How To Estimate The Level Of The Player
There are various ways to define who is the best player in CSGO. We can take various characteristics into account and describe their way to success, however, creating an ultimate rating may be almost impossible. Even HLTV, a website which is considered one of the most reliable sources about competitive players’ metrics and stats, divides its ratings into several categories. Here are several parameters that has to be taken into account:
The amount of prize money earned. By looking at these numbers, we will find out who successfully participates in the major eSports events in the CS2 scene.
Individual statistics, such as the amount of MVP titles or kills to deaths ratio. These numbers demonstrate the effectiveness during the matches.
Role versatility and the current level of the team they belong to.
The stability of the results. Some players show outstanding results only during short periods of time, while others remain on a stable high level for several years.
The parameters described above may have different weight when we estimate the success of the professional gamer. To account for all these characteristics, we will break the list of the best players in CSGO in several parts.
Here are the main criteria which are usually used to estimate how successful a competitive CSGO player is, along with their meaning. Knowing them, you will understand the CSGO pro players stats in no time and will be able to compare their performance, based on the data about the matches they have played. These characteristics are used in HLTV CS:GO rankings to compare the performance of professional gamers.
Characteristic | Meaning |
K/D | Kills to deaths ratio. It demonstrates which of the two happens more often – they kill the opponents or get killed themselves.A good result should comprise more than 1.0 and it can reach 1.4 – 1.5 for the best CSGO pro players. |
Headshot % | The percent of headshots among all kills performed by the player. |
Kills, Deaths and Assists per Round | Average number of successful actions, such as kills and assists, performed each round. Abbreviations such as KPR (kills per round), DRP and APR can be used as well. |
Impact | The impact of the player on the success of their command, calculated from their performance with multikills, clutches and opening kills. |
ADR | Average damage per round. |
The Richest Pro Players in CSGO in 2024
There is one more important indicator to consider: the amount of prize money earned. The more important the competition is, the bigger the prize it usually has. Consequently, the pro players who consistently take place among the major winners can earn a fortune, especially during the latter years of CS:GO tournaments. In the beginning years of the CS:GO competitive scene, tournaments didn’t have large prize pools, so the players whose career peak fell onto these years won’t make into the list. However, here are the top CS:GO players by the amount of money earned:
Astralis (2018 – 2020 lineup)
All five participants of the team deserve to be mentioned here, as their achievements are unique in the world of CS:GO. There is no other team which was able to remain on top for such a long period. The richest of the five is Peter “Dupreeh” Rasmussen with a total sum of more than $2 million. And the sum is well deserved: he is the only pro CSGO player who managed to win five majors in total. Other participants of the Astralis golden lineup have earned similar sums, such as Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz who has earned about $1.9 million, winning four majors in his career.
Olekasndr “s1mple” Kostylev
The prominent Ukrainian player with total prize winnings amounting to $1.7 million definitely deserves the place in the list. Throughout his career, he participated in more than seventy significant tournaments including 13 Majors. 2021 was the most productive year for s1mple so far, as his team, NAVI, managed to win Inter Grand Slam.
Finn “karrigan” Andersen
The example of Finn “karrigan” Andersen demonstrates that it is not necessary to always win the first place to become successful at the CSGO scene. The total amount of price money won by karrigan amounts to $1.6 million. He took part in 17 Majors in his career, but won a major for the first time only about a year ago.
Denis “electroNic” Sharipov
S1mple isn’t the only one successful player from NAVI. We cannot avoid mentioning this Russian star. It took some time for him to rise to the highest ranks of the pro scene in the beginning of his career, but he didn't miss any chances. He played with Natus Vincere for five and a half years, earning about $1.5 million in prize money.
Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
This Canadian player is currently younger than the CS:GO stars mentioned above, but he already has some unique achievements behind his belt. Namely, he managed to win two Grand Slams. Surely, this FaZe participant has a lot of other wins ahead. To this time, he has already earned about $1.5 million through prizes from various competitions.
Havard “rain” Nygaard
FaZe Clan has achieved a lot during the last several years, so it is no wonder that more than one of its players appears in the list of the most successful CS:GO pros. To this time, Nygaard earned $1.4 million through participating in almost one hundred significant tournaments, earning three MVP titles and numerous other trophies.
Best CSGO Players By Team Roles
As CS2 is a team sport, players can take various roles within a team. Someone may shine as an AWPer, but struggle during economy rounds or have less success in clutches. Here are the typical roles performed by CS2 pros along with their tasks.
Captain | Also known as in-game leader or IGL, the captain distributes tasks among other players. While the captain rarely engages in combat with the opponents in the beginning of the round, his decision making skills can determine the results of the match. |
Sniper | Also known as AWPer by the name of the most used sniper rifle in CS2 plays the key role in most successful teams. Other teammates often work for the sniper, protecting them and creating the situations where they use their skills the best way. Sniper has to have the highest reaction time, as well as being skilled with other weapons. |
Entry Fragger | This player quickly moves through the map, engaging in combat and winning time for others to realize their strategy. Their main goal is to quickly achieve a kill or at least a trade-off. |
Lurker | The role of the lurker can be compared to a spy. They remain hidden and try to gather as much information about the opponent’s movements as possible. They feed intel to their teammates and try to determine the best position for them. |
Support | While the support player doesn’t seem as active as his teammates, their role is by no means important. Supports are the ones who use smokes and flashes to win space for other teammates, and use all possible means to create opportunities for the teammates to advance. |
As you see, it would be difficult to determine the best CSGO players without considering their team roles. There are various personal qualities demanded to be a successful player. Even someone, who doesn’t have ideal reaction times, can be successful at a pro scene, applying their strategic, tactical or communication skills in the role of the IGL or a lurker. Here are some examples of the top CSGO pro players, who build their career in the particular role, according to their stats in 2023.
Ilya “perfecto” Zalutsky can be called the best support player. In most matches, he works closely with his teammates, providing the necessary assistance and creating opportunities. Another example of a productive support is Andres “Xyp9x'' Heislet from Astralis. Both don’t attract much attention, but have a great significance in the lineups of their teams.
Jonathan “EliGE '' Jablonowski deserves the name of the best entry fragger. He is a difficult opponent even for AWPers and often manages to win difficult duels with the opponent's sniper. His team, Complexity, had some problems in 2023, which doesn’t prevent him from having amazing individual stats.
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostylev is, without doubt, the best sniper of the past few years. The success of the NAVI team, who remained the number one in the world for some time, is by a significant part his merit. However, there are other players who deserve to be mentioned here, such as Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaud and Kenny “kennyS” Schruba. The latter one has already finished his pro career, but he was a prominent sniper for some time.
Picking the best captain is the most complicated task, as it isn’t easy to evaluate their performance. If we take the amount of competitions won into account, the title of the best captain in CS2 can go to either Lucas “gla1ve” Rossander or Gabriel “FalleN” Toledo. There were many other talented captains in the history of CS:GO, but if we concentrate on the current state of the game, those two are the most successful ones.
Usually, when CS2 teams want to reshuffle their lineup and are in search of new players, they are looking for someone to perform a particular role. Sometimes it takes a young pro some time to figure out what place they could take in the team to make the most impact. However, after finding this out they open for themselves the path to success, as we have seen from the examples above. Some cyber sportsmen can shift roles, for example, transitioning to the captain’s position after they gain enough experience.
Best Counter Strike Players With The Most MVP Awards
MVP, or the Most Valuable Player, is the title which is awarded at each Major to the best participant of their tournament. Usually, although not always, they represent the winning team. The bearer of the MVP title is determined based on team and individual performance. Consequently, the number of times someone has received the award can be considered the measure of their performance. Do you want to know, who are the best CS:GO players who won the most MVP medals throughout their career? Here are the top five:
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostylev tops the list with the unreachable result of 21 MVP medals earned in the period from 2016 to 2023. Some of his other achievements were mentioned above, so it’s probably not much surprising for you to see his name appearing on top of one more list.
Nicolai “device” Reedtz provides some competition for s1mple with 19 MVP medals. He remains a consistently high performing player since his debut in 2013.
Mathieu “ZyWoo” Herbaut of Team Vitality currently remains in third place with 16 MVP medals. Being a talented sniper, he has a high chance to increase this number even more.
Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund is a Swedish player, who became famous when he was playing for Ninjas in Pyjamas. Currently he prefers the career of a streamer, however, his result of 10 MVP medals remains in the top-5.
Kenny “kennyS” Schrub is another cyber sportsman with 10 MVP medals. He announced the end of his professional eSports career in the middle of 2023, so the number of the MVP titles earned by him won’t grow anymore. However, his result still remains in fifth place so far.
Earning the MVP medal even once is a huge success for any pro gamer, so the ones who manage to do it several times are truly the best CSGO players of all time.
As you see, there are many ways to determine who is the best in CS2. You may look at various criteria, from the amount of money earned to individual stats. Anyways, you can always find inspiring examples among the pro players to learn from them, copy their settings, analyze their play to understand their strategies, or just watch the thrilling matches from Major events.
Who is The Best CS:GO Player of All Time?
Determining the best CS:GO player of all time is a challenging task due to the complexity and depth of the game, along with its evolving nature. Several players stand out for their skill, consistency, and impact on the game, but much of the community and analysts often point to Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev as a strong contender for this title.
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev
S1mple, a Ukrainian professional player, has been a dominant force in the Counter-Strike scene. Known for his exceptional skill, versatility, and ability to perform under pressure, s1mple has consistently ranked as one of the top players in the world since he started his career. Here are some reasons why many consider him the best:
- Individual Skill: S1mple is renowned for his outstanding rifle and sniper skills, particularly with the AWP. His ability to win duels, secure kills, and change the outcome of rounds single-handedly is unparalleled.
- Achievements: Over his career, s1mple has accumulated numerous titles and accolades, including major tournament wins and MVP awards. He played a pivotal role in Natus Vincere (Na'Vi)'s success, including their victory at the PGL Stockholm Major in 2021.
- Consistency: One of s1mple's most impressive traits is his consistency. He performs at an elite level regularly against the best teams in the world.
- Impact on the Game: S1mple has also been a trendsetter in terms of gameplay, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in CS:GO. His aggressive yet smart playstyle has influenced how the game is played at the highest levels.
Write comment