Sweden has always been a country that supports esports and excels at it. During the days of CS 1.6 Fnatic with ‘cArn’ ‘f0rest’ and ‘GeT_RiGhT’ was the team to beat.
The trend continued when we moved to CSGO in 2012, only this time there were 2 Swedish Powerhouses in the form of Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic. They dominated CSGO until 2015, before the days of the Brazilians of Luminosity and SK Gaming. Despite that, they produced many players that were the absolute best and went on to become competitors for the title of Best of all time.
Top 5 CSGO Pros from Sweden:
- Christopher ‘Get_RiGhT’ Alesund
- Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg
- Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer
- Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell
- Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist
Christopher ‘Get_RiGhT’ Alesund
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‘Get_RiGhT’ was arguably the first player ever in CSGO to be termed as the GOAT (Greatest of All Time). He won a plethora of trophies with Ninjas in Pyjamas, and was the fan favourite throughout his career. He was part of 5 CSGO Major Grand Finals, but could only win 1 – ESL One: Cologne 2014. That was when CSGO Majors still had a prize pool of $250,000.
GeT_RiGhT was also the best player in the world as per HLTV in 2013 and 2014 and is regarded as the ‘King of Spray’.
Patrik ‘f0rest’ Lindberg
‘f0rest’ was also part of the Ninjas in Pyjamas lineup that won so much in the early days of CSGO. f0rest was regarded for his crisp aim and also took on the role of the AWPer if need be. He spent majority of his playing days on Ninjas in Pyjamas but eventually left in late 2019, after ‘GeT_RiGhT’ left as well. Both of them joined Dignitas’ CSGO roster and f0rest is still going strong at the age of 33, and is arguably the most consistent performer from this list. He was the second best in 2013 and #7 in both 2014 and 2016.
Olof ‘olofmeister’ Kajbjer
‘olofmeister’ was part of fnatic’s lineup in two of their Major winning runs, alongside JW and flusha as they conquered the CSGO world. He won ESL One: Katowice 2015 and ESL One: Cologne 2015 and also has a Major MVP medal to his name. He was regarded as the #1 player in HLTV’s top 20 rankings. He continued his success after moving to FaZe Clan and won a number of trophies with them as well, and participated in another Major Final at Eleague Boston 2018 but lost to Cloud9 in 2018.
Jesper ‘JW’ Wecksell
JW was one of those legendary players that other players were scared to peek. Along With Kenneth ‘Kennys’ Shcrub, JW changed the AWP meta altogether. His relentless aggression and the ability to demand control by re-peeking angles struck fears in teams. He won 3 Majors with fnatic and was a top 10 player as per HLTV in 2013, 2014 and 2015 as well. He played for fnatic till late 2021, after which he was benched as they went International.
Robin ‘flusha’ Rönnquist
‘flusha’ is regarded as one of the smartest players ever to grace the game of CSGO. he was part of the original fnatic lineup and won 3 Majors with them and was a Major MVP as well. He is often called ‘Senor VAC’ for plays that he made that made it look like he was cheating. Most notably smoke spams that were often right on the money. He left Fnatic in July 2016 but rejoined twice, once in February 2017 and again in September 2019, and won trophies both times. He was benched in early 2021 from Fnatic.
On a different note, there have been various instances where CSGO pros or streamers have supported and even promoted gambling. CSGOwild and CSGOlotto, are the most notable examples.
In most cases, they have a stake in the betting website, and the odds are rigged in their favor so they always get the desired result. Viewers look at these and are often baited into betting/gambling that is rigged.
In Sweden, betting and gambling are heavily regulated and it is very difficult to acquire a license that lets you bet responsibly. But there are ways around it, one can partake in the above through Gaming companies without a license. To find out more about these responsible practices, visit spelbolagutansvensklicens.co.
Despite their longevity and consistency, all these players have always been safe from any accusations of their character or integrity out of the game.
JW started his own Gaming store as well back in 2016, to make more people aware of esports but his integrity was never questioned. CSGO has seen various scandals in its time, be it the KQLY VAC ban, iBuypower match-fixing, the coaching bug, gambling or betting, and most notably forsaken cheating on LAN.
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