ApEX ties dupreeh for most Counter-Strike trophies won

Counter-Strike

May 26, 2025

Leonardo Biazzi

Dan “apEX” Madesclaire has won his 32nd notable Counter-Strike tournament at IEM Dallas 2025 on Sunday, May 26th. He is now tied with the legendary Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen for the No. 1 spot.

For a tournament to be classified as notable, some of the best CS teams in the world must have attended it. ApEX’s accolades include winning some of the biggest Counter-Strike tournaments, including the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 and BLAST.tv Paris 2023 Majors, IEM Cologne 2024, IEM Katowice 2025, and the BLAST Premier World Final 2023.

It’s an outstanding achievement for apEX to tie with dupreeh for most notable tournaments won, given that the latter has won five CS:GO Majors during his career. This milestone also highlights how good of a leader apEX has become in the final years of his career. The French veteran just guided Vitality to win their sixth trophy in a row, whilst setting the second-highest win streak on LAN (30).

Additionally, this means that if Vitality win the BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025 next month, not only will they cement their era once and for all, but apEX will surpass dupreeh in most notable Counter-Strike events won.

Does this turn apEX into the best Counter-Strike IGL ever?

Credit: © ESL

While there are enough facts to make a case for apEX, the Frenchman himself doesn’t see himself as the best IGL ever.

While apEX led Vitality to win 16 trophies since taking over the reins in 2020, Finn “karrigan” Andersen has led multiple interactions of FaZe Clan to the top, and Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander famously led Astralis to win four CS:GO Majors between 2017 and 2019. For apEX, karrigan is the best IGL ever.

“karrigan has been doing this job forever and I won’t play until I’m 50,” apEX said in an interview to HLTV in April.

“I won’t be able to match his longevity. Being considered one of the best is something I really want.” Maybe being top two or three is possible, but I really consider karrigan the best. Maybe if I win a few more Majors we can talk about it, but for now I think it’s pretty tough.”

However, if Vitality win the CS2 Austin Major, there’s no doubt more fans will start considering apEX the best IGL ever.

Especially because many consider that Vitality is shaping the CS2 meta just like Astralis did in their prime between 2018 and 2019. GamerLegion’s coach Ashley “ashhh” Battye was one of the people to bring this up recently.

“The way Vitality have evolved their game since ropz joined is just such an obvious change when you look into their playstyle,” ashhh wrote on X after they won IEM Dallas 2025.

“It feels now like they’re shaping the meta on almost every single map, and then they just have this ability to win force buys the way no other team is capable of doing it.”

This puts a target on Vitality’s head as every team will try to end their win streak at the BLAST.tv Austin Major.

Featured image credit: ESL