Introducing: ropz – The Estonian Predator

The best players are not made overnight. Being one of the best in CS:GO takes tremendous dedication and skill. We take you around the world and inside the life of a CS:GO elite player, offering an in-depth look at the stories behind the player that is a part of shaping the scene today. This time we take a look into Robin “ropz” Kool.

Name: Robin “ropz” Kool
Born: December 22, 1999
Country: Estonia
Team: mousesports
Role: Rifler

The Estonian began his CS:GO journey in 2014, after a couple of Majors had already been played, but he adapted to the game quickly. He had played CS 1.6 in the early days and spent countless hours on KZ servers, while also experimented with Call of Duty before his schoolmates introduced him to the new version of his favorite game that had been released.

Like most players do, ropz initially turned towards his country and region to look for teammates and competition, but quickly concluded that being from a small country like Estonia was going to be a limiting factor. Therefore, he started play FACEIT where he quickly made a name for himself, earning a spot in FPL and in less than a year go from reaching FPL Challenger to qualifying for his first Major.

Robin was only 17-years-old when he first began his illustrious career with mousesports as a pro player. Famed and feared for his deadly aim and swift, accurate strikes, he rose quickly through the ranks to become a predator in the game.

ropz on his first LAN where him and company made playoffs, beating NAVI and Heroic:

Behind the scenes, there is much more to his journey towards becoming a pro player. Once accused of misconduct by the very circle he looked up to, ropz faced an uphill battle with cheating accusations.

A stream clip including Jesper “JW” Wecksell’s comment describing the atmosphere at the time pretty well:

Pros who get caught cheating are universally despised, but no one gets accused more than young unproven players. When playing online, no one can verify whether you’re a cheater or not, so a guy like ropz playing FPL was a prime cheating suspect.  

“The people who I looked up to started calling me a cheater, that wasn’t good. I didn’t really want to play at that point anymore, because it’s not good when you look up to a person then suddenly, he starts calling you a cheater.”

The accusations got so bad that FaceIt flew him out to their London headquarters to play under supervised conditions to prove he wasn’t cheating. And since then, the incidents only steeled his resolve to prove himself through victory.

Stats for ropz in 2021:

Rating: 1.21

ADR: 84.2

K/D diff: +151

K-D ratio: 1.23

Headshot %: 55.1                                                 

Watch ropz’ best highlights in 2020

ropz was named as the 7th best player in the world by HLTV.org.

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Biggest achievement

Despite all odds, the aspirant from humble beginnings emerged triumphant at the ESL One New York in 2018, a truly impressive feat which still ranks as his most significant win to date. The Estonian dogged determination to be the best version of himself and willingness to learn from past defeats has undoubtedly shaped him into the CS:GO legend we know today.

Watch the best highlights from the Grand final right here: