What you’re watching is Heroic Casper “cadiaN” Møller winning ESL Pro League with a 1v4, 2 hp clutch that instantly found its place in the canon of Counter-Strike’s greatest ever plays.
The P250. The knife. The AWP. The wallbang. The systematic elimination of opponents one by one after a 7 hour marathon in a best-of-five Grand Final. It was an incredible moment.
But the man behind it, cadiaN, didn’t always stand atop the CS mountain. Just over a year ago, cadiaN’s situation was a far cry from what it is now.
In early 2020, a series of unfortunate events put his Counter-Strike aspirations in serious jeopardy.
cadiaN’s Early Years
cadiaN has been playing CS:GO competitively since 2013. And hearing that, you might imagine his resume to be littered with tournament victories, epic moments and successes.
But, in truth, his trophy case until recently was, well… a little empty.
7 years of playing under different organizations with only a couple notable tournament victories to his name.
cadiaN was simply that player — well liked for his warm, articulate nature but for one reason or another, just couldn’t crack the elite top shelf competitive Counter-Strike. And during a tough 2019 that saw him benched by North for almost half a year, doubts crept into his mind about what he could accomplish in CS:GO.
Relief from the purgatory of the bench came in the form of Heroic, after strong performances as a stand-in earned him a permanent place on the roster. And, initially, promising results began to emerge.
Second at DreamHack Open Rotterdam, winning DreamHack Open Atlanta and coming 3rd-4th at Epicenter 2019, losing out to powerhouse Vitality and mousesports teams.
And then, in March of 2020, everything changed. The reigning League of Legends world champions, FunPlus Phoenix, announced their intention to enter CS:GO. And their team would be the current Heroic roster.
Under FPX, cadiaN and co. were set to debut at Flashpoint Season 1, a new league that boasted a one million dollar prize pool. With a promising roster, a heavy-hitter organization from overseas entering the esport and all of it happening in a new league format, it was a time of hope and excitement for stavn, es3tag, snappi, Borup and cadiaN.
The roster travelled from Europe to LA, played their first series in a losing effort to Cloud9, and never played another game for FunPlus Phoenix again.
But before we dive into that, let’s rewind a little, and take a look behind the clip.
Hear the whole story by watching the video above, or heading to Upcomer’s YouTube channel.
