Once considered one of the most dominant riflers in Counter-Strike, Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov was a cornerstone of Gambit’s rise and later Cloud9’s international success.
But those peak years — which earned him back-to-back Top 5 placements on HLTV’s Top 20 list — now feel like a distant memory.
Since the switch to CS2, the Russian star has struggled to find consistency, and his performances with BetBoom have raised questions.
In a recent interview with HLTV, BetBoom captain Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhailov shared his thoughts on Ax1Le’s ongoing form.
– I don’t know. When CS2 came out, he didn’t like CS2 but it’s a long time behind us now. He’s just trying to find his way and style in CS2.
Ax1Le’s stats through the years:
- 2025: 1.05 rating
- 2024: 1.10 rating
- 2023: 1.14 rating
- 2022: 1.21 rating
- 2021: 1.17 rating
Despite presenting lacklustre numbers, Ax1Le will be super important for BetBoom in Stage 2 at the Major, Boombl4 assures.
– He’s a really experienced guy in our team and when we play versus tier one teams he will show this experience. It’s been a really hard two months for him but still, we have a lot of matches to prove [ourselves] in the next stage and we will see what happens there.
Ax1Le and BetBoom will continue their BLAST.tv Austin Major campaign in Stage 2, starting this Saturday.
