Without a doubt, Denmark was the greatest nation in CS:GO.
Its leaders dominated the latter years of the game with gla1ve winning four Majors on Astralis and karrigan also winning one with FaZe. Not only that, but the two GOAT IGL candidates also both won seasons of the Intel Grand Slam.
You also have to consider the likes of MSL, who brought up many of the Danish talents we see today; cadiaN, who revitalised the CS meta with HEROIC; and Snappi, who surged to the very top of the Counter-Strike world by building an ENCE squad capable of taking on the world's best on any given day.
However, as we enter the Elimination Stage of the first CS2 Major, the PGL Major Copenhagen, only one of those great leaders is left standing.
Both cadiaN and Snappi failed to make it out of their respective RMRs, while gla1ve and his ENCE team limped towards a 1-3 elimination from the Opening Stage thanks to losses against Brazilian trio Imperial, paiN, and FURIA.
That leaves us with karrigan, the man who has become Denmark's greatest hope for glory in the home Major that they have been waiting for for many long years.
karrigan knows exactly what it takes to not only win a Major, but also to be the best in the world. In fact, it hasn't been long since FaZe held that title.
When CS2 was first released, FaZe won three tournaments consecutively, overcoming a blip in their opening match of IEM Sydney 2023 against GamerLegion to go back-to-back-to-back with event wins in dominant fashion.
However, since then, they have failed to win an event despite appearing in three more grand finals.
The first two, BLAST Premier Fall and World Finals 2023, saw them lose to Vitality in both, while the third, IEM Katowice 2024, saw them fall to Spirit thanks to a record-breaking tournament from donk.
Although that might suggest a downturn, it's different to FaZe downturns of old.
The former FaZe team that included Twistzz could only be categorised as inconsistent. At some events, they were indomitable, at others, they would struggle to even make the playoffs.
This FaZe, however, is different. With frozen, even if they aren't winning events, they're still making incredibly deep runs where they look strong throughout.
And, with frozen now fully integrated, we're sure to see the best version of FaZe at the PGL Major Copenhagen.
FaZe will also have learned a lot from their recent losses, far more than any other teams may have. They've played Vitality and Spirit at the final hurdle when neither team is pulling any punches. This is an experience like no other and an experience that they will be able to use as motivation that will help them in any potential matches against the two sides in Copenhagen.
It seems almost certain that if FaZe are to take home the trophy in Copenhagen, they will do so after beating at least one of those two teams. Fortunately, they have karrigan, and there's no one else we'd rather bet on to come up with a game plan to take out the best teams in the world than the Danish veteran.
They will also be able to learn from other teams in their pursuit of glory. MOUZ won a series against Spirit at the RMR and both Metizport and NAVI have taken maps from the Russian team in recent months. In the case of Vitality, they can learn from Cloud9, ENCE, and HEROIC to learn how to overcome their rivals.
Of course, there are other teams to factor in, most notably MOUZ themselves, but FaZe have a very favourable record against the German organisation. frozen knows the MOUZ squad better than anyone, and we've already seen him use that knowledge to claim victory against them at BLAST Premier World Final 2023 and IEM Katowice 2024.
Although the PGL Major Copenhagen might be without the likes of an Astralis team that features device, stavn, and jabbi, and Falcons team that features zonic and Magisk, and a Preasy team that features dupreeh, karrigan isn't the only hope Danish fans have at the Major.
ECSTATIC are the only full Danish squadron at the Major, and they have so far impressed by advancing to the Elimination Stage with a 3-1 record thanks to victories over TheMongolz, Lynn Vision, and Imperial.
However, ECSTATIC are an inexperienced team, getting as far as they have has already massively exceeded expectations for a team that wasn't even a favourite to advance from their RMR.
That being said, anything can happen at a Counter-Strike Major, and we all know what happened when the tier two sides came round to the BLAST.tv Paris Major.
ECSTATIC isn't the only team to feature Danes, either. HEROIC may no longer have a full Danish team, but they are still home to a Danish core. They've impressed so far with a 3-0 record in the Opening Stage, and we wouldn't be surprised to see TeSeS, nicoodoz, and sjuush make it into the playoffs.
The Danish fans will have plenty to root for at the home Major, but they'll know in their hearts who to cheer the most if they want to see one of their countrymen lift the trophy come March 31st.
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