2023 was the year where CS:GO was replaced by CS2 during the year, that otherwise were dominated by teams such as Team Vitality, FaZe, and G2.

Player-wise the story of the year was the decline of Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev, who ended the year by taking a pause from the game after the release of CS2. Despite a drop in performance from the Ukrainian, s1mple is still ranked in the top 10 players of the year. A testament to the insane levels that the NAVI players have shown in the past years.

Another revelation of 2023 was the emergence of the 16-year-old Danil "donk" Kryshkovets. In the summer of 2023, donk was promoted to the first team of Team Spirit, and has since been dominating CS2. 2024 looks promising for the Russian roster, who got Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov onboard at the end of the year. With two players in the top 3 of the best-performing players of 2023, Team Spirit will have high hopes for the new year.

Highest-rated players of 2023 (Ranking Filter: Top 30 teams - min. 50 maps played):

1. {cflag:FR} Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut (Team Vitality) - 1.30 rating (133 maps) +829 K-D difference

2. {cflag:RU} Danil "donk" Kryshkovets (Team Spirit) - 1.29 rating (82 maps) +372 K-D difference

3. {cflag:RU} Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov (Cloud9/Team Spirit) - 1.22 rating (135 maps) +777 K-D difference

4. {cflag:DK} Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz (Astralis) - 1.21 rating (130 maps) +582 K-D difference

5. {cflag:TR} İsmailсan "XANTARES" Dörtkardeş (Eternal Fire) - 1.20 rating (109 maps) +238 K-D difference

6. {cflag:DK} Benjamin "blameF" Bremer (Astralis) - 1.19 rating (130 maps) +480 K-D difference

7. {cflag:SK} David "frozen" Čerňanský (MOUZ/FaZe) - 1.19 rating (127 maps) +464 K-D difference

8. {cflag:BA} Nikola "NiKo" Kovač (G2) - 1.18 rating (129 maps) +359 K-D difference

9. {cflag:RU} Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov (G2) - 1.18 rating (129 maps) +498 K-D difference

10. {cflag:UA} Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyljev (NAVI) - 1.17 rating (105 maps) +401 K-D difference

Also rated 1.17 in 2023: KSCERATO, Spinx, Jame, deko

Team Vitality was the highest-rated team during 2023 with a 1.11 rating, with Virtus.pro, Natus Vincere, FaZe, Heroic, Monte, and Astralis being the closest competitors rating-wise.

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Team Vitality

After almost five years at MOUZ David "frozen" Čerňanský has made the move to FaZe, where he join his former teammates Finn "karrigan" Andersen and Robin "ropz" Kool.

At FaZe the Slovakian rifler will replace Russel "Twistzz" Van Dulken, who is rumored to join Team Liquid. 21-year-old David "frozen" Čerňanský has been one of the perhaps most underrated stars of Counter-Strike in the past years, where the Slovakian has emerged as one of the best riflers on the scene. In 2023 David "frozen" Čerňanský has averaged an impressive 1.20 rating against top 30 teams, which puts him in the top-5 catagory of players in the world based on ratings alone.

David "frozen" Čerňanský spent 1722 days on MOUZ, where he won several notable tournaments such as ESL Pro League 18 and 10, Flashpoint 3, cs_summit 5, and the CS:GO Asia Championships 2019. He was signed in 2019 alongside Özgür "woxic" Eker and Finn "karrigan" Andersen.

The new FaZe rifler is already set to make his debut at the BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi later this month, where a healthy $1,000,000 are in the prize pool.

MOUZ

First of. Most players could only dream of having a year like Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev’s 2023. With a 1.19 rating, NAVI’s superstar is ranked 5th among all players in the elite level of Counter-Strike (vs top 30 teams) after the first half of the season is done and dusted. A season that ended without NAVI making it to one of the Grand Finals, which given the track record for NAVI and s1mple is almost unheard of.

The internal struggles on NAVI combined with the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war have been a dangerous cocktail for the 2021 world beaters.

With inhuman ratings during the last couple of years, 2023 has been somewhat of a downfall for the s1mple. Let’s take a look at the numbers:

Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev’s HLTV rating (vs top 30 teams) since 2016:

2016: 1.17 rating (Average of teammates: 1.01)

2017: 1.23 rating (Average of teammates: 1.00)

2018: 1.34 rating (Average of teammates: 1.04)

2019: 1.28 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)

2020: 1.28 rating (Average of teammates: 1.02)

2021: 1.35 rating (Average of teammates: 1.06)

2022: 1.26 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)

2023: 1.19 rating (Average of teammates: 1.03)

The second part of 2023 is waiting after the summer break, but the question remains what kind of NAVI we will get to see? Rumors have speculated in a new rebuild of the roster with an international focus leaving out Denis "electroNic" Sharipov, Ilya "Perfecto" Zalutskiy, and Andrii “npl” Kukharskyi. With this tweet, s1mple fueled the rumors even more about an upcoming change.

Natus Vincere

FURIA was left with no chance as the Slovakian rifler takes down three players through the smoke. Up 7-4 on the weaker T side, MOUZ was left in a two vs. five situation. Against all odds, the magic rifler from MOUZ takes down three players of FURIA through a single smoke to win a round and give his team a chance to stay in the match. 

Read more about the match in the article below:

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FURIA

At BLAST World Finals we spoke with CS:GO commentator Mohan "launders" Govindasamy about rating players. Is there too big of a focus on the HLTV-ratings? And how does he rate players?

At the same time, we also wanted to know, if there were any players, that he felt were especially underrated.

- I would say, that it is probably frozen (David "frozen" Čerňanský). Magisk (Emil "Magisk" Reif) is another one. And rain (Håvard "rain" Nygaard) is another one. These are players who I think the stats don't always reflect how good they are. frozen did actually have a great year, but I think that he doesn't have a lot of attention, so in terms of how overrated or underrated he is, I think he is pretty underrated.

You can see the interview with launders in the video below, where he also talks about his own rating system, where he is currently ranking the 20 best players on his [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgBjB5CwouU","isNewTab":false,"text":"Youtube-channel"}].

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rain

NAVI's Charity Event "Born to be Brave" ended up raising a half million dollars for UNITED24, which is an initiative launched by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the main venue for collecting charitable donations in support of Ukraine.

Four teams attended the event with expectations going through the roof to Team One Shot. Here some of the most prolific CS:GO players in the last couple of years were gathered on the same team. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz, and Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut spearheaded the Sniper team. But against Team You Shall Not Pass, the AWPers could not indeed break through the defense of the Support Players team, where Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth and David "frozen" Čerňanský dominated the match which was played on Tuscan.

In the other Semi-Final, it was the big brain roster of in-game leaders taking on Team Go Kill, where several of the game's most aggressive riflers were grouped together. Unlucky for them was the fact, that they started on their CT side on Cobblestone, which quickly proved to be a bad cocktail for the riflers, who could not deny William 'mezii' Merriman, Lukas 'gla1ve' Rossander, and the rest of the IGL's.

In the Grand Final Train made its return as the two teams played on the rails on the first map. A close affair ended 16-14 in favor of You Shall Not Pass, who made short proces on the second map of Anubis, where an overall very solid team performance saw them winning the match in comfortable style. 

Player of the tournament was David "frozen" Čerňanský, who ended with a 1.37 rating on the three maps he played.

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 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.

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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.

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

Ax1Le

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Cloud9

David "frozen" Čerňanský gave a lot of credit to in-game leader Christopher "dexter" Nong for his calling during the match against Vitality. 

MOUZ has been one of the best teams at IEM Rio especially on their T side, where a lot of teams are having big problems in the current CT meta game. We spoke with David "frozen" Čerňanský after the win against Team Vitality.

dexter

Both MOUZ and Outsiders are predicted to have a good chance of making it to the next stage of IEM Rio but had to face each other in the opening round of the Challengers Stage.

On Inferno, MOUZ won their CT side 9-6. But it was on their T side, that MOUZ showed, that they could be a team to watch at this tournament. With both David 'frozen' Čerňanský and Dorian 'xertioN' Berman on fire, MOUZ simply outplayed their opponents in a brilliant fashion. Outsiders did not win a single round during the second half which developed to be a bit of a humiliation.

MOUZ moves on to the 1-0 bracket, while Outsiders will need to step up later tonight to not fall into the early elimination games tomorrow.

Outsiders - MOUZ 0-1 | IEM Rio RMR (Challenger Stage)

6-16 (Inferno) | {cflag:SK} David 'frozen' Čerňanský – 1.82 Rating / 22–7 K-D / 105.6 ADR

xertionic

Outsiders

After a four-day break from competition at the prestigious IEM Cologne, it's finally time to initiate the much-awaited playoff stage. There are only six teams remaining going into the quarterfinal stage, which will see Astralis taking on the Germans from MOUZ in the first matchup. 

After that, the 'surprise of the tournament' in Movistar Riders, [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/how-did-movistar-riders-take-down-g2-vitality","isNewTab":true,"text":"who has taken down G2 and Vitality earlier in the tournament"}], is set to square up against Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski an the rest of Liquid. 

Today's winners will proceed to the semifinal, where NAVI and FaZe await.

15.30: MOUZ - Astralis (1-2) [checkmark:]

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After confidently taking down TYLOO, David 'frozen' Čerňanský spoke about their chances going forward as they will only face tougher opposition from now on.

We gotta go into the match and just try to play our game(...) We just gotta keep it very calm when it comes to playing the better teams.

The Slovakian rifler was very happy to make it this far, but he also has bigger ambitions.

It is great to make it to the main event, but the goal will be playoffs.

The last set of Bo3-series on day two of the Roobet Cup 2022 event saw MOUZ and Imperial lock horns in a battle for three points in Group C. A victory today would mean a great start to the event for both rosters and a current spot at the top of the table with ENCE. On paper Imperial were the slight favorites going into the Bo3-series ranked as #15 in the world, whereas MOUZ ranked as #17 in the world. However, with talent such as "frozen" and "Bymas" on your roster, anything can happen. It was also MOUZ who proved the better team on the day. In just two maps they managed to defeat the iconic Brazilians of Imperial and secure three points to mark a great start to their run at the Roobet Cup 2022 event. 

The first map of the Bo3-series was picked by MOUZ and saw the brawl between the two rosters kick off on Nuke. In addition to being a strong map for MOUZ it is one of Imperial's worst maps as of recent time, having only won 30% of their battles on Nuke in the past three months (10 maps). The Brazilians started on the, arguably, stronger side as the CT's. It was also Imperial to git the ground running and thanks to a great defense and phenomenal performance from "fer" they managed to give themselves an advantage going into the second half of Nuke at the scoreline of 9-6. As mentioned, the CT-side of Nuke is considered to be the easier one out of the two, and MOUZ definitely made it look easy. Only allowing their opponents two rounds on their offensive half, MOUZ secured the first map of the series at the scoreline of 16-11. 

The second map of the brawl was set to be Inferno and was, of course, picked by Imperial. Being Imperial's best map as of late it might come as a surprise as to why MOUZ allowed the experienced Brazilians to choose Inferno as their map pick. Once the map kicked off, however, it quickly became clear as to why MOUZ had left Inferno open for Imperial to pick. Starting on the CT-side, "dexter" and his troops smothered the Brazilian offense and left them little room to execute anything with success. With "dexter" himself leading by example and topping the leaderboard, MOUZ went to halftime at the dominating scoreline of 11-4. The second half continued as the first had ended, with MOUZ steamrolling Imperial. Only allowing their opponents to three rounds in the second half, MOUZ claimed victory at the scoreline of 16-7 and secured three well-deserved points in their first game of the Roobet Cup 2022. 

MOUZ - Imperial 2-0 | Roobet Cup 2022 (Group C)

16-11 (Nuke) | {cflag:BR} fer - 1.35 Rating / 25-17 K-D / 99.7 ADR

16-7 (Inferno) | {cflag:SK} frozen - 1.46 Rating / 22-12 K-D / 85.3 ADR

: {cflag:SK} David "frozen" Čerňanský - 1.33 Rating / 43-29 K-D / 81.6 ADR

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Roobet Cup 2022 (Group C) - 9z vs FURIA (2-0) 

Whilst MOUZ and Imperial had their battle, another brawl took place within the Roobet Cup 2022 event. Two South American rosters clashed as FURIA took on 9z. FURIA were the big favorites on paper before the two rosters locked horns, however, once the Bo3-series got underway 9z completely stunned the Brazilian giants. A close brawl on Overpass fell the way of 9z and with a great performance Inferno to follow it up, the underdogs in 9z managed to shock everybody and take down FURIA in just two maps. 

Imperial

There's a lot of Counter-Strike action on the schedule this Friday. At Pinnacle Cup IV, it's time to determine the two grand finalists through a couple of semifinals between Finest vs Movistar Riders and Eternal Fire vs ECSTATIC with the first one kicking off at 13:00 (CET).

It's also time to find the last two qualifiers for the upcoming ESL Challenger in Valencia, Spain beginning in early July this year. The two winners of the EU and NA closed qualifier this Friday will go on and grab a ticket to the $100.000 tournament, which already features Outsiders, FURIA and MIBR.

ESL Challenger Valencia Closed Qualifier EU & NA

20.00: Sprout – forZe/MOUZ winner (Decider match)

04.00: paiN – GODSENT/ATK winner (Decider match)

We have arrived at the last day of the first European RMR group as we head into a thrilling last round of play. Today will determine the fate of profiled teams like Vitality, MOUZ, OG and Outsiders, who all will fight their heart out for a spot in the upcoming PGL Antwerp Major next month. 

You can find today's schedule from the important Major qualifier right here.

12.45: forZe - FaZe/NAVI (Legends Stage decider)

It's time for the second day at ESL Pro League Season 15!

Yesterday Group A kicked off with two favourite victories in the favour of G2 and NIP, as the Russians from Entropiq secured a confident 2-0 win in the last matchup. David "frozen" Čerňanský and MOUZ gets the chance to retaliate this Thursday in the head-to-head against the superstars from G2. 

The last two matches of the day and the last two chances to secure a spot at IEM Katowice had MOUZ going up against Entropiq, while NIP took on Movistar Riders.

The Bo3 started on MOUZ’s pick of Vertigo and saw the European squad take an early lead of 3-1 on their T-side. The Russians of Entropiq answered back fast, and soon the score was tied at 4-4. The rest of the half was extremely one-sided as stand-in “JDC”, and IGL “dexter” kept finding opening frags, which resulted in a satisfying 10-5 lead at halftime for MOUZ.

Entropiq torpedoed their way back into the map as soon as they hit the T-side, seven of the first eight rounds after the break, thereby taking back the lead. MOUZ threw a couple of different looks at the Russians, which netted them some early map control and frags, which saw them secure map point at 15-14. Entropiq weren’t able to push the map into overtime, and MOUZ take the map win after thirty rounds.

Down 0-1 in maps, Entropiq got off to a great 3-0 start on their map pick of Ancient. But the CT-side of Ancient can sometimes be very dominant, and that’s what MOUZ started showing after their bad start. It was once again “JDC” and “dexter” leading the way, with solid B-site holds, while “torzsi” also had a great performance on the AWP. This resulted in a ten-round win streak for MOUZ before the Russians were able to stop the streak and take the last two rounds for themselves.

The European squad continued their dominance in the second half and quickly found themselves at map- and match point, with nine rounds to close it out. Entropiq weren’t able to make the miracle comeback, and MOUZ steal the Russians’ map pick at 16-6.

MOUZ thereby secure their spot at IEM Katowice, while Entropiq will have to watch from the sidelines.

Vertigo: 16-14 | dexter – 25/21 K-D | 98.3 ADR | 86.7% KAST | 1.41 Rating 

Ancient: 16-6 | torzsi – 26/9 K-D | 118.7 ADR | 77.3% KAST | 1.85 Rating

 David “frozen” Čerňanský – 41/25 K-D | 94.1 ADR | 78.8% KAST | 1.38 Rating

On the b-stream, we had NIP playing versus Movistar Riders, and it was the Swedes that came out on top after taking down the Spaniards in two maps. 

The action began on Movistar's pick of Vertigo where NIP were able to secure the win at 16-9. The stand-out performer was the always consistent IGL Hampus "hampus" Poser who greatly influenced the game with his impact. The score was dead-even at halftime at 8-7, but as soon as NIP hit the T-side they blew away the competition.

The second map of Overpass was even more lopsided than the first one, as the Swedes were able to win that at 16-6. Movistar Riders did start out best taking the lead 2-0 and 3-1, but after that, it was all downhill for them as the Ninjas mowed them down. Especially Patrick "es3tag" Hansen and Nicolas "Plopski" Gonzalez Zamora had a great game, which facilitated the extremely dominating win for the Swedes.

NIP thereby secured their spot at IEM Katowice, while Movistar Riders had to leave empty-handed.

Vertigo: 16-9 | hampus – 24/16 K-D | 110.6 ADR | 80% KAST | 1.59 Rating 

Overpass: 16-6 | es3tag – 22/12 K-D | 97 ADR | 90.9% KAST | 1.65 Rating

 Hampus "hampus" Poser – 41/30 K-D | 96.5 ADR | 78.7% KAST | 1.44 Rating

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Movistar Riders

David "frozen" Čerňanský has been one of the few bright spots on MOUZ last year. The 19-year-old Slovakian was today rewarded with an extension of his contract.

The news was announced on Twitter, where it initially was interpreted, as either an anniversary video or goodbye video. Even OG chipped in to complete the confusion with a false announcement of frozen.

David "frozen" Čerňanský joined MOUZ in 2019 and is currently the longest-standing member on the active roster.

With pistol rounds kicking off both the first and second half in every competitive CS:GO match, it means that they are instrumental and key rounds to win if you wish to build up momentum. Pistol rounds are not a treat for every pro player, however, there are some individuals who thrive in these rounds, where you often have nothing but your USP or Glock in hand.

Looking at the statistics from 2021, it’s quite clear who has been the most dominant pistol round player this year, with the French phenomenon Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut placing levels above everyone else. Even though the Vitality superstar hasn’t had a super successful year like the previous ones, his 1.48 pistol round rating is out of this world.

ZywOo with an epic P250 quad kill against Astralis

[twitchClip:CuriousKitschyShrimpAMPTropPunch-FZ2CJd3prMiQnw2y]

Top 5 Pistol Round Players 2021 (vs top 30 teams)

1. {cflag:FR} ZywOo (Vitality) | 1.48 Rating (+108 K-D diff)

2. {cflag:RU} Ax1Le (Gambit) | 1.35 (+113)

1. {cflag:FR} ZywOo | 1.70 Rating (+67 K-D diff) 

1. {cflag:BA} NiKo | 1.42 Rating (+62 K-D diff)

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While BIG and MAD Lions met in a playoff-deciding fight at the top of the group, MOUZ and GamerLegion stood toe to toe in a vital elimination matchup as the two lowest placed teams in Group A. A position MOUZ has been placed in owing to their opening loss against MAD Lions yesterday.

The Australian in-game leader and captain of MOUZ Christopher “dexter” Nong had his back to the wall going into today’s match vs the underdogs from GamerLegion, with a loss and elimination being a massive disappointment. However, the heavy favourites, who once again had Aurimas "Bymas" Pipiras in the starting lineup, managed to avoid an exit for now, due to the heroics from David “frozen” Čerňanský, who ended the last half of the series on a staggering 2.33 Rating / 22-6 K-D / 148.1 ADR.

The 2-0 result by MOUZ means that they will meet MAD Lions in a fierce head-to-head brawl tomorrow to determine the last playoff participant in Group A. BIG is already through to the next stage, while GamerLegion on the other hand has been eliminated. 

MOUZ – GamerLegion 2-0 | DreamHack Open November

16-11(Ancient) | {cflag:SK} frozen – 1.60 Rating /27-13 K-D / 106.1 ADR

16-13 (Nuke) | {cflag:SK} frozen – 1.52 Rating / 28-17 K-D / 95.6 ADR

MVP: {cflag:SK} David “frozen” Čerňanský  -  1.55 Rating / 55.30 K-D / 100.7 ADR

GamerLegion

After losing their opening BO1s in the Legends Stage, MOUZ managed to stay alive after their victory against ENCE. The European could count on ropz and frozen, who led the way to secure a 10-5 half and close out the map entirely, 16-6.

On vertigo, frozen brought the firepower and led his team to a flawless CT-side, carrying his team to a victory, and finished on the top of the scoreboard with an impressive 1.64 Rating and 121.8 ADR. The 19-year-old finished off the series on the top of the scoreboard with the highest rating (1.58) on the server.

As a result of his impressive performance, frozen tops the charts in two categories:

	30 days	90 days
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frozen

Player stats

Articles mentioning frozen

Highest rated players of 2023

FaZe sign frozen in new blockbuster transfer

s1mple is having his worst year since 2016

frozen got a sixth sense

launders: These are the most underrated players of CS:GO

Born to be Brave Charity event raise $500.000

2022 review: Cloud9 domination on Ancient!

frozen: dexter's calling was insane

Frozen and xertioN behind brilliant MOUZ win

Today in CS:GO - Friday 15/7 - 2022

frozen: I think we can surprise in the group stage

MOUZ off to great start at Roobet Cup 2022

Today in CS:GO - Friday 27/5 - 2022

Today in CS:GO - Wednesday 20/4 - 2022

Today in CS:GO - Thursday 10/3 - 2022

MOUZ and NIP through to IEM Katowice

MOUZ extends contract with frozen

ZywOo levels above the rest! Pistol Kings of 2021

frozen and MOUZ survive another day at DH Open November

Player of the day: David "frozen" Čerňanský

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