Over the year Olof ‘’olofmeister’’ Kajbjer has demonstrated a level of play that has yet to be seen in CS:GO. He was even branded ‘raid boss’ for his infamous plays with the Tec-9 pistol. The second half of the year saw a slight slump in his performance, but there is no doubt that Olof has proven that it is in fact possible to be proficient with all categories of weapons, whether it is rifles, pistols, the AWP or others available in the game.

Nikola ''NiKo'' Kova? has been a stand-in for mousesports for some time, momentarily stepping in for other teams and showing a great performance. As he was brought into the struggling ship that was mousesports’ main roster, he went on to prove his spectacular capabilities. One of the brightest memories of 2015 would be the beautiful triple-kill he landed with a Deagle against G2 eSports, all in the space of two seconds.

This year Fnatic have embedded themselves in CS:GO history after demonstrating one of the most successful runs since the game’s conception. The Swedish team showed absolute dominance, winning almost every single LAN event throughout the first half of the year, including two majors. Although the second half of the year saw them slightly drop in performance, they have still managed to maintain the highest possible level of play. The Swedes have set new standards for other professional CS:GO teams to aspire towards.

Luminosity Gaming was considered as one of the best teams coming from the Americas region, but during this year we saw them in an even brighter light. The Brazilians managed to finish in the top eight at the last two majors, as well as being runner-ups at the DreamHack Winter & FACEIT Stage 3 events. Moreover, the recent roster change proved that they are even stronger than before, and it is intriguing to see what they will achieve in 2016.

2015 could have been a beautiful year for the CIS squad. Both the team and the fans sincerely hoped that HellRaisers would be able to live up to the expectations set, but with roster changes severely diminishing the team’s coherence and perhaps even its skill, they simply were not able to perform. Their failure to qualify at both last majors devastated their confidence and will surely haunt them, and their fans, for a while. Hopefully 2016 will see a brighter time for the CIS team.

The iBUYPOWER throw against NETCODEGuides was no doubt one of the most dramatic events we saw this year. The situation shook the CS:GO scene and definitely had an impact on the perpetrators, that were banned from Valve sponsored events indefinitely. Hopefully this mess will serve as an example for all other professional players, forcing them to think thrice before committing match fixing.

With over 1.2 million concurrent viewers and over 4 million USD raised for the teams, this event surely had the largest impact and demonstrated the enormous growth of our scene. We are all looking forward to how 2016’s ESL One: Cologne will pan out.

These two are arguably the most entertaining casting duo the CS:GO scene has to offer. From hilarious jokes to meticulous analysis of gameplay, Anders and Semmler have managed to find the golden mean between professionality and expression of raw emotion in their commentaries and for this the community loves them dearly.

July 1st, 2015 marks the day MTG acquired a majority stake in Turtle Entertainment GmbH, the holding company for ESL and its international subsidiaries. Upon fall, MTG furthered their market share by acquiring DreamHack on November 12th, 2015. The companies that were bought out reportedly operate under the same management and without any structural changes to the existing ones. Some perceive this move as the monopolisation of CS:GO, others see it as a step in the right direction of globalising the experience the game has to offer.

Also nominated in caster duo of the year, Anders Blume has shown his cheery, happy personality over 2015 in all of its light. From his amazing outbursts during commentaries such as ‘’Are you kidding me?!’’ to taking endless selfies with hordes of fans, Anders has truly embraced his position, and did so with grace and humility. This man truly has one of the best personalities in the CS:GO hosting scene.

It is undoubtedly the best thing that has happened to any team recently. Both Dan ‘’apEX’’ Madesclaire and Kenny ‘’kennyS’’ Schrub struggled during the first half of this year in terms of finding a consistent performance, but as they were brought under the hands of Vincent ‘’Happy’’ Cervoni, they assumed their full potential. At ESL One: Cologne they narrowly missed out in the finals, finishing second place, as they had lost to Fnatic, but at the next major they beat them in just the quarterfinals. Team EnVyUs really saw a positive change after the addition of these two individuals.

Once known as the best CS:GO team to touch the game, the loss of the Mikail “Maikelele” Bill marked the the begin of the slow decline of this legendary Swedish lineup. Although there was a number of gutting roster changes throughout the year, the change from "Maikelele" to Aleksei “allu” Jalli will go down in the history books as the end of an era.

Gamers2 showed us what they were capable of against one of the top teams in the world during this exciting semi finals match up, managing to open up the series with a strong de_dust2 win and took Team EnVyUs to three overtimes on de_inferno; all of this with the Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca crowd cheering in the background!

The competition between these two picked up near the end of the year, and turned out to be one of the most fiercest rivalries we’ve seen between two top teams. Only Team EnVyUs could bring Fnatic to their knees with a 16:2 stomp, but only a few months before get 2-0’ed by the Swedes in the grand finals of ESL One Cologne.

The true veteran of the eSports scene started this year by leaving ESL. This, however, didn’t prevent him from doing what he is best at, being an amazing host. First, Dota 2 fans saw him at The International, which was then followed up later this year with an appearance at the third CS:GO major, DreamHack Cluj-Napoca. Paul "RedEye" Chaloner is a testimony to what real passion, commitment and love towards your job can achieve in this line of work.

ESL have seemingly managed to outdo themselves event after event, and the community has come to expect excellent production quality and all-star competition because of it. ESL gets our top pick over Dreamhack due to their variety of events, from the smaller IEMs to the $1,000,000 Pro League to the Majors they host annually.

Everybody agrees that Ladislav ‘’GuardiaN’’ Kovács, Natus Vincere’s primary AWPer, is a true game changer once he fires up. We could put up a frag reel to prove it, but let’s be honest - we have seen it all, when he goes totally nuts and wins rounds all by himself. In the community polls he has dominated by far, and here in our internal votes he did so even more.

There is no doubt that Markus Wallsten was indeed the most impressive in-game leader of 2015. He lead Fnatic’s roster to two major wins over the course of the year, as well as a profusion of first place finishes, ultimately cementing the team in CS:GO history as one of the most successful. He has now left Fnatic, however the legend will live on for as long as the scene exists.

Some of you might ask yourself, who is Oczosinko? If we mention the tec9meister song, or many others related to CS:GO pro players, then you will definitely understand who he is. He is the man who brought the community a funny way of describing his personal feelings on the competitive scene through hilarious YouTube videos. We would like to thank him for all of his contributions so far, and hopefully we will see more of his art in the new year.

Richard Lewis is considered one of the most prominent journalists of 2015 for a variety of reasons. First, and most importantly, he exposed the iBUYPOWER throwing scandal, making sure the community was aware of the illegal acts that took place. Second up was the exposure of the Team Union proposition, sent by the CEO of Na’Vi, where he wrote an article explaining in detail the implications that could follow post the introduction of said union. While people may have varying opinions on Richard’s character, this must not cloud the fact that this man has objectively contributed to the CS:GO scene in countless ways.