As crazy as it may sound, the United States, a country of more than 300 million citizens and host of many prestigious tournaments, only saw two of his home teams in a grand international final once throughout the CS:GO history. A fact that clearly illustrates the issue the NA scene is facing regarding the management and training of its young talents.

Recently, at the ESL One New York, the NA supporters were close to be confronted with the dilemma of rooting for Team Liquid or Cloud9. In the end, Tarik “Tarik” Celik and his teammates lost in semifinals against FaZe, who will end up lifting the trophy. Nowadays, just thinking about seeing 10 American players facing each other in an international grand final seems extravagant. It would be such a tremendous day if it were to happen again, as it would only be the second time in the CS:GO history.

The opportunity missed by Cloud9 brought back into light this day of June 2014. It remains the one and only day that viewers heard “The Star-Spangled Banner” played twice before a top tier grand final.

Let’s get back three years ago, a time when Majors just showed up in the competitive scene. The DreamHack Winter 2013 and the EMS One Katowice were still brand new. Two teams are competing to sit on the NA throne. The first one is the legendary organization “compLexity” who usually gets better results overseas as shown by a semi and quarterfinals reached at the two Majors.

The second one is a new organization called iBUYPOWER. If power could be bought, the organization should have been running errands before travelling to Europe. Two quick eliminations at the DH Winter and EMS One weren’t telling a lot about a team dominating the NA scene. That’s why the magnificent victory against the French of Titan in the ESEA XV final in Dallas will remain in the memories for long.

Here is the big national rivalry. One is rising high the US flag overseas while the other vigorously defends its territory. Early 2014, there wasn’t any King in the United States, only two princes conquering for the throne.

Let’s stick to the theme and wonder what a good Game Of Thrones episode would be without some drama ? The young Braxton “swag” Pierce was the center of attention at the end of March. The rising star surprised everybody when he decided to leave compLexity after one year of contract. His leave was motivated by an offer made by iBUYPOWER, trying to add value to its roster after its failure at the Polish Major. Here is one of the most discussed transfer of the year.

With that change, compLexity’s roster was now composed of "sgares", ”SEMPHIS", "Hiko", "n0thing" & "anger" coming from iBUYPOWER. On the other side, "swag" joined the other charismatic leader in the US, “DaZeD”, the sniper "Skadoodle" and the French Canadian "AZK". A few days after his arrival, "steel" replaced "adreN", retiring from the game. In between lans during the weekend, the online league in 2014 was the ESEA Invite, ancestor of the current ESL ESEA Pro League. Same rules though, with two divisions in the US and in the EU, leading the 4 best teams from each side to face each other in a Hilton Hotel in Dallas, TX. What a program!

After the trade, it's a tough time for compLexity. It’s hard for them to deal with swag’s departure, especially since anger’s adaptation to his new team takes longer than expected. These difficulties last long enough to wonder if they could actually make it to the playoff, which should be pretty easy to go through for a roster of this caliber. For iBUYPOWER, it’s totally different. The defending champions show a great form and get their tickets for Dallas with 13 victories and 3 losses. Their rival will finally qualify for the event due to a favorable round average of 4 rounds only.

Hilton Hotel in Dallas, where the ESEA finals took place

On the other side of the Atlantic, it’s total chaos. The transfer period on the EU scene was intense and some teams have been trapped by one of the ESEA rules, forbidding any roster change during the last two weeks of the regular season. Thus, with the trade involving kennyS and shox between the French teams, Titan and Clan-Mystik are disqualified. The same happens to Dignitas, the Danish organization, when they add aizy in place of cajunb.

If those disqualifications were not enough, olofmeister’s LGB eSports and pronax’ Fnatic cancelled their trip to Dallas, most probably for financial reasons. The Spanish team of MusanbaN1, OverGaming, last on the waiting list and of the European league accepted the invitation. It’s true that, back in the days, tournaments on the US soil were a huge investment for any organization. It’s a big difference with current players from the top 20 organizations who all have their own American Airlines fidelity cards.

Ninjas in Pyjamas, Virtus Pro, Natus Vincere and OverGaming land in Dallas with the firm intention to prove the superiority of Europe. The defending champion, iBUYPOWER, seeks to remain the #1 American team while compLexity tries to bounce back after a very difficult regular season. NetCode (renamed CLG later) and Manajuma, shroud’s team, are clearly the underdogs and will try to do their best.

compLexity : n0thing, Hiko, SEMPHIS, Sgares, anger

The tournament begins with a big surprise. Clearly better on lan than on the internet, compLexity wins against NiP at the first round. It’s the first loss for the Swedes against an American team, proof of the huge performance made by compLexity. Besides that, the results are as expected. The two American underdogs are wrecked by Virtus Pro and Na’Vi, while iBUYPOWER sends with ease the Spanish team in the lower bracket.

The following day, the fights intensify. compLexity confirms its good form with a clean victory against Na’Vi. Regarding iBUYPOWER, viewers will watch a very tight game against Virtus Pro. with a 16-14 win in favor of DaZeD’s team on the third map, Season, which was in the official map pool back then. This game will remain as one of the most undecided game of the event.

The two rivals of the New Continent will face each other in the final of the winner bracket for the first time, beating the odds. Despite their win against NiP and Na’Vi on Dust2 and Inferno a few hours ago, compLexity will lose against iBUYPOWER on those same maps and the latest is now qualified for the grand final.

This American success in Dallas couldn't really hide the real drama that happened in the lower bracket. The Ninjas in Pyjamas are eliminated by Virtus Pro before reaching the top4. This defeat marks the end of the incredible series of 30 consecutive top 4 in lans for NiP. The winner of the last Major in Katowice sends Na’Vi packing and will now face compLexity.

The winner of this game will reach the grand final. If sgares and his teammates lose again on Cache, Inferno and Season are a success. The end of the game is really intense but a bald eagle was definitely watching over this hotel in downtown Dallas and compLexity beat a third European team at this tournament to fight against its best rival: iBUYPOWER. One step away from the title.

iBUYPOWER : Skadoodle, Steel, DaZeD, AZK, swag

Unfortunately, the grand final will only last a little bit longer than one hour. If compLexity was looking impressive against the EU teams, iBUYPOWER has been remarkable throughout the whole competition. Eleven rounds lost in two maps and here is Skadoodle and friends sacred once again champions of the ESEA Invite. First and only winners of a 100% American final at an international tournament.

Those two teams could have risen the US flag high, but the match fixing scandal will catch four of the iBUYPOWER players three months later. The heavy penalty by Valve condemned them to stream in their bedrooms and thank their donators on Twitch, ending what could have been a fabulous American dream.

The end of iBUYPOWER also terminated the one and only rivalry known in the NA scene on CS:GO. A healthy competition that allowed those teams to improve until reaching the grand final of a prestigious tournament at the same time.

"Make America Great Again" as someone said.

Translation by Kudje