Asia is by no means considered a powerhouse region in CS. Never has been, and at present, it still isn’t. But what happens when five of a country’s best assemble on one roster?
You get the greatest Asian team in the history of Counter-Strike.
For the longest time, The MongolZ were always viewed as a “very good” team and consistently one of the best from Asia. “Very good” translated into qualifying for Tier 1 competitions at times, but were regularly knocked out early especially when facing the European juggernauts.
After practically no action for years due to limited opportunities brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and a difficult comeback year in 2022, The MongolZ came back to life in 2023 after picking up the former IHC Esports roster consisting of Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren, Sodbayar “Techno4k” Munkhbold, Baatarkhuu “Bart4k” Batbold, Tuvshintugs “ANNIHILATION” Nyamdorj, and Chinguun “hasteka” Bayarmaa. The latter three all left the team and were replaced by Usukhbayar “910” Banzragch, Ayush “mzinho” Batbold, and Azbayar “Senzu” Munkhbold shortly after to complete their now-legendary lineup.
Prior to 2024, The MongolZ peaked at 19th on the HLTV world ranking for a week and regularly stayed around the 30th-20th place range throughout 2023. The majority of their triumphs came from qualifiers and online events within their region, yet the struggles were very evident once they reached the Tier 1 or even Tier 2 tournaments against Western competition. The organization’s fortunes, however, would change for the better starting in January 2024 as their region-defining year was just beginning.
They first broke the stigma of being automatic early exits by making it past the Opening Stage of CS2’s first-ever Major, PGL Copenhagen, with a 3–2 record even edging out the likes of GamerLegion and Apeks, the BLAST.tv Major Paris 2023’s fairytale teams. Though The MongolZ would not get further than Day 2 at the Elimination Stage, they still looked extremely competitive against juggernauts such as Natus Vincere, the eventual champions in Copenhagen, and Vitality, who were the defending Major winners at the time.
Victories against foreign opponents were not an uncommon sight as The MongolZ piled up tournament appearances early in the year. They took down FURIA for their lone match win at IEM Katowice, reached the playoffs of ESL Pro League Season 19 after a Group B run that famously included a two-map beatdown of G2, and even grabbed their first-ever LAN triumph in a tournament against Major-contending teams at Abu Dhabi’s YaLLa Compass 2024.
The MongolZ’s first-place campaign at YaLLa Compass was the true start of a new era for the organization. bLitz and company had a superb 4–1 record in the Group Stage and only lost to Astralis on the last matchday. The two teams would meet again in the semi-finals, where The MongolZ would get the better of their Danish opponents to earn a place in the grand final. The MongolZ fell behind early on but took control of the series in the second and third maps to clinch their first-ever Tier 1 LAN trophy. To make things sweeter, 910 was also awarded the tournament MVP award by HLTV, making him the first-ever Mongolian player to receive such an honor.
Admittedly, YaLLa Compass is far from the most glamorous or prestigious event, but such things don’t matter for a team like The MongolZ. Coming from a region where Counter-Strike is definitely not the #1 esports title and being the lone beacon of hope against the world, their victory was proof that an Asian team — let alone a full Mongolian roster — had what it took to break the stereotype and put up a fight against everyone else. The world finally started to take notice as what was once a fringe top-30 team was now ranking higher than 15th on both the Valve and HLTV rankings.
In the months following their victory at YaLLa Compass, The MongolZ weren’t able to return to the top spot at any of the events they took part in — but that also didn’t mean they weren’t getting better either. If you take their results at face value, it definitely won’t look too impressive: 9–12th at IEM Cologne, 9–12th at ESL Pro League Season 20, and 7–8th at IEM Rio are all nothing to write home about. But this is The MongolZ. This isn’t your usual European team that simply underperformed. If anything, The MongolZ played better than many thought they even could.
Their IEM Cologne run consisted of a successful Lower Bracket campaign in the Play-in stage and a sensational 2–0 upset against Spirit, one of the best teams in the world with their superstar 17-year-old wonderkid who just so happened to be the best player in the world. At EPL, The MongolZ escaped Group B through a flawless Lower Bracket Run and secured a playoff victory over BIG in the first round of knockouts. In Rio, they were only one series away from reaching the playoffs but ultimately had to settle for 7–8th after getting knocked out by Virtus.pro. Still, the result was better than their Cologne stint and their placement in the same tournament a year prior, which was just more evidence of improvement for the Mongolian squad.
A podium spot at Elisa Masters Espoo and an unbelievable victory at the Thunderpick World Championship, where The MongolZ beat Heroic 3–1 for the $500,000 grand prize, put them in the best possible position ahead of the final event of 2024 — the Perfect World Shanghai Major.
Despite being ranked as one of the ten best teams in the world, the expectations weren’t that high for The MongolZ in Shanghai. Some even considered them to be the same early exits they once were and placed them in the 0–3 spot for the Major Pick’Em challenge. The predictions could not have been further off from reality, however, as The MongolZ put up arguably the strongest Opening Stage performance of all time en route to a dominant 3–0 standing and direct qualification for the Elimination Stage. Four of the five highest-rated players of the first set of matches were from The MongolZ, with the team as a whole averaging a whopping 1.50 rating in four maps with only 15 rounds lost.
But that was the Opening Stage. Surely, they won’t be able to do the same thing against the true Major contenders, right? Wrong.
The MongolZ continued their Cinderella run with yet another 3–0 outing, this time in the Elimination Stage. The teams they took down were no pushovers either: G2, MOUZ, and Heroic all fell to the most in-form team in the world at that time. After five maps in the Elimination Stage, The MongolZ had achieved a feat once deemed impossible: reach the playoffs at a CS Major. They were the first Asian team in history to do so, and a combined 6–0 record through both the Opening and Elimination rounds further added to the legacy of their campaign.
By the time the Playoff Stage came around everyone thought it was inevitable for The MongolZ to win it all. There was really no denying that it could have happened, especially given how they were playing. But sometimes, you just don’t win it all. That’s esports. The fairytale may have ended in rather heartbreaking fashion, but the final result was never what people were there to cheer for. The MongolZ ultimately bowed out in the quarter-finals of the Major, but they were able to do so with their heads held high knowing that history had just been rewritten. Their heroics were recognized back home with a graffiti that can be found in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, which features all five players on the history-making lineup.
Who else can say that they have the first Mongolian HLTV MVP.? Or that they are the first Asian team in history to reach the Playoffs of a Major? Or even have a real-life graffiti commemorating their success?
Only The MongolZ. The greatest Asian Counter-Strike team of all time.
