Envy holds a special place in the history of French Counter-Strike. More than a decade after winning a Major with a French lineup, the organization could now return to the game by acquiring 3DMAX. The colors would be the same, the nationality too, but almost everything else has changed.
When Envy meant winning
When EnVyUs decided to enter Counter-Strike in early 2015, the organization simply looked for one of the strongest teams available on the market. The choice was obvious: Happy, NBK, kioShiMa, shox and SmithZz had just won DreamHack Winter 2014 with LDLC and were already one of the best teams in the world. Envy was not picking up a project that needed time to develop. It entered CS with a lineup already capable of winning the biggest tournaments and with the ambition of staying at the top.
The results came immediately. Envy reached the semifinals of ESL One Katowice 2015 and won several international tournaments in the months that followed. Then came one of the famous French shuffles. shox and SmithZz left the team, while kennyS and apEX joined from Titan. A few weeks later, Envy reached the final of ESL One Cologne, where they lost to fnatic. Three months later, at Cluj-Napoca, the French side reached another final and this time lifted the trophy.
This was not a surprise run or a developing project. Envy had brought together some of the best French players of the era with one very simple objective: win a Major. They did exactly that. In just a few months, the blue Envy jersey became almost inseparable from the very top of French Counter-Strike.
The shuffle that changed everything
But that story gradually started to lose momentum. 2016 was much more difficult and, by the end of the year, another French shuffle had become inevitable. The idea was to combine the strongest pieces from Envy and G2 into a true French superteam: shox and bodyy from one side, kennyS, apEX and NBK from the other. In the end, that project chose to play under the G2 banner.
Looking back, that decision probably marks the real turning point in Envy’s French story. The organization lost three of its key players and rebuilt around those who had been left out of the superteam, with names such as Happy, ScreaM, RpK, SIXER and xms. The lineup still had plenty of talent, but it would never regain the status of the previous Envy team.
Things could easily have turned out very differently. Had the superteam chosen Envy instead of G2, the organization might have remained at the center of French Counter-Strike for several more years. G2, meanwhile, would win some big tournaments, but the overall results remained mixed compared to the expectations surrounding a lineup with that much talent.
Keeping faith in the French scene
Envy had not completely moved away from the French scene, though. In 2017, the organization also launched EnVyUs Academy, featuring players such as hAdji and JACKZ, with the idea of developing younger French talent. It is an interesting detail because Envy had initially arrived in France almost by circumstance, simply because the best available team happened to be French. A few years later, the organization had developed a real connection with the scene.
That chapter gradually came to an end. Envy released its French roster in 2018, later tried a mostly North American project without ever recovering its previous level of success, and eventually put its Counter-Strike division on hold in 2021.
Eleven years later
Eleven years after entering Counter-Strike, Envy could now return exactly where its story began: with five French players. But the French scene it would return to looks almost nothing like the one it joined in 2015. Back then, France had enough talent to support several teams capable of competing for the biggest trophies in the world, with stars regularly moving between organizations during the famous French shuffles.
Today, 3DMAX operates with much more modest ambitions. Their main objective is to qualify for Majors, compete against Tier 1 teams whenever possible and establish themselves as a regular presence at the highest level. Simply keeping a fully French lineup competitive internationally has become an achievement in itself, especially in a scene where national projects have gradually disappeared.
One of the last of its kind
And that makes their profile extremely rare. If we leave aside the CIS scene, 3DMAX is the only European team in the VRS Top 30 made up of five players from the same country and competing in their native language. What used to be completely normal in Counter-Strike has now become an exception.
Astralis, NiP, fnatic, Vitality, BIG or, more recently, Aurora are all examples of organizations historically associated with a specific national scene that eventually moved towards international lineups. The same trend has reached teams such as NAVI, FURIA and MIBR. The reasons are understandable: opening the market gives teams access to far more talent and makes it easier to replace a missing piece. 3DMAX has continued to take the opposite path, trying to progress while staying entirely French.
That is what would make an Envy return with 3DMAX so symbolic. In 2015, signing five French players meant acquiring one of the best teams in the world. In 2026, it would mean taking over one of the last national projects in Europe still capable of fighting for Majors and competing with Tier 1 opposition. The nationality would be the same, but the meaning behind the decision would be completely different.
Not a remake of 2015
It would obviously make no sense to present this team as a new version of Happy, kennyS, apEX, NBK and kioShiMa. The first French Envy lineup was built to compete for titles and Majors, and it won one. The current 3DMAX roster exists in a completely different reality, with different resources, different expectations and a French scene that no longer occupies the same position in world Counter-Strike.
But that contrast is exactly what makes the story interesting. In 2015, Envy chose a French team because choosing French players was one of the most obvious ways to win in Counter-Strike. In 2026, eleven years later, returning with five French players would be a much less obvious choice. And perhaps, for that very reason, a much more symbolic one.
