Thank you for all your devotion to Counter-Strike, f0rest.
Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, one of the most iconic Counter-Strike pros of all time, officially retired this Friday, Nov. 8.
The 36-year-old had been competing in Counter-Strike esports for over 20 years, mainly playing for all-Swedish teams. Many fans consider f0rest one of the best CS: 1.6 players ever alongside the likes of Filip "NEO" Kubski and Jeghor "markeloff" Markelov.
Unlike markeloff, however, f0rest also enjoyed a successful career in CS:GO, especially in the first years of the game. Take a trip down memory lane with us and remember f0rest's most notable achievements in Counter-Strike esports now that he retired and has become a Ninjas in Pyjamas ambassador.
f0rest: Total prize money across CS: 1.6 and CS:GO
While it's impossible to determine exactly how much prize money f0rest accrued because his career dates back from a time in which esports wasn't totally professional, sites like Liquipedia and EsportsEarnings give us a good notion.
According to EsportsEarnings, f0rest earned $763,991 from 275 tournaments. Liquipedia, on the other hand, says f0rest earned approximately $739,104 before retiring.
These sites calculate the prize money earned by equally splitting the total between the players and coaches, which may not be accurate. It's also important to notice that f0rest made much more money from salaries, sponsorships, and later on sticker money from CS:GO Majors.
The most memorable moments of f0rest's Counter-Strike career
CS: 1.6
f0rest played his first CS: 1.6 tournaments in 2003 and would land on Embrace, his first big team, in December 2004. From there, f0rest and other legends such as Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström and Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund moved to Begrip in May 2005.
F0rest's life would change forever, though, after he signed with Fnatic in January 2006. He spent some of the best years of his CS: 1.6 career there, helping them lift important tournaments such as CPL Winter in December 2006, IEM Global Challenge Montreal in October 2008, and IEM III Hannover in March 2009.
f0rest left Fnatic in December 2010 as one of the best players to ever represent the organization and joined SK Gaming right away. The Swedish continued to lift big trophies in his new home such as DreamHack Summer in June 2011, and IEM Global Challenge New York and ESWC Paris in October 2011.
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CS:GO
The popularity of CS: 1.6 decreased halfway through the 2000s as part of the playerbase moved on to CS: Source and so did the number of tournaments in the 2010s.
Before CS:GO fully launched in August 2012, f0rest joined Ninjas in Pyjamas alongside Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, Richard "Xizt" Landström, Adam "friberg" Friberg, and Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson. This quintet went on to dominate the competitive scene between 2012 and 2013 with an unforeseen and still unbeaten 87-0 map win streak.
On top of this incredible win streak, f0rest and co. also won the ESL One Cologne Major in August 2014 after losing the first two CS:GO Majors for Fnatic and Virtus.pro.
Then, this iconic NiP lineup slowly disbanded over the years as the organization parted ways with Fifflaren, friberg and Xizt to welcome players from the new generation to play with f0rest and GeT_RiGht.
Although NiP never reached the same heights again, f0rest did win several tournaments after 2014 such as DreamHack Masters Malmö in April 2016 and IEM Oakland twice in November 2016 and November 2017.
His partnership with GeT_RiGhT lasted 3,902 days as they joined forces in Fnatic in 2009 and separated in 2019 when GeT_RiGhT left NiP's lineup. The most iconic Swedish duo would reunite in January 2020 for a little over six months in Dignitas until GeT_RighT left and eventually retired from competition.
f0rest continued playing without GeT_RiGhT in the years that followed, staying in Dignitas until May 2022. From there on, nobody signed f0rest anymore and he only played for Fnatic on a couple of occasions as a stand-in, minus the stream teams he formed to play in qualifiers.
What is f0rest up to after Dignitas?
After parting ways with Dignitas, f0rest transitioned into a full-time content creator and still plays Counter-Strike more than anything.
So, f0rest's retirement was already somewhat expected in the Counter-Strike community, even though many fans still rate him good enough for tier-two teams.
You can often catch him on Twitch or YouTube playing with GeT_RiGhT, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer, and friberg. Now, he'll also potentially attend more CS2 events as part of his obligations as NiP's ambassador.
