In our last article, we gave our predictions for who might fill positions 20-11 on HLTV’s Top 20 list in 2022. We’ve already seen names like Mareks "YEKINDAR" Gaļinskis, Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, and Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato. If you’ve found your way here from that article, you may have formed your own opinions on where you think players may be on the official HLTV Top 20 list, which will likely be released in early January.
Note: it is highly recommended to take these predictions lightly, as we still await the BLAST Premier World Final to take place later this month. This could have an impact on the list by a place or two; however, we don’t expect it to as it is the last event of the year and would form only one HLTV Rating to add to the many that have already been accumulated into averages over the year.
The event will feature FaZe Clan, NAVI, Heroic, Outsiders, Team Vitality, Team Liquid, G2 Esports, and OG Esports. From these eight teams, we only expect to not see any players from OG Esports make the official Top 20. Each of these teams will be looking for victory at the last S-tier event on the Counter-Strike calendar and it’s possible a stand-out performance from some of these players could push some of the names from our previous article out of the list, or even up into the top 10.
As discussed in our previous article, this list has been conceived and built around statistical analysis which considers the majority of HLTV stats (HLTV 2.0 Rating, IMPACT, KAST%, Opening Kill Stats, etc). It should be noted that many of these stats have been filtered to show a player’s performance against top-20 teams.
As well as this, we’ve looked at each of the teams’ form across the year. A team’s form is based on their position in S-tier tournaments and a few A-tier tournaments, and whether they made the playoffs at these events. Therefore, you’ll expect to see two more FaZe Clan players in this list. So, without any further explanation, here are our players ranked from 10 to 1.
#10 – “stavn”
Martin "stavn" Lund was Heroic’s youngest player until the signing of Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard in June of this year. He first appeared in the HLTV Top 20 in 2020 and made the list again in 2021. He has been a constant standout for the Danish side and the player they’ve looked to as a force to power them through close series.
He has pushed far beyond his teammates with a 1.16 HLTV Rating against top-20 teams, whilst his closest teammate has a 1.07 HLTV Rating. This is exactly what teams look for in a “star player” and “stavn” has consistently delivered.
Heroic have struggled to gain wins at any of the big ESL events in 2022; however, they took the win at the Pinnacle Cup Championship 2022, an event where a Danish derby between Heroic and Astralis took place in the grand final – something that would foreshadow Heroic becoming the best Danish team as the year progressed. This event saw “stavn” boast a 1.25 HLTV Rating, an impressive rating only some of the best have been capable of achieving.
#9 – “blameF”
Benjamin "blameF" Bremer, much like our #10 player, made a name for himself in Heroic. Since then, he’s moved from a Danish team to an international roster (Complexity) and back again (Astralis). Ever since emerging from Denmark, a region with a surplus of talent, “blameF” has been a major talking point for his incredibly high performance peaks and his consistency.
What is most impressive are his stats whilst Astralis have performed so poorly across 2022. There was a chance we could have seen more of “blameF” and his high ratings had Astralis made the IEM Rio Major 2022.
Across 2022, “blameF” has posted an impressive 1.17 HLTV Rating against top-20 teams. When you consider Astralis have only made it higher than the top four at two events this year and have had no tournament wins, it’s outrageous that he’s achieved such consistency. Astralis are slowly making a comeback with the re-signing of Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz and we expect to see “blameF” remain a top player for many years to come as Astralis look to regain their major-winning form.
#8 – “ropz”
Robin "ropz" Kool has been one of the most highlighted prospects in CS:GO since 2016. He was the “star player” for MOUZ, formerly known as mousesports, during his lengthy stay with the organisation from 2017-2021. He re-joined his old teammate Finn "karrigan" Andersen in FaZe Clan at the start of 2022 and made an immediate impact on the team, with them going on to achieve wins at IEM Katowice, ESL Pro League Season 15, PGL Major Antwerp 2022, and IEM Cologne. These are all the events a player could dream of winning in an entire career, let alone within seven months of joining a new team.
FaZe Clan have achieved such a huge amount of success in 2022 due to the roster being full of some of the best players in each role. The “lurker” is a role which requires a player to pounce on their enemy at the correct time in the round to catch the enemy off-guard, and “ropz” is one of the best at this.
Across 2022, “ropz” achieved a 1.12 HLTV Rating against teams in the top 20. Being surrounded by such talented teammates, it’s difficult for any of the FaZe Clan members to outshine one another, but we believe “ropz” has done enough to just surpass his teammates Håvard "rain" Nygaard and Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken.
#7 – “NiKo”
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač is one of the most famous names in Counter-Strike and is tied with Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács and Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev as the third-most recurring player in the official HLTV Top 20 list. This would make him and “GuardiaN” two of the highest-rated and most successful players to never win a major, and coincidentally their best chance came when they played together in FaZe Clan in 2018.
“NiKo” came to shine in mousesports, now known as MOUZ, and quickly got recognised due to his sharp aim and impressive Desert Eagle highlights. Since then, he has played for FaZe Clan and G2 Esports, his current team.
G2 have failed to find results since going international; however, they’ve improved as 2022 has gone on. “NiKo” in 2022 is in a similar situation to “blameF”, in that he has achieved great individual results, but his team have been far from achieving tournament wins. The closest they’ve been was a 0-3 defeat to FaZe Clan at IEM Katowice. “NiKo” has achieved a 1.20 HLTV Rating against top-20 teams in 2022.
#6 – “Jame”
Dzhami "Jame" Ali is regarded by many who have played with him as the smartest man in CS:GO. It isn’t often that an IGL makes the official HLTV Top 20 list, let alone an IGL who also is his team’s main AWPer. Across 2022, “Jame” has achieved a 1.11 HLTV Rating against top-20 teams.
The year started slowly for his team, Outsiders (formerly playing under the name Virtus.pro), who had poor result after poor result at most S-tier events. It wasn’t until Outsiders picked up David "n0rb3r7" Danielyan and Pyotr "fame" Bolyshev in May that they were able to turn around their year.
It still took some time for “Jame” to implement his system with these new players, but eventually, they took a win at ESL Challenger Rotterdam and then at IEM Rio Major 2022. It was at this major that he also earned the MVP award, the most prestigious MVP award that a player can earn. In 2021, “Jame” was considered the 10th-best player of the year and we believe he will break further into the top 10 this year.
Approaching the top five
Before we unveil our predictions for the top five players of 2022, I’d like to speak about the players ranked from 10 to 6.
It was extremely difficult to rank these players as there is a clear differential between those with high individual performances but not many notable team performances and those with good individual performances and a successful year with their team. From this list, “blameF”, “NiKo”, and “Jame” are three players that fall into the first category, whilst “ropz” falls into the second.
It becomes very difficult to place a player like “Jame”, a major MVP award winner, who has achieved a 1.11 HLTV Rating when comparing him to a player with a 1.17 or 1.20 HLTV Rating. The reason I want to highlight this is because I believe these players could feature anywhere from the top 15 to the top six.
It wouldn’t be surprising for “Jame” to appear closer to 10th and “blameF” to appear higher in the list. It all comes down to whether HLTV value the ratings more than team wins; however, I believe a major win and major MVP award gives “Jame” a lot of notability to achieve sixth place.
#5 – “broky”
Helvijs "broky" Saukants is our final FaZe Clan player to achieve a place on our predicted HLTV Top 20 list. He’s a player that has improved year-on-year and we can only expect this to continue. In 2022, “broky” achieved a 1.14 rating against top-20 teams. He has also been one of the best players for Opening Kill success, a stat vital for an AWPer who will be facing the likes of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut.
The Latvian AWPer has been one of the most clutch players of the year, winning over 50 clutches against top-20 teams. Once again, we believe that “broky” and the rest of his team could have placed higher on this list had FaZe Clan not been so successful as a team.
Some of the other players ahead of “broky” won’t have achieved as many tournament wins, but their individual performances have been more noticeable due to it being in the need to carry the rest of the team. FaZe Clan haven’t suffered from this in 2022 and we applaud them for that.
#4 – “Ax1le”
Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov is the final Rifler to make our predictions list. He has been widely spoken about as the best Rifler of the year by many of the talent involved in Counter-Strike productions. His team, Cloud9, have been one of the most successful teams in 2022, achieving two first-place victories and multiple playoff appearances.
“Ax1le” has achieved a 1.21 HLTV Rating across 2022 versus top-20 teams. “Ax1le” also has one of the highest ADR (average damager per round) scores, at 84.3. This has most likely been helped by the M4A1-S meta that evolved earlier in the year and caused every map to become heavily CT-sided.
A Rifler hasn’t been first on the list since 2017, when Marcelo "coldzera" David achieved the spot. It is unlikely that “Ax1le” will become the number one player whilst “s1mple” and “ZywOo” still remain in play. However, the top five is an extremely impressive achievement and he could be a contender for the top three within the next few years if his form continues.
#3 – “ZywOo”
Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut is always going to be a contender for first place on this list and we predict him to come in at a debatable third. “ZywOo” has been fighting “s1mple” for the first-place spot since he joined Team Vitality at the end of 2018. It was only “ropz” who predicted him to be in the list in 2019, the year “ZywOo” was first awarded the first-place spot. Although “ZywOo” is used to competing for the top spot with “s1mple”, we believe he now has another top AWPer to compete with.
“ZywOo”’s standout performance this year was at ESL Pro League Season 16, Team Vitality’s only tournament win in 2022, where he achieved a 1.42 HLTV Rating. It was there that Vitality went undefeated in the group stage, dominating some of the year’s best teams. We expect “ZywOo” to have a higher chance at the first-place spot once Team Vitality fix the issues they’ve had since becoming international and pick up a few more tournament wins. Whilst only achieving one S-tier tournament win, “ZywOo” still managed to achieve a 1.24 HLTV Rating.
#2 – “sh1ro”
Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov is our second-placed player on the list, averaging a 1.26 HLTV Rating against top-20 opponents. The Cloud9 AWPer has been particularly impressive this year, establishing himself as not only one of the best AWPers, but one of the best players. It was at the IEM Rio Major 2022 that “sh1ro” put his team on his back to show off one of the greatest individual performances ever seen, boasting a 1.68 HLTV Rating versus Fnatic on Inferno. Without “sh1ro”, Cloud9 may have never made it out of the IEM Rio Major Challengers stage.
After already being placed fourth in last year’s HLTV Top 20 list, “sh1ro” is looking to be an additional young talent to compete with “s1mple” for the number one spot. Having this many fantastic AWPers in teams that are highly competitive is exciting for the scene and if Cloud9 can gain consistency at LAN events, they could spend some time at the top of HLTVs World Ranking. It is possible that with NAVI’s lack of confidence in their fifth player that “sh1ro” could snatch the top spot next year from the goliaths that are “s1mple” and “ZywOo”.
#1 – “s1mple”
Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev is our prediction to, once again, be the number player in Counter-Strike. This comes as no surprise to fans of CS:GO, as he has claimed the spot twice before and has been ranked second two other times. Even considering the terrible circumstances in his home country, “s1mple” has excelled once again, performing above every other player in the top tier of the game. The Ukrainian AWPer has achieved a 1.27 HLTV Rating against top-20 teams and comes out on top in many other areas. It seems “s1mple” just doesn’t slow down!
ESL also awarded “s1mple” with the Player of the Decade Award at IEM Rio Major 2022. This is quite the accomplishment considering the amount of talent that has been built up over Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s 10-year life.
Given his ability to perform at the highest level, we expect “s1mple” to appear in the list again next year as well; especially if NAVI become confident in their roster once again. However, I’m sure he’ll be happy to put a number between himself and “ZywOo” if our predictions are correct. Once again, “s1mple” has impressed fans of CS:GO, and fans of esports in general. He is without a doubt the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) and we hope to see him compete for many more years to come.
