All news: zonic (Danny Sørensen)

The Danish Counter-Strike star was born on July 30, 1986 in Denmark. From an early age he was fond of computer games, which later grew into a full-time job.

Zonic came to esports in 2003, at the dawn of its inception.

zonic in player position

For the first time on the competitive scene, zonic appeared in the Danish team Demise. His hit on the professional scene dates back to 2003, but since those years were a period of early formation of a big CS, he did not achieve distinct and significant results playing for mixes.

The first serious attempts began later, in the period from 2004 to 2005. Then zonic changed a lot of commands: Spirit of Amiga, temporary! kapow.f2b, evermore and others. The key turn in his career can be called the entry of zonic into SK Gaming.

Danny joined SK Gaming in April 2004 and played there until August 2005. Together with SK zonic, he played at his first major tournaments, among which there were several iconic ones.

The main achievement in the camp of SK Gaming was getting into the grand final of ESWC 2005. Then the Dane lost in the final to Complexity as part of whimp, spx, eGene and Drally.

The next significant stop in zonic's career was Team NoA. There Danny stayed longer - from January 2006 to December 2007.

Together with NoA, the player has visited many tournaments of different scale and class. Along with NoA came the first victories in the career of a professional caeser.

Together with NoA, zonic won a number of tournaments, including: shgOpen 2006, ClanBase EuroCup X, SLAP Live #13. Also, NoA were frequent guests at major events of that time. The team reached TOP-4 at World Cyber Games 2006, NLG-One Season III - Finals, DreamHack Winter 2007, and in July of the same 2007 zonic repeated the achievements of the SK Gaming period, taking TOP-2 at ESWC 2007.

In early 2008, zonic moved to mTw, where he earned fame and honor, and at the same time laid a solid foundation for his future career.

zonic in mTw

In January 2008, the Dane joins mTw. His teammates were other Danish stars of those years: minet, Sunde, ave, Trace.

The first attempts in the new field can hardly be called successful: the team reached the TOP-5 at NLG-One Season IV - Regular Season and Samsung Euro Championship 2008. However, the sunset was short-lived.

Already in March, zonic as part of mTw won the SLAP Live #14 tournament, followed by a series of big victories. In May of the same year, Danny wins the first S-class championship: mTw become champions of KODE5 2008, in order to win the EPS Denmark Season III and the much larger Electronic Sports World Cup Masters of Paris. On the last mTw we beat Fnatic for $12,500.

By the end of 2008, mTw are fixed in the TOP of competitive Counter-Strike. The team dominates WEM 2008, World Cyber Games 2008, Rekrut Championship 2008.

In 2009 mTw's dominance intensifies. The team wins Intel Extreme Masters III - Regular Season Europe, and then IEM III European Championship Finals. The team also becomes a triumphant EPS Scandinavia Season 1 Finals, Komplet Games Challenge.

In addition to victories, mTw are in the finals of several major tournaments. They stop short of winning IEM IV Global Challenge Gamescom, DreamHack Winter 2009 and Arbalet Europe 2009.

In 2010 the team continues to play at the highest level. The Dane from mTw becomes the winner of DreamHack Summer 2010 and takes silver at DreamHack Winter 2010. Later, the team enters 2011, continuing to hold a leading position in the European CS scene. TOP-2 at IEM V European Championship Finals, DreamHack Summer 2011, LUOPGAMES 2011 is proof of that.

However, every journey comes to an end. In October 2011 zonic plays in the last tournament for mTw.

A tribute to the Dane was the IEM IV Global Challenge New York. At the tournament in America, mTw played in their typical style, taking TOP-3 at the same time.

In November 2011, zonic left mTw to join mousesports.

zonic to mousesports and transition to CSGO

The last team for which zonic played as a base was the German club mousesports. The Dane stayed there from December 2011 to March 2012.

The legacy mTw weighed down, and mousesports could not come close to the performance of the top European club. For mice, zonic played at IEM VI Global Challenge Kyiv and Intel Extreme Masters VI, where he took TOP-8 and TOP-10, respectively.

In March 2012, zonic left the mousesports camp. This was due both to the team's performance and the gradual fading of Counter-Strike 1.6 and the transition of the game to a new version.

The transition to CSGO took zonic 3 years. The esportsman is back, but in a radically new role.

He decided to use his experience of playing for the title team of the world as a coach. The first wards of zonic were the Danes who played at that time in Dignitas: Pimp, Kjaerbye, aizy, Nico and MSL. Later, the Danish specialist will cross paths with the top five, but before that, zonic will help Dignitas get to the TOP-3 at DreamHack Open Tour 2015, as well as at the DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca major tournament, where Dignitas will take TOP-16.

In January 2016, zonic moves to the position of coach of Team Question Mark. Under his leadership were karrigan, dev1ce, dupreeh, Xyp9x and cajunb. Over time, with a few changes, the Danish five with zonic guidance will become the best team in the history of CSGO. Astralis Team

Astralis.zonic

In January 2016, the Astralis team is formed. From the very first tournaments, the Danish club has become one of the key figures in the CSGO competitive structure.

Having gone through the initial process of becoming, Astralis began their own “era” in CSGO. Under the leadership of zonic, the team reached its maximum heights.

zonic became the first and only coach in CSGO history to win 4 majors. Astralis, led by an experienced Dane, became the champions of ELEAGUE Major: Atlanta 2017, FACEIT Major: London 2018, Intel Extreme Masters XIII - Katowice Major 2019 and StarLadder Berlin Major 2019.

In addition, cups were raised in tournaments of smaller caliber. Astralis and zonic won ESL Pro League Season 7, ELEAGUE CS:GO Premier 2018, BLAST Pro Series: Global Final 2019 and others.

Once zonic helped Astralis as a player. It happened at the ESL One Major: Cologne 2016, where zonic replaced dupreeh, who was recovering from surgery. The years for playing at such a level were not the same, but Danny and the team then managed to get into the TOP-8.

The glorious history of zonic in Astralis came to an end at the beginning of 2022. After the 2020/2021 recession, the Danish super club went through a major reshuffle and as a result zonic, dupreeh and Magisk became members of Vitality.

zonic in Vitality

As a coach of a French club, zonic helped the team reach the TOP-6 at PGL Major Antwerp 2022: European RMR A, PGL Major Antwerp 2022, TOP-5 Intel Extreme Masters Road to Rio 2022: European RMR B.

The main achievement of the venerable Danish specialist in the French club is the victory at BLAST Premier: Spring Groups 2022.

Interesting facts about zonic

Over a long career, zonic managed to earn fame and honor, and among other things, several personal awards. Besides, Danny is a writer.

• zonic was in the top 10 best players in the world according to HLTV in 2010 with 8th place.
• zonic was named DreamHack Summer 2010 MVP.
• zonic was awarded Coach of the Year 2019 at the Esports Awards.

Before actively playing CS, zonic tried himself in the field of eSports journalism. He was the author of HLTV in 2008, and in 2020 he returned to the pen with the release of the book “ZONIC – the story of Astralis: an incredible journey from dirty basements to sold-out arenas.

In 2022, zonic was close to a major scandal. A bug was found in the CSGO competitive arena with the game's camera, which allowed coaches to take advantage during matches. According to insiders, zonic was one of the specialists who used it. The Danish specialist managed to avoid punishment, although the guilt was not initially proven.