Best CS Majors: Ranked from Worst to Best
From the blowout that was Berlin 2019 to Cloud9's legendary Boston comeback and the record-breaking Stockholm — we ranked the most iconic Counter-Strike Majors of all time, from worst to best by overall impression.
Over twelve years, Counter-Strike has given us two dozen Majors — from modest thousand-seat halls to arenas hitting 106 decibels. Some became legends people rewatch years later; others are remembered only for a one-sided final and empty stands. We put together a ranking: the best CS Majors and the ones that flat-out missed — from worst to best.
One note up front: this isn't a dry prize-money table. We ranked the Majors by overall impression — and below we explain what that's made of.
How we ranked the Majors
To avoid pure bias, we took four criteria and judged every tournament through them:
- Final drama — was there tension, comebacks, overtimes, or did the winner steamroll their opponent.
- Historical significance — what the event changed: a region's first Major, the end of an era, a record.
- Level of play — how strong the field and the champion were.
- Atmosphere and venue — the crowd, the city, production, viewership numbers.
One boring final doesn't sink a tournament if everything else is sky-high — and vice versa. Let's go bottom to top.
🏛️ Out of competition: DreamHack Winter 2013 — the originator
Before the ranking, let's pay our respects. DreamHack Winter 2013 was the very first Major in CS:GO history, and comparing it on spectacle to the 2020s arena shows simply isn't fair. Fnatic beat NiP 2:1, JW took MVP, the prize pool was just $250,000, and the final map of Train ended in a lopsided 16:2.
But everything grew from here. Valve stepped in as organizer and sponsor for the first time, set the format and the qualification system. Putting the originator alongside its descendants would be unfair — so it sits out of the ranking, in an honorary zeroth spot.
💀 Bottom of the ranking: Majors without the wow factor
15. StarLadder Berlin 2019
The most colorless Major of the million-viewer era. In the final, Astralis steamrolled underdogs AVANGAR 16:6 and 16:5 — many still call it the worst grand final in CS history. Add an organizational embarrassment: StarLadder fired off DMCA strikes at streamers running their own GOTV broadcasts, right during the tournament. And a peak of just 837,000 viewers, the lowest of the entire era. Device took MVP, but there was nothing here to save.
14. FACEIT London 2018
The tournament that birthed the phrase "the boring Astralis era." The Danes choked NaVi out in the final 16:6 and 16:9, and s1mple, who had carried his team all event, looked helpless in the decider. There's historical weight — it's the start of the greatest dynasty in CS. But spectacle? Zero: another entry on the worst-finals list.
13. PGL Krakow 2017
A fairytale that didn't quite land. Gambit, with the legendary AdreN, went all the way, beating Brazilian underdogs Immortals 2:1 in the final. Lovely story — two outsiders in a Major final. But the lack of star names hurt the resonance: a solid tournament, but a forgettable one. Middle of the pack across the board.
🔸 The solid middle
12. ESL One Cologne 2016
The case where the venue carries the tournament. The "Cathedral of Counter-Strike" — LANXESS Arena with a record-for-ESL 14,000 fans. But the final itself was a blowout: SK Gaming rolled Team Liquid 16:7 and 16:6. coldzera took MVP — his second in a row after Columbus. Top-tier atmosphere, not the final.
11. Perfect World Shanghai 2024
A one-man Major. 17-year-old donk played the event at a 1.49 rating — the highest MVP figure in Major history, and he became the youngest MVP ever. Team Spirit beat FaZe 2:1 in a decent final. But China worked against the tournament: an inconvenient time for Europe, low viewership, and a weak in-arena atmosphere dragged the overall impression down.
10. PGL Copenhagen 2024
The first Major on the CS2 engine — a spot in history just for that. NaVi beat FaZe 2:1 in a sold-out Royal Arena, with jL becoming the first MVP of the CS2 era. The downside: the new engine was viewed unevenly back then, and s1mple was on a break. Historically important, emotionally average.
9. IEM Katowice 2019
An attendance record — 174,000 people across the whole event, a max for esports at the time. The peak of the Astralis era: their third Major, MVP to Magisk. Local heroes ENCE drove the atmosphere in Spodek. But the final, again, turned out predictable and one-sided — Astralis gave ENCE no chance.
8. BLAST Paris 2023
The end of an era. The last Major on CS:GO, and how symbolic — ZywOo lifted the trophy at home in France. Vitality beat Cinderella story GamerLegion 2:0. The final lacked a real fight (Overpass 16:6), but the context carries it: a farewell to the game that gave us all of this.
7. ELEAGUE Atlanta 2017
The birth of a dynasty. This is where Astralis won their first Major — in a dramatic 2:1 final against Virtus.pro, where two maps went down to the wire at 16:14. MVP went to Kjaerbye, the youngest in history at the time. The event set a Twitch record — a million viewers on a single channel. The only knock is the less iconic venue.
6. IEM Rio 2022
The first Major in South America — and the Brazilian crowd put on something CS had never seen. Tickets sold out in under an hour, the stands roared on every round. Outsiders beat Heroic 2:0, with Jame taking MVP. A unique fact: the NaVi vs FURIA semifinal pulled more viewers (1.42M) than the final itself — something that had never happened in Major history before or since. The final, though, was one-sided — otherwise it would rank higher.
🏆 Top 5 best Majors in CS history
5. MLG Columbus 2016
A Major that made history twice. It was the first tournament with a million-dollar prize pool and the first win by a non-European team — Luminosity beat NaVi 2:0. And it's where possibly the most famous clip in CS history was born: coldzera hit a jumping double no-scope with the AWP on Mirage. The first map of the final kept everyone on edge into overtime (19:17); the second the Brazilians took comfortably. A deserved MVP — coldzera.
4. ESL One Cologne 2015
The watershed after which CS got truly big. The first Major to cross a million viewers — a peak of 1,323,960. The legendary 12,000-seat LANXESS packed to the rafters. Fnatic at the peak of their era beat EnVyUs 2:0, but the first map, Dust2, went to overtime (19:15) and held the crowd. MVP — flusha. The tournament that set the bar for arena Counter-Strike.
3. PGL Stockholm 2021
Catharsis for the entire community. The first Major after a two-year COVID pause — and everything converged on one point. NaVi went through the whole tournament without dropping a single map — the only undefeated run in Major history. s1mple finally lifted the trophy he'd dreamed of for years, taking MVP at a 1.47 rating. The prize pool was raised to a record $2M, and the viewership peak — 2.75M — stood as the all-time record right up until 2026. The final against G2 was technically 2:0, but Nuke went to double overtime (22:19).
2. ELEAGUE Boston 2018
The greatest final in Counter-Strike history — full stop. Cloud9 became the first and still only North American team to win a Major. In the grand final against FaZe they came back from match point: FaZe led 15:11 on the deciding Inferno, but Cloud9 dragged the map into double overtime and took it 22:19. A Stewie2K 1v3 clutch, nerves on a knife's edge, the crowd erupting — people still rewatch this match. MVP went to tarik. If the ranking were on final drama alone, this would be a clear number one.
1. PGL Antwerp 2022
The best Major by the sum of everything. FaZe Clan became the first international roster in history to win a Major — and for rain, for years the team's best player without a trophy, it was a career-long payoff. The atmosphere was the gold standard: 40,000 fans across the event, the largest indoor esports event at the time, and crowd noise hitting 106 decibels — rock-concert level. And the final against NaVi, contrary to the "easy 2:0" myth, was tense: Inferno went to overtime 19:16. Historical significance, narrative, atmosphere, and a worthy final — it all came together here, which is why Antwerp tops our ranking of the best CS Majors.
Frequently asked questions
Which Major is considered the best in CS history?
By overall impression — PGL Antwerp 2022: a gold-standard atmosphere, the first international champion, and a tense final. But on pure grand-final drama, ELEAGUE Boston 2018 with the Cloud9 comeback is unmatched.
Which Major was the worst?
StarLadder Berlin 2019 — a blowout final of 16:6 and 16:5, the lowest viewership peak of the era, and a scandal over DMCA strikes on streamers.
Which Major drew the most viewers?
For a long time the record belonged to PGL Stockholm 2021 (2.75M), but in 2026 it was broken by IEM Cologne Major 2026 — the first tournament in CS history with 100M+ hours watched. A breakdown of that Major and the Falcons win is in our article on Falcons' championship.
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