karrigan has officially ended the GOAT IGL debate

If there were any lingering doubts in anyone’s mind, karrigan has settled the GOAT IGL debate once and for all.

Well, at least until his son is old enough to play or something.

karrigan spent a lot of his career as something of a nearly-man. He built great teams, time and time again, and would get the best out of players, good, great, bad and indifferent, and yet seemed to be too oft a bridesmaid and too infrequently a bride.

It must have been painful to leave Astralis and see fellow GOAT contender, gla1ve, take over and reap the rewards from all of his years of building, but gla1ve had something karrigan didn’t have then. gla1ve was a killer on stage; both figuratively and literally. The guy was one of the best riflers in the world at that point.

No matter how hard karrigan punched, the world punched back harder. The bloke went from winning trophies and, yes, losing finals with FaZe straight to the depths of Team EnVy at one point, following that agonising Major loss. It was as if the world was playing a cruel joke on the poor guy. He didn’t spend long there before joining mousesports, which turned out to be the spell which truly changed karrigan’s career.

Winning Pro League with MOUZ - twice - was enough for FaZe to recognise the error of their ways, and bring him back. This time, without the superteam and with some freedom to build what he wanted. At this time, gla1ve was pretty unanimously considered the best of all time, even if he’d only had one great team. karrigan had a shout, but it was a bit of a rogue one.

Some of us still argued for FalleN, but we’re fanboys.

When karrigan finally got his Major win, and his Grand Slam on FaZe, those claims became much louder. He had his Major, finally. He’d built the Astralis team that gla1ve had won with, won with mousesports, led that crazy FaZe team to some trophies (albeit maybe not as many as they should have had), and then had won everything with the new FaZe. He’d never had a team as good as Astralis, but he’d had at least two or three close to them.

Even when FaZe were awful, absolutely unthinkably awful, he still dragged them kicking and screaming to a Major final. With broky and jcobbb playing like that.

That is karrigan’s greatest strength. gla1ve was great in specific circumstances. apEX has been amazing for Vitality with ZywOo his whole IGLing career. FalleN had a ten year gap between good teams.

karrigan is a Rumpelstiltskin leader. You give him straw, he makes gold.

He’s built empires from scratch. He’s built great team after great team after great team. He’s won with superteams, he’s won with underdogs, he’s won with a team who never seemed to get over the line. He’s even won with broky.

Cheap shot. broky was great then.

You give karrigan three fenceposts and ropz and he’ll win you a trophy. Give him four Counter-Strike players and he’ll win you a Grand Slam. The guy just gets the best out of everyone he plays with. Nearly everyone he works with is a better player for it.

He wins events while being the worst fragger in tier one. He just won a Major as the second lowest rated player in it, for crying out loud.

His time on Falcons will likely be shorter than most stints outside of EnVy in his career. His retirement, surely, is nearing. Hell, if it was up to us, he’d retire as a champion, the way he should be remembered.. He’d have done it on stage.

But then we’ve sad that twice already, and the dog in him just keeps coming back for more and continuing to make Major finals. karrigan wants to retire on top, but every time he wins it reminds him that he’s still the best at this. It’s a dilemma.

This Major was the one that truly cemented the idea that he is the best leader ever to touch the game. He’s so weak a fragger right now that he’s having to call 4v5 and still winning. It’s like if Phil Jackson was coaching a team with himself at the point, or Sir Alex winning a Premier League with himself in midfield. It’s unthinkable, impossible, unprecedented.

But we’ve learnt to never doubt karrigan.

The undisputed.