Finn “karrigan” Andersen has spent the better part of two decades proving that competitive Counter-Strike isn’t a young person’s game. On June 22, he made that argument bulletproof, lifting the trophy at the IEM Cologne Major 2026 and becoming just the fifth player in history to win a Major in both CS:GO and CS2.

He did it at 36 years old, making him the oldest Major champion the game has ever seen.

A clean sweep in Cologne

Team Falcons didn’t just win the IEM Cologne Major. They made it look easy. The grand final against FURIA ended 3-0, a scoreline that left little room for debate about who the best team in the world was that weekend.

The victory earned Falcons $500,000 and, more importantly, the organization’s first-ever Major title. For a team that karrigan had joined only roughly 61 days before the tournament, the result was nothing short of remarkable.

The IEM Cologne Major ran from June 21 to June 22.

From Antwerp to Cologne: a four-year gap between trophies

Karrigan’s first Major title came at the PGL Major Antwerp on May 22, 2022. That tournament was the crowning achievement of a FaZe Clan roster that had been built around karrigan’s in-game leadership for years.

Four years later, karrigan has done it again, this time with a completely different organization and in a completely different game. Valve released CS2 in 2023, effectively replacing CS:GO and forcing every professional player to adapt to new mechanics, physics, and meta-game strategies. The gap between his two Major victories, spanning from CS:GO to CS2, puts him in a category that only four other players can claim.

What makes this club so exclusive

When Valve launched CS2, it wasn’t a simple update or patch. It was a ground-up rebuild on a new engine, with different movement, different smoke grenades, different timing on virtually everything that professional players had spent years mastering.

The fact that only five players have managed to win Majors in both versions speaks to how difficult that transition has been.

What this means for competitive Counter-Strike

For Team Falcons, the implications are immediate and significant. The organization now has a Major title on its resume. Winning a Major is the single most important credential in competitive CS, and Falcons went from zero to one in karrigan’s first couple of months with the team.

A player who won his first Major at 32, departed his team, joined a new organization, and won again at 36 in a different game — that’s not just a good esports story. That’s a good sports story, period.