The top five moments in the famous Royal Arena
The world-famous Royal Arena has been the home to too many great moments to mention - in fact, cutting it down to just five was pretty difficult.
It's been part of the BLAST universe since inception, and this is a celebration of the finest moments it has witnessed.
5. 2020: Vitality destroy the platinum five with their magic six
It's 2020.
Astralis still have *that* quintet of players, and Vitality are trying out ScreaM's little brother as their sixth man. Things are good.
Well, they're better.
The world's number 1 and 2 light up the Royal Arena in what promises to be a Grand Final for the history books - but a swift map one sees Vitality cruise ahead.
Stephanie LindgrenThe second map was more like it; Dust 2 eventually went the way of the home team in 30, but Vitality hit back with a dominant Inferno to seal the victory in front of a despondent Danish crowd.
misutaaa, having missed Dust 2 for Nivera to come back in, ended the final with a 1.64 rating, going 41-19 in his personal 16-4 16-5 series.
4. 2022: FaZe pull off the Heimlich to break NIP hearts
NIP are on the verge of the Grand Final.
Having taken their home map, Overpass, the Scandinavians, as they were at this point, put up nine CT rounds on Nuke, before winning five of the first six on the T side.
They're in the semi-finals of BLAST Premier Fall Final, against FaZe Clan. They're 1-0, and 14-7 up.
But if there's one team you wouldn't want to be in that situation against...
FaZe, as they were famous for doing, survived, fought, grinded. Blood, sweat and tears expended. FaZe picked up their first, and then their second. ropz was on fire, and seemed immortal down the stretch.
Blink, and FaZe are level. 14-14. NIP's big chance was slipping through their fingers - until they finally found the formula and picked up an unlikely round.
More than that, they go into the final round of regulation with a two-man advantage.
Time is running down, and the call is to end on B, where ropz lies in wait.
And ropz breaks their hearts.
Atop the site, ropz rains death onto NIP to force overtime - and the rest, they say, is history.
3. 2021: An all-Danish affair
A year after getting spanked by Vitality, Astralis are back in Denmark with a new-look roster.
dev1ce has turned into Lucky, k0nfig and blameF have replaced Magisk and dupreeh and Astralis fortunes have been... mixed.
Lucky wasn't the most well-revered by the community, but replacing dev1ce was no easy feat. It's a thankless task, but this was the time where he had his moment, in front of a home crowd.
The young AWPer collected two 1v2s, including one in OT to finish the game off, as Astralis took map one against their bitter rivals and beloved brethren, Heroic.
Michal KonkolHeroic were on the rise - they were the noisy neighbours, but were taught a lesson in composure and big-game balls by the team who had been there, done that too many times.
Astralis smashed Heroic on Nuke, picking up 14 on the CT side, and brought some life back to the hurting Astralis fanbase inside Copenhagen.
2. 2021: s1mple and ZywOo go blow-for-blow
The Grand Final in 2021 saw the best two players in CSGO history go head-to-head, toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow.
The result was largely immaterial - though NAVI might disagree, given they eventually won - for the show we were presented with was spectacular.
A combined 139 kills from the teams' respective snipers made the series nought but a canvas for two of the finest artists ever to grace the game to paint some pretty pictures, and it was lovely.
Vitality's one map win came from a 1v4 from ZywOo to close it, while s1mple had a seemingly endless series of multikills on Inferno and Mirage to make the rest of Vitality look like extras in the film of s1mple vs ZywOo.
This game was basically just a fragmovie. Well worth a rewatch.
1. Heroic crowned kings of Denmark
Look, man, we're a little biased on this one.
Heroic were one of the, if not the outright, best teams in the world, but were missing some of the jewels their crown really needed. They forced their way to the final, but so often, this had been their Achilles' heel.
In their way stood FaZe, a team who were near-impassable, un-put-away-able, immortal. If you had a problem with closing out big games, this was not the team you wanted to face.
Heroic were comfortable on Overpass, but cracks started to appear on their T side of Inferno. FaZe held strong to repel the 2-0, and forced Heroic to fight for their kingdom.
Stephanie LindgrenMap three delivered. It delivered in buckets and spades.
jabbi was electric, dancing in the shadows to find big moments and exploding into the light to blow FaZe up. Heroic were flying, up 11-4 at the half.
But FaZe can't be beaten that easily.
FaZe picked up the pistol, and the next four. Even when Heroic cut them apart for their first T round, FaZe put the iron curtain back up to pick up three more.
Heroic found their feet, and squirmed their way to an unconvincing tournament point - but were swiftly denied by FaZe.
This is where champions are made. Map three, overtime, against the most resilient team in the world.
They exchanged rounds before Heroic found a second T round. Once more it was jabbi who stood tall to win one of the most important 1v1s of his life - and his team didn't let him down just one round later to close out the series.
Heroic had done it.
And cadiaN went f*cking mental.