The biggest German Twitch streamer for Counter-Strike has founded his own team, but just before reaching the big goal, everything is over.
Who is it about? The German Twitch streamer Mark Zimmermann, also known as “ohnePixel”, is a well-known face in the Counter-Strike community. He regularly streams to over 20,000 viewers in English and is one of the largest streamers of Valve’s tactical shooter.
ohnePixel is not known for outstanding gameplay, even though he actively plays quite a lot of Counter-Strike in his streams. The streamer is primarily known as a skin collector and expert. For example, he opened cases in a stream for nearly 120,000 €.
In August 2024, ohnePixel announced that the streamer is founding his own team in Counter-Strike 2, with which he wants to participate in the “Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024”. This is an international e-sports tournament in CS2, where the 24 best teams in the world compete. The winner will receive a prize pool of 500,000 US dollars.
Failed in the Qualification
How did it go for the team? Rather poorly. To participate in the Shanghai Major, the team must successfully qualify for the big tournament. There is a regional qualification tournament where the individual teams have to prove themselves. This determines which teams from a region will compete in the Major.
ohnePixel’s team played the qualification in the Middle East and faced teams like Al-Ittihad, Bravado Gaming, and NOM Esports with players from Algeria, South Africa, and Israel. There, the streamer’s team was able to assert itself successfully and ultimately secured first place.
However, the team then had to prove itself in the Asia-Pacific “Regional Major Ranking”. They managed to win the first game with a comeback but then suffered a 2:1 defeat against the team “The MongolZ” in the second game, which qualified for the Major.
The streamer’s team still had a chance to reach qualification but had to win the next 2 games. However, they suffered another defeat in the next game, and the dream was over. Qualification was no longer possible, and shortly afterward, 3 players announced their departure from the failed team.
Controversy Overshadows Team’s Successes
How was the streamer’s experiment perceived? Many viewers and fans of ohnePixel watched the qualification matches with excitement and possibly cheered for their favorite streamer.
However, there was also much criticism from the community regarding the path that ohnePixel took with his team: They tried to qualify for the Major through the Asia-Pacific (APAC) qualification – even though the team initially consisted of 3, and later even 4 Europeans.
A part of the community did not appreciate this because, if successful, it would take a spot for participation in the Major away from the players and teams that actually come from the region. Although ohnePixel likely did not violate any regulations, there was still criticism for this.
The Asia-Pacific region is considered relatively weak and less competitive in Counter-Strike. In Europe, ohnePixel’s team could have faced NaVi, G2, Faze, Astralis, Team Vitality, or Heroic. For example, the tournament “IEM Rio 2024”, held in October, was also decided in the finals between European teams. However, one of the winners did not feel like celebrating: A professional wins an important tournament in CS2, but instead of celebrating, he leaves the stage – Here’s what happened
