Every Canadian to play at a Major

Unsurprisingly, Canada has spawned less Counter-Strike talent than its much larger neighbor the United States, however, the Canadians can lay claim to the most successful and arguably best North American player of all time in Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken. The FaZe star is the only Canadian to lift the Major trophy, but thirteen of his countrymen have participated in Majors.

• Kory "SEMPHIS" Friesen: Cloud9, Complexity

Majors attended: DreamHack Winter 2013, EMS Katowice 2014, ESL One Cologne 2014, DreamHack Winter 2014, ESL One Katowice 2015

The only NA player who was present at the first CS:GO Major and will still be active in the scene for the last Major SEMPHIS is best known for his time with the compLexity/Cloud9 core during the early days of the game. The current Nouns coach stayed in the game despite it being eight years since his last appearance at a Major.

Stints on TSM, Splyce, Envy was followed by a drop down to ECL level with teams like Old Guys Club, Peekers Advantage and SKDC. After SKDC SEMPHIS turned to coaching having success in the domestic scene with his current Nouns lineup who were not far off qualifying for Paris going 2-2 in the RMR, losing to Liquid in their final match.

• Keven "AZK" Larivière: iBUYPOWER

Majors attended: DreamHack Winter 2013, EMS Katowice 2014, ESL One Cologne 2014, DreamHack Winter 2014

AZK was also part of the iBUYPOWER bans, however at least he got to attend more than just one Major. The Canadian rifler played at the first four Majors, never making it past the group stage. Post-ban, AZK played on steel's Torqued team before calling time on his career in 2018. He joined steel for a short stint on T1 in VALORANT FROM 2020 to 2021.

• Joshua "steel" Nissan: iBUYPOWER

Majors attended: ESL One: Cologne 2014

Another polarizing figure from NA, steel is widely regarded as the biggest 'what if' in CS:GO. After attending Cologne 2014 with iBUYPOWER, steel found himself on the wrong side of the infamous iBUYPOWER match-fixing scandal and was handed an indefinite ban from Valve-sponsored events and banned by almost every other major TO in the CS scene.

After his ban there was little left for the IGL to play for in the scene, and he spent four years in the wilderness playing with his Torqued team in whatever tournaments would let him. Despite making numerous pleas and public apologies steel would not be unbanned by Valve, even though in 2017 ex-iBUYPOWER were unbanned by the other TO's. After building up impressive domestic records with Ghost Gaming and Chaos, steel's Counter-Strike career inevitably came to an end with the release of VALORANT as Valve's refusal to budge lead the IGL to Riot's new FPS. Could steel have been the IGL to make NA CS great? Unfortunately, we will never know.

• Michael "shroud" Grzesiek: Cloud9

Majors attended: DreamHack Winter 2014, ESL One: Katowice 2015, ESL One Cologne 2015, DreamHack Open Cluj⁠-⁠Napoca 2015, MLG Major Columbus 2016, PGL Major Kraków 2017

A fan favorite during his peak within NA CS, shroud's attitude towards the game since his retirement may have tarnished his legacy in some fans eyes. However, when he was playing he was one of the most hyped players in history, racking up countless highlight clips with his crisp aim.

shroud's first Major appearance came all the way back in 2014, where he teamed up with Cloud9 who he would spend his entire professional CS:GO career with. After a disappointing run at his final ever Major at PGL Krakow 2017, shroud was benched and would have to watch the revamped Cloud9 team claim NA's first and only (so far) Major trophy.

• Pujan "FNS" Mehta: CLG

Majors attended: ESL One Katowice 2015, ESL One Cologne 2015, DreamHack Open Cluj⁠-⁠Napoca 2015

Interestingly, all of FNS's Major appearances came in the same year, back when there were three Majors a year. In 2015, FNS was at the helm of a CLG lineup greatly benefiting from Josh "jdm64" Marzano who had the best year of his career on the AWP with a 1.10 rating.

After 2015, CLG and FNS faded from the top of the scene, with short stints on Complexity and Cloud9 doing little to help him regain a seat at the top table. After a few years playing for ECL level teams in eUnited, Riot Squad, and Orgless, FNS left Counter-Strike to try his hand at VALORANT where he has had amazing success with Envy, OpTic and is currently on NRG.

• Jason "jasonR" Ruchelski: Splyce

Majors attended: MLG Columbus 2016

For those fans that are relatively new to the scene, they could be forgiven for not realizing that popular streamer jasonR was once a Professional Counter-Strike player. The former AWPer was part of Splyce's fairytale run to a Major appearance at MLG Columbus 2016, the only Major the team and jasonR would manage to qualify with.

After Splyce, jasonR turned his hand to streaming and apart from a short stint on OpTic in 2017, he has stayed largely away from the competitive Counter-Strike scene.

• David "DAVEY" Stafford: Splyce

Majors attended: MLG Columbus 2016

Another member of the Splyce fairytale, DAVEY had a longer career than his former teammate jasonR. After Splyce and MLG Columbus DAVEY played for Spacestation Gaming, Peekers Advantage, and more recently plied his trade for ECL side Mythic, helping the team become a regular playoff team in the division.

After hanging up his mouse, the Canadian rifler followed in his former teammate's footsteps as he built up his own stream. He also began to gain a reputation for casting and even was invited to speak at the RMR's for the PGL Major Antwerp in 2022.

• Peter "stanislaw" Jarguz: Evil Geniuses, NRG, Complexity, OpTic

Majors attended: ESL One Cologne 2016, ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017, FACEIT Major London 2018, StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, PGL Major Stockholm 2021

stanislaw has been a stalwart IGL of the NA scene for some time, with stints on numerous top teams from the region including OpTic, Liquid, NRG, and Evil Geniuses. stanislaw's first appearance at a Major was ESL One Cologne 2016 and the IGL would attend four more Majors under three different organizations with his final appearance being PGL Stockholm 2021.

• Damian "daps" Steele: NRG, OpTic

Majors attended: ESL One Cologne 2016, IEM Katowice Major 2019

The current Liquid coach got his start in CS:GO in 2015 with ELEVATE and would quickly get his chance to rise to the top. He would soon find himself on OpTic and help lead the team to to ESL One Cologne 2016. At Cologne, daps played alongside fellow Canadians stanislaw and NAF, in what is the only Canadian majority roster to attend a Major.

Despite being a renowned name, daps only ever made it to two Majors. After Cologne 2016, he led NRG to the IEM Katowice Major 2019 where the team went out in last place. For the BLAST.tv Paris Major, daps will be hoping to guide Liquid to success and get his hands on a Major trophy - something that always eluded him as a player.

• Keith "NAF" Markovic: OpTic, Renegades, Liquid

Majors attended: ESL One Cologne 2016, ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017, ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018, FACEIT Major London 2018, IEM Katowice 2019, StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, PGL Major Stockholm 2021, PGL Major Antwerp 2022, IEM Rio 2022, BLAST Paris Major 2023

An Intel Grand Slam winner, and considered one of the most consistent players of all time NAF has made a mark on North America. However, his teams have always came up short at the Majors. NAF's Major journey started all the way back in 2016, when his OpTic team were knocked out in 13th-16th place. After that disappointment, the team bounced back to win ELEAGUE Season 2, NAF's first big LAN trophy.

After another disappointment in Atlanta for the ELEAGUE Major in 2017, NAF made his way to Liquid. Despite the team becoming the undisputed number one in NA, the squad failed to make any headway in the Majors. To this day, Liquid's best Major placing was ESL One Cologne 2016, where they made the Grand Finals with arguably a weaker team than the talent the roster has boasted since. The addition of Latvian Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis revived a floundering Liquid team in 2022 and heading into Paris NAF will hope to close out CS:GO by finally getting his hands on a Major.

• Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken: FaZe, Liquid

Majors attended: ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018, FACEIT Major London 2018, IEM Katowice 2019, StarLadder Berlin Major 2019, PGL Major Stockholm 2021, PGL Major Antwerp 2022, IEM Rio 2022, BLAST Paris Major 2023

The previously mentioned GOAT of NA CS, Twistzz's achievements as a Major and two time Intel Grand Slam winner speak for themselves. It is easy to forget that the Canadian superstar is still only 23 years old, and only attended his first Major with Liquid in 2018.

Twistzz's first Major outing ended with just a single win for his Liquid side, followed by a top four finish in London. Two top eight finishes in 2019 were seen as a relatively poor showing for the team that had become the fastest ever Intel Grand Slam winners. After that, Twistzz moved to test himself on an International squad and on FaZe he secured himself a Major trophy at PGL Major Antwerp 2022 and his second Intel Grand Slam. His team struggled to get to the Major and will enter as the bottom seed in Paris, but knowing Twistzz, it won't dampen his chances at grabbing a second Major title.

• Bradley "ANDROID" Fodor: Complexity

Majors attended: FACEIT Major London 2018

ANDROID attended his first and only Major in 2018 with a Complexity side that made a shock run to the playoffs. ANDROID had been with Complexity since 2016 at that point and the FACEIT Major would be his only appearance. A short stint on the doomed Envy lineup of 2019 led to ANDROID migrating over to VALORANT where he has disappeared from tier one competition since a stint on NRG.

• Justin "FaNg" Coakley: Complexity

Majors attended: PGL Major Antwerp 2022 (Challengers Stage), BLAST Paris Major 2023 (Challengers Stage)

One of just three Canadian's who qualified for the final CS:GO Major, FaNg finding his feet in tier one was one of the key factors in Complexity's qualification for Paris, posting a 1.15 rating at the RMR. FaNg made his first Major appearance with Complexity in 2022 at the PGL Antwerp Challengers Stage, his first year playing at the top level of Counter-Strike.

The team then heartbreakingly missed out on IEM Rio 2022 as they lost to Imperial in the deciding Americas RMR qualification match. Despite the 20 year old rifler topping the server for his team with a 1.28 rating, his team were unable to qualify despite being 2-0 to start the event. That loss was avenged at the Paris RMR as Complexity beat Imperial en-route to securing their place in the Challengers Stage of Paris, giving the young rifler his second appearance a Major.

• Jadan "HexT" Postma: Evil Geniuses

Majors attended: IEM Rio 2022 (Challengers Stage)

The other Canadian to have played in the Challengers Stage of the Major, but failed to make it through is HexT. He is another young rifler who has struggled to adapt to life at tier one level. Unlike FaNg, HexT's Evil Geniuses 2023 has been a continued struggle, which lead to his demotion to the EG Black roster following the signing of Ismail "refrezh" Ali.

HexT got his Major appearance at the IEM Rio Major. His Evil Geniuses team were knocked out 1-3 after a win over IHC and losses to Cloud9, 9z and MOUZ. HexT will have to watch Paris from the sidelines and look to CS2 to make his return to the big stage.