In-game leaders are both the backbone and provide the identity of every team they command. A tactical in-game leader will be able to provide structure for his teammates to set them up on an offensive round. Another type of good in-game leader will be able to enhance the focus of his roster without bogging them down with extraneous details. The best in-game leaders are both: excellent captains and masterful tacticians. Due to the conclusion of the IEM Cologne Major of 2026, we can reopen the discussion of the Greatest of All Time In-Game Leader.
I will zoom out to the entire modern era eventually (CS:GO and CS2), but now that there has been 5 Majors in CS2 in approximately 2.75 years of professional play which have taken place, I will be focusing this article on just CS2. It is a new game after all and deserves an isolated podium before considering a decade of Counter-Strike before it.
Even though there may be reason to believe that every single in-game leader should be in consideration because of the nebulous nature of the role and eye-test which may give hints as to what one’s contributions are, I’ll be limiting the CS2 list to IGLs who have won at least 2 LAN S-Tier trophies.
read more
Here are the 8 IGLs who have won 2 or more S-Tier LAN trophies in CS2.
apEX (17): BLAST Premier Fall Final 2023, BLAST Premier: World Final 2023, IEM Cologne 2024, IEM Katowice 2025, ESL Pro League 21, BLAST Open Lisbon 2025, IEM Melbourne 2025, BLAST Rivals Copenhagen 2025, IEM Dallas 2025, BLAST Austin Major, ESL Pro League 22, StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, IEM Krakow 2026, PGL Cluj-Napoca 2026, BLAST Open Rotterdam 2026, IEM Rio 2026, BLAST Rivals Fort Worth 2026
chopper (8): IEM Katowice 2024, BLAST Premier Spring Final 2024, BetBoom 2, Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024, BLAST Bounty Spring 2025, PGL Astana 2025, IEM Cologne 2025, BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
AleksiB (6): PGL Major Copenhagen 2024, Esports World Cup 2024, ESL Pro League 20, IEM Rio 2024, ESL Pro League 23, IEM Atlanta 2026
Karrigan (4): IEM Sydney 2023, CS Asia Championships 2023, IEM Chengdu 2024, IEM Cologne Major 2026
FalleN (3): FISSURE Playground 2, IEM Chengdu 2025, BLAST Rivals Hong Kong 2025
siuhy (2): ESL Pro League 19, BetBoom #1,
Snax (2): BLAST Premier Fall Final 2025, BLAST Premier World Final 2024
bLitz (2): YaLLa Compas 2024, Esports World Cup 2025
It’s safe to say that one name jumps off the page when considering his accolades. apEX is dominating the competition and even if karrigan won every single S-tier trophy for the rest of the year with Falcons, he would still be trailing by 2 trophies (there are 11 more events in 2026). apEX holds the most unimpeachable title for best in-game leader in CS2’s history. Even before the monumental addition of ropz. apEX and Vitality managed to collect 3 S-Tier trophies (BLAST Fall Finals 2023, BLAST World Finals 2023, and IEM Cologne 2024) in CS2 and reached 5 semifinals in addition. Even though this was accomplished with a Spinx in prime form and while accompanied by arguably the greatest Counter-Strike player in history, it did prove apEX could win with a different lineup than the one that is era-defining which he still leads today.
read more
What is curious is that chopper occupies the 2nd place position. Most would chalk up chopper’s accomplishments to the assistance that his otherworldly superstar in donk provides. It is impossible to ignore what a tool donk is that he already gave enough of a win condition that rookie-IGL, magixx was able to find his first S-Tier trophy as an IGL within the first 5 months of him taking on the role. However, there are other IGLs who have had multiple top players at their disposal and still haven’t come close to chopper’s achievements. For example, HooXi’s name does not grace this list of IGLs with 2 CS2 trophies yet he had both m0NESY and NiKo ranked #2 and #4 respectively in 2023 and he had 2 consecutive CS2 seasons with the pair (Fall/Winter 2023-Spring 2024).
The CS2 leader that rounds out 3rd place is AleksiB. This one is the most impressive to me when I plainly consider the pieces that he had at his disposal and what he got out of them. In the year that AleksiB won the bulk of his CS2 trophies (2024), he had 4 players that reached the HLTV Top 20, but jL placed highest at #5 and his other 3 players filed in at positions #9, #11, and #16. Neither before nor after this extraordinary year would you consider this team stacked with superstars. To invoke the eye test, the way that Navi dismantled opposing teams with better individuals came down to creating various pressure points across the map and having a unique combination of players who all could pick their entry spots while keeping opponents in the dark. For the statistical side, 2024 Navi had the 7th best CT side of Top 20 teams in this year while maintaining the 2nd best T side. Their offense, orchestrated by AleksiB with additional collaboration from B1ad3 was always paramount to the team’s success.
However, GOAT conversations are never as simple as counting the number of trophies that an individual has or we’d all consider dupreeh to be our GOAT Counter-Strike player with the most Majors of any player.
This is where another set of criteria comes in: Which leaders were able to get the more out of the pieces they had and the gravity of each trophy win (not all trophy lifts are celebrated equally). The only names that deserve to be added to the discussion after the first 3 are Karrigan and FalleN. Conveniently, they are both consecutive runner-ups with 2 trophies behind AleksiB for Karrigan and FalleN sits at 3.
Of the 3 IGLs that had 2 trophies, I would rank the prestige of Snax’s wins the highest of the trophies available. However, he had by far the best pieces which make the wins less compelling. I would rank bLitz highest of them, although siuhy has a strong case given the quality of opponents he beat en route to his titles. Now, to rank the 5 best In-Game Leaders in CS2’s short history, each with some reasoning the either adds context or provides finality:
- apEX – The only in-game leader that can be credited with having an era in CS2 dominates the competition in high pressure games, 2 Major Trophies, and turning several roleplayers into stars considered world-class in their positions.
- AleksiB – The closest that anyone was to an era before the clear cut Vitality dominance. The entire style of Navi is predicated on outgaming opponents because superstar talent is not present. When the gameplan fizzles out, so does the team. Thankfully for Navi, AleksiB consistently organizes excellent offenses.
- chopper – Regardless of how strong donk is, chopper only had 2 players in HLTV’s Top 20 when he won all of his trophies. This was never a consistent team effort and as proven by magixx, simply possessing a superpower as ferocious as donk does not lead to multiple free trophies.
- Karrigan – I expect he will move up this ranking 1-2 positions by the end of the year depending on Falcons’ success. Winning multiple S-Tier trophies at the beginning of CS2 helps tremendously because 2025-26 up until that IEM Cologne Major win included a dire drought.
- FalleN – His name is firmly 5th in this conversation, but at least there’s a gap trophy-sized gap between himself and anyone beneath.
