A coach is the one player on a Counter-Strike roster you never see make a frag, and the one nobody can win without. We first published this list in 2022, back when CS:GO was still the game's name — since then CS2 has taken over, the Major trophy has changed hands repeatedly, and one coach has quietly climbed to a sixth title. Here's the honest 2026 ranking: three men who defined (and are still defining) how Counter-Strike is played at the top.
Quick answer: The three best coaches of the CS:GO/CS2 era are Danny "zonic" Sørensen — six Majors as a coach, now with Team Falcons after winning the IEM Cologne Major 2026 — Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi, the tactical architect behind NAVI's Stockholm 2021 and Copenhagen 2024 Majors, and Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam, who steered Vitality to back-to-back Majors in 2025 and took HLTV's Coach of the Year award.
What a CS:GO (now CS2) coach actually does
In official Valve Majors, the coach sits behind the five players with a view of the map and a voice in their ears. Between rounds they're the ones reading the opponent's economy, calling mid-round adjustments nobody in the fight has time to process, and managing the mental side when a 10-5 half turns into a 12-16 loss. Between events they run practice blocks, build anti-strat files on rivals, and decide — with the in-game leader — which maps the team bans.
The role grew so influential that when a spectator-bug let coaches watch free cameras in 2016-2020, ESIC sanctions and Valve's permanent Major bans followed for dozens of them. You only police what matters.
The game they coach changed in September 2023, when Counter-Strike 2 replaced CS:GO on Steam — new smoke physics, sub-tick servers, revised maps. The coaching craft survived the port intact; the names on the trophies below are the proof.
1. zonic — the greatest of all time, still adding to the count
| Danny "zonic" Sørensen | |
|---|---|
| Current team | Team Falcons (head coach) |
| Majors won as coach | 6 |
| Signature era | Astralis, 2016-2022 |
Everything written about zonic as the CS:GO-era great has aged well. A former CS 1.6 star himself — a founding member of mTw.dk and HLTV's 8th-best player of 2010 — he retired from playing when CS:GO launched and founded the Astralis project in January 2016. What followed was the most dominant stretch any team has had in the game: four Majors with Astralis (Atlanta 2017, London 2018, Katowice 2019, Berlin 2019), built on a sports-science approach — routines, psychology, workload management — that the whole scene copied.
He proved Astralis wasn't a one-off by winning a fifth Major with Team Vitality in Paris 2023, and a sixth with Team Falcons at the IEM Cologne Major 2026, where Falcons swept FURIA in the final and m0NESY took the MVP medal — with NiKo finally getting his first Major after a decade of trying. That's six titles with three different organisations; no other coach has more than two. When B1ad3 — his closest rival on any reasonable list — is asked to name the best coach ever, his answer is zonic.
2. B1ad3 — the best tactical mind working today
| Andrii "B1ad3" Horodenskyi | |
|---|---|
| Current team | Natus Vincere / NAVI (head coach) |
| Majors won as coach | 2 |
| Signature era | NAVI, 2020-present |
If zonic is the GOAT, B1ad3 is the coach other coaches study. The Ukrainian built his reputation in the NAVI system over years — first with NAVI Junior and the academy pipeline, then as head coach of the main roster — and his teams win on preparation: structured map pools, layered utility, and opponents who look like they're playing against a wall that knows their defaults.
The trophies back it up. NAVI's PGL Stockholm 2021 title was the team's first Major and the crowning of the s1mple era; PGL Copenhagen 2024 made NAVI the first CS2 Major champion, with a roster B1ad3 rebuilt around young pieces after the old core moved on. He's still in the NAVI hot seat in 2026, still out-coaching wealthier rosters, and still the name every "best coach" discussion starts with once zonic's trophies are counted.
3. XTQZZZ — the coach of Counter-Strike's best-ever year
| Rémy "XTQZZZ" Quoniam | |
|---|---|
| Current team | Team Vitality (head coach) |
| Majors won as coach | 2 |
| Signature era | Vitality, 2025 |
The newest entry, and the easiest to defend. XTQZZZ took over a Vitality superteam in early 2025 and won everything that mattered: the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 against The MongolZ, then the StarLadder Budapest Major 2025 against FaZe — back-to-back, with ZywOo collecting Major MVPs along the way. Vitality's 2025 is a serious contender for the best single year any team has had in Counter-Strike, and HLTV named XTQZZZ Coach of the Year for it.
What makes the run impressive is the management job: a roster of stars that stays hungry, a Grand Slam campaign he openly admits they should have exited several times, and a team that still found comeback wins in Melbourne and Budapest. Winning with talent is expected; keeping a talent-stacked team consistent for twelve months is coaching.
Where the original three went
This article's first version featured kassad, Twista and zonic — so, in fairness, here's what happened to the other two.
kassad (Aleksandar Trifunović) built his reputation dragging Renegades to top-four finishes from Oceania, then coached 100 Thieves and EXTREMUM. He never won a Major, his BLEED Esports project ended in late 2024, and he has since moved into streaming and broadcast analysis. A great talker, a good coach — but not a top-three CV.
Twista (Slaava "twista" Räsänen) coached ENCE to the IEM Katowice 2019 Major final, one of the great underdog runs. Then the spectator-bug scandal caught him: ESIC sanctioned him in 2020 and Valve barred him from future Majors, ending his coaching path at the top. He moved into commentary and analysis, where he's stayed.
One more name deserves its mention in any updated piece: Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström, who coached FaZe to the PGL Antwerp 2022 Major and a runners-up finish in Budapest 2025 before stepping down — FaZe have cycled through coaching options since.
What separates a great CS coach from a good one
- Trophy weight with multiple cores. zonic won with three organisations; B1ad3 won with two different NAVI generations; XTQZZZ sustained dominance for a full season. Roster moves are the real test — anyone can ride one golden lineup.
- Adapting across game versions. The CS:GO-to-CS2 transition reset metas and map pools; all three on this list were winning before it and after it.
- Developing players, not just buying them. B1ad3's academy-to-Major pipeline and zonic's work with young cores (m0NESY's Falcons) count for more than chequebook rosters.
- Bans and integrity. The spectator-bug era showed the scene takes coaching integrity seriously; it's part of why Twista and several others left the top table.
If you play the game yourself — competitively or with friends on the weekend — the fastest way to appreciate these men is to try coordinating five friends on your own. And whether your bottleneck is frames or focus, our PC gaming optimisation tricks and notes on how much memory you need for gaming will do more for your rank than any anti-strat file.
Frequently asked questions
Is CS:GO still playable in 2026?
No — CS:GO was replaced by Counter-Strike 2 as the live game in September 2023, and Valve migrated all matchmaking, skins and Majors to CS2. The last CS:GO Major was BLAST Paris in May 2023, which zonic's Vitality won. Competitive play you watch today, including everything in this article from 2024 onward, is CS2, though the scene still says "CS:GO coaches" out of habit.
Which coach has won the most Counter-Strike Majors?
Danny "zonic" Sørensen, with six: four with Astralis (2017 Atlanta, 2018 London, 2019 Katowice, 2019 Berlin), one with Vitality (Paris 2023) and one with Team Falcons (Cologne 2026). The next closest active coaches — B1ad3 and XTQZZZ — have two each, which is why zonic's total is considered untouchable for the foreseeable future.
What happened to Twista, the ENCE coach?
Twista coached ENCE to the Katowice 2019 Major final, then was caught in the coach spectator-bug affair: ESIC sanctioned him in 2020 and Valve issued him a permanent ban from Major events. That ended his tier-one coaching career; he moved into commentary and analysis, where he has worked since.
Is kassad still coaching a CS2 team?
Not currently. After stints with Renegades, 100 Thieves, EXTREMUM and finally BLEED Esports — which ended in late 2024 — kassad shifted to streaming and broadcast analysis. He never won a Major as a coach, which is why the updated version of this list no longer carries him in the top three.
Why did Vitality's 2025 season matter so much?
Because of what it sustained: XTQZZZ's Vitality won the BLAST.tv Austin Major and the StarLadder Budapest Major back-to-back, added a Grand Slam, and kept ZywOo at MVP level all year — a twelve-month run many analysts call the best any team has had in Counter-Strike. It's the strongest single-season coaching performance on record, and it earned XTQZZZ HLTV's Coach of the Year 2025.
Related reading
- 10 must-try optimization tricks for PC gaming
- How much memory do you need for gaming?
- The evolution and impact of online gaming
I've watched every Major since Katowice 2019 and called the zonic-vs-B1ad3 debate for years — agree with the order, or want XTQZZZ at number one? Make your case in the comments.
