#COUNTER STRIKE GLOBAL OFFENSIVE PROFESSIONAL#

On February 23, 2016, with MLG Columbus 2016 coming up, Valve announced a permanent increase in the prize pool from US$250,000 to US$1,000,000. Only the Danish team Astralis has since matched that total.Īt the end of 2015, Valve announced that MLG would host the first Major in North America. When Fnatic won Cologne 2015, they became the first team to win back to back Majors, and the first to win a third Major in total. NiP would play in five of the first six grand finals. The early Majors were dominated by Swedish teams, as Fnatic and NiP combined to win the four of the first six Majors.

#COUNTER STRIKE GLOBAL OFFENSIVE PROFESSIONAL#

These Majors are the most prestigious events in the competitive CS:GO scene, and the professional players' legacies are often judged by their performances at these tournaments. After Dreamhack 2013, Valve announced they would partner with tournament organizers to host three Majors per year. The tournament took place in late November and was won by the Swedish team Fnatic who upset Ninjas in Pyjamas in the finals. Valve announced the tournament would take place in Sweden and would be hosted by DreamHack. The money was partially community-funded through the game's Arms Deal update, which allowed players to buy in-game skins. On September 16, 2013, a year after the release of Global Offensive, Valve announced a US$250,000 community-funded prize pool for the first official CS:GO Major. Many teams from other parts of the world would win Majors, including Team 3D from the United States at CPL Winter 2002 and WCG 2004, NoA from Norway at CPL Winter 2004, mibr from Brazil at ESWC 2006, and WeMade FOX from South Korea at WEM 2010.

Swedish teams, most notably SK Gaming, dominated early Majors but the Polish roster known as the Golden Five were the most successful lineup. The CPL Summer and Winter Championships, along with the World Cyber Games, Electronic Sports World Cup and Intel Extreme Masters World Championships, were considered Majors by the community, although Valve did not sponsor or give any official designation to the tournaments. The first significant international tournament was the 2001 Cyberathlete Professional League Winter Championship, considered the first 'Major'. The first game in the series, Counter-Strike 1.6, was officially released in 2000 and competitive play began soon after. It is the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. Astralis hold the record for the most Major titles with four.Ĭounter-Strike: Global Offensive is a multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and Valve. The current champions are Outsiders, who won their first Major at IEM Rio Major 2022. The Majors are considered to be the most important and prestigious tournaments in the Global Offensive scene. Since then, the Major circuit has expanded significantly, with recent tournaments advertising a US$2,000,000 prize pool and featuring twenty-four teams from around the world. The first CS:GO Major took place in 2013 in Jönköping, Sweden and was hosted by DreamHack with a total prize pool of US$250,000 split among 16 teams. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major Championships, commonly known as the Majors, are Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) esports tournaments sponsored by Valve, the game's developer.

Counter strike global offensive