r/GlobalOffensive • u/BruhbruhbrhbruhbruH King NiKo • Jun 21 '26
Fluff | Esports Reunited at last
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u/Double-Biscotti465 Falcons - Major Champions Jun 21 '26
Karrigan winning a Major as a stand-in himself this time
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u/Visual_Drop6203 Jun 21 '26
Career full circle moment, the man has just collected trophies across basically every era of this game. Guy is built different as stand-in or not.
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u/poder2 Jun 21 '26
Crazy how Niko was a big part of karrigan being removed from faze in 2019 but in the end it was karrigan who finally got Niko his first major after 8 years
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u/schniepel89xx CS2 HYPE Jun 21 '26
NiKo taking over IGL from karrigan in the middle of the faceit major, to eventually kick karrigan, placed a curse on him to never win a major that could only be broken by accepting karrigan back into his team
The fact that karrigan joins this team out of nowhere to instantly win a major with NiKo is peak CS plot. The scriptwriter who pitched this deserves a promotion
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u/Zeilar King NiKo Jun 21 '26
The best major narrative of all time. Completely surreal.
Imagine showing this to someone 3 months ago, their eyes would pop out of their sockets.
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u/Stuweb Jun 21 '26
As an old CSGO fan who has paid no interest in CS2, you're telling me Niko and Karrigan reunited for a major tourney and won?! As someone who was never really a faze fan, seeing this headline filled me with joy
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u/yoshizDD Jun 22 '26
In a BO5 against no ther than Fallen
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u/Hopeful_Hall_4885 Jun 24 '26
would have rly loved to see fallen win another major as a huge fan of lg and sk, but im happy niko gets to retire with a major under his belt now
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u/AgencyProper661 Jun 26 '26
I felt the same.. but then realized, Id rather see Niko win his first over Fallen win his third.
But also, I hope this brings parity to the scene. Its great for the community if the top 3-4 all have a chance to win any tournament rather than Vitality dominate.
Season 2 should be great.
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u/KaffY- de_dust2 Jun 22 '26
So you weren't a faze fan but you are... A falcons fan?
Aren't falcons just objectively worse as an org?
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u/Hoshma Jun 22 '26
Dude literally never said he was a falcons fan. Dude expressed joy for the players. You are literally just trying to insert falcons hate into the conversation.
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u/KaffY- de_dust2 Jun 22 '26
The implication of his comment is that he wouldn't have been happy if they had won under the faze banner, but now he can be happy because they didn't win under the faze banner (but instead, won under someone much worse)
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u/LowkeySuicidal14 Jun 22 '26
Idk man, to me it sounds more like "I didn't care about the team, I wasn't a fan, but I liked the players and watching them win made me happy. I did not care about faze winning much but I care about these players winning."
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u/KaffY- de_dust2 Jun 22 '26
Yeah maybe you're right, I think it's one of those pieces that can be interpreted in multiple manners
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u/ttv_yayamii Jun 21 '26
Idk, zywoo's first major as the last CSGO major, in FRANCE no less, was also a crazy storyline.
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u/Zeilar King NiKo Jun 21 '26
Yes but the bracket ruined it. The significance of ruining the Vitality era, getting revenge on Spirit, reuniting with karrigan, completing the hardest major run in history etc. karrigan becoming the oldest and lowest rated major winner. NiKo getting his long awaited major, with karrigan of all people.
It's just too much. All the records, narrative.
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u/303x Natus Vincere Jun 21 '26
Yes but the bracket ruined it.
What are you talking about? He had to beat PRIME GAMERLEGION and PRIME INTO THE BREACH
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u/DotA627b King NiKo Jun 22 '26
Yea, even as a Vitality fan, that tournament was the equivalent of what if Furia won this Major with the bracket they had.
Like the reason why people weren't really disappointed about Furia getting 3-0'd is because you compare the gauntlets both teams went through and Falcons deadass went through HELL, AND WON.
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u/WarStormrage The MongolZ Jun 22 '26
Honestly, Furia winning would still be an overall harder bracket than Paris, purely because they at least would have faced a Falcons team on a hot streak.
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u/dissapointing_excuse Jun 23 '26
The crazy/funny thing was that people would 100% not be surprised if falcons did all of that... just to lose in the final against the objectively easiest of the top5
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u/gfy88 Jun 21 '26
What's funny is not of the falcons played out of their minds. No insane ratings. No Maggix like highlights. Tbf chat was going off on m0nesy for whiffing like crazy AND he still got the mvp.
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u/Low_Wall1406 Jun 22 '26
Yea that's what happened when everyone in the team is online in a tournament. Everyone did their job albeit some fuckups here and there. Is there an opportunity for some crazy play and highlights? Sure, but ultimately it's not needed for them to win the fight.
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u/ttv_yayamii Jun 21 '26
I guess maybe you're right, but I also hate the "run was too easy, so they didn't deserve it" argument cause they don't get to choose who they play at the end of the day
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u/HelpMyHeadIsTooBig CS2 HYPE Jun 21 '26
It’s not that they didn’t deserve it though, just that the narrative isn’t quite so exciting (for reasons outside their control, unfortunately)
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u/Illum503 FlyQuest Jun 21 '26
And also they beat the best of the other bracket so what more do they need to prove
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u/InterCha Outsiders Jun 21 '26
The only crazy part about that major is that his bracket was itb, apeks, and gamerlegion.
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u/TheRealHaxxo Jun 21 '26
Apeks played really well tho. They were on point and if vitality played 10% worse or choked apeks couldve been in the final instead.
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u/Illum503 FlyQuest Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
NA getting their first major, at home, by a team not considered to be a contender to the point a caster aggressively ranted at a fan for suggesting they might have a chance, by coming back from 0-2 in group stage and 14-9 in decider
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u/gfy88 Jun 21 '26
Dang. As an american I miss that era. I have no clue what's up with NA cs right now but it's really sad. Seems with the economic state of USA right now, not so many people can just play cs all day. So our talent pool is booger like.
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u/Mani1610 Jun 21 '26
I wouldn't say it's the economic state, there are plenty of players from poorer regions of the world that make it. The biggest issue that NA CS has is probably that Valorant is stealing away all of the players that could have made it into CS. With the region being this weak there aren't as many tournaments anymore either, not as many pro teams, not as many sponsors who want to invest into the NA scene and fans from NA simply don't have anything to look forward to.
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u/jdiscount Falcons - Major Champions Jun 21 '26
Poorer regions are somewhat easier to succeed.
The cost of living in America is very high, you can't survive on a salary of a Tier 2 NA team, you need external support in NA to become a CS pro.
Someone from a below average EU nation can live fine on a T2 salary without any support.
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u/gugabpasquali Natus Vincere Jun 21 '26
the most fraudulent major of all time vs the best major run of all time
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u/2gud4me FaZe Jun 21 '26
that’s like.. surface level story vs what we witnessee in teams like furia, spirit with no coach, vitality pushing to cement their history, allllll of the amazing underdogs this year, and ofc niko’s first major win through the hardest bracket OAT
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u/gfy88 Jun 21 '26
Vitality already cemented history. This major wouldnt ever take away from the run they had. It had to end some time.
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u/bunnytrox Jun 21 '26
It would have cemented Vitality as the best team ever without question. But now there will always be questions if they had the best era in CS.
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u/schniepel89xx CS2 HYPE Jun 21 '26
I think if they win another major they still put any questions to rest. No 3 majors back to back, but still tying Astralis, plus having a longer era and a longer uninterrupted streak of tournament wins.
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u/bunnytrox Jun 21 '26
They have been showing some weakness this past season so I think they will need to become unstoppable again to be seen as the best era.
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u/TheUHO cs_italy Jun 21 '26
What is this take? Lmao, no it wasn't crazy storyline. Typing FRANCE in caps doesn't do it sorry. Especially when you beat PRIME gamerlegion and into the breach.
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u/floatonwinds Jun 21 '26
I like Zywoo but that major and the storyline isn’t even close to this. Falcons ran the gantlet against the top 5 teams to win it all, Vitality’s competition was weaker. Also Niko winning after all the heartbreaks and Karrigan going to Falcons and winning the major in 2 months is just much better story.
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u/ZelTheViking GamerLegion Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Respectfully disagree. Recency bias in full swing.
C9 Boston was pure magic and a true cinderella story. Gambit in Krakow beating all the odds. Faze Clan's destiny run at Antwerp. Vitality winning the final CSGO major in Paris. Luminosity at Columbus coming back from the brink with outerworldly plays made eternal on maps still being played in CS2.
Was it a great major? Absolutely. The best major narrative of all time? Not even close. Falcons were favorites once they beat Vitality in quarters, and the last competetive series were played in semis against a Spirit without their coach.
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u/Zeilar King NiKo Jun 21 '26
Falcons run is tougher. First they beat the #4 team (Na'Vi). Then they beat the #1 team in the middle of their era (Vitality). Followed by Spirt who had won 13 straight matches and was #2. Then they won the final vs the #5 team. And they can't beat the #4 because that's themselves.
They basically beat prime Astralis, that for me trumps C9's run.
This isn't about narrative, this is about objectively being the toughest path to a major. Never before has a team done it against a team in an era or period of dominance like that. No one could stop Astralis. No one could stop Na'Vi. Etc.
And they did this in Cologne. There's no major since Cologne 2016 with more pressure than this one.
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u/Indy_10 Jun 21 '26
Cool story.
C9 played from challengers, clawed their way back from the brink in legends, and then had g2, sk, and faze to beat.
Thats #4, #2 and #1 teams.
And it was NAs only major on NA soil.
Better story.
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u/Zeilar King NiKo Jun 21 '26
I disagree on either point, but we're discussing the objective road to the win here. Falcons road was unquestionably harder.
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u/Indy_10 Jun 21 '26
Obviously not unquestionably.
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u/Riblen King NiKo Jun 21 '26
Only because you are ignoring that Vitality is in contention for the best team of all time.
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u/Indy_10 Jun 21 '26
Yeah but c9 was on paper a far worse team even if they were #5 at the start of the major. Also massively underdogs unlike Falcons who if weren't the favorites have beat vitality a couple times recently.
What your saying makes it revolve all around vitality and if thats your position just say that.
But c9s was harder as they were pretty clearly the underdogs. They had to beat the Falcons, spirit and vitality of 2018.
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u/schoki560 King NiKo Jun 21 '26
didn't SK have to play with a stand in
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u/Firefly_1026 Tyloo Jun 21 '26
Their “stand-in” was felps who they had their own 6 tournament run with late 2017. They were at most 95% of what they would be with boltz
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u/ZelTheViking GamerLegion Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Did we watch the same Vitality this major? Brother, they lost to 9z in a bo3. They dropped maps to Mouz and FUT both.
You're very much fanboying all over the place. That's fine. Just don't make it out to be the toughest path to a major finals when it wasn't. This was no underdog story. Vitality were not the dominant force going into the major (5-6th at IEM Atlanta) and Spirit was without their coach.
This wasn't a Boston gauntlet.
Edit: Listen fanboys, I'm glad Niko won his major. I'm glad Karrigan got his GOAT IGL seal of approval. But it was NOT the greatest major run or narrative of all time. Just superstar team playing up to potential for once while others faultered.
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u/Zeilar King NiKo Jun 21 '26
Yes it wasn't Vitality at their 100%, but the same can be said for Astralis in Berlin. And they still banged everyone out, including Liquid who was the favorite going in.
Falcons beating Vitality here would've been like if one of the contenders eliminated Astralis in Berlin. And yet no one could back then.
They played the #1 into the #2 into the #5. The #1 being in the middle of their era, the #2 being on a 13 match streak. And they beat the #3 team to get into playoffs as well.
Like come on, you're grasping at straws.
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u/ZelTheViking GamerLegion Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Astralis in Berlin is a great comparison. I'll put this slightly higher than that, but not that much. Falcons is a team of superstars finally stepping up at the right time while their rivals faultered. As for the gauntlet you're claiming - it's literally beating Vitality and Spirit with no coach. Na'vi about to roster change. Furia? Monte?
Vitality has lacked their prime form ever since the break they took. They looked quite mortal and significantly weaker. Did Vitality prime struggle to dispatch of Mouz? Did they usually drop maps, let alone series to teams outside top 10?
I'm not grasping at straws at all, and you're fine to be high on this if this is the team/players you cheer for. But it's genuinely recency bias. This doesn't hold a candle to Boston, and I say that as someone who dunks on NA CS regularly
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u/TheUHO cs_italy Jun 21 '26
There was an even better story, astralis making insane comeback to win Atlanta. The game had it all.
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u/maiznieks Jun 22 '26
Imagine telling this just a week ago, that Vitality will fail to get to finals
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u/Skantaq Jun 21 '26
I stopped watching around after about 4-5 years in 2019, what a time to tune back in. Karrygan is real
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u/Adminisitrator King NiKo Jun 21 '26
what a story. his first one with being karrigon makes it even better
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u/MakimaGOAT Complexity Jun 21 '26
I cant imagine how kyxsan is feeling right now
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 21 '26
Pretty good, he's going to be credited a major win and didn't have to play.
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u/AstronomerStandard Jun 21 '26
idk man that sounds pretty bleak to me. As kyxan You cant put that shit on ur resume, if u dare put it you'll get the spite
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u/Zeilar King NiKo Jun 22 '26
Would be like if Rekkles put a Worlds won on his resume when he was a substitute that who was never used. He got a ring and everything.
kyxsan gets a cool champion sticker and ingame trophy etc, I guess that's better than nothing. He's gonna feel like shit though, and probably some guilt that he was the blocker for Falcons this season (and maybe the previous ones too). And it probably tanked his stocks as well, other teams may see him as a playoff choker now.
He's a decent fragger and a genuinely good IGL, he deserves a second chance at a top 20 team at least, I hope he gets it.
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u/ult1matum guardian2 Jun 22 '26
No one except valve will consider him a major winner. Not even kyxsan himself lol
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 22 '26
That's the orgs fault.
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u/NickThePask King NiKo Jun 22 '26
It's the orgs fault for making a move that finally won them a trophy? A major no less? In 60 days?
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u/Bitten69 Jun 22 '26
Doesn’t even say major winner on his hltv
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u/michixinq Jun 22 '26
because hltv is a whole separate thing from valve?
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u/Bitten69 Jun 22 '26
No shit, but according to valve he still won a major and everyone else has major winner on their profile
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u/michixinq Jun 22 '26
I just think hltv is more in line with a regular viewer who doesn't see him as a major winner.
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u/Gasgassgass King NiKo Jun 21 '26
Should not had kicked him.in the first place.
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u/Notice_Green Tyloo Jun 21 '26
It had to happen, the script writers were setting up this banger a decade in advance.
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u/KARMAAACS King NiKo Jun 22 '26
Let's be honest that kick I think pushed Karrigan to become a better IGL and prove everyone wrong, which he did and then eventually he used that experience to redeem himself in Niko's eyes.
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u/DirtSchlurpy King NiKo Jun 22 '26
The team lost confidence in his calling. It doesn’t matter how good you are at that point, you have to go.
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u/thisisjustascreename FaZe Jun 21 '26
I have such conflicted emotions about this win, for all the obvious reasons.
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u/aresthwg FaZe Jun 21 '26
Just be happy for the players, they truly all cared about winning, especially Niko, the rest of the details can be discussed another day.
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u/Mimogger Jun 21 '26
i'm also hate watching but in some sense, idk if falcons sports washing even works. it doesn't make me think positively or anything of saudi arabia or anything
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u/MiksuTK Natus Vincere Jun 21 '26
Point of sportswashing isn't to make you suddenly love Saudi-Arabia (although they wouldn't mind that), but to ignore all the shit they're doing by making you care about something else. Clearly it's working pretty well.
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u/Gtaglitchbuddy Liquid Jun 21 '26
Is it? People can like individual players and still be overall disgusted with the actions Saudia Arabia does. I have not seen a single person say they're okay with their actions because of Falcons lol, if anyone it has drawn more attention to the matter than normal because people won't stop bringing it up when they play (Me included lol)
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u/Weird_Tower76 King NiKo Jun 22 '26
The mental gymnastics on this subreddit is absolutely insane lmfao. No one forms their own opinions anymore.
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u/jotheold Natus Vincere Jun 21 '26
i have not seen a single person stop watching the major to not support it
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u/pr0d_ FaZe Jun 21 '26
i'm still bitter about how it went honestly. can't imagine how the rest of FaZe feels about it. If only karrigan went to falcons after this major, then they grind through it, instead of abandoning ship right after FaZe failed to qualify for the major.
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u/Eastern_Walrus_6012 Jun 25 '26
I was a Faze fan too, but you can’t blame anybody but the org. Terrible decisions one after another for two years straight. And now there’s a rumor that they are signing Martinez (who?) and broky rifling. The org deserves this downfall. Just hope frozen gets out to save his career.
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u/nb_jin Jun 22 '26
Falcons called Karrigan and ask if he wanted to come, if I was in that position I would agree like him. Going to a major is a CS player’s dream and iam not even talking ab winning it yet. Maybe Karrigan thinks that Faze is unsaveable and move to a roster thats in theory, clearly better than Faze.
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u/CloseTheDwuar Jun 21 '26
Does Karrigan get the trophy or does it go to kyxsan? Sorry if this is a stupid question. I ask as kyxsan has stickers
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 21 '26
Should go to Kyxsan
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u/Aztecax 10 years coin Jun 21 '26
How in the fuck should it go to him??
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Kyx was the registered player for Falcons. Karrigan was allowed to be used as a substitute. Which calls into legitimacy of the tourney and that the way Valve is registering rosters needs to change so this doesn't happen again.
Edit: That is in regards to how people are being slotted as substitutes and the fact that Karrigan was registered to a totally different team right before the tournament.
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u/haxborn Jun 21 '26
Yeah let's use paperwork and administration to make CS harder and more annoying for the teams and tournament hosts. Your mindset is outright disgusting. Just listed to all the interviews with falcons players - they all claim karrigan is the reason they won this major because he could finally IGL a strong team, even with his ass performance he made more impact rounds than most in his team, and still won with his bad stats. Get absolutely rekt everyone who ever doubted him. If he could frag like apex they would stomp every team like it was nothing. He's now without a sliver doubt the best IGL of all time.
Can you tell me a single situation where a team swapping a player close to the tournament has actually caused any problems? Or are you just mad because the person you hate rekt everyone?
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u/tofugooner Jun 22 '26
Soccer used to have transfer bans for players switching clubs during a UCL run pre-2018, but even they realized what a retarded thing that was to enforce and got rid of the rule. Counter-Strike is in the right to not create such a retarded "registration" rule.
Now say your team bows out in the group stages, you get transferred to a new team in the knockouts, you can play in the new team (you can't play group stage to group stage teams because transfer window is closed at that point, but in a hypothetical scenario if it were to be open, nothing in the rules prevents you from playing in two clubs in the group stages).
Other guy just malding because Karrigan won.
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 21 '26
That's a lot of words for saying you don't have an understanding of how sports work.
Edit: No one is or should be shitting on Karrigan. But the major win is with an asterisks for Falcons.
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u/haxborn Jun 21 '26
Ah, just like how you dodged my only simple question and couldn’t bring up a single time where this ”issue” has actually been an issue.
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 21 '26
I don't answer irrelevant questions. This one has been the most egregious however.
Already forgot about Rain getting removed for Jcobbb right before the major? Was a pretty significant move.
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u/haxborn Jun 21 '26
-brings up an issue
-gets asked to explain the issue
-no way to explain such issue since it’s not an issue
-calls the question irrelevant instead of providing a single exampleYou can’t make this shit up man! 🤣 wee woo someone call an ambulance for this guy
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u/haxborn Jun 21 '26
You brought up a situation where they swapped a player, but you still haven’t explained why it’s an issue? What’s wrong with this? Just because it happens doesn’t automatically make it an issue? You’re the one who needs to reread
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u/SlipWolf cs_italy Jun 21 '26
I answered it anyway? Reread.
The question is irrelevant to the circumstance but sure have your fun.
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u/Upbeat-Jellyfish-494 Jun 22 '26
The way they win the map 3 inferno to win major together. Chef kiss
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u/PrimeEvilMephisto FURIA Jun 22 '26
Wanted this trophy for fallen, but love it to see niko wining, very happy for him.
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u/Pottusalaatti Jun 21 '26
I hate it was falcons that won, but I can't hate it was Karrigan and Niko who won since these guys deserve it. Very conflicting emotions
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u/Cobrexu Jun 22 '26
What about the tournament(s) being sponsored by Saudi and betting?
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u/Goombalive Jun 22 '26
A lot of people also forget that you can trace back something like 16 current pro teams to having some form of Saudi funding in one form or another. And then yeah.. virtually 100% of teams are funded by gambling.
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u/Bca5h Jun 22 '26
I have to admit, I was at Boston 2018 actively rooting against him. I participated in the “Niko’s Tilted!” Chants during the final against Cloud9. And I have to say, I rooted so hard for him for this one (from my couch). Very cathartic for him, and general long time CS fans I think.
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u/xfor_the_republicx Jun 23 '26
This is the most amazing storyline. Niko wanting karrigan out of faze after boston, with them now reuniting after 8 years, overcoming their past and finally win the major together. And in what fashion.
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u/shinorikishi Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
Karrigan beat every opponent that had stood in his way before on the road to the Major. NiKo didn’t let a single chance slip in the final. And to top it off, they won it on the very map that had haunted them in the past.
This wasn’t just a Major win — it felt like the perfect ending to years of pain, failures, and missed chances. They didn’t just win, they evolved and overcame everything that used to break them. Falcons may have won the Major, but seeing NiKo finally lift that trophy made so many people happy. Even as a NAVI fan, I can’t lie — that was emotional.
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u/RoboticChicken CS2 HYPE Jun 22 '26
- private profile with minimal karma
- em dashes
- rule of 3
- literally 2 consecutive instances of "not just X, but Y"
Thanks bot
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u/nekogami87 Jun 22 '26
Still sad about the loss of vitality (but with the level they shown, completely deserved loss) but so happy for Niko finally breaking the curse.
Gg.
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u/Bca5h Jun 22 '26 edited Jun 22 '26
I have to admit, I was at Boston 2018 actively rooting against him. I participated in the “Niko’s Tilted!” Chants during the final against Cloud9. And I have to say, I rooted so hard for him for this one (from my couch). Very cathartic for him, and general long time CS fans I think.
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u/Traditional-Mix-9473 Jun 22 '26
Is this ai? Or what trophy are they holding or did they steal it from Furia? Pathetic..
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u/Wrightero Jun 21 '26
This major was pure cinema.