Strife Esports win Nerd Street’s CS:GO Winter Championship at Fragadelphia 16

Fragadelphia 16 took place over the weekend concluding Nerd Street’s 2022 Winter Championship for Counter: Strike: Global Offensive. Strife Esports came out on top of 24 teams competing at The Block in Philadelphia to be crowned both Frag and Winter champs.

Strife qualified for Frag 16 by finishing third in Nerd Street’s CS:GO Winter Champs points leaderboard, behind just InControl Nation and Carpe Diem. They also were the fourth-highest ranked team at the event, according to HLTV’s CS:GO global rankings. At No. 65 in the world, they were only behind Gaimin Gladiators (No. 50), Carpe Diem (No. 53) and Team oNe (No. 63).

Strife cracked the top 50 after winning Frag 16, moving all the way up to No. 49 in HLTV’s rankings. They also moved all the way up to No. 28 in ESL’s global rankings.

With a high seed at Frag 16, they were able to bypass the first round of group play and started play in Stage 2 of the tournament as the top seed in Group C. They went 2-0 with a +33 round differential to move on to the playoffs. In the quarterfinals they beat Carpe Diem 2-1, then they beat Brazilian squad Team oNe 2-1 in the semifinals.

In the grand final they beat Apeks Rebels, a Norwegian roster that was the top team coming out of the Winter Champs Last Chance Qualifier and that had been undefeated in group play and the playoffs heading into the final. In fact, from the start of the LCQ through the semifinals, Apeks Rebels amassed a 10-0 record and +149 round differential.

Through the first half of the first map of the final, it looked like Apeks Rebels would continue their unbeaten streak as they were up 8-7. However, Strife put together a dominant defensive second half in which they won nine out of 10 rounds to win Mirage 16-9. On the second map Inferno, Strife once again showed their strength on defense to lead at the half 10-5, and they did just enough on offense in the second half to win 16-12.

Strife’s Paul “aris” Wilson led everybody with 24 kills and a +9 K/D differential in the final and had an average damage per round (ADR) of 89.5. Aris and Danny "cxzi" Strzelczyk began playing with Strife in January. They joined the trio of Keller "SLIGHT" Nilan, David "J0LZ" Jolin and Bobby "stamina" Eitrem, who had been with Strife since August after the org signed the former Recon 5 roster.

Prior to winning Frag 16, Strife’s biggest win had been winning the Frag 16: Denver LAN in December.

Lead photo credit: Strife Esports