apEX became the all-time record holder for most Major appearances in Counter-Strike history

Dan "apEX" Madesclaire, Team Vitality's in-game leader, has reached a new milestone on the professional Counter-Strike stage. He is about to participate in the IEM Cologne Major 2026 and, as a result, will have played in 22 different world championships over his career so far.

In turn, this gives apEX a leading position in this parameter. He overtakes karrigan, the captain of FaZe Clan, who also holds an impressive stat. The Danish player participated in a total of 21 Majors, but he will not attend the next event in Cologne and thus leave room at the top of this list for the French leader.

Overall, Madesclaire's accomplishment underlines his exceptional ability to perform consistently and maintain his high level. In general, over the years of playing, apEX has managed to turn into the best captain under which Vitality achieved its major successes. His name is now associated with a new achievement that few professional players can achieve in their lifetime.

Interestingly enough, another participant of this major tournament is GamerLegion team’s captain Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski. The Polish player competed in DreamHack Winter 2013 - the first CS:GO Major of all time. In such a way, Snax’s participation becomes even more significant, since he symbolically connects both starting and ending points of Major era.

FaZe to Miss IEM Cologne Major – One of the Biggest Upsets in CS2

As to the major itself, it will be held in Germany on June 2-21 in the form of a LAN tournament and will have prize money worth $1.25 million. Besides NAVI, Team Spirit, and MOUZ teams mentioned earlier, there will be many other teams participating in the tournament. Team Vitality team will come to the event as the current world champions and will strive not only to defend their title, but to celebrate another landmark achievement of the team’s captain as well.