An incredible clutch or impossible highlight is all that’s needed for a match or map to be held in legendary regard. But so easily is a CS:GO match remembered for an all-time play, it can easily be remembered for consisting of one of the all-time mistakes.
The chicken doesn't forget your mistakes. (Image via StarLadder.)
As CS:GO LAN events return, we look back at some of the best bloopers ever witnessed. These are just a handful of some of the most memorable mistakes ever made during a pro CS:GO match. While they all involve bomb defusals, each moment is unique in its own special, unfortunate way.
G2 forgets to defuse the bomb at the major
As if playing against Astralis during their era of dominance wasn’t painful enough, G2 Esports found a way to pour even more salt into their own wounds. In a best-of-one on Nuke, the two sides traded rounds to split the first half 8-7. But as the map turned to Astralis’ T-side, the dominant Danes turned on the jets. They took the first seven straight rounds of the second half, reaching map point with a 15-7 lead. With money to burn and G2 feelings to hurt, they sprinted into the B bombsite to get a quick plant down.
With the bomb planted, Astralis got aggressive with their retake defense, feeding right into the crosshairs of G2’s shox. With a whiff from dupreeh on A then a final flick from shox onto dev1ce on ramp, all of Astralis was down with plenty of time to defuse for G2. Except, they didn’t. After the final kill, all of G2 abandoned the site, as none of the four players went to defuse the bomb. Even without a kit, shox was right next to it on ramp, and AmaneK could have jumped down from A and used his kit. But alas, it didn’t happen. Casters Anders and Moses couldn’t believe it as the people with them didn’t even try to hide their laughing from getting picked up by the mics.
Astralis were all smiles after the accidental win, and would go to win the Major. While it’s unlikely G2 were going to come back and win the map, losing in that way just made it all the worse. G2 were eventually eliminated in the group stage, and would make roster moves a month later.
Summit1g
Yup. You knew it would be here. The most meme’d about, talked about, referenced blunder in the history of CS:GO esports. Any Molotov kill in any pro CS:GO game is met with ‘1G’ spams in the chat because of this moment. It’s May 2016 at DreamHack Austin. Splyce are competing with two stand-ins: former Cloud9 player Freakazoid and popular Twitch streamer summit1g. They get off to a really strong start on Train, winning the first six rounds off 10 kills from Freakazoid. They hold on to the lead heading into round 27, on map point leading 15-11.
CLG only have Tec-9s and a lone AK, and actually take advantage on the B bombsite, but only for a brief moment. The Molotov from JR catches one, while summit sprays down another, leading to 1v1 that summit wins. With all of CLG down, and plenty of time, the map is secured for Splyce. That is, until disaster strikes.
The camera turns to summit, who suddenly puts his hands on his head in astonishment as he and freak share a look of pure bewilderment. We return to the in-game footage to see that summit is somehow dead next to the bomb. A replay reveals to the casters, the crowd, and the viewers what happened; summit walked too close to the flames of JR’s Molotov, and burned to death. CLG would end up sending the map to overtime, winning the map, then winning on Dust II to eliminate Splyce from the event.
CLG muff the defuse, go on to lose
A year after CLG capitalized on the summit1g incident, they too found themselves on the wrong side of a defusal mishap. It’s DreamHack Valencia in 2017, and CLG is facing Red Reserve in the final match of their group. The winner moves on to playoffs while the loser goes home. The series is tied 1-1 and in the final map of Mirage, with CLG leading 15-12. The NA squad has the man advantage 3v2, and the AWPs of rickeh and koosta quickly eliminate the final players on site, paving the way for an easy defuse.
But of course, that doesn’t happen. Miscommunication between FNS and koosta leads to koosta trying to defuse the bomb without a kit while FNS has one. The round was so assured that CLG players had begun to stand up, and Red Reserve players had left the server. The bomb went off, and the map continued.
After the players literally came back to the server, they competitively came back to force overtime, and Red Reserve stole the map after four overtime periods. CLG were eliminated after they had all but secured themselves a playoff spot, only needing a defuse to advance. Instead, Red Reserve advanced, and actually made it to the grand finals before falling to NiP. Instead of winning $3,000, they won $20,000. CLG departed from CS:GO four months later.
It’s no Mirage: TSM and FaZe let Krimz and snax pull off 1v5 Ninja defuse
The theme so far has been the refusal to ensure a proper defusal. But that’s not the only way to lose a round in embarrassing fashion. Twice on Mirage, during a big pro match, a lone CT has snuck back onto the site with five players alive on the other side, and stolen a defuse. Snax of Virtus.pro did it to FaZe Clan, and Fnatic’s Krimz pulled it off against TSM. Both are unique in their own way.
For Snax, he’s absolutely gifted his path to the bomb on A site at IEM Katowice 2016. When he’s jumping down from catwalk into mid then into tunnel, all of FaZe is either on the B site or in the B apartments. This is likely a result of the flash he threw onto B before his journey began, but it’s inexcusable for FaZe not to leave one player on A. Snax gets the defuse with plenty of time, with no one even near him.
Krimz’s Mirage ninja is definitely more impressive given how close the TSM players are to him, but also more frustrating to watch if you’re a TSM fan. First, he dodges, and I’m not making this up, FNS of all people who flies right past him at ladder. As the rest of TSM departs the site, Krimz makes his move. SicK somehow doesn’t hear the footsteps, but does hear the defuse and rushes back. But he arrives just a fraction too late. The fact that Fnatic were already leading 12-1 before this happened just makes it so much worse.
