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CS2 esports has been very interesting in 2023, with many ups and downs. The transition from CS:GO to CS2 midway into the season shook things up, with certain teams having a harder time adapting to the new game and the first-to-13 format. However, there were a couple of teams that managed to have consistently great performances throughout multiple tournaments in 2023
This article will list the five best teams of the 2023 Counter-Strike esports year and some of the biggest reasons they stood out from the rest of the competition.
Note: This article takes the entire year into consideration, which includes CS:GO tournaments as well.
Team Vitality, FaZe Clan, and other CS2 teams that stood out in 2023
1) Team Vitality
- Notable achievements: Blast.tv Paris Major, IEM Rio, Blast Premier Fall Finals, Blast Premier World Finals, and Gamers8 2023
Team Vitality was the undisputed best team of 2023 in both CS:GO and CS2. The team went through various roster iterations but continued to remain at the top of its game, highlighting the players' strong chemistry and adaptability. Superstar AWPer Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut was dominant and the best player in the year by a mile.
The rest of the team, including players such as Lotan "Spinx" Giladi and now Team Falcons player Emil "Magisk" Reif, also played significant roles in the team's success in CS:GO. The additions of Shahar "flameZ" Shushan and William "mezii" Merriman helped the team continue its dominance in CS2 by capping off the year with back-to-back Blast tournament victories.
2) FaZe Clan
- Notable achievements: IEM Sydney, ESL Pro League Season 17, Thunderpick World Championship, and CS Asia Championships 2023
FaZe Clan in 2023 has definitely not lived up to the form it had in the previous year. In 2022, FaZe was the best team, and it won the PGL Antwerp Major along with four other trophies and numerous deep runs in big events. The team could not consistently produce the same results this year, as mentioned by IGL Finn "karrigan" Andersen in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda.
The dawn of CS2 saw a sudden resurgence within the team as it went on a massive win streak, with title lifts such as IEM Sydney and Thunderpick World Championship being highlights. FaZe Clan has produced consistent results throughout the year and is definitely worthy of being called one of the best teams in the world right now.
3) G2 Esports
- Notable achievements: IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne
G2 Esports was highly consistent throughout 2023, but the team looked absolutely unstoppable during its peak. G2 started off the year in dominant fashion with a victory in Katowice but slowly started to peter off, with a failure at the Paris major being the biggest sign of the team's various flaws with Nemanja "huNter-" Kovač providing further insights into the team's struggle in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda.
The roster managed to bounce back in IEM Cologne, but the team was constantly plagued with ups and downs heading into CS2. The removal of Justin "jks" Savage and the return of Nemanja "nexa" Isaković did not help the team bring great results to round out the year. Despite all these flaws, G2 Esports was definitely one of the best rosters in 2023 at its peak.
4) MOUZ
- Notable achievements: ESL Pro League Season 18
MOUZ had a very promising year despite the lack of big event victories. The first half of the year saw the team struggling in the middle of the pack. With the addition of Kamil "siuhy" Szkaradek after the Paris Major, the roster was completely revitalized, with AWPer Ádám "torzsi" Torzsás seeing a notable rise in performance.
This was most prominent during the team's incredible run at the ESL Pro League Season 18. The Hungarian AWPer was named the MVP of the event, marking MOUZ's first big event victory in quite a while. Despite franchise player frozen leaving the roster for FaZe, MOUZ managed to remain competitive in CS2 and has had an extremely good year relative to expectations.
5) ENCE
- Notable achievements: IEM Dallas
ENCE has been a mainstay in the tier-one scene ever since the team's return to being a top 10 roster back in 2022. While the European roster did not have the strongest start to 2023, the team started to really heat up with success in IEM Dallas, where AWPer Alvaro "SunPayus" Garcia and rookie Guy "NertZ" Iluz had career-defining performances.
The roster continued this momentum with plenty of deep runs in multiple big events. ENCE did not have the best start in CS2, and this got worse after IGL Marco "snappi" Pfeiffer left for Team Falcons. This led to the Lukas "gla1ve" Rossander squad having middling performances in the final big events of CS2. Despite the underwhelming finish to the year, it is undeniable that ENCE was a world-class team in 2023.
