F0rest


Patrik Lindberg, known by the pseudonym f0rest, is considered to be one of the best Counter-Strike players in the world. Having played competitively since 2005, Lindberg has been widely regarded within the esports scene as the greatest player in Counter-Strike history. Lindberg is best known for his four years of tenure on the Fnatic roster, which he helped bring to prominence as the dominant team of 2009, during which year the team broke the record for the highest-earning team in Counter-Strike history. Near the end of 2010, Lindberg left Fnatic and joined SK Gaming, which he remained with until July 2012. Soon after, he transitioned over to and joined the team Ninjas in Pyjamas. In 2020, Lindberg left NiP to join Dignitas.

Professional career

Lindberg began his professional gaming career in early 2005, when he made his international debut at the global finals in South Korea for the World e-Sports Games, alongside the new Swedish team of Begrip Gaming. There, Begrip defeated all opponents, including the defending champions Catch-Gamers and won the prize pot of 50,000 USD. Following this victory, Lindberg dropped out of high school to concentrate on his Counter-Strike career. In 2005, Lindberg was nominated for the eSports Award 2005, under the categories for "Newcomer of the Year" and "Best Counter-Strike Player". In early 2006, Lindberg left Begrip alongside his teammate Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund, and signed a contract with Fnatic and became a permanent member of the team.
Lindberg's first year in Fnatic proved to be successful, having the team earn upwards of US$100,000, which was acknowledged by Turtle Entertainment. During 2006, Fnatic won the Cyberathlete Professional League Championship, the World Tour, along with a silver medal at the Electronic Sports World Cup. Lindberg was once again nominated for the eSports Award and won the Counter-Strike Player of the Year Award. However, Fnatic faced a major slump from 2007 through 2008, as the team failed to win any major tournaments and only achieved a handful of medals. The team regained its form and chemistry in 2009, however, with the retirement of Oscar "Archi" Torgersen and Oscar "ins" Holm and the recruitment of Christopher "GeT_Right" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl. During 2009, Fnatic was the single most-dominant team, having garnered gold medal victories at the Intel Extreme Masters Global Challenge, European Finals and World Championship, ESWC 2009, e-Stars Seoul, KODE5 and World eSports Masters. In 2009, Lindberg was nominated for the eSports Award 2009, under the category of "Regional eSports Player of the Year Northern Europe", but lost to his teammate Alesund, who won the main category for eSports Player of the Year.
Fnatic could not repeat its success from 2009 in the 2010 season, however, as the team found itself at odds with the Ukrainians from Natus Vincere, with their winnings being upward of US$220,000. Following this underwhelming year, Lindberg, along with his teammates Alesund and Ståhl, attempted to have Fnatic replace the team's in-game leader, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, as well as its captain, Harley "dsn" Örwall, with SK Gaming's Jimmy "allen" Allén and Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström. This was, however, not approved, so Lindberg and Alesund left Fnatic and joined SK Gaming. Early 2011 proved to be slow for SK, as they failed to impress at their first event, IEM European Championship Finals, being unable to surpass the group stage, while Lindberg's previous team won the event themselves. SK Gaming managed to regain their form, however, and finished as the second highest-earning team of 2011, behind the Polish team of ESC Gaming.
On July 26, 2012, it was reported that SK Gaming had gone into a state of disarray, with the head coach, Anton Budak, resigning from the organization, along with Patrik Lindberg and his teammates Robert Dahlström and Christopher Alesund. According to Budak, this came as a result of SK refusing to send the players to GameGune 2012. The following August, it was announced that Lindberg would be making a transition over to , by joining the team Ninjas in Pyjamas, which included Alesund in its roster. From the beginning of the competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive scene in 2012, Ninjas in Pyjamas became the single most dominant team, having won the vast majority of the tournaments they attended, as well as maintaining an 87-map winning streak for a time. Ninjas in Pyjamas has maintained their dominance for the years of 2012 and 2013. Ninjas in Pyjamas reached the grand finals of all major $250,000 Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments until ESL One Cologne 2015. In August 2014 they won ESL One Cologne. At Dreamhack Cluj-Napoca where they were ousted by NaVi in the semi finals.

Notable tournament results

Bold denotes a CS:GO Major
YearPlaceTournamentTeamWinning ScoreOpponentPrize Money
2005World e-Sports Games Grand Finals Begrip Gaming2-0 Catch-Gamer$50,000.00
2006Counter-Strike Champions League Fnatic2-0 Mousesports$10,000.00
2006CPL World Tour Fnatic16-6 Speed-Link$10,000.00
2006CPL Winter 2006 Fnatic2-1 MeetYourMakers$30,000.00
2007GameGune 2007 Fnatic2-0 Made in Brazil$12,000.00
2007World e-Sports Games Seoul Fnatic2-0 X7-Hacker$25,000.00
2007NLG One Fnatic2-0 SK Gaming$20,000.00
2007Intel Extreme Masters Los Angeles Fnatic16-5 SK Gaming$25,000.00
2008NLG One Fnatic3-2 Roccat$20,000.00
2008Samsung Euro Championship 2008 Fnatic2-1 MeetYourMakers$19,700.00
2008IEM III Global Challenge Montreal Fnatic2-1 SK Gaming$25,000.00
2009IEM Season III Fnatic16-13 MeetYourMakers$50,000.00
2009Electronic Sports World Cup 2009 Fnatic2-0 SK Gaming$20,000.00
2009KODE5 Global Finals Fnatic2-0 SK Gaming$25,000.00
2009World e-Sports Games Seoul Fnatic2-0 WeMade FOX$12,000.00
2009Intel Extreme Masters Dubai Fnatic2-0 MeetYourMakers$10,000.00
2009World e-Sports Masters Fnatic2-0 Power Gaming$22,500.00
2010Arbalet Cup 2010 Fnatic2-1 Natus Vincere$15,000.00
2010GameGune 2010 Fnatic2-1 Frag eXecutors$15,500.00
2010Intel Extreme Masters Shanghai Fnatic2-0 TyLoo.raw$14,000.00
2010Komplett Gamer Challenge Fnatic2-0 Full-Gaming$19,400.00
2011IOL FINAL4 2011 SK Gaming2-0 Fnatic$8,000.00
2011DreamHack Summer 2011 SK Gaming2-0 mTw$9,600.00
2011Intel Challenge Super Cup 8 SK Gaming2-1 Moscow Five$5,000.00
2011GameGune 2011 SK Gaming16-14 ESC Gaming$17,223.00
2011Intel Extreme Masters New York SK Gaming2-0 WinFakt$16,000.00
2011Electronic Sports World Cup 2011 SK Gaming2-0 Natus Vincere$12,000.00
2012Copenhagen Games 2012 Challenge SK Gaming16-13 ESC Gaming$1,314.00
2012Esport SM Stockholm SK Gaming2-1 Fnatic$1,314.00
20123rd Intel Core Challenge SK Gaming2-0 Fnatic$10,000.00
2012SteelSeries GO Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 BuggIT$4,546.00
2012DreamHack Valencia 2012 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 VeryGames$3,236.00
2012Electronic Sports World Cup 2012 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 VeryGames$10,000.00
2012DreamHack Winter 2012 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 VeryGames$22,600.00
2012AMD Sapphire Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 VeryGames$10,000.00
2012THOR Open 2012 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Curse$15,100.00
2012NorthCon 2012 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 ESC Gaming$6,580.00
2013ESL Major Series Winter 2012 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Imaginary Gaming$3,365.00
2013Copenhagen Games 2013 Ninjas in Pyjamas16-2 Western Wolves$21,156.00
2013ESEA Invite Season 13 Finals Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Denial eSports$17,500.00
2013Svecup Västerås 2013 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Crave Gaming$4,500.00
2013Swedish Championship 2013 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-1 Epsilon$15,500.00
2013Dreamhack Summer 2013 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Epsilon$10,800.00
2013SLTV StarSeries VI Ninjas in Pyjamas3-2 Natus Vincere$6,000.00
2013ESEA Season 14 Finals Ninjas in Pyjamas2-1 compLexity$20,000.00
2013DreamHack Winter 2013 Ninjas in Pyjamas1-2 Fnatic$50,000.00
2014EMS One Katowice 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas0-2 Virtus.pro$50,000.00
2014Copenhagen Games Ninjas in Pyjamas2-1 Virtus.pro$19,370.00
2014Dreamhack Summer 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Natus Vincere$10,000.00
2014IronGaming Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Natus Vincere$10,000.00
2014ESL One Cologne 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-1 Fnatic$100,000.00
2015DreamHack Winter 2014 Ninjas in Pyjamas1-2 Team LDLC.com$50,000.00
2015ASUS ROG Winter 2015 Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Titan$12,000.00
2015ESL One Katowice 2015 Ninjas in Pyjamas1-2 Fnatic$50,000.00
20155-8thESL One Cologne 2015 Ninjas in Pyjamas0-2 Virtus.pro$10,000.00
20153-4thDreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 Ninjas in Pyjamas0-2 Natus Vincere$22,000.00
20165-8th' Ninjas in Pyjamas0-2 Natus Vincere$35,000.00
2016Dreamhack Masters Malmö Ninjas in Pyjamas2-0 Natus Vincere$100,000.00
20169-12thESL One Cologne 2016 Ninjas in Pyjamas1-2 FlipSid3 Tactics$8,750.00
20165–8thELeague Season 1 Ninjas in Pyjamas0-2 Virtus.pro$50,000.00
2016StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2 Ninjas In Pyjamas2-0 G2 Esports$130,000.00
2016Intel Extreme Masters 2016 Oakland Ninjas In Pyjamas2-1 SK Gaming$128,000.00
2017DreamHack Open Valencia 2017 Ninjas In Pyjamas2-1 Red Reserve$50,000.00
2017Intel Extreme Masters 2017 Oakland Ninjas In Pyjamas3-2 FaZe Clan$128,000.00
20195-8thIntel Extreme Masters Season XIII – World Championship Major' Ninjas in Pyjamas0-2 Astralis$35,000.00

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