What do we know about the participants of StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor?

StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor is one of the first two Minor tournaments to be held in this season’s Major Circuit. There, eight teams from different parts of Europe will fight for two tickets to the most prestigious CS:GO event of the second half of 2019. In this article, we will talk about every participant at this Minor and share some interesting facts from their history.

North (#10)

The Danes of North are occupying the 10th position in HLTV’s Ranking, which is ahead of mousesports. Just like mouz, they did not participate in the Katowice Major after FACEIT Major 2018. They tried to take their Major spot back, but it did not go exactly as they planned, as the Danish team lost all three decider matches that could see them qualify for IEM Katowice 2019, being defeated by ENCE Esports, Team Vitality, and ViCi Gaming.

valde will lead North at their first Minor with JUGi

Now it is Valdemar "valde" Bjørn Vangså who plays the IGL role for the team, while Jakob "JUGi" Hansen represents North instead of Casper "cadiaN" Møller.

Other facts:

• • North is the only Danish team that has managed to make it through the closed qualifier for StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor. Beside them, there were other four squads from Denmark in attendance, which are Heroic, Tricked Esport, OpTic Gaming, and Maknitude.
• • Among all players on the North roster, Markus "Kjaerbye" Kjærbye is the only one who has won a Major. He did it with Astralis at ELEAGUE Major 2017, where he also received the MVP award from HLTV.org.
• • Philip "aizy" Aistrup, compared to his teammates, has made the highest amount of Major Playoffs appearances, as he has been there three times: ESL Cologne 14 with Team Dignitas, EL Atlanta 17 with FaZe Clan, and PGL Krakow 17 with North.
• • Kjaerbye is the only player from North who has a Minor Championship trophy on his record. He conquered the title at DreamHack EU Minor Tours 2016 with Team Dignitas, which, at the time, also consisted of MSL, tenzki, k0nfig, and RUBINO.

mousesports (#11)

Based on HLTV’s World Ranking, mousesports is the second highest-rated team among the participants of StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor. One year ago the European squad was eliminated from the Major Circuit after it had failed to deliver at FACEIT Major. Later, they could not even pass the groups at the last EU Minor for IEM Katowice 2019. Eventually, the previous roster was disbanded, so now we see the new version of mouz, led by the former captain of FaZe Clan, Finn "karrigan" Andersen.

chrisJ is the longest-standing member of mousesports

David "frozen" Čerňanský is the youngest player on this team. The Slovakian talent has participated in one Minor (EU Minor for EL Boston) with eXtatus, but he is yet to play in the main stage of a Major. However, we cannot say the same about the other players of mousesports. All of them have at least once attended a Major and, moreover, managed to become the Legends (reached the Playoffs).

Other facts:

• • mousesports placed 5-6th at the previous EU Minor as they were eliminated from the tournament after losing to Valiance (now CR4ZY) twice. At this Minor, mouz and CR4ZY were drawn to the same group again.
• • Finn "karrigan" Andersen participated in the previous Americas Minor, representing Team Envy on a loan basis. Back then, his team took the 3rd place and advanced to the Play-in Stage. There, however, they lost both their matches against Winstrike Team and North, respectively.
• • Özgür "woxic" Eker is the only player from mousesports who has a Minor Championship trophy under his belt. The Turkish AWPer won the CIS Minor for FACEIT Major 2018 with HellRaisers.
• • karrigan and woxic are participating in their first EU Minor, but they previously took part in the qualifiers for other regions (karrigan - Americas Minor, woxic — CIS Minor).
• • So far, Chris "chrisJ" de Jong has attended 9 CS:GO Majors, representing mousesports at each of them.

Fnatic (#13)

Fnatic is also a favourite at StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor, but compared to the others, the team boasts the richest history. FNC has won three Majors over the course of CS:GO’s esport existence. Those trophies are from DreamHack Winter 2013, ESL One Katowice 2015, and ESL One Cologne 2015. It is the same amount of Major titles that Astralis has won, which makes these two organization record holders in the number of wins at Valve-supported events.

Fnatic has never missed a CS:GO Major

Before FACEIT Major 2018, Fnatic had participated in the Playoffs of every Major event. Before IEM Katowice 2019, they had always been in the Top 16 at every Major. Now, the Swedish team is at its lowest point as it does not even have a spot at the Major. Despite all of that, FNC refused to change its roster, so it is the exact same lineup of players (JW, Brollan, KRIMZ, twist, Xizt) who are going to Berlin to bring back what was lost by them almost six months ago.

Other facts:

• • StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor is the first Minor event that the Fnatic organization is attending.
• • Jesper "JW" Wecksell is the only player on the FNC current roster who has represented the British organization at all three Majors that it managed to win (DH Winter 13, ESL Katowice 15, ESL Cologne 15).
• • Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson and Richard "Xizt" Landström are participating in their first Minor event.
• • Simon "twist" Eliasson has never reached the Playoffs of a Minor tournament. The Swedish player has attended three Minor events in total, with 5-6th place being his best result so far.
• • JW is one of the few players from Sweden who have won three Major titles. Beside him, there are Robin "flusha" Rönnquist and Markus "pronax" Wallsten in this list. Together, they have conquered three Major tournaments with FNC on their side.

CR4ZY (#18)

CR4ZY, formerly known as Valiance, is built from up-and-coming players who proved themselves at the previous European Minor. There, ex-Valiance made it to the Playoffs, but after that, they lost both their matches, missing the chance to compete in the Play-in Stage. Luckily, CR4ZY did not make changes in its lineup, and now, six months later, they are about to attend StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor. And just like at the Katowice Minor, the team is led by Nemanja "nexa" Isaković.

nexa is the IGL of CR4ZY

None of the players on the CR4ZY roster have ever participated in the main stage of a Major. All of them, beside nexa, have played only one Minor, and that is exactly when they overcame all the odds and eliminated the #4 team in the world, mousesports. Now, they are about to face a more ambitious challenge as they are anxious to earn a ticket to the Major. If they accomplish that, for the first time in the CS:GO history a Serbian team will be in attendance at a CS:GO event supported by Valve.

Other facts:

• • Nemanja "nexa" Isaković is the only player from CR4ZY who has attended more than one Minor. Beside the previous event in Katowice, nexa took part in the Asian Minor for PGL Major Krakow 2017 with Renegades.
• • Among all players on the CR4ZY roster, nexa is the only one who has reached the Top 24 of a CS:GO Major. He did it with Renegades in the offline qualifier for PGL Major Krakow 2017. Back then, his team failed to make it to the next stage, finishing its participation with a 1W-3L score in the Swiss System.
• • United Masters League S1 is the only international LAN event with a +$100,000 prize pool that CR4ZY (known as Valiance at the time) has won.
• • Before EspiranTo and nexa joined CR4ZY (Valiance), they were representing The Imperial, with whom they managed to win two international LAN events: DreamHack Open Summer 2018 and Copenhagen Games 2018.

Sprout (#21)

The last time Sprout participated in a European Minor was one year ago, July 2018. Back in the days, its roster was Danish-German, as NaToSaphiX, sycrone, and percy were representing Denmark, while denis and Spiidi were on the German side of the team. Sprout had advanced to the Playoffs at the London Minor, but in the end, they failed to qualify for FACEIT Major.

Spiidi is the only remaining player from the Sprout lineup
that attended the EU Minor for FACEIT Major
photo credit: HLTV.org

Since then, the Sprout roster has drastically changed. At the moment, Spiidi is the only remaining player from that version of the squad. It is him who is going to lead the team through its second attempt to qualify for a Major, and this time, he is fully surrounded by German players. 

Other facts:

• • ELEAGUE Major 2018 is the only Major that the Sprout organization has participated in. There, Sprout won only one map and placed 19-21th, while its roster looked as follows: kRYSTAL, innocent, denis, zehN, and Spiidi.
• • Josef "faveN" Baumann, Sabit "mirbit" Coktasar, and Nils "k1to" Gruhne are attending their first Minor tournament.
• • Timo "Spiidi" Richter is the only player from Sprout who has taken part in a Major. Spiidi has participated in six Valve-supported events and made the Playoffs twice, finishing on the 5-8th place with PENTA Sports at DreamHack Winter 2014 and ESL One Katowice 2015, respectively.
• • Sprout is one of the three teams among the participants of StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor that started their way to the Major from open qualifiers.

Team Ancient (#23)

The Swedish scene has always had many gifted players, and Team Ancient is the proof that Sweden has enough talent to assemble a decent lineup without the interference of Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic. It took only one month for Ancient to qualify for the European Minor, to play in a grand-final of a DreamHack Open event, and to earn a spot in the Top 30 of HLTV’s World Ranking. Due to the last of the aforementioned achievements, Ancient won a seven-day, fully paid bootcamp by EPC Shooting Stars, the project created in cooperation of HLTV and Kinguin.

draken is motivated to get back to the Major Circuit

William "draken" Sundin is the main star of Team Ancient. Draken is one of the few players who have participated in the first-ever European Minor for MLG Columbus 2016. André "BARBARR" Möller, the coach of Ancient, also took part in that tournament as a player, representing the tag of PixelFire Gaming.

Other facts:

• • The creation of Ancient’s current lineup marked the reunion of the Cringe Gods’ core (draken, disco doplan, freddieb), which was signed by Epsilon Esports on March 2016 and attended the second-ever EU Minor with REZ and xelos.
• • Disco doplan is the only player from Team Ancient who has experience of participating in Major Playoffs, as he placed 3-4th with Fnatic at ELEAGUE Major 2017.
• • Disco doplan and draken are the only players from Team Ancient who have made appearances at a CS:GO Major. Both of them have achieved that with Fnatic, but it happened at different times: doplan at EL Major 17, draken at FACEIT Major 18.
• • Team Ancient is one of the three teams among the participants of StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor that started their way to the Major from open qualifiers.

BIG (#27)

BIG is the second German team in attendance at StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor. However, unlike Sprout, they have a foreigner on their roster, which is a Turkish player İsmailcan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş. BIG participated in the previous Major (IEM Katowice 2019) as one of the eight returning legends, but now, they have to start from the beginning, even though they have done it before. It is not the first time BIG visits a European Minor. The last time they were there, they conquered the trophy of a Minor event and qualified for PGL Major Krakow 2017.

gob b's BIG qualified for a Major when they participated in their last Minor

Since the moment of its creation, Berlin International Gaming has never missed a CS:GO Major. And if Fatih "gob b" Dayik’s squad succeeds, the team will attend its five consecutive Major, with the said PGL Krakow being the first on its record. 

Other facts:

• • BIG was eliminated from the CS:GO Major Circuit at the previous Major, IEM Katowice 2019, as they finished with 0W-3L in the Swiss System after losing to Team Vitality, G2 Esports, and ENCE Esports.
• • Two times BIG has obtained the Legend Status at a Major. The German team placed 5-8th at PGL Major Krakow 2017 and FACEIT Major 2018, losing in the quarterfinals to Immortals and Natus Vincere, respectively.
• • If to compare with the other players from BIG, denis has participated in the highest amount of CS:GO Majors (8 Major Tournaments). While he has never made the Playoffs with mousesports at six Valve-sponsored events, he both times acquired the Legend Status with PENTA at DH Winter 2014 and ESL Katowice 2015.
• • Gob b is the only player from BIG who once left his home region and attended a Minor in America with NRG Esports back in 2016. However, at the event, he and his former team placed 5-6th, failing to qualify for the Major in Cologne.

NoChance (#51)

NoChance is the lowest-rated team at StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor. The squad that is chaired by Mikail "Maikelele" Bill has gone through many changes, but they did not have a massive influence on its track record. The offline qualifier for Good Game League is the only LAN event that NoChance has ever attended.

STYKO's NoChance is a heavy underdog
at this Minor

Other than that, the team is usually active in online competitions, through one of which it managed to qualify for this Minor.  

Other facts:

• • Thomas "Thomas" Utting is the second British player after Vitality’s Alex "ALEX" McMeekin to attend a European Minor.
• • Maikelele is attending his first-ever European Minor. The last time we saw him in the CS:GO Major Circuit was March 2016, when he participated in MLG Columbus Major with the first iteration of FaZe Clan.
• • Thomas is the only player on the NoChance roster who has never participated in a CS:GO Major.
• • NoChance was established in December 2018. Since then, nine players overall have represented the tag, among which are mousesports’ frozen, HellRaisers’ nukkye, and GamerLegion’s ScreaM.
• • NoChance is one of the three teams among the participants of StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor that started their way to the Major from open qualifiers.

StarLadder Major Berlin 2019: Europe Minor will be running on July 17-21. Here you can take a look at schedule and teams’ draw for this tournament. Subscribe to StarLadder CS:GO on Facebook and Twitter to follow all kind of news on the upcoming Major.