2024 was a great year for CS2’s esports scene. The game that was released in Autumn last year went through a lot of positive transformations and became as enjoyable and as well-suited for competitive tournaments as CS:GO.
There were 11 events with at least $500,000 in prize money in 2024 and six of them offered more than $1 million. Among them, three were spectacular.
IEM Katowice
IEM Katowice was the tournament that made Danil “donk” Kryshkovets famous. The 17-year-old had one of the most impressive performances of any Counter-Strike player at a big event, ever! His record-breaking stats and unique playstyle allowed Team Spirit to win the trophy against all odds.
In particular, his Grand Final performance (82 – 40, 124 ADR, 1.96) gave Spirit a 3 – 0 victory against FaZe Clan, one of the best teams of the last several years.
PGL Major Copenhagen
The Copenhagen Major was Natus Vincere’s time to shine. The Ukrainian team won their second Major trophy at this event.
They also made history by becoming the first team to win a CS2 Major. Arguably, this version of Counter-Strike will be around for at least 10 years, so to win its very first Major is something that will benefit the organization for a long time to come.
The 2nd place team at this tournament was FaZe Clan. Unfortunately for Finn “karrigan” Andersen and his teammates, Na’Vi were in great shape and beat them 2 – 1.
Perfect World Shanghai Major
The Shanghai Major took place in December and had the same protagonist as IEM Katowice. Donk and his crew came out of nowhere and won. Their performance in the months prior to the Major was not great, so nobody expected them to win. But donk was phenomenal from start to finish.
Once again, the 2nd team in the race was FaZe Clan. This year, karrigan played in four Grand Finals of S-tier events and only won once. Next year, he might not be able to get so many top results because the team’s best player, Robin “ropz” Kool, will probably join Team Vitality in the coming weeks.
