ptkovsky
One of the top CS: GO teams, known as Lyngby Vikings from Denmark, recently announced their new star coach — Martin Bang Heldt, who is better known in the Counter-Strike community as trace.
The Danish CS player is one of the most famous and recognized personalities on the competitive FPS’ scene. The 31-year-old started his professional career in 2007, when he played for notable CS 1.6 squads, such as Spirit of Amiga, and later was part of mTw, SK Gaming, Xapso, and Fnatic.
Heldt was nominated third and fourth best player in the world, during his prime time as a player, in 2010 and 2011, respectively. trace’s mTw roster consisted of the Counter-Strike legends, such as the current Astralis coach, Danny “zonic” Sorensen, and also Alexander “ave” Holdt, who was coaching team North until 2019.
Legacy
trace’s biggest achievement as a player was when he competed with his Swedish-Danish fnatic roster at the GameGune LAN event, the GameGune 2012 Spanish offline tournament. Fnatic team managed to win the European CS tournament, by beating the fully Ukrainian roster of the CIS giants Na’Vi with the 2:1 score in the finals, winning $15,000 prize money for their first place finish at the event.
One of the next successful LAN events for the United Kingdom‘s multigaming esports organization was held in Portugal, titled Pro Gamer Series Exponor 2012, where the final match went the same way – 2:1 score against Na’Vi and first place finish. The prize was even less than $12,000.
Trace’s mTw team famously lost to their rivals – Natus Vincere, 1:2 in the finals of the World Cyber Games 2010 event, one of the major CS 1.6 world championship LAN events, which was held in Los Angeles, United States.
mTw finished second, picking up $10,000. Na’Vi won the WCG 2010 event, earning $25,000 and coming first at the third major Counter-Strike tournament of the year in a row, after previously winning IEM and ESWC world championships. The Ukrainian superteam made a statement that year, subsequently winning DreamHack series Winter 2010 event, as the 4th major competition of the year.
Recent results
Trace recently was involved in the coaching process of one of the strong Danish CS: GO organizations — Team Singularity. The famous Dane joined the roster of the CS: GO team in May, but departed in July. And about a month ago, Heldt started cooperating with his new team. They already managed to participate in a few tournaments. Here is a quick recap of where the trace’s new team currently sits.
Pelaajat
At the end of August, the squad managed to win the Pelaajat Series event — Pelaajat.com Series: Fall 2021, beating the Norwegian-Swedish squad of team Apeks from EU. The Lyngby Vikings vs Apeks matchup was played on two maps in the finals of the event, and ended with the 2:0 score in favor of the team from Denmark.
BLAST and European Development
The roster then tried to compete at the BLAST Nordic Masters: Fall 2021, the Nordic Masters series event, but eventually forfeited their spot at the event in order to participate in the next European Development competition – the European Development Championship Season 5, where the Danish team finished third-fourth place, losing to the Bulgarian CS: GO squad of the Norway’s esports organization SKADE. The Skade vs Lyngby Vikings match ended with the 2:1 score.
Malta Vibes
The next online event on the list for Lyngby Vikings team was the recent Malta Vibes Knockout Series #2. We recently covered this series of events from Eden Esports. Team Lyngby Vikings placed third, losing in the semifinals stage against their opponents – Sinners Esports organization from Czech Republic. The Lyngby Vikings vs Sinners match finished 0:2. During the tournament, the Danes, who were led by trace, managed to beat other strong CS: GO teams, such as Young Ninjas, Endpoint, BLINK, and Astralis Talent.
Funspark
One of the latest recorded events for the Danish Vikings was Funspark ULTI 2021: Europe Season 3. The September tournament, part of the Funspark series online CS: GO series, consisted of 16 teams. The prize pool of the Funspark Season 3 tournament was equal to $30,000.
In the end, the Vikings team won the whole thing, beating the top Polish team AGO in the final match, taking home $15,000 of prize money. The AGO vs Lyngby Vikings game ended with the 0:2 score in favor of the Danes. They also grabbed a slot for the Season 4 of the event, which is starting in November.
The Lyngby Vikings team previously overcame Copenhagen Flames and Kazakhs from K23 in the playoffs of the Funspark Season 3. Vikings placed second in their group A, losing to Germany‘s team touch the crown, but confidently beating Russia‘s squad of Entropiq, and also Nemiga Gaming organization from Belarus.
The Danish CS: GO squad, coached by trace, is currently standing among the top 30 best Counter-Strike teams in the world. The team aims to at least hold their position in the rankings table.