2014, making a number of playoffs with them, before switching to Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen's dignitas at the start of 2016, with whom he finished 9-12th at ESL One Cologne.



With or without device, cajunb is making it to the Majors

cajunb is looking good to make his first playoff run without the Xyp9x-device-dupreeh core with North after having a good showing at the ELEAGUE Major Main Qualifier, where the team dropped only one map.

Denis "⁠seized⁠" Kostin

Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko

Even though the experienced Ukrainian Zeus departed from Natus Vincere and will be representing Gambit at the upcoming Major, he shared all of the previous nine Majors with the young Russian - seized. seized was picked up by Natus Vincere shortly before the first Major, DreamHack Winter 2013, but the team wasn't as impressive back then, as they starting making playoff runs from Cologne '14 onwards.



zeus and seized with fans after making it to the finals of Cluj-Napoca

The pickup of the Slovakian Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács was a big part of that success, and the team really reached elite status and top finishes after Zeus denounced the IGL role, leaving it to the coach Sergey "⁠starix⁠" Ischuk. Zeus and seized had their best Major success at DreamHack Cluj-Napoca 2015 and MLG Columbus, finishing second at both events.

Coming into ELEAGUE, both players were able to rest on their laurels, seeing both Gambit and Natus Vincere already the Legends status at the previous Major.

Yegor "⁠markeloff⁠" Markelov

FlipSid3's support player markeloff quietly sneaked into the list, with Majors played with Astana Dragons, HellRaisers and FlipSid3. Out of the 20 players on the list, markeloff is the one with the least success in the Majors themselves, as he has never placed higher than top8 and went out of the group five out of nine times.



No one saw FlipSid3 taking down NiP in Cologne

However, his record is still impressive, seeing as he has played for the lesser CIS teams for a great part of his CS:GO career and has not been regarded as a very successful player in the latest edition of the game.

markeloff's greatest Major achievement was his last year's 5-8th finish at ESL One Cologne, where FlipSid3 beat NiP in a best-of-three to eliminate the Swedes and secure the CIS side Legends status.

Professeur writes for HLTV.org and can be found on Twitter.