EURO 2024 in Counter-Strike: The Strongest National Teams in CS2
A few years ago, international teams were a rarity in competitive CS, and most lineups consisted of players from the same language group. Everyone remembers the WESG series of tournaments, which served as a sort of world championship among national teams. EURO 2024 inspired us to create this material, where we decided to form national teams from top Counter-Strike players.
Denmark
- Finn “karrigan” Andersen (FaZe Clan) — Captain
- Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz (Astralis) — Sniper
- Martin “stavn” Lund (Astralis) — Rifler
- Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen (Falcons) — Rifler
- Benjamin “blameF” Bremer (Fnatic) — Rifler
Few would argue that the Danish region is one of the strongest at the moment. To form a team of 5, we had to leave out legends such as gla1ve, Magisk, Snappi, cadiaN, k0nfig, and others. The younger generation is also very talented and competes at a top level in teams like Astralis, HEROIC, GG, Sashi, and various international mixes. This team has a great balance of incredible skill, experience, and trophy-winning capabilities. We are confident that such a team would compete for the highest places in the European Championship, and each player could deliver a stellar performance and carry a match single-handedly. Finn Andersen is a highly respected captain, around whom even such titled players as dev1ce and dupreeh can unite and become a cohesive unit.
Russia
- Dzhami “Jame” Ali (Virtus.pro) — Captain (Second Sniper)
- Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov (G2) — Sniper
- Danil “donk” Kryshkovets (Team Spirit) — Rifler
- Denis “electroNic” Sharipov (Virtus.pro) — Rifler
- Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev (Virtus.pro) — Rifler
At the moment, this is the only country that can compete with the Danes not only in terms of the main lineup but also with the contenders who didn’t make it into the final five. Players from Team Spirit, VP, and the former Cloud9 roster have long been in the top tier of CS, making it hard to select just five. The sniper position had three contenders, but while Jame found a place as captain, it seemed inappropriate to move sh1ro to the rifler position. The VP captain is the most experienced leader and can build a game even without a coach, whereas chopper from TS has only led younger players with extensive coaching support. There’s no need to say much about the other players; their HLTV profiles speak for them.
Baltic States
- Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis (Team Liquid) — Captain, Latvia
- Helvijs “broky” Saukants (FaZe Clan) — Sniper, Latvia
- Robin “ropz” Kool (FaZe Clan) — Rifler, Estonia
- Andreas “aNdu” Maasing (Gamer Legion) — Rifler, Estonia
- Justinas “jL” Lekavičius (NAVI) — Rifler, Lithuania
Next, we decided to cheat a bit and create a team for an entire region rather than a specific country. We appointed YEKINDAR as the leader of this lineup, as he has had similar experience in Team Liquid, unlike the others. Individually, all players are of the highest level, with experience in winning major tournaments and earning MVP titles at tier-1 events. The only weak link seems to be aNdu, but he is just at the beginning of his career and already has decent statistics
France
- Dan “apEX” Madesclaire (Vitality) — Captain
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut (Vitality) — Sniper
- Alexandre “bodyy” Pianaro (Fnatic) — Rifler
- Lucas “Lucky” Chastang (3DMAX) — Rifler
- Ali “hAdji” Haïnouss (Monte) — Rifler
We now turn to the real catastrophe of the French CS scene. Counter-Strike history knows this country as a breeding ground for audacious, arrogant, and top-tier players. At the dawn of CS, the French had 2-3 full-fledged lineups, becoming champions of Majors and other major tournaments. From the legacy of shox, kennyS, NBK, RpK, Happy, and other legends, only apEX remains at the top level. If it weren’t for the talent of ZywOo, perhaps no one would even remember the French scene nowadays. It is only thanks to him that this lineup has any chance of performing well at a hypothetical EURO.
Sweden
- Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson (Fnatic) — Captain
- Tim “nawwk” Jonasson (Bleed) — Sniper
- Max “maxster” Jansson (NIP) — Rifler
- Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin (MOUZ) — Rifler
- Fredrik “REZ” Sterner (NIP) — Rifler
Staying in the realm of nostalgia, we can’t forget the role of the Swedes in CS history. NIP and Fnatic are highly respected tags and have always been considered the pride of Sweden. Now, both organizations are forced to survive on dubious mixes, but to be fair, their lineup looks far more solid and experienced than the French one. There’s even some competition here, but remembering F0rest, Friberg, Xist, flusha, JW, pronax, GeT_RiGhT makes it sad to see the current state of affairs. The current generation has already made every possible attempt to form at least one strong Swedish stack, but they have dispersed into various mixes.
Israel
- Guy “NertZ” Iluz (HEROIC) — Captain
- Nikita “HeavyGod” Martynenko (OG) — Sniper
- Shahar “flameZ” Shushan (Vitality) — Rifler
- Lotan “Spinx” Giladi (Vitality) — Rifler
- Dorian “xertioN” Berman (MOUZ) — Rifler
Seeing a team from Israel on this list might come as a real surprise. However, look at the names and organizations — it all makes sense immediately. Without a hint of irony, this lineup could compete for the highest places not only in the European Championship but also in the world. Firepower, trophies, performances on big stages — almost every participant has such experience in CS.
Balkans
- Nikola “NiKo” Kovač (G2) — Captain, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov (500) — Sniper, Bulgaria
- Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač (G2) — Rifler, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Flatron “juanflatroo” Halimi (Into The Breach) — Rifler, Kosovo
- Mihai “iM” Ivan (NAVI) — Rifler, Romania
Another territorial but quite logical mix of Balkan players. Here, everything is based on the Kovač brothers from G2, and they have quite a company. Major champion in CS2 – iM, the terror of FPL and RMR from ex-Bad News Eagles – juanflatroo, and the recently top sniper of prime EG – CerQ. It would be interesting to see such a lineup in action, wouldn’t it?
Ukraine
- Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev (ENCE) — Captain
- Ihor “w0nderful” Zhdanov (NAVI) — Sniper
- Valerij “b1t” Vakhovsjkyj (NAVI) — Rifler
- Myroslav “zont1x” Plakhotja (Team Spirit) — Rifler
- Serghij “DemQQ” Demchenko (Monte) — Rifler
Since we mentioned the first champions of the CS2 Major, we move on to b1t and w0nderful, now in the lineup of an improvised Ukrainian team. We wanted to make s1mple the captain of the team, but he has long been inactive and is unlikely to fit the role due to his excessive toxicity. The team turned out to be strong and skilled, but if Blade doesn’t take the wheel of this machine, it is unlikely to go far.
Poland
- Kamil “siuhy” Szkaradek (MOUZ) — Captain
- Aleksander “hades” Miskiewicz (ENCE Reserve) — Sniper
- Kacper “Kylar” Walukiewicz (ENCE) — Rifler
- Szymon “kRaSnaL” Mrozek (Monte) — Rifler
- Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski (Gamer Legion) — Rifler
No, these are not the tears of VP fans – these are the main figures of the Polish CS scene. Snax is here only thanks to his old achievements and the lack of much stronger candidates. The only bright spot is the IGL of MOUZ, but whether he will manage to perform another miracle with his compatriots is a big question.
Spain
- Alejandro “alex” Masanet (NIP) — Captain
- Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia (Falcons) — Sniper
- Antonio “MartinezSa” Martinez (9z) — Second Sniper
- David “dav1g” Granado (KOI) — Rifler
- Alejandro “mopoz” Fernández (KOI) — Rifler
In the past couple of years, Spaniards have made a decent breakthrough in CS and already have several successful players and lineups. SunPayus stands out among them the most and is the only representative at the tier-1 level, but KOI made it to the Major, and the sniper of 9z performed excellently at IEM Dallas. There is still a solid number of tier-2 players not included in this five, so it will be interesting to observe the progress of the Spaniards in CS.
Several teams were left out of our top. Since their best players are gathered in the same teams, we found it boring and not entirely fair to call them separate national teams:
- Turkey – Eternal Fire
- Germany – BIG
- Portugal – SAW