CS:GO Major MVPs - Where Are They Now?
Introduction
Ever since CS:GO has had a significant competitive scene, Valve has sponsored a few events each year, dubbed Majors, which are regarded as the most prestigious events of the year. Independent of the teams present, the time, or the location of the Major, the respect earnt from winning a Major event lasts forever (in general, although I don’t know if znajder from 2013 will get the same respect as shox in 2014, despite both being Major winners).
Each Major has a MVP, most valuable player, associated with the tournament - placing more focus on playoffs performances to find the most impactful player present. To be the best player at the most important event should be a sign of serious skill - but what happened to the Major MVPs of yesteryear?
This article will go over all the Major MVPs, briefly look at their journey (so bear with me if I forget a specific detail or two), and focus on where they are now and where they could be in the future, in my opinion.
Jesper 'JW' Wecksell - DreamHack Winter 2013
The MVP of the very first Major, JWonderchild won this lineup with a wacky fnatic lineup that would surprise people who weren’t around at the time, with names like Devilwalk and znajder lifting the trophy alongside him. The explosive AWPer spent most of his career in fnatic, aside from a slight GODSENT swap stint, winning multiple Majors and trophies.
Unfortunately, towards the end of his tenure in fnatic, the team and himself struggled to maintain their LAN form in the online era, and he was eventually replaced. Currently, he is playing alongside fellow Swedish legend flusha and bringing back the legendary tag “EYEBALLERS” as an organisation with the intent to revive Swedish CS:GO through developing talent. They have not yet found success through open qualifiers and have not broken into the top 30 yet, but as a project for developing talent, it may take a while before we see the fruits of their labour.
OPINION: As of writing this, JW is not actually that old (27), and there exist many older experienced players like rain, karrigan, dupreeh, who are all still playing for top teams right now. The main issue JW faces is the current state of Sweden in CS:GO and his individual role. While JW has taken the IGL role in the past, and has even switched off of the AWP role experimentally, his impact has historically been most potent with the sniper rifle - but his individual form may make it difficult to justify his AWPing in a top team.
If he can successfully scout for talent and build a strong team around him in his current project, or alternatively, adapt to a supportive rifle/IGL role and use his experience to lead a new team, there is still some hope for his career in the future - but aside from an upset playoffs appearance, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a return of JW to the top tier of CS:GO. No future Major MVPs from the wonder child, sadly.
Jarosław 'pashaBiceps' Jarząbkowski - EMS One Katowice 2014
Alongside the classic Polish Virtus.Pro roster that remained together for years in CS:GO, the versatile pashaBiceps showed strong form in this Major to grab the MVP on home soil. Able to play with both AWP and rifle, he would stay with this team until the eventual disassembly of the core in 2018/19.
He would trial for teams like AGO, with rumours of him being signed to teams, but 2019 ended without pasha finding a team, and through a combination of COVID, the Polish scene, his age, and competitive drive, pasha retired and shifted towards streaming through the COVID era (even being signed by Liquid for a while).
Currently, pasha is the ceo of “pashagamingschool”, where he helps Polish teams with bootcamps, training, and provides resources for them - as well as this, he does stream on Twitch every so often.
OPINION: This one is pretty clear cut; there’s no real chance pasha comes back to actually play CS professionally again. However, you can probably look forward to seeing him in many showmatches in the future, and it’s not out of the question that a really good Polish team (whenever they finally start existing) could motivate him to become a coach! No future Major MVPs from pasha, though.
Adam 'friberg' Friberg - ESL One Cologne 2014
While the stars of the legendary NiP squad were undoubtedly f0rest and GeT_RiGhT, the MVP in their Major win was actually friberg, netting him the only MVP he has on record. He would stay with NiP alongside the revolving 5th player until 2017, where the team could not justify his performance as a non-IGL player any longer, replacing him with REZ (who is still in NiP!).
He transitioned to an IGL role through various projects like OpTic and Heroic, finding middling success, until the beginning of 2020 where he was recruited for a Swedish Last Dance (before everything was a Last Dance) with the original NiP players and hallzerk, signed by Dignitas.
The team would struggle to break out of the top 30/40 and multiple players would be replaced, but friberg stayed on until the organisation decided that it just wasn’t worth it and pulled out of CS:GO entirely. Currently, friberg is doing some streaming and playing in random mixes with his old friends for open qualifiers, and is “open to interesting ideas”.
OPINION: The issue with friberg is that his stats aren’t great for an IGL, but in Swedish teams there are not sufficient players to compensate for that - his repertoire as an IGL is also not as great as other leaders like MSL or flusha despite his experience as a player. Because of this, he isn’t likely to be targeted by teams as a replacement or as a starting piece either, so his best bet is to mirror what JW is doing and start developing young talent around him and hope that something miraculous sprouts from it.
Then again, with players like HooXi having low stats and still finding big teams, and karrigan winning big tournaments at 32, it might not be over for friberg yet! Here’s a wild one - remember that news story about Snappi and smooya going over to an Asian team? Speaking of interesting ideas, why shouldn’t friberg try his hand at leading Asian CS:GO teams with his experience on the world stage, and try to take advantage of the lower standards of competition that exist currently in order to qualify for a Major? If nothing else, it would be funny. C’mon, friberg, do it. No future Major MVPs from him though, even if he goes to Asia.
Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer - DreamHack Winter 2014
The famous pistol clip champion himself, Happy was part of the first French Major winning roster as an IGL with a specific style. Well known for his lurking, perhaps blameF’s predecessor in some ways, Happy would make waves as the leader and a star fragger within these French lineups. He would stay with Envy (who signed LDLC’s team in 2015) long after this Major championship, which would provide diminishing returns until 2018, where Happy was benched. He would be unveiled in the starting roster of Vitality, but would be benched not long after for ALEX.
Happy would then rejoin a floundering LDLC for 2019, and would be removed before the end of the year. Afterwards, when Valorant was released in 2020, he would try his hand at competitive Valorant, but as of right now, appears to be inactive in that scene as well.
OPINION: Aside from helping the young French scene (which definitely needs the help), Happy is unlikely to return to competition, at least in CS:GO. For now, he will likely keep trying to get into a Valorant team until the franchising kills his chances. Happy could potentially be a broadcast talent if his English is good enough, or just for French streams if it isn’t. No future MVPs, though - his IGLing style no longer works as well, and his individual form is not justifiable if he is not calling the shots.
Olof 'olofmeister' Kajbjer - ESL One Katowice 2015
Considered a candidate for the G.O.A.T., olofmeister won this MVP with the legendary fnatic roster. He would stay with fnatic after they started shuffling around players until he was recruited to join the first FaZe superteam in 2017, which won many trophies and even came close to giving olofmeister a third Major.
A star rifler who showed incredible longevity, transitioning to a more supportive role in his later teams, olofmeister has enjoyed a healthy career in CS:GO.
OPINION: As his latter stages of CS:GO were basically seat-warming for ropz on FaZe, I didn’t get the impression that olofmeister was hungry for competition any more, though he might still be useful in a supportive role. Given the respect and tenure he has, it is very likely he could become a broadcast talent, and will continue to appear in “fun” competitions (as I write this, he is playing in the Kinguin Legends tournament!). No future MVPs, even if he does decide to return.
Robin 'flusha' Rönnquist - ESL One Cologne 2015
Known for his one taps unique playstyle and strong game sense, flusha found fantastic individual form in this Major to take the MVP and bring fnatic a third Major. Barring some stints in GODSENT and Cloud9, the latter happening due to individual struggles, flusha would transition to an IGL role and then back to a secondary caller (which would cause him to leave fnatic earlier than JW, due to wanting to call again).
He would spend his time on the mysterious GORILLAZ squad, leaving before it could be formally announced as the new organisation TITANS, and is currently playing with JW in the EYEBALLERS project.
OPINION: Unlike JW, flusha is already an IGL/supportive, and is likely still a good leader if given the pieces to work with. He also has shown he is willing to speak English - but also, he is currently developing Swedish CS with JW, which is not the recipe to an insane career resurgence. In a squad like Apeks, with some younger talent, I believe flusha could still return to the top of CS:GO. No MVPs from him though, even if he does.
Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub - DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015
Winning this Major with iteration two of Major winning French CS:GO rosters, kennyS took a Major MVP for himself that was well deserved. He would continue to play with Envy through the ups and downs of French CS, before joining G2 in the attempt at a French superteam (that never really took off). He would stay with G2 through their iterations until they gave up on France, and would eventually be benched for NiKo.
The last “great” year for kennyS was with the aforementioned G2 superteam in 2017 - since then, he has been slowly becoming more inconsistent. After an attempt at getting into the Valorant scene (which Riot did not allow), he would continue streaming.
OPINION: Before the French Major was announced, I did not believe that kennyS would be able to return to competition - but we’ve seen what having a home town event does multiple times over in CS:GO. I think kennyS will give it one last real shot with the AWP in a French team for the 2023 Blast Major - and after that, he will probably return to content creation. No future MVPs for him, but a little resurgence isn’t out of the question.
Marcelo 'coldzera' David - MLG Columbus 2016, ESL One Cologne 2016
The MVP for both Brazilian-won Majors, coldzera won many trophies with the Luminosity/SK core of players in 2016 and 2017. He would remain the best player in the world for those years, and would still show great form in 2018 amidst the slow decline of the roster - he would then join FaZe in 2019 as part of the revolving door of players that continued spinning for years.
In reality, coldzera would actually survive on FaZe for two years, through the pandemic, and would win one Blast LAN before the pandemic. After a brief trial in Complexity (which was an absolutely hilarious roster with blameF, jks, coldzera providing a star trio of baiters), he would join 00NATION to return to Brazilian CS:GO, eventually reunited with TACO.
OPINION: After trying for a while to maintain his star status amidst uncertain rosters and struggling form, coldzera has realised that the best path for him is to bring Brazilian talent (which is expansive, in contrast to other scenes currently) and inject them with the experience and know-how he has accumulated over the years. While he may no longer win MVPs, I see no reason why a roster like 00NATION couldn’t eventually rise to the top after a year or two and more roster shuffles.
Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye - ELEAGUE Major 2017
Winning his only MVP on record, Kjaerbye won the ELEAGUE Major in 2017 with the legendary Astralis team (TSM, ?, whatever you prefer) before they attained full power with Magisk. Now infamous for his North move (which could have turned out to be one of the best roster moves of all time, if North had been good for more than a few DreamHacks), Kjaerbye would stay with North until the bitter end of that team.
He would join FaZe in a weird online stint that amounted in a weird online victory, and would subsequently “retire”, citing motivation among other things. As anyone could have predicted, being such a young player and retiring doesn’t really last for long, and Kjaerbye returned to play for Endpoint in the lower tiers of CS:GO.
OPINION: While he is quite young, Kjaerbye isn’t delivering in a way which would result in him getting future MVPs. He could find success in a refrezh style role, with secondary calling, clutches or experience being his selling point - but given the state of Danish CS:GO, will probably just end up in the third best Danish team. In international CS:GO, there are hundreds of young talents to choose from who show much more potential (his teammate Nertz, for instance) and would probably be picked up over Kjaerbye - so he won’t make it much further than an Endpoint type of team.
Dauren 'AdreN' Kystaubayev - PGL Major Krakow 2017
A legendary player from Kazakhstan, AdreN would be one of the star riflers in Gambit’s unprecedented 2017 Major title lift. He would remain in that Gambit team after Zeus left, and would enter the FaZe revolving door as a leader after karrigan left. He would win a few trophies with this FaZe roster, but nothing major - shuffling around until he eventually joined Jame in AVANGAR/Virtus.Pro.
His individual form took a hit, and as Jame was capable of calling the shots, he was replaced for YEKINDAR (which you can hardly argue with). AdreN would then fiddle around with K23 before leaving to make way for younger talent, and he currently streams.
OPINION: While AdreN is unlikely to continue competing, Dosia is still almost making the RMR, and there is no shortage of young talent for him to lead. We will probably still see AdreN try his hand at a few more projects here and there, but no future MVPs. He will probably find his way onto CIS broadcasts in the future.
Tarik 'tarik' Celik - ELEAGUE Major 2018
Probably the most unforgettable Major in CS:GO for a lot of people (North Americans), tarik would lead NA to their only Major to date. He left the post-Major implosion of Cloud9 to join MIBR for some months, and would then join NRG (who were bought by EG), winning a few trophies and playing with the same core until he was benched in 2021.
Tarik capitalised on the switch to streaming better than any other player (except perhaps shroud) has, taking advantage of the viewership and pull of Valorant in North America to find incredible success.
OPINION: We’ve seen shroud dabble in professional Valorant, and I fully expect tarik to try it for a little while to itch that competitive scratch. Perhaps in a few years, when there are too many agents and Valorant becomes just another game, tarik will return to CS:GO and even play a few qualifiers here and there. But I don’t expect any future MVPs, nor do I expect him to seriously compete anymore (with his numbers, he would have to really like competing to give up on all that money).
Nicolai 'device' Reedtz - FACEIT Major 2018, Starladder Major Berlin 2019
One of the only players on this list who has two Major MVPs, Mr. Consistent himself has won four Majors with the legendary Astralis lineup, but you knew this already. He would stay with the legendary core through the online era until a shock departure to NiP in 2021 would leave everyone wondering whether he would find the same success in the Swedish team.
He performed well individually, but his personal life got in the way of his career - and at the end of 2021, he left for medical leave and has not been active since (except on FACEIT).
OPINION: Wherever device goes when he comes back, he will perform incredibly well, which is an obvious expectation considering his history. Currently, the rumours suggest a return to Astralis, or even Heroic, but regardless, he could easily be in the running for future Major MVPs if he ends up on a team willing to reach for the stars again.
Emil 'Magisk' Reif - IEM Katowice 2019
A member of Astralis’s better Major winning team, Magisk won his second ever MVP at Katowice 2019. He would stay with Astralis through COVID-19 until he was benched alongside dupreeh in 2021, and he then joined Vitality in a headline roster move with dupreeh and zonic in 2022 where he remains.
OPINION: Magisk is the youngest player (aside from Kjaerbye, of course) from the Astralis Major winning core, and has displayed skill with the rifle, secondary calling, IGLing, and secondary AWPing. I wouldn’t rule out him getting future MVPs, but he does have ZywOo on his team, which reduces his chances significantly - regardless, he likely has a long career ahead of him still.
Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev - PGL Major Stockholm 2021
Part of post-COVID history, s1mple’s Major win is still fresh in many of our minds. He won it with an explosive NaVi team that made history as the only team to win a Major without dropping a map, and remains with that team today. Aside from ominous talks about breaks that are immediately dispelled, there is no doubt that s1mple is still competing in CS:GO and will fight for the Rio Major.
OPINION: As there is nothing I could say about s1mple individually that would be interesting (many MVPs in his future, what a shocker), here’s a note - in five to six years, s1mple will be one of the best IGLs to touch the game. Playing with blad3, and being the master of CS:GO that he is, that prediction is an easy one to make for me.
Håvard 'rain' Nygaard - PGL Major Antwerp 2022
Even fresher than s1mple’s Major win is FaZe dispelling the Boston curse and winning a Major, especially for Major MVP rain. As this is recent history, not much has changed - rain will continue to fight for the Rio Major with FaZe.
OPINION: The Major MVP rain won was a massive overperformance that gave rain a second life in this FaZe team, but a lot of people rate him rather positively given that recent performance. He won’t be able to keep the same type of standard, and will likely regress to a more reasonable rating more in line with the difficult entry role that he plays in this team. It is unlikely for him to gain future MVPs with this in mind, but he still has a couple years before YEKINDAR finds his way onto FaZe as rain’s spiritual successor. (Latvian dream team, anyone?)
Afterword
If you’ve made it all the way here, thank you for reading! I could have gone more in depth regarding the past and the statistics, but that would distract from the focus of the article - the current status of the players, and my opinions (how selfish!). If you've got any kind or unkind words for me, direct them to my Twitter!