Results of the first season of 2024 on the professional Counter-Strike 2 scene
The first season of 2024 on the professional Counter-Strike 2 scene has come to an end. It turned out to be quite random, during this time we did not get a new era for one of the teams, and there was no obvious favorite at each tournament. In the first half of the year, 6 important championships were held: IEM Katowice 2024, PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, IEM Chengdu 2024, ESL Pro League Season 19, IEM Dallas 2024 and BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024. In this material we will discuss the first season of 2024 on the professional stage Counter-Strike 2 and remember all the past tournaments.
IEM Katowice 2024
The first tournament of the season was IEM Katowice 2024. Every year the championship in Katowice is one of the most important and every team dreams of winning at the legendary Spodek Arena. The group stage of the tournament began with unexpected failures of one of the strongest teams of last year – Team Vitality and Cloud9. Also in the group, Team Spirit’s victory over FaZe Clan in the final of the upper bracket was a big surprise. Back then, no one knew what kind of team Spirit would become and what success awaited it in the future. However, even reaching the semifinals did not mean that the team is the main contender for the championship; outsiders often take first place in groups and then fail on the big stage. However, this was not the case.
Team Spirit dealt with the Falcons without any problems, and in the grand finals they again had to meet FaZe Clan. In this match, there was little faith in the Russian team: the opponents had enormous experience in such matches, as well as the best captain on the professional stage, Finn karrigan Andersen, who knows how to properly set up the team for decisive games. However, everything did not go according to the usual scenario, Team Spirit, despite its youth, did not experience any problems or pressure, and the grand final itself ended with a dry score of 3:0. After such a phenomenal victory, the whole world believed in the success of Spirit, and also paid attention to the talent of Danil donk Kryshkovets. IEM Katowice 2024 gave us another tier-1 team that claims trophies at every championship in which it takes part.
PGL Major Copenhagen 2024
Next up was one of the most important events in the Counter-Strike world – the Major. PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 was Valve’s first championship held in CS2, and as a result, it received more attention than usual. After winning IEM Katowice 2024, Team Spirit became the main favorite in all respects, but almost no team was able to perform well at their first major. A similar situation happened with Spirit, it reached the quarterfinals and was a favorite in the meeting with FaZe Clan, but on the decisive map everything did not go according to plan. Thanks to their experience and mental pressure, Finn karrigan Andersen’s team managed to turn the tide of the fight and show total dominance on Vertigo – a map that has always been FaZe’s permoban.
After defeating the main favorite, everyone expected FaZe Clan to win the championship at the next major, but the sensations did not end there. Natus Vincere, which no one really believed in, unexpectedly reached the grand final. The chances against FaZe on paper were catastrophically low, but NAVI surprised the opponent and the whole world by destroying Finn karrigan Andersen on the decisive Inferno.
Many consider Natus Vincere’s championship at PGL Major Copenhagen 2024 an accident, because this is the only championship that the team managed to win during the entire season. She was also close to the trophy at the last tournament of the season – BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024, but was stopped by Team Spirit.
IEM Chengdu 2024
Next we were waiting for IEM Chengdu 2024, which became a less spectacular tournament compared to the others. Most of the best teams in the world were not there, but the competition for the championship was still extremely high. This tournament marked the beginning of MOUZ’s race for the top 1 in the world and an attempt to dominate the professional scene. However, it was in China that the team failed to become the best. In the grand final, the team could not resist FaZe Clan, which showed its last good performance of the season. After this tournament, Finn karrigan Andersen’s roster was completely exhausted and was no longer able to show such high-quality play throughout the rest of the season.
ESL Pro League Season 19
Traditionally, the longest tournament of the season was the next season of the ESL Pro League. The matches of the 19th season lasted about three weeks and managed to bore the audience quite a bit. Unlike other championships, 32 teams competed at EPL S19. No one will probably remember the group stage matches, but the playoffs turned out to be unexpected and rich in interesting results. MOUZ and Team Vitality met in the grand final. At first glance, it looked like a good chance for the team to win the tournament again, but in fact the team was simply destroyed with a score of 0:3. However, Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut still received his first and only MVP medal of the season.
IEM Dallas 2024
IEM Dallas 2024 was one of the most exciting tournaments of the season. As always, this happened thanks to the victory of the underdog, but the triumph of G2 Esports is not the only memorable thing about the tournament. The team made waves for replacing their captain Rasmus HooXi Nielsen with Jake Stewie2k Yip. Notable is the fact that he did not play on the tier-1 stage for two years. Before the tournament, it seemed that this championship would be a failure for G2 Esports, but analysts did not take into account the factor of the stands; the spectators at the stadium charged Stewie2k and G2 Esports with their support, which gave it additional motivation and strength to win. In the closest possible grand final, the team defeated Team Vitality.
BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024
The season ended with the spring finals of BLAST Premier. The last tournament before the long vacation turned out exactly the way we wanted it to be. It gave a lot of emotions and beautiful matches and will definitely remain in the memory. In addition to another triumph for Team Spirit and consolidation in the top 1 of the world, we saw the unexpected return of Virtus.pro to the semifinals, which it had not qualified for since IEM Rio Major 2022. It is worth noting that the team did this without a coach, the team was mentored by an analyst . It was also not expected that Natus Vincere, which played worse and worse with each tournament, would be able to reach the grand final after winning the PGL Major Copenhagen 2024. However, such a return did not add any chances against Team Spirit, which was clearly better, than each of the teams represented at BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024.
The past season gave us many discoveries and sensations, the biggest was the ascension of Team Spirit to the shooting range-1 stage. The season ended with the dominance of the team and a well-deserved first place in the HLTV ratings. The main star of the team, Danil donk Kryshkovets, is also now the main contender for the title of best player of the year, Ilya m0NESY Osipov and Mathieu ZywOo Herbaut are fighting for the medal, but they have not yet been able to catch up with donk.
In the second season of 2024, even more interesting things await us, for example, it will immediately begin with the Esports World Cup 2024 – a world championship in Riyadh with an impressive prize pool. And in December, Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 awaits us. Also, the coming season will be the last for partner leagues, after which the history of Counter-Strike will go in a completely different direction and now it is difficult to predict what will await us in 2025.