Counter Strike: Global Offensive – game that requires a gamer to make lightning-fast decisions and quick reactions, so age players CS:GO – is quite rare, especially in the top.
Scientific research on identifying the most optimal age separately for CS:GO has not yet been done. However, a study on the game StarCraft was conducted by Canada's Simon Fraser University in 2014. Researchers found that people have the highest reaction speed at the age of 24, while the ability to think quickly and make decisions peaks between the ages of 20 and 25. The researchers' final conclusion was harsh: after reaching the age of 30, players cannot compete with the youth.
The oldest pro CS:GO players in the top 100 are:
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karrigan (real name – Finn Andersen, originally from Denmark). He's 32 years old, plays for the FaZe team. In the world ranking he is 44th.
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Snappi (Marko Pfeifer from Denmark). His age – is 31 years old and plays for ENCE. He is ranked 18th in the world rankings.
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FalleN (Gabriel Toledo, nationality – Brazil), 30, Team – Imperial. Number 66 in the world ranking.
FalleN
Gabriel Toledo from Brazil is number three on the list of the oldest players in CS:GO. What makes Gabriel's talent unique is that in Counter Strike, a sniper with an AWP rarely plays the role of a leader during a game, but he was able to do so without any problems. For his 30 years of age FalleN demonstrates good results, but still it should be recognized that his golden years are behind him.
Under the best period of his career we mean 2015 – 2016, that's when Gabriel won 2 majors in Columbus and Cologne, moved up to number 2 in the world ranking, received the award «Sniper of the Year» and «In-Game Leader of the Year». FalleN has earned an estimated 1.1 million dollars in prize money over the course of his performances.
To become a good sniper, FalleN recommends beginners to devote time to practicing flicks (shooting from the turn or during the turn), to learn how to use the effect of surprise and not to make mistakes with the choice of position.
Snappi
The second place in the list of old CS:GO players was captured by Marco Pfeifer from Denmark.
Snappi's performance at the age of 31 is amazing. Among pro gamers 30+ in Counter Strike, he holds the highest place in the world ranking – 18.
In the current team ENCE has taken the place of the in-game leader and entree fragger, i.e. the main player whose task is to make the first kill (score the first frag).
Marco – is a rare example of a player who performs consistently but has never won at least one major. I believe the main reason – is the frequent change of teams. So, from 2013 to 2022, Snappi has already changed 18 teams, which is about one team per six months. Of course, it is impossible to play with teammates to the maximum in such a short time, so as a result we see very modest achievements for a player of his level and no less modest prize money earned by gamers at the professional level - about 230 thousand dollars.
Did you know?
Before we get to the story about the main hero and number 1 of our list, let's entertain ourselves with a few entertaining facts:
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In the top 100 of the world ranking most of all old pro players of CS:GO from Denmark, France and Brazil.
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Gamers from the CIS – youth by the standards of Counter Strike. The oldest professional player from this territory is Hobbit aka Wild Kazakh (Abay Hasenov from Kazakhstan), 27 years old, now ranked 37th in the world rankings. I believe the reason why there are no top players over 30 years old in the CIS is because of the high competition. The same hobbit made a lot of efforts to essentially rebirth in 2021 after a three-year slump and return to the cohort of the best CS GO gamers.
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The oldest pro CS GO player to date is 35-year-old TaZ (real name – Viktor Wojtas) from Poland. Of course, he can no longer compete with the young guys on equal terms, but Victor's authority among gamers is incredibly high. How could it be otherwise, if TaZ won at the majors, which in his collection, by the way, 8, when the current CS:GO stars attended kindergarten in the literal sense of the word.
Karrigan
We approached the oldest player in CS:GO on a professional level. His name is Finn Andersen from Denmark, he plays Counter Strike under the nickname karrigan for the FaZe team. He is now 32 years old and ranks 44th in the world rankings.
Like Snappi, Finn serves as the team's entree fragger and in-game leader.
Karrigan has never won a major in his career, but he has been very successful at lower ranked tournaments such as ESL One, ESL Pro and ELEAGUE, where he and his team regularly took first place and earned about $1.2 million in prize money.
Finn stands out among the top players by the fact that he has 2 higher education. He received his Master's degrees in Business Administration and Auditing in 2015 from Copenhagen Business School. So karrigan has prepared for the end of his professional career and may have already outlined his plans for further activities outside of CS:GO.
It is also interesting that Finn was supported by his father in his passion for the game. He still periodically accompanies karrigan to tournaments and helps him in preparation.
CS:GO – the game of the young?
At the highest level – certainly, yes, nature, unfortunately, cannot be cheated. And then there are the unexpected options. It's hard to believe, but there is a team in Sweden called Silver Snipers, a team made up of retirees over the age of 60, that still managed to win the 2020 DreamHack Spring tournament in Jönköping, Sweden. I want to note that Silver Snipers play Counter Strike not as a pleasant pastime, but professionally, practicing every day for 4 hours.
By the way, at the time of winning the tournament the most «adult» member of the team and coincidentally the oldest player of CS:GO, Abba Drakborg, was already 78 years old. So Contra is for all ages. As Abbe Drakborg pointed out, age – is just a number, and «you can't be too old to play video games».