eSports is a world that is renowned for having some particularly young participants, with many of them going on to have eSports careers whilst they are still children and retiring by the time they reach young adulthood.
CS:GO is one of the most popular games on the eSports scene, with its fair share of young players.
With this in mind, we are going to be taking a look at some of the youngest major winners to have made a name for themselves in CS:GO eSports.
What Is CS:GO?
Before we can take a look at the youngest winners that have graced the world of CS:GO, it is important to know exactly what CS:GO is in order to get a handle on how it is able to attract such a wide audience and how it became such a staple in eSports.
CS:GO is an abbreviation for Counter Strike: Global Offensive, which serves as the full title of the game.
Developed by prominent game developers Valve alongside Hidden Path Entertainment, the game was released in 2012 after two years of development.
Despite being a decade old, the game still receives regular updates and patches, as well as content.
The Counter Strike series in general was first released back in 2000, with the longevity of the series reflected in its popularity as an eSports game.
The game is a simple, multiplayer game that pits players against each other in various objective based game modes, splitting them up into teams of either Terrorists or Counterterrorists.
This basic yet engaging premise is another reason as to why CS:GO has managed to withstand the test of time, but also why it has flourished as an eSports game.
The game ticks all the necessary eSports boxes, such as objective based missions, team based gameplay, custom maps and a range of game modes.
The Youngest CS:GO Winners
Now that we have an idea of what CS:GO is and how it is become such a popular eSports game, let’s take a look at some of the youngest winners of various CS:GO tournaments
Markus Kjærbye a.k.a. Kjaerbye
Currently aged 24, Markus Kjærbye- otherwise known by his gamer pseudonym Kjaerbye- is a professional CS:GO player from Denmark who has won various competitions and tournaments within the eSports CS:GO.
One of his noteworthy achievements was becoming the youngest Major Championships winner as well as the youngest HLTV MLP in a Major Championship when he won the ELEAGUE Major 2017 at age 18.
He took this title from the previous winner-JW- who won in 2013 and was only three days older than Kjaerbye!
Jesper Wecksell a.k.a. JW
Speaking of JW, even though his title was taken by Kjaerbye, he is definitely a major winner in the eSports world of CS:GO.
Swedish professional player JW was the very first to become the youngest CS:GO player to win a Major Championship back at the 2013 DreamHack Winter tournament.
At the time, he was 18 years and 280 days old. He lost the title to Kjaerbye in 2017, but his record was just barely beaten as Kjaerbye was – as previously mentioned – only three days younger than JW, being 18 years and 277 days old when he took the title.
JW has since gone on to win two more Major Championships, proving his skill as a CS:GO professional player.
Pawel Bielinski, a.k.a. byali
Polish player Pawel Bielinski first signed up with the Russian professional eSports league VIRTUS.pro in 2014 when he was 20 years old and would go on to win the DreamHack Masters Vegas 2017 CS:GO tournament at age 23.
He also helped Team Virtus Pro win the 2016 Season 1 ELEAGUE when he was 22.
Bielinski is a bug name in CS:GO professional gaming and though he might not have been as young as JW or Kjaerbye when he won his titles, his consistent wins and skill make him a noteworthy young professional in the field.
Jake Yip, a.k.a. Stewie2K
The first American player on this list, Stewie2K, is known for being part of the first North American team – as part of the Cloud9 eSports league – to win a CS:GO major championship that was sponsored by CS:GO developers Valve.
Yip signed the contract to join the Cloud9 league just after his 18th birthday and went on to win several tournaments with his team afterwards.
His biggest achievement was beating the well known FaZe Clan when the game went into overtime at the 2018 Boston ELEAGUE tournaments, taking home the championship win.
He was only 21 at the time, making this achievement all the more impressive.
Robin Rönnquist a.k.a. Flusha
Another Swedish CS:GO professional player, Flusha is known for being part of one of the world’s leading eSports organizations Fnatic alongside the aforementioned JW.
His career began back in 2012- when he was 18 years old- and he joined Fnatic a year later in 2013. He went on to win various tournaments, including three Major Championships on top of various other competitions.
Despite no longer being part of Fnatic, he is still within the eSports sphere as he is signed with Cloud9.
Flusha’s hugely successful run with one of the best CS:GO eSports teams of all time combined with his relatively young age whilst doing so makes him a stand-out player.
Final Thoughts
So there you have five of the youngest CS:GO major winners!
Many of these players might be older now, but the achievements that they obtained at such a young age within the eSports world is sure to allow their names to live on in the professional gaming sphere.
My name is Ashley Newby and I want to put integrity back into esports and get the hype surrounding them paramount once more. During my teenage years, I happened to stumble across a Street Fighter tournament online and I was hooked.
From that day, I have kept up with and watched many tournaments including Valorant, Super Smash Bros, and League of Legends. I even got to compete in my first one earlier this year!
