Legendary Counter-Strike player Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas retired from competition on March 31, 2023, at the age of 36 after dedicating over 20 years to the game.
The announcement was made mere days after HONORIS, an esports organization founded by TaZ and his longtime teammate Filip “NEO” Kubski, shut down its operations following nearly three years of existence. TaZ, however, is more remembered for his stints with other Polish teams such as Virtus Pro in CS:GO, Team Pentagram, and ESC Gaming in CS 1.6. He was also a part of Golden Five, a group of Polish players who dominated the CS scene from 2006 to 2008.
Take a trip down memory lane with us and remember TaZ’s greatest achievements in CS esports during his over 20-year professional career.
World Cyber Games 2006 in Italy
The original Golden Five lineup—TaZ, NEO, Jakub “kuben” Gurczyński, Łukasz “LUq” Wnęk, and Mariusz “Loord” Cybulski—were playing under Team Pentagram at World Cyber Games 2006, one of the most prestigious tournaments of that year, and dominated their opponents. Team Pentagram cruised past sYnck, Hacker.PK, and Danny “zonic” Sørensen’s NoA in the playoffs without dropping a single map and reverse swept the Ninjas in Pyjamas lineup that featured legend Abdisamad “SpawN” Mohamed in the grand finals. NiP scored a 16-11 victory on Nuke but Team Pentagram reacted with a tight 16-12 victory on Inferno and a dominant 16-3 win on Train.
World Cyber Games 2009 in China
This time, the original Golden Five members played under the tag AGAiN and once again reached the playoffs of a WCG event. Their run wasn’t as smooth as it was in 2006, but they made it to the grand finals following 2-1 victories over H2k Gaming, Power Gaming, and CMAX.gg. On the other side of the bracket, Fnatic reached the grand finals following a win against mTw, one of the favorites, in the semifinals. The match between AGAiN and Fnatic was proof of TaZ and his teammates’ resilience as they came out on top of one of the most-lengthy CS 1.6 series of all time on Nuke (28-26) and lifted the trophy after another tough match on Train (16-12).
World Cyber Games 2011 in South Korea
TaZ, NEO, kuben, and Loord became the only players to ever win three WCG editions after they secured the trophy in South Korea in 2011 with the addition of pashaBiceps, a player who went on to become a legend in CS:GO, in place of LUq and playing under the ESC Gaming banner. Once again, TaZ and his men made it to the grand finals without dropping any maps in the playoffs, just like WCG 2006, cruising past Edfining Stars, eSahara, and NEXT.kz.
ESC Gaming met the iconic SK Gaming in the finals, which featured the duo of f0rest and GeT_RiGhT, and beat them in a three-map series that finished with TaZ and crew winning 16-14 on Tuscan.
IEM World Championship 2012 in Germany
TaZ practically waved goodbye to the CS 1.6 days in the best way possible as he, NEO, kuben, Loord, and pashaBiceps took down the almighty Natus Vincere lineup of Yegor “markeloff” Markelov, Danylo “Zeus” Teslenko, Ioann “Edward” Sukharjev, Sergey “starix” Ishchuk, and Arseny “ceh9” Trynozhenko at the IEM World Championship in March 2012 in Hannover, Germany. NAVI were the most dominant team at the end of CS 1.6 but ESC Gaming defeated them 2-0 in the grand finals after knocking out powerhouses like SK Gaming and Moscow Five in the semifinals and quarterfinals, respectively.
TaZ, NEO, pashaBiceps, kuben, and Loord migrated to CS:GO in September 2012, and the last two departed the lineup in 2013 to open space for the arrivals of Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski and Paweł “byali” Bieliński. The new quintet eventually signed with VP in 2014 and made history in the new CS game.
ESL Major Series One Katowice 2014
VP picked up TaZ, NEO, pashaBiceps, Snax, and byali in January 2014, and less than two months after, the Polish quintet won a Major under the organization’s banner. TaZ and his men weren’t enjoying too much success in CS:GO aside from smaller tournament wins, but everything clicked at EMS One Katowice in March 2014. VP advanced to the playoffs after besting HellRaisers and Titan in the group stage and kept their form going in the playoffs.
VP knocked out LDLC in the quarterfinals following a 2-0 victory, eliminated LGB eSports in the semifinals after a 2-1 win, and dominated the historical NiP lineup of f0rest, GeT_RiGhT, friberg, Richard “Xizt” Landström, and Robin “Fifflaren” Johansson in the grand finals. VP won Mirage 16-9 and Inferno 16-10, and TaZ scored his first and only Major trophy in CS:GO.
ELEAGUE season 1 2016
VP won the first edition of ELEAGUE in July 2016, which was one of the most exciting tournaments of that year aside from the two Majors. The Poles weren’t the favorites to win this nearly $1.5 million CS:GO league played at Turner Studios in Atlanta, and in fact, they barely made the playoffs. Once the real competition started, however, VP didn’t drop a single map and took down NiP, mousesports, and Fnatic on their way to the title.
DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017
This was the last tier-one tournament the classic Polish lineup of VP won in CS:GO, shortly after TaZ and crew finished second place at the ELEAGUE Atlanta Major. VP made the playoffs after taking down Fnatic in the decider match of Group B and once again got to show their strength and fortitude in knockout games. The Poles eliminated mousesports, Astralis, and reverse swept SK Gaming in the grand finals after losing Cobblestone 16-8. After that first map, VP tied the series on Train (16-11) and won a hard-fought battle on Mirage (16-13), much thanks to TaZ’s one-vs-two crucial clutch when they were 13-12 behind.
Honorable mention: TaZ asks fans to respect olofmeister after Fnatic eliminated VP at ESL One Cologne 2015
VP had just been knocked out by olofmeister’s Fnatic at ESL One Cologne 2015 and the VP fans were booing olof in the post-match interview with Oliver James Borg “OJ Borg” D’Anastasi. TaZ came closer to the two and then asked fans to stop doing that and show respect to olof and Fnatic, who had just made the grand finals of the tournament.
