With over 12 years of competition the professional Counter-Strike landscape, from versions 1.0 through to 1.6, was littered with tournaments offering prize money and great players eager to snap up as much as they could during their peaks. This list, exhaustively researched, presents the top 100 players in CS history, in terms of prize money won by the teams they played in.
Note: This list does not include prize money won in Condition Zero, Source or Global Offensive.

The top 10

1. $858,872 - Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg (Sweden)
As the workhorse mainstay star of fnatic's line-ups from 2006-2010 it's no surprise to find f0rest topping this list. One of the most skilled players in the history of the game, it was f0rest's aim and killing ability with powered those incredibly consistent fnatic teams through to a seemingly neverending number of top three finishes. Prior to fnatic he had won a nice payday breaking out with Begrip and following fnatic he continued his winning ways, leading SK Gaming to a big year in 2011. Wherever f0rest went titles and prize money followed so after. It's with good reason that nobody is even within $50,000 of him on this list.
2. $798,506 - Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon (Sweden)
As the leader of the most consistent teams in history cArn racked up prize money like no leader before him. His teams may not have won many of the majors, but in all forms of tournament they seemed destined to reach a top four finish, almost regardless of form. In the medium size tournaments, of which the majority of the year's calender was made up, that consistency, putting themselves in position to win again and again, meant it was seemingly inevitable for cArn and company to win titles and big prize cheques.
3. $777,772 - Harley 'dsn' Orvall (Sweden)
As the third member of the legendary fnatic core of 2006-2010 dsn rounds out the top three big earners. dsn ran the gamut over his career, going from the third star to second star and right down to a role player, in the latter years. He went from being a premiere AWPer to someone backing up bigger names. In the NBA they say if you can shoot and rebound then you'll always have a professional career, well in Counter-Strike if you can team-play and back up stars then you'll always have a professional career.
4. $631,251 - Filip 'NEO' Kubski (Poland)
Along with f0rest, NEO tops most lists of the best players of all time, as far as skill and raw ability go. That he got as high as fourth on this list, coming from a country with no history of winning outside of his own teams and having suffered numerous organisational problems over the years, is an accomplishment of major note in itself. NEO and his team-mates made their names winning major titles, something they were able to do more than any other team or group of players in history. NEO was the primary driving force behind those victories, a player truly capable of changing the outcome of any major game.
5. $626,251 - Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas (Poland)
Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen and Wayne Gretzky had Mark Messier. Even the greatest player can't do it alone, he typically needs a great second star. In the early years the Polish teams often seemed like NEO and four support players, sharing the rest of the load amongst themselves and working around their shining light. In the latter years, after giving up the reigns of leading the team, TaZ showed us that he was one of the best individual players in the world himself. As NEO's impact waned a little, with more players reaching the height of the skill cap, TaZ became a consistent performer for his team, helping them to more titles.
6. $609,106 - Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström (Sweden)
RobbaN's career will always be somewhat tainted by the number of major finals he lost, but viewed from a wider perspective the Swede had an incredible run over the span of more than half a decade. Considering the sheer number of different teams he found success with, the changing of roles from middle man through to in-game-leader and counting the revolving door of players in his line-ups, where other names above him had relatively stable line-ups for so long, RobbaN has accomplished a lot in CS.
Heartbreak can even be forgotten for a moment as one remembers the one moment everythihng did come together, as his SK team, with f0rest and GeT_RiGhT, stopped Na`Vi's streak of major titles to win ESWC in 2011.
7. $597,092 - Mariusz 'Loord'" Cybulski (Poland)
Forum fans so often asked for his head, but Loord showed the world that a role player could have a significant impact on games without being as skilled as the stars. Loord is the example I've always used of the powerful effect of pressure on pro players, as I say: when it's the big round of the big game in the big tournament, f0rest's aim becomes as good as Loord's. This was literally the case in some of the major tournaments Loord's team's won, as he famously outdueled godlike Swedish aimers in 1v1 situations to win close out major titles for his team.
8. $593,528 - Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński (Poland)
Another of the legendary 'golden five' who found himself facing harsh fan cricisim, yet another player who proved integral to securing the team's major titles. kuben was once simply a role player, but as CS became more of a tactical game he took on the mantle of in-game leader and applied himself to reading the opponents. His teams will never be remembered for complicated tactics, so his credit as an in-game leader has never been great, but his bank balance can show that he did his job when it was needed.
9. $531,921 - Danny 'zonic' Sørensen (Denmark)
zonic is the thread that goes back in time through the top teams of Denmark from 2005 to the end of CS 1.6. When he was the primary star his teams still lacked the necessary firepower to reach the top, but once he could move into a less frag-heavy role he shined. It certainly helped matters that the Dane stands out as one of the all-time great clutch players, with countless victims who can attest to his talents under pressure.
10. $508,571 - Dennis 'walle' Wallenberg (Sweden)
In a worse position than RobbaN, walle lost every major final he ever played in. The fact he reached so many though should be an indicator of the impact he had on Swedish CS. For two thirds of the history of CS walle and his teams were fighting for titles, major or medium sized. His style of play can be brought under fire in the sense that he was once one of the great individual stars, but subjugated his own talents to become an in-game leader. As an in-game leader he found himself outdueled by the truly great players in that role, but his consistency still ensured his teams won titles and reached deep positions in big tournaments.

The top 100

  • 01. $858,872 - Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg (Sweden)
  • 02. $798,506 - Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon (Sweden)
  • 03. $777,772 - Harley 'dsn' Orvall (Sweden)
  • 04. $631,251 - Filip 'NEO' Kubski (Poland)
  • 05. $626,251 - Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas (Poland)
  • 06. $609,106 - Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström (Sweden)
  • 07. $597,092 - Mariusz 'Loord' Cybulski (Poland)
  • 08. $593,528 - Jakub 'kuben' Gurczyński (Poland)
  • 09. $531,921 - Danny 'zonic' Sørensen (Denmark)
  • 10. $508,571 - Dennis 'walle' Wallenberg (Sweden)
  • 11. $500,826 - Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev (Ukraine)
  • 12. $489,420 - Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko (Ukraine)
  • 13. $489,118 - Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund (Sweden)
  • 14. $464,632 - Alexander 'ave' Holdt (Denmark)
  • 15. $459,128 - Emil 'HeatoN' Christensen (Sweden)
  • 16. $447,773 - Sergey 'starix' Ischuk (Ukraine)
  • 17. $435,980 - Navid 'Kapio' Javadi (Germany)
  • 18. $418,195 - Łukasz 'LUq' Wnęk (Poland)
  • 19. $410,350 - Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov (Ukraine)
  • 20. $403,113 - Tyler 'Storm' Wood (United States of America)
  • 21. $401,338 - Danny 'fRoD' Montaner (United States of America)
  • 22. $397,362 - Arseniy 'ceh9' Trynozhenko (Ukraine)
  • 23. $392,059 - Kristoffer 'Tentpole' Nordlund (Sweden)
  • 24. $391,730 - Oscar 'Archi' Torgersen (Sweden)
  • 25. $389,382 - Manuel 'TIXO' Makohl (Germany)
  • 26. $388,937 - Franz 'gore' Burghardt (Austria)
  • 27. $387,264 - Tommy 'Potti' Ingemarsson (Sweden)
  • 28. $365,032 - Oskar 'ins' Holm (Sweden)
  • 29. $362,096 - Christoffer 'Sunde' Sunde (Denmark)
  • 30. $354,720 - Michael 'ahl' Korduner (Sweden)
  • 31. $347,834 - Jonas 'whimp' Svendsen (Denmark)
  • 32. $347,041 - Jimmy 'allen' Allén (Sweden)
  • 33. $343,273 - Rasmus 'Gux' Ståhl (Sweden)
  • 34. $340,066 - Ola 'elemeNt' Moum (Norway)
  • 35. $335,830 - Muhamed 'mJe' Eid (Denmark)
  • 36. $333,558 - Roman 'Roman R.' Reinhard (Germany)
  • 37. $333,529 - Abdisamad 'SpawN' Mohamed (Sweden)
  • 38. $331,276 - Christer 'fisker' Eriksson (Sweden)
  • 39. $317,239 - Fatih 'gob b' Dayik (Turkey)
  • 40. $314,084 - Roman 'roman' Ausserdorfer (Germany)
  • 41. $310,450 - Mikey 'method' So (United States of America)
  • 42. $304,253 - Matt 'Warden' Dickens (United States of America)
  • 43. $301,747 - Christian "Blizzard" Chmiel (Germany)
  • 44. $298,691 - Tomi 'lurppis' Kovanen (Finland)
  • 45. $291,000 - Johan 'face' Klasson (Sweden)
  • 46. $287,279 - Jørgen 'XeqtR' Johannessen (Norway)
  • 47. $286,043 - Griffin 'shaGuar' Benger (Canada)
  • 48. $280,025 - Ronald 'Rambo' Kim (United States of America)
  • 49. $275,771 - Justin 'sunman' Summy (United States of America)
  • 50. $273,817 - Marcus 'zet' Sundström (Sweden)
  • 51. $270,694 - Jan 'mooN' Stolle (Germany)
  • 52. $262,673 - Alexey 'LeX' Kolesnikov (Russia)
  • 53. $249,971 - Corey 'tr1p' Dodd (United States of America)
  • 54. $243,958 - Bian 'alex' Zheng Wei (China)
  • 55. $242,368 - Sun-Ho 'termi' Pyun (South Korea)
  • 56. $236,968 - Kun-chul 'solo' Kang (South Korea)
  • 57. $228,375 - David 'CHEF-KOCH' Nagel (Germany)
  • 58. $218,557 - Jordan 'n0thing' Gilbert (United States of America)
  • 59. $215,600 - Roman 'ROMJkE' Makarov (Russia)
  • 60. $213,721 - Jarosław 'pasha' Jarząbkowski (Poland)
  • 61. $211,546 - Martin Alexander 'trace' Bang Heldt (Denmark)
  • 62. $208,718 - Sung Jae 'bail' Lee (South Korea)
  • 63. $205,762 - Dmitri 'hooch' Bogdanov (Russia)
  • 64. $202,139 - Timm 'ArcadioN' Henriksen (Denmark)
  • 65. $201,324 - Björn 'threat' Pers (Sweden)
  • 66. $200,382 - Wu 'sakula' Runbo (China)
  • 67. $194,825 - Dave 'moto' Geffon (United States of America)
  • 68. $194,074 - Michael 'neo' Mitrega (Germany)
  • 69. $193,482 - Niko 'naSu' Kovanen (Finland)
  • 70. $190,525 - Salvatore 'Volcano' Garozzo (United States of America)
  • 71. $186,051 - Yang 'Jungle' Ke Fei (China)
  • 72. $179,548 - Lincoln 'fnx' Lau (Brazil)
  • 73. $176,315 - Raphael 'cogu' Camargo (Brazil)
  • 74. $173,920 - Renato 'nak' Nakano (Brazil)
  • 75. $170,087 - Johan 'vesslan' Ryman (Sweden)
  • 76. $167,971 - Johan 'F_1N' Kochugov (Russia)
  • 77. $163,696 - Ma 'tK' Xing ju (China)
  • 78. $163,517 - Michael 'Friis' Jørgensen (Denmark)
  • 79. $159,675 - Viktor 'Sally' Filimonchenko (Russia)
  • 80. $158,562 - Marcus 'Delpan' Larsson (Sweden)
  • 81. $156,360 - Lars 'Naikon' Olaisen (Norway)
  • 82. $155,370 - Manuel 'approx' Zeitz (Germany)
  • 83. $151,516 - Frej 'kHRYSTAL' Sjöström (Sweden)
  • 84. $149,542 - Pu 'Mikk' Jiang (China)
  • 85. $148,884 - Boris 'Snoop' Podvalshchikov (Russia)
  • 86. $148,502 - Ediz 'goodfornothing' Basol (United States of America)
  • 87. $147,350 - Kyle 'Ksharp' Miller (United States of America)
  • 88. $146,153 - Brian 'hpx' Christensen (Denmark)
  • 89. $143,971 - Oliver 'minet' Ari Minet (Denmark)
  • 90. $140,252 - Bruno 'bit' Lima (Brazil)
  • 91. $138,393 - Mattias 'sNajdan' Andersen (Sweden)
  • 92. $137,462 - Richard 'Xizt' Landström (Sweden)
  • 93. $131,947 - Aleksey 'HEL1' Novikov (Russia)
  • 94. $130,033 - Juuso 'contE' Sajakoski (Finland)
  • 95. $129,952 - Bruno 'bruno' Ono (Brazil)
  • 96. $129,924 - Park 'hee' Jin Hee (South Korea)
  • 97. $128,951 - Benjamin 'paN' von Mulert (Germany)
  • 98. $128,097 - Max 'ruuit' Oskari Aspe (Finland)
  • 99. $126,758 - Jonas 'Johnny R.' Bollack (Germany)
  • 100. $126,171 - Johan 'Hyb' Carlund (Sweden)