It takes thousands of hours to reach the top of the ladder. It takes thousands more to be good enough to compete on a pro team. And for most it takes countless more than that to finally reach the top of any competitive discipline. When most champions get there, they realize that their challenges had just begun. Once they reach the summit of competitive play they look down and see the multitude of challengers scrambling, scraping, and climbing their way up to take them down and replace them. This is the pressure at the top, this is the Sword of Damocles.

The myth of the Sword of Damocles goes like this. There once was a man named Damocles who told a King how great and fortunate his life was. The King offered to switch places with him and Damocles gladly accepted. As he was surrounded by great fortune, he realizes that a giant sword is above his head only hanging on by a thread, ready to kill him at any time. He quickly realizes with great power comes great danger and begs the king to switch back. This is a moral anecdote about how with great power comes great danger. In the competitive disciplines though, the story goes much differently.

Instead of begging off, the competitor by their very nature will stay there because this is the spot that gives them self validation. This is everything they have striven for and rather than fear the sword, they will fight it to the bitter end. They will make their stand on that throne and take on all challengers. The analogy isn’t perfect as you don’t die, but you do bet your pride, your ego, your self worth. A majority of competitive players don’t spend tens of thousands of hours honing their craft to only be content as an also ran. They want to be the best and once they grasp it they want to stay there for as long as humanly possible. This is how legacy is made, this is how legends are created.

In the CS:GO scene, the Sword of Damocles looms large. When Astralis won the ELeague Atlanta Major, they realized that the real hard work was about to begin. They had reached the top of the world and now everyone was aimed at them. They understood that winning the Major wasn’t enough to be the best team, you had to stay consistently at the top. They managed it for awhile as they got top 4 at DreamHack Vegas and first at IEM Katowice. In the span of five tournaments spanning across the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 they had won: 1st place ECS S2, ELeague Major Atlanta, IEM WC, 2nd place at ELeague 2016, and a top 4 at DreamHack Vegas. If they had won at Starladder Kiev there would have been arguments to be made about a small era being created.

Instead the Sword of Damocles struck. Wielded by ex-teammate Finn “karrigan” Andersen, FaZe recruited Nikola “NiKo” Kovac and they went on a run to win the entire tournament. Soon after SK lineup with Joao “felps” Vasconcellos” came onto the scene and took complete control of the scene with victory upon victory at IEM Sydney, DreamHack Summer, ECS Season 3 Finals, and ESL Cologne. The team looked primed to take the throne as the best team in Counter-Strike, but were defeated by Astralis at the Krakow Major.

In the subsequent roster shuffle, SK fell down and FaZe rose up. FaZe recruited Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovacs and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer in the off season. After a weak first tournament at DreamHack Malmo where they had no time to prepare, They started to dominate the scene. 1st at ESL New York and 1st at ELeague 2017. They were so dominant in their runs that everyone had to watch out for them. This FaZe roster reinvigorated SK as they got Ricardo “boltz” Prass into the lineup. Between SK and FaZe they won almost every tournament at the end of 2017. They were thought to be the best two teams in the world. This is the Sword of Damocles in action. The second someone starts to claim the number one spot, subsequent teams will do everything they can to drag them down and surpass them.

This battle to be the world’s number one team is the most perilous in any competitive scene. It may look easy from the outside to see one team dominate and sweep the scene, but it is a brutal defense. The challengers come at you again and again with new ideas, new strategies, new players. A majority of roster shuffles come because a team believes they need to evolve to defeat whatever team is standing above them.

FaZe got NiKo to defeat Astralis. When the felps lineup with SK was too much and internal issues mounted, FaZe saw a chance to get both GuardiaN and olofmeister to upend the top teams in the world. When the felps lineup stopped working and SK realized they needed a change to stay competitive, they got boltz. Even teams that believed in long standing lineups have been forced to change if they wish to sit upon that throne. Arguably the biggest example in the modern day is Cloud 9.

Cloud 9 was a team that had refused to make changes in the lineup for nearly one year after Timothy “autimatic” Ta joined. After the miserable showing at PGL Krakow, the team finally bit the bullet as they got on Will “RUSH” Wierzba and Tarik “tarik” Celik. Today they are now ELeague Boston Major Champions having had to beat the three best teams in the tournament to do it.

Their precipitous rise now puts them in the spotlight as well. They have announced their candidacy as a potential world beater with their victory at the Major and now they will have the Sword of Damocles fall upon them as well. The top teams are now dissecting their run, adapting their tactics and setups, and figuring out their tendencies. On top of that multiple teams have started to reshuffle the deck in response to teams like Cloud 9, SK, and FaZe.

Few teams have survived the Sword of Damocles, but the biggest example to have ever done so is the 2014-2015 Fnatic roster that included: Jesper “JW” Wecksell, Freddy KRiMZ” Johansson, Robin “flusha” Ronnquist, Markus “pronax” Wallsten, and olofmeister. This was a team that had survived NiP, LDLC/EnVyUs, Virtus.Pro, and Dignitas/TSM. Everyone was gunning for their heads, but they were able to shift focus from star player to star player, they were able to clutch it out in the big moment, they were able to consistently win throughout this period and for their efforts we have named them the greatest line-up in CS:GO history. That is the reward for surviving the Sword of Damocles and that is what every competitor strives for.

The roster season is over, the teams have reshuffled into what they think are the best formations to take down the giants of the CS:GO world and take their place. The first trial will be held at Starladder Kiev where we will see the majority of the best teams in the world compete. The Sword of Damocles is falling, the challengers are swarming, and the pressure is mounting. Many have fallen to the Sword, but for those who survive, those who prove they can defeat all of the challengers no matter how many times they rise up and challenge again, glory, an era, a legacy awaits. That is the Sword of Damocles, the pressure at the top, and the reward for those who survive it.