A big day awaits in Germany with two big brawls in the quarter-finals of IEM Cologne.

For starters, we have the all-new Cloud9 roster, which will finally be complete after Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov's visa problems have been solved. The CIS team will face no other than the reigning Major champions from Team Vitality in the first match of the day in Cologne.

Later on, we will have a Danish Derby, when Heroic and Astralis go head to head.

The winners will advance to the semi-finals, where ENCE and G2 will be waiting.

Ax1Le

Cloud9

Astralis

Heroic

Team Vitality

Cloud9 have secured their spot in the upper quarter-finals of the IEM Katowice 2023 Play-in Stage with a dominant 16-5 victory over IHC in the opening round of Bo1’s. Ax1Le and company dominated the first half on Mirage, ending it with an 11-4 lead, and closed out the game in the second half, only allowing IHC to pick up one round.

Led by Ax1Le, Cloud9 will now face off against ENCE, who defeated paiN on the other stream to secure their quarter-final spot. The quarter-final between Cloud9 and ENCE will take place today at 16:00 (CET).

IHC and paiN will have to battle their way out of the Lower bracket on Thursday at 19:30 (CET) for another chance to advance in the tournament.

 Ax1Le – 1.83 Rating | 24-11 K/D | 124.5 ADR | 85.7% KAST

 dycha – 1.39 Rating | 18-13 K/D | 102.6 ADR | 87.0% KAST

dycha

ENCE

paiN

In a [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/article/43371-we-didn-t-run-away-from-problems-we-tried-to-solve-them-ax1le-on-last-season-issues-disappointment-in-rio-and-personal-growth","isNewTab":true,"text":"recent interview with escorenews.com"}], Cloud9’s Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov spoke about the benching of Timofey “inters” Yakushin and the possibility of his return to Cloud9’s main roster.

During the interview, Ax1Le stated that the coach and management made the decision to replace interz and that they took part in the selection process during try-outs. He expressed sadness about losing a good friend in interz and added that he still keeps in touch with him.

“Basically, the coach and management come to the decision to replace the player. We took part in the selection of players during the try-outs. After losing the major, there was a little depression: I understood that most likely someone would be replaced. Timofey is a very good person, I still keep in touch with him, we have a lot of local memes. It was sad to say goodbye to him.”

Despite the disappointment, Ax1Le expressed confidence in interz's future and believes that he will be back at the tier-1 CS in a short time. He mentioned that interz is currently playing FACEIT and keeping his skills sharp. He concluded by saying that there will always be someone who needs a player like interz and that he's sure that interz will not disappear.

“I believe interz will be back at the Tier-1 Counter-Strike in a short time. He’s playing FACEIT now, keeping his shape. There is always someone who needs such players. In the near future, he may well be called somewhere. I’m sure that he will not disappear.”

When asked if he believes that interz can return to the main roster, Ax1Le stated that it might happen if Cloud9's results are very bad, but he couldn't be sure.

You can read the full interview [link:{"url":"https://escorenews.com/en/csgo/article/43371-we-didn-t-run-away-from-problems-we-tried-to-solve-them-ax1le-on-last-season-issues-disappointment-in-rio-and-personal-growth","isNewTab":true,"text":"right here"}].

interz

We go through the year map by map to find the most versatile player of 2022.

Who has stood out in 2022 as the best individual player? Follow Pley.gg in the coming days, where we go in-depth with all the maps and celebrate the most versatile player of the year.

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Mirage. A spot as number 1 gives you 10 points for the overall ranking, where we combine the seven most-played maps of the year to find the most versatile player. Here we celebrate the ability to perform well on different maps.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"2022-review-cloud9-domination-ancient","isNewTab":true}]

We have used the following metrics in our ranking:

HLTV rating vs top 30 teams in all matches in 2022 with a minimum of 10 maps played.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"jame-was-2022-king-overpass","isNewTab":true}]

Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno, Overpass, Ancient, Mirage)

Tomorrow we take a look at Vertigo and Dust2!

rigoN

s1mple

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Ancient. A spot as number 1 gives you 10 points for the overall ranking, where we combine the seven most-played maps of the year to find the most versatile player. Here we celebrate the ability to perform well on different maps.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"2022-review-this-is-best-inferno-player","isNewTab":true}]

Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno, Overpass, Ancient)

sh1ro

Patsi

SHiPZ

frozen

We are slowly approaching the end of 2022 as we now have the vast majority of tournaments on the calendar behind us.

We started off the year with NAVI on top of the world ranking after a stellar 2021 season, and then it was FaZe’s turn to rule things with their dominant wins at IEM Katowice, PGL Major Antwerp, and IEM Cologne – Now it seems like the throne is up for grabs with no clear favourite.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"outsiders-secure-1-ranking-after-major-success","isNewTab":true}]

However, who has been the best individual performers so far this year? 

That is something we’ve taken a look at in this article. And by looking at the numbers, it’s no surprise that the usual suspects Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut are to be found at the very top.

More upcoming and ‘soon-to-be’ superstars in Heroic’s Martin “stavn” Lund and Kaike “KSCERATO” Ceraro has also found their way to the Top 10.

You can find the 10 highest-rated players of the year down below.

#1 {cflag:RU} sh1ro (Cloud9) | 1.27 Rating / +779 K-D difference

#2 {cflag:UA} s1mple (NAVI) | 1.27 / +710

#3 {cflag:FR} ZywOo (Vitality) | 1.25 / +738

#4 {cflag:DK} blameF (Astralis) | 1.22 / +674

#6 {cflag:RU} Ax1Le (Cloud9) | 1.20 / +363

#7 {cflag:TR} XANTARES (Eternal Fire) | 1.19 / +259

#8 {cflag:DK} stavn (Heroic) | 1.17 / +365

#9 {cflag:BR} KSCERATO (FURIA) | 1.15 / +378

#10 {cflag:LV} broky (FaZe) | 1.15 / +598

[slugORMA:{"slug":"most-notable-free-agents-benched-players-cs-go","isNewTab":true}]

blameF

NiKo

broky

stavn

ZywOo

XANTARES

Here's a list of the best CSGO players in 2022. See which player has had the most impact on his team in 2022

Highest Rated Players in 2022 ⇒ Read the whole list of the best CSGO players here

The IEM Rio Major 2022 is set and over, and many would say that it has been one of the most surprising Majors of all time. Top teams such as FaZe, NAVI, Vitality, and Cloud9 all got played out doing the Major. Despite the top players getting kicked out early, insane highlights and plays were caught by the world's best.

Some of the clips contain jumping headshots from a1xle, clutch rounds with only deagle, 1vs3, and 1vs4 round wins.

Check out the best moments doing the IEM Rio Major 2022 right here:

For the first time in 2022 we got to see the two best CIS teams in the world clash. Cloud9 and NAVI gave each other a go on Mirage, where the winner would be 2-0 in the Legends Stage at IEM Rio.

The first half was a close dance between the two teams. NAVI took an 8-7 lead into the second half on their T side. Here NAVI finally found multiple rounds wins in a row to create a gap. But never write off Cloud9! The resilient roster found a way back from 7-13. Suddenly Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov woke up and destroyed NAVI. The Russian rifler had gone missing in the Challengers Stage, but against NAVI he was the difference maker. Ax1Le went 33-20 in K-D and drove his team to a 16-14 win on Mirage!

Cloud9 is now 2-0 up after having taken down both FaZe and NAVI on the same day. Could they go all the way? 

NAVI – Cloud9 0-1 | IEM Rio Major Legends Stage

14-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le – 1.70 Rating / 33-20 K-D / 124.0 ADR

Natus Vincere

Cloud9 lived up to the expectations with 2-0 win against 1WIN.

In the CIS derby it was Abay 'HObbit' Khasenov and his young teammates that could celebrate after a tough match against 1WIN.

On both Vertigo and Overpass it all came down to how many CT rounds, that each team could muster. In total 11 T rounds were won in the match between the two teams, where Cloud9 won 16-12, 16-13. On the second map of Overpass Cloud9 had to turn a 3-12 deficit into a victory. Again it was their CT side that prevailed keeping 1WIN on 1 win exactly during the second half.

Cloud9 is ready for Rio, and is also in contention to be handed a Legends status.

Cloud9 - 1WIN 2-0 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)

16-12 (Vertigo) | {cflag:KZ} HObbit – 1.49 Rating / 28–24 K-D / 119.8 ADR

16-13 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro – 1.49 Rating / 24–11 K-D / 75.9 ADR

Player of the Match: Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov

H0bbit

1WIN

In the perhaps most exciting match so far at the EU RMR event, Cloud9 won 16-13 against G2. It was Cloud9 in the driver's seat at the beginning, but as the match progressed, Rasmus "HooXi" Nielsen started to find the right solutions for his men with Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač providing several multi-kill rounds to fuel the team. But then the tides turned, as Cloud9 managed to set themselves up for success with three of their star players putting in three kills each in the last three rounds to secure success. Ax1Le, sh1ro, and Hobbit all contributed in the end, and can now enjoy their status as a 2-0 team before Day 3.

G2 – Cloud9 13-16 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)

(Mirage) | {cflag:RU} Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov – 1.33 Rating / 26–15 K-D / 81.4 ADR 

NIP was also back on the server, and is now 2-0 after a quick second half against Bad News Eagles. On Vertigo the Swedish Ninjas completely shut down BNE with a stellar defense winning all rounds on their CT side. Talk of the town was however Brollan’s first half, where the talented Swede performed a 3.18 rating!

Ninjas in Pyjamas – Bad News Eagles 16-7 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)

(Vertigo) | {cflag:SE} Ludvig 'Brollan' Brolin – 1.84 Rating / 23–11 K-D / 112.8 ADR

Brollan

G2 Esports

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Bad News Eagles

The group favorites from Cloud9 have commenced their IEM Road to Rio RMR campaign with a victory as they defeated B8 in Group A. They are now 1-0 together with G2, Bad News Eagles and Sprout.

Ancient ended up being the playground for the Bo1 series between the two CIS squads, presenting a competitive first half where B8 managed to snatch 6 rounds on the CT side. Despite the great fight before switching sides, it was far from enough for the underdogs.

The second half was a complete Cloud9 show and gave no surprises away, as Dmitri “sh1ro” Sokolov and company showcased a flawless CT-side by winning every single round to close out the series 16-6.

Cloud9 vs B8 1-0 | IEM Road to Rio RMR (Group A)

 16-6 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le – 1.66 Rating / 26-13 K-D / 112.5 ADR

After a lengthy group stage at ESL Pro League Season 16 which featured no more than 60 matches, it was time for the thrilling playoffs to commence this week. The 12 best teams from Group A-Group D were set to clash in a fierce elimination playoff bracket with the overall winner grabbing a $175.000 1st prize and a ticket to the prestigious BLAST Premier World Final. 

You can find out who's been the difference-makers and the best performing players so far at the playoffs by looking at our Top 5 Leaderboards down below. 

Opponents flashed (avg. time per round opponents were blinded by a flashbang thrown by this player)

1. {cflag:DK} cadiaN (Heroic) | 3.49 seconds

2. {cflag:GB} mezii (Fnatic) | 3.02 seconds

3. {cflag:AU} dexter (MOUZ) | 2.46 seconds

4. {cflag:ZA} JT (Complexity) | 2.45 seconds

5. {cflag:UA} s1mple (NAVI) | 2.12 seconds

A pure CIS derby was on the card in the opening round of Group B. Outsiders and Cloud9 went head to head on Dust2, where it was Ax1Le and sh1ro, who dominated hard. Jame and his teammates had no real answers to the dynamic duo and lost their own map pick 16-6.

The roles were reversed on the second map, where Outsiders took advantage of the CT meta and took an 11-4 lead with them to the second half. But then Cloud9 came back after winning the pistol round and made it all the way to 11-11 before the Outsiders finally found a round. For Cloud9 it was this time interz who spearheaded the roster with a fine performance.

In the end, it came down to a last-second defuse from Hobbit to secure the victory for Cloud9 who continues their LAN run from IEM Dallas. They will now face the winner of FURIA and Astralis in the next round.

16-6 (Dust2) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.72 Rating / 21-7 K-D / 101.6 ADR

16-12 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} interz - 1.42 Rating / 25-18 K-D / 99.1 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Sergey 'Ax1Le' Rykhtorov - 1.36 Rating / 42-25 K-D / 87.8 ADR

Jame

Outsiders

2022 has so far belonged to FaZe with Finn "karrigan" Andersen leading his team to victories at IEM Katowice, ESL Pro League, and the PGL Antwerp Major. But on an individual level, it is still Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, who is dominating the stats for the year. For this list, we have included all matches played between the top 30 teams in the world on HLTV's world ranking.

While "sh1ro" stole the show with an amazing performance in the Grand Final, the man who got them into that position was Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov.

The 20-year-old had some awesome performances throughout the tournament, but his contribution against the world's #1 of FaZe stands above the rest. In that series, he carried his team on his back and was the sole reason that they got through to the semifinals. 

339-245 K-D | 89.4 ADR | 77.7% KAST | 1.32 Rating | 1.33 Impact

A semi-finals spot at IEM Dallas 2022 was up for grabs when FaZe and Cloud9 faced each other in an elimination game. The two top-tier teams went toe-to-toe throughout three maps and after a hard-fought battle and a couple of comebacks, Cloud9 narrowly managed to edge out the FaZe Clan.

The first map of Overpass, Cloud9's pick, was a very close affair. After an 8-7 first half in FaZe's favor, the map would need another fifteen rounds in the second half. FaZe won that one as well and just barely managed to take down the Russians despite a surprisingly strong individual effort from "nafany".

The fight moved on to FaZe's pick of Inferno where Cloud curiously chose to start on the T side. The choice was fruitful as the Russians put themselves in a fantastic position by winning the half 8-7. "Ax1Le", who was also great on the T side, was absolutely magnificent on the defense. The young rifler was winning almost every duel versus the FaZe stars towards the end of the game, and with that fantastic performance, Cloud9 closed the game after 29 rounds.

After having won on each other's map picks, the two star-filled rosters headed to Mirage. Here we saw an extremely strong start from "ropz", who was 9-0 after just four rounds. It was, however "Ax1Le" that stole the show as he once again stepped up massively for his team. With several impact rounds and an ace, he helped his team overcome multiple deficits and in the end take the map and the series after a closing 8-0 run.

[twitchClip:esl_csgo/clip/SarcasticBetterEelUWot-g5A003VQKawXRayP]

16-14 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} nafany - 1.35 Rating / 30-21 K-D / 96.4 ADR

13-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.64 Rating / 34-18 K-D / 115.6 ADR

13-16 (Ancient) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.58 Rating / 29-19 K-D / 104.8 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov - 1.42 Rating / 85-57 K-D / 101.3 ADR

nafany

FaZe

It was the "Old boys" versus the "Young guns" when Imperial faced Cloud9 in the 1-2 bracket. The goal of this matchup: To survive elimination.

"Ax1Le" had an outrageous start to Imperial's pick of Overpass. The Russian rifler was at one point 13-1 and Cloud9 took the first six rounds off the back of his dominating display. But as "Ax1Le" started to coll down, so did his team, which allowed Imperial to pick up an acceptable five rounds before halftime.

The Brazilians had the upper hand for most of the second half, but they were not able to capitalize on hitting map point at 15-14. The map needed OT, three of them in fact, before the veterans of Imperial were finally able to win their map pick.

After that surprising loss, Cloud9 took the match to Vertigo, perhaps their strongest map. Even though the Russians have an amazing track record on this map they only led by a single round at halftime. This was partially due to fantastic form from "fer".

As they moved to the CT side, Cloud9 started taking care of business. The CIS squad took advantage of the fact that Imperial do not play Vertigo all that often and quickly pushed the match to a decider.

Mirage was all that was left between the two teams and elimination, and in a turn of events that no one could have foreseen, Imperial came out on the CT side and stomped Cloud9 to the tune of 12-3 at halftime after having lost the pistol round.

"fer", who had been the Brazilians' best player throughout the first two maps, raised his level to that of the Luminosity "fer" of old. He was an immovable object on the defense and an unstoppable force on the offense, and in combination with his team, they eliminated one of the favorites in Cloud9.

Cloud9 - Imperial 1-2 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

23-25 (Overpass) | {cflag:RU} Ax1Le - 1.26 Rating / 36-30 K-D / 91.9 ADR

16-9 (Vertigo) | {cflag:KZ} Hobbit - 1.45 Rating / 23-13 K-D / 89.7 ADR

3-16 (Mirage) | {cflag:BR} fer - 1.95 Rating / 25-8 K-D / 127.4 ADR

MVP: {cflag:BR} Fernando "fer" Alvarenga - 1.29 Rating / 79-56 K-D / 91.7 ADR

Hobbit

Imperial

Perhaps the biggest matchup of the day came when Cloud9 and FaZe went to battle. The two teams, who belong amongst the favorites fought it out on Nuke (which is usually Cloud9's permaban) in a Bo1 seeing as they both surprisingly went 1-1 on day one.

Cloud9 started out great on the CT side with a 7-3 lead, but from there on until the break it was all FaZe. "karrigan"s squad ended the half with five rounds, and just like that they turned a four-round deficit into a one-round lead.

With unrelenting aggression, the European squad extended their winstreak to 11 and the lead to 14-7. "Ax1Le" finally put an end to the streak with an amazing ace clutch, but that was the only round that Cloud9 were able to take on the T side, and FaZe easily closed out the map.

Cloud9 now have to battle with the threat of elimination, while FaZe happily move to the 2-1 bracket.

Cloud9 - FaZe 0-1 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

8-16 (Nuke) | {cflag:EE} ropz - 1.62 Rating / 23-10 K-D / 98.6 ADR

ropz

The CIS derby between Outsiders and Cloud9 ended with a victory for the new Cloud9 roster, that made their debuts in their new jerseys at the Legends Stage in PGL Antwerp.

Mirage laid the ground for the battle between the two rivals that were both looking to get the best start possible in the Swiss Group Stage.

The first half delivered exactly what we were all expecting. Outsiders took a small 8-7 lead with them to the second half, where Cloud9 was now on their CT side. Here Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov did well to edge out Outsiders in the end. A 16-12 win for Cloud9 puts them 1-0 up in the group stage. The two teams continue their journey at the Legends Stage later today with another bo1 match. 

Outsiders – Cloud9 1-0 | PGL Major Antwerp Legends Stage

16-12 (Mirage) | {cflag:RU} Sergey "Ax1Le" Rykhtorov - 1.43 Rating / 22-17 K-D / 95.0 ADR

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	0	0
Maps count	0	0

Ax1Le

Player stats

Articles mentioning Ax1Le

Live: Quarter-Finals (IEM Cologne 2023)

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Cloud9 eliminate the favorites of FaZe

Imperial upset and eliminate Cloud9

FaZe dominate Cloud9

Cloud9 wins close match against Outsiders in opening round at PGL Antwerp

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