Denmark is home to one of the most unique scenes in Counter-Strike. Going back to CS 1.6, their best team was mTw, widely regarded as the smartest team in the world. But in Global Offensive for the longest time, until recently, the best Danish teams have always been shaped with skills in mind, rather than smarts and teamplay. 

Back in 2012, Western Wolves were, albeit briefly, the second best team in the world. That happened largely on the back of gla1ve’s approach to the game and Nico’s superstar AWPing. However, as the latter’s form dropped off and the young tactician gave up on leading, his mind becoming preoccupied with other things, the squad crumbled. Their secondary star player (Pimp) failed to make-up for their AWPer underperforming, and while MSL and Nille were good supportive players, neither had the skillset of a star. The roster eventually split up and rivals from Copenhagen Wolves would take over as the best team in the Nordic kingdom.

That squad, however, was nothing like the one they took over for. Despite being led by one of the best and most respected CS: Source tacticians, the team was heavily focused on beating their opponents on the back of headshots, rather than tactical execution. That prompted them to continue the Danish CS:S tradition of playing musical chairs, based on who are the hottest players in the scene aim-wise. That in itself threw the entire scene in disarray as the rest of the teams’ rosters remained in flux, thanks to regularly losing their best players.

That finally ended in December 2014 with karrigan replacing FeTiSh in the 5 man squad that would spend more than a year and a half together under the banners of Dignitas, TSM and Astralis. Yet, despite karrigan’s best efforts and the team getting multiple gold medals, they would fail to win the biggest events, featuring prize pool of $250,000 or more. That eventually started them on a down spiral, and their leader lost the little advance his stars allowed him in terms of calling tactics and pick&ban.

Ultimately the roster broke apart, as in May this year, they plucked out recently blossomed star player of Dignitas?,?Kjaerbye, to replace established veteran cajunb. Since that didn’t yield any success, exactly five months later in October they benched karrigan, ending his attempts of bringing in-depth tactics to one of the most talented rosters CS:GO has seen.

Back in March of 2015 however, as karrigan and co. were picking up steam for their run as a consistent top 3 team worldwide, a much lower profile move happened. A move that would eventually, more than year and a half down the line, facilitate a gold medal at a $250,000 event going to Danish team for the first time in CS:GO history. What makes this win even more fascinating though, is that it was earned on the back of in-depth tactics, teamplay and without any previously established talent as primary or secondary star.

The move was team Dignitas acquiring Matthias "MSL“ Lauridsen as he switched to fulltime in-game leader and captain of the squad. The move saw him playing alongside young and upcoming talents aizy and Kjaerbye, as well as reuniting with ex-teammates Nico and Pimp, and none of the players he eventually lifted the cup with.

One step forward, two steps backward.

As Nico’s 2013 level was nowhere to be seen and the young talents hadn’t figured out how to consistently deliver good performances, it was up MSL to set-up the team for Pimp to be primary carry the games. And looking back at the period, it seems that MSL did quite a good job, considering he was just stepping into the shoes as primary leader. The five months after him joining are to this day, the best Pimp has played over similar period of time. For a stretch of a bit under half a year, Dignitas’s star player was one of the most effective riflers in the scene. He averaged an hltv rating of 1,19 over the course of 44 LAN maps and was considered a top 15 player in the world, as the consistently solid performer on a top 10 team.

Despite the herculean effort by Pimp, it became painfully obvious that the team simply didn’t have enough fire power to do better. Pimp was a solid fragger, but didn’t have the explosive star-power to single-handedly carry versus the elite. aizy had showcased his skills many times, but failed to deliver consistently, especially so in the big games his team often lost. Kjaerbye, at the time youngest competitor among the top teams, had displayed potential. However, as the previous two took on their most comfortable positions, the 17 years old was left in a role that he didn’t know what to make of yet. And as MSL openly admits himself, at the time he simply couldn’t figure out a way to use the youngster and Nico more efficiently.

As the summer was ending and Dignitas weren’t showing any signs of growing further, they decided to cut their AWPer Nico and recruited current GODSENT player znajder. The experiment ended in a bit over a month, as tenzki was recruited to replace the Swede, due to issues remaining undisclosed to this day. With Nico leaving, it was Pimp who took over the sniping duties. That, however, didn’t go well. The solid rifler that consistently delivered turned into AWPer who barely had any positive impact for his team.

  During that period, MSL focused Dignitas’s game around aizy, and for a stretch of about two months, the young Dane quickly became one of the hottest players. We saw him deliver on all the potential he’d showcased previously, with incredible hard carry performances versus the best teams of the world. As that didn’t amount to much in Dignitas, he left for G2 (the roster that is currently FaZe) and the run of incredible form ended with the stunning 1.2 rating over the span of 38 maps. In addition, it produced one of the most stunning CS:GO rounds of the year?—?full ace, including 1v3 clutch, versus the polish power-house Virtus.Pro.

As aizy left for G2’s international all-star squad and Pimp parted ways with the team after CEVO Professional Season 8 Finals in early November, it looked to be a cold winter for Dignitas. To replace the two experienced players, Dignitas brought in the Norwegian RUBINO and the up-and-coming k0nfig who barely had any LAN experience. RUBINO, known as the third best player from Norway, had previously displayed some skills, but hardly something comparable to Pimp’s run from Spring and Summer. In similar vein, k0nfig had been turning heads and showcased his talent for aggressive play , but was not someone who could be expected to fill aizy’s shoes.

MSL knew that himself, and instead rearranged his gameplan around Kjaerbye, who by that time had already built up experience against the top international squads. The result was something only the biggest proponents of the young Dane could have foreseen. From a good online player, with 0,87 offline rating over the last few months, he turned into a solid performer boasting 1,12 rating over 51 LAN maps.

To further impress, where previously he had the tendency to fade in important games, with aizy and Pimp gone, Kjaerbye turned into a clutch big-game performer for his team. So much so that Danish rival Astralis, a team notorious for being lacking in the big games, initiated a trade, taking him and giving cajunb to Dignitas in return.

The darkest hour is just before the dawn.

MSL had lost his young, still improving talent, with huge potential. In return he had gotten cajunb? -- albeit incredibly explosive, a veteran player with questionable motivation. Additionally, while Kjaerbye had been quite good performer as a primary carry, the veteran had been in role of third star for over year and a half in the Astralis roster. To top it all off, Kjaerbye had been open to being molded as a player and eager to work within MSL’s system. cajunb, on the other hand, is player often thought of as headstrong and not too open to new ideas, even if they come from his in-game leader.

The trade lead to, as MSL himself admits (click for source) loss of motivation and not doing as much work as he should have. That culminated in him officially stepping down from the in-game leader. However, in part because of Valve’s coaching rule changes, that didn’t last long. The combination of the rule, having over a month break during CS:GO’s summer off season and Magiskb0Y joining to replace tenzki seemed to have reinvigorated the captain. Learning from previous mistakes, he let go of his own stubbornness and become more open to cajunb’s ideas.

With that happening, over the span of a month after the break was over, they climbed the rankings to become the best team in Denmark. What was even more impressive about them was their huge map pool. Whereas previously MSL was happy to call on all maps, the results pointed toward the team not being good on most; now, the stats and in-game performances agreed with him. Dignitas was willing to play, and under the right circumstances, was able to win on all seven maps in the pool . 

Furthermore, the 18 years old Magiskb0Y, brought to the team the much needed firepower they lost with Kjaerbye earlier in the year. And while his time in SK had showcased talents mixed with inconsistent performances, under MSL’s leadership, he blossomed to be anything but. Coming in to a more passive role for Dignitas, he’s been the primary carry and most consistent star of the team, boasting 1,2 rating for his 70 maps in the squad. In addition to that, MSL seems to have molded the young gun to perfectly compliment the team’s other big star?—?k0nfig. The aggressive playmaker, having played most of his LAN career under MSL, has solid 1,12 rating overall. However, after being joined by Magiskb0Y his stat made a jump to 1,16.

With the two carrying, cajunb as the third star -- contributing to both shot-calling and fragging and uniquely huge map pool, MSL and co. shook up the CS:GO world at EPICENTER. They took first place by Bo3 win against the Polish power-hous --e Virtus.Pro, then considered best team in the world. Within just under twenty months, he had done what most would have considered impossible when he joined Dignitas. The way he did it makes the win even more impressive. Going against everything we’ve known about Danish CS:GO in the last 2 years, he joined the team as an average player to become in-game leader and extremely poor fragger.

As such he guided the squad, based on teamplay and in-depth tactics, composed of barely any already established talent, to be the first squad from the Nordic kingdom to win event with prize pool of $250,000 or more.

The talented mr. Lauridsen, Denmark’s most prolific jeweller.

In CS:GO terms, talent is a word often used to describe the innate ability to quickly, and with extreme accuracy, shoot opponents in the head. That is not the talent MSL has, though; if anything, it is one that he most certainly lacks. Where his strengths lie is at utilizing his teammates to make the best out of their abilities. Like a gem cutter, he takes a player and after continuously applying pressure on him, he displays one that is more impressive to the observers.

Quick examination of his stars’ performances can easily confirm that:

The first subject we are going to look at is Pimp. During his streak in Dignitas, before he picked up the AWP, he averaged the impressive 1,19 hltv rating over the course of 5 months. Despite picking up the rifles after he parted ways with MSL, we are yet to see him perform at similar level, both in terms of game impact and statistically.

After leaving MSL’s side following the super-star performances and stat of 1,2 rating for the last 38 maps, aizy’s performances plummeted down to 1.05 for this year at the international star-studded roster of FaZe. Even with the addition of fellow Dane karrigan as in-game leader, we're yet to see him return to consistent performances of the same level. In fact his best statistical performance at a LAN event for the year is playing as a stand-in for Dignitas at WESG.

Following in aizy’s footsteps, Kjaerbye left to join a team that could easily be considered an all-star squad, yet for the 67 maps in Astralis, he boasts 0,2 lower rating. Only recently, with gla1ve joining the squad, has he improved on his statistical performances at Dignitas showing, 1,35 over the last 13 maps. However it is hard to say that it will last for a prolonged enough period to be comparable to his play at MSL’s side after the latter readjusted the team’s gameplan to fit better to the young star.

The most recent, and perhaps most impressive transformation to a player after joining Dignitas, however, is the one of their latest star player?—?Magiskb0Y. While on SK, he was an inconsistent star player with the ability to carry games every now and then. Joining MSL and co. we saw him turn into consistent monster, both statistically and on the server. What is more impressive is the way he was set-up to seemingly compliment k0nfig’s aggressive play from the other end of the map and boost his performances as well.

The most curious of utilization, to me at least, has been the one of cajunb. In terms of gameplay and statistics, he remains largely the same player he was in the roster that was last known as Astralis, but his overall game contribution is very different. Apparently, as explained by MSL, now the veteran player is helping as secondary shot-caller and assisting with guiding the young star players, by forceing them out of their shells.

A quote from Cate Blanchett’s character in "The talented mr. Ripley" can be used to describe MSL's effect on his star players:

The thing with Dickie… it’s like the sun shines on you, and it’s glorious. And then he forgets you and it’s very, very cold.

As a person you have to work with, MSL might be quite the opposite to the character she is talking about. The CS:GO community has often portrayed mr. Lauridsen as hardass and someone who doesn’t hold back criticism and complaints. However, if you’re a star player working under him, once in the official game you can feel exactly as if the sun is shining onto you. If you are the focal point of Dignitas you get to play some of the best CS you’ll possibly ever play. And similarly to the analogy, whenever star players leave his side, be it of his or their own volition, it can get ‘very, very cold’ for them. For whenever seemingly bad things happen to MSL’s squad he’s always found a way to recover and improve the team overall. But the same can not be said for all of his former stars.

MSL’s moment to shine

Despite the continuous poor fragging, even during the win in EPICENTER, the community has finally started to come around on the value of MSL in a team. And with the most competitive CS:GO Major qualifier up to date in front of them, this is his time to show them why Dignitas fans were right to finally put trust in him. Lifting the cup in Moscow, he finally fulfilled one of his goals to improve on the result in Western Wolves. 

The next target for him and the rest of the squad is now nothing less but gold at the Major itself. Previously he's always had the excuse of lacking firepower, but as top CS:GO teams quickly learn: the future is uncertain and windows of opportunity are more often than not brief. As he stated himself in his 'Reflections' interview with Thorin, this is their moment' and he's confident they'll seize it.

About the author: Hello readers! I go by the ID RadoN and probably similarly to many of you, I’ve been playing video games for years. My introduction to esports happened in 2009 and ever since, I’ve been following different titles within the industry. Other games I currently follow are Overwatch, LoL, QL with the occasional SFV, DOTA2 and HotS. If you wish to provide feedback, support and follow future content, or simply know more about my thoughts on gaming and esports, follow me at @RadoNonfire on twitter.

Photo credits: HLTV, Gamingdk.