Say what you will of Angel Munoz. He has left behind a very controversial and debatable legacy. Ask the man though and he will not understand the negative attitude towards him. Odds are, he would still claim to have "done it all for the gamers." That’s an overstatement, at best. However, for years many of the most revered legends in our sport made a splash in the basement of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dallas.

Ola “element” Moum was one of them.

Perhaps more than anything Moum became Counter-Strike’s first wunderkind. Many have followed but few have had the same impact on the sport and the way the game was played. While Swedish people won't like the truth behind this inflammatory statement, their legendary champions in NiP did not have a cerebral approach to their game. They had simply matured and developed more as individual players, ahead of the pack in their heyday. Yes, Emil “HeatoN” Christensen taught us that you pull your crosshair down to control the spray and Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson showed us the value of the calm and poised AK-handling. But Ola “element” Moum led, and bred a new generation of players. They fused strategically sound play and creativity with blinding individual skills. At one point, it looked as if his in-game characteristics would ascend his Norwegian behind to the throne of electronic sports. He even earned the CPL MVP award when it actually meant something. And before long, he ended up leading the legendary “Heaton” and “Potti” into battle too.

Controversial spring to mind and so does unconventional. In reality they communicate the same:

Moum’s choices, the way he carried himself and the manner in which he utilized his overwhelming talent was not in accordance with the way any of us, the ones that operated in his wake, would have. He made it clear that he was his own, albeit very young, man. He rarely publicly reflected over the events his persona inspired or helped create.

At 16 years young with a signed parental approval in hand, Moum went with Gameonline and obliterated the competition at CPL Summer 2002. Moum rocketed to fame with four other unknown players in Meredia earlier that year, but he had been denied a shot with the established Norwegian elite, Massive Attack. Massive Attack featured Lars “Naikon” Olaisen and became the first all-Norwegian team to break the top five at the CPL. They finished 4th at the winter event in 2001 and were uninterested in the young star. Jørgen “XeqtR” Johannessen, a prominent member of Massive Attack, had been winning international tournaments in international teams since the dawn of competitive Counter-Strike, but did not take a liking to the qualities of young Moum.

The two never got along socially and represented two different schools of thought in-game. Ironically their careers would become intertwined in later years and their arguably greatest success came together.

A couple of weeks prior to the Dallas event that summer at ESWC’s predecessor, Lan Arena, Moum beat the SK team that would ultimately keep Moum from winning his first major trophy in his first attempt. Jørgen “XeqtR” Johannessen was on that team, and he explained to the public that a couple of ill-advised attempts at aggressive pushes by Moum won SK the match. It was also the match where “HeatoN” threw his infamous smoke-grenade, a dummy curve ball to fool the young superstar. Two slaps in the face from two of the highest profile players in the world could have ruined anyone’s confidence and should have broken his momentum.

But Moum was never one for self-doubt, and a lack of confidence was never an issue with him.

He jumped ship to join “Naikon” and other Norwegians to found eoLithic where he experienced instant success, winning CPL Oslo. No one could stand up to his team at that event, but their biggest rivals was sitting out the event. Rumors would even have it that it was a conscious choice, as Moum’s gang had annihilated them in several practice sessions. Fans were looking forward to the clash of the titans, but in what must be considered a travesty, eoLithic’s Hallvar “Knoxville” Dehli made sure that “Element” got cut from the team to make room for Jørgen “Xeqtr” Johannessen and Ruben “Dark” Bielenberg.

“GameOnline” was happy to welcome him back and the team was restructured to compete at the 02 winter event in Dallas. They flew in under the radar as most agreed this event had “eoLithic” written all over it. A younger and less wise Lars “Naikon” Olaisen even stated that all they needed to do was to go over there “and collect the check.” It backfired and an overconfident Norwegian team crashed and was burned by the emerging American stars Griffin “shaGuar” Benger, Salvatore “Volcano” Garozzo and Justin “Sunman” Summy. Moum on the other hand made it into his second final where he was overcome by Dave “moto” Geffon and Team 3D.