30 Under 30 is an annual list published by the prestigious Forbes magazine to honor young faces across various fields who have a positive impact in their industries. This list covers many areas such as culture – arts, finance, science, technology,… and sports – esports is also among them.
In previous years’ lists, we have seen names like Johan “n0tail” Sundstein (player/founder of OG, two-time TI champion), Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (one of the greatest players in League of Legends history), Jacky “Stewie2k” Yip (one of the most famous and successful CS:GO players in North America), and Tyler “ninja” Blevins (one of the most famous streamers today),…
Last night, Forbes magazine continued to announce the 30 Under 30 list for 2019 for the European region, and it’s no surprise that CS:GO contributed two names: Nicolai “device” Reedtz, the main AWP-er of Astralis, and Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson, a player currently competing for FaZe Clan. Device is one of the greatest players of all time, having been named MVP at LAN events 15 times, and he and his teammates at Astralis dominated the CS:GO scene throughout 2018 and 2019. In 2019, they won both Majors, the most prestigious tournaments of the year, and the StarLadder Berlin Major was their fourth Major title, three of which were consecutive. At this tournament, device was also honored as MVP.
The other CS:GO representative in this list is Olofmeister. He is one of the most famous players in CS:GO history. He, along with his teammates at Fnatic, won three consecutive Majors, making them the first team to achieve this feat. At FaZe Clan, he has become one of the most successful players in CS:GO history with 25 titles throughout his career, including the BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2019 championship last November.
Besides Olof and Device, esports also contributed two other representatives to this list, both currently playing for G2 Esports: Niclas ‘Pengu’ Mouritzen in Rainbow Six Siege and League of Legends jungler star Marcin ‘Jankos’ Jankowski, one of the best junglers at the moment.
It is hoped that with the development of esports in particular and the gaming industry in general, society’s prejudices against gamers will gradually be erased and their contributions to the community will be recognized appropriately.