The group stage at ESL Pro League Season 19 is over, and it's very easy to see which teams have been dominant in the two group stages. 

Team Vitality, Astralis, and MOUZ occupy several spots in the rankings, while KSCERATO, b1t, and INS are the only players outside of the three teams to find their way into the top 10. The playoffs will start on Tuesday in Malta.

Top 10 highest-rated players at ESL Pro League Season 19:

1. {cflag:FR} Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut – 1.70 rating (11 maps)

2. {cflag:BR} Kaike "KSCERATO" Cerato - 1.35 rating (12 maps)

3. {cflag:IL} Dorian "xertioN" Berman - 1.32 rating (12 maps)

4. {cflag:US} Jonathan Jablonowski - 1.31 rating (13 maps)

5. {cflag:DK} Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz – 1.31 rating (11 maps)

6. {cflag:GT} Mario "malbsMd" Samayoa - 1.28 rating (17 maps)

7. {cflag:PL} Olek "hades" Miskiewicz - 1.26 rating (11 maps)

8. {cflag:UA} Valerij "b1t" Vakhovsjkyj - 1.25 rating (10 maps)

9. {cflag:IL} Lotan "Spinx" Giladi – 1.25 rating (11 maps)

10. {cflag:IL} Guy "NertZ" Iluz - 1.23 rating (13 maps)

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ZywOo

Spinx

Jabbi

Astralis

Team Vitality

MOUZ

Copenhagen-based esports powerhouse Astralis is gearing up for the Europe RMR Closed Qualifier scheduled to unfold from January 18 to January 20. The main team is poised to confront challenges head-on in pursuit of securing a coveted spot in the forthcoming Europe RMR and, ultimately, competing in the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen on home soil come March.

In a statement on Astralis.gg, Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard expresses his expectation to progress to the Europe RMR in Bucharest. "There's no doubt in my mind about that," he asserts.

Reflecting on his initial months with Astralis, jabbi describes the transition as smooth, marked by a welcoming atmosphere and an effortless settling-in process.

- I've got some good teammates, that's for sure, and we've already developed quite a nice camaraderie on the squad. We're having a lot of fun, but I appreciate that we also manage to focus on serious business when needed. It's the greatest combo for team dynamics you could wish for," notes jabbi.

- Of course, we aim to demonstrate to everyone that we can compete at the highest level. In these initial months, establishing a strong foundation for the team has been crucial, something we can rely on as we continue to develop and rebuild our lineup. We're working hard to strengthen our map pool and put the finishing touches on our strategies, the Astralis rifler explain in an interview on [link:{"url":"https://www.astralis.gg/post/jabbi-our-goal-is-to-establish-ourselves-as-a-top-team","isNewTab":true,"text":"Astralis.gg"}].

In the competitive landscape of Closed Qualifier B, blameF and the Danish Quintet are set to face opponents, including MOUZ, Team Spirit, Eternal Fire, Amkal Esports, Preasy Esport, Aurora Gaming, and FORZE Esport. The stakes are high, with eight additional squads vying for their positions in the closed qualifiers, the names of which will be confirmed post the open qualifiers scheduled for January 8-15.

Both Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund got off to a rough start for Astralis, as the two former Heroic players made their debut at the BetBoom Dacha 2023 tournament in Dubai.

Against Virtus.pro the two Danes ended at the bottom of the scoreboard after the first map of Inferno, where VP was in full control.

On Mirage Astralis won both pistol rounds to set themselves up for a much more competitive map. Here Victor "Staehr" Staehr stepped up and delivered a solid performance with several impactful rounds that swayed the map in favor of the Danes.

On Overpass Virtus.pro was favored going into the map, but Astralis got off to a good start leading 4-0 on their T-side. But then Petr 'fame' Bolyshev stepped up and won a 1vs2 clutch to ignite Virtus.pro back into the match. From here on the Russian roster did not look back and finished Astralis off with a 13-7 win.

Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund ended the match at the bottom of the scoreboard with a -32 in K/D combined.

With the loss, Astralis needs to win tomorrow against the loser of FURIA vs Spirit to stay alive in the tournament, where there is $180,000 up for grabs in first prize.

Heroic quickly tweeted this after the loss for Astralis. We guess there is still some bad blood...

stavn

For the second time this year, Astralis has made roster changes to the team. The Danish organization has signed the two Heroic players Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard. The two players have been benched on Heroic after rumors had linked the two with a transfer to Astralis.

Christian Møss "Buzz" Andersen and Johannes "b0RUP" Borup are the two players that has been axed from the team that yesterday failed to qualify for the Royal Arena with a devastating loss to Heroic.

The move hardly comes as any surprise given the many rumors that had circulated after Heroic revealed the reason why the two players got benched on the Heroic roster. The big question was if it was Buzz or Staehr who would be moved to the bench.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/astralis/b0rup_staehr_drldxk","originalWidth":1920,"originalHeight":1080,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Astralis","alt":"staehr, b0RUP"}]

b0RUP tenure at Astralis only lasted five months.

- First of all, I want to welcome Martin and Jakob to Astralis. They both have the qualities and mindset we are looking for in Astralis, and by bringing in two players of this caliber we take an important step towards our goals short and long term. Both players have made it very clear how much they want to be a part of our organization, which besides raw talent and hard work is key to becoming a success in Astralis. - I want to thank Christian and Johannes for their time here, while looking forward to seeing the team and everybody around it get to work, CEO of Astralis, Anders Hørsholt says in a press statement.

The past few months have been very turbulent

For both Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard the move to Astralis must have been a relief after they were called out publicly by Heroic for their disloyalty.

- The past few months have been very turbulent and uncertain, so I am thrilled to have my future in CS2 secured with Astralis. My journey with Heroic, spanning over four years, has been filled with unforgettable memories. I'm sincerely grateful for the fans' support, the dedication of those within and around the organization and, naturally, for all the many players I've had the privilege of sharing the Jersey with. It has been blood, sweat, and tears. Thanks to all of you, Martin ”stavn” Lund says.

In Astralis the two players will be reunited with their former Head of Performance in Heroic, Kasper Straube Hansen, who is now the Director of Sports at Astralis.

-  I would like to thank "b0RUP" and "Buzz" for their tireless contribution to the team. I have the greatest respect for both of them as players and people and am sure they have a bright future ahead of them!

At the same time, I am excited to say the least that we are bringing in two top quality players who, in terms of playing style and personality, are tailored to the Astralis team and organization. Their quality on the server needs no elaboration and at the same time they are both humble but extremely eager to develop as players and contribute to the team and community of Astralis. Today we are taking a significant leap forward and I am both proud and excited to have Martin and Jakob on board, says the sporting director.

The new Astralis core is set to make their debut at the BetBoom Dacha 2023 tournament starting the 5th of December.

Heroic

A big dramatic turn of events has put Heroic in a bit of turmoil. The Organization surprised most people by benching Casper "cadiaN" Møller earlier this month. Today the Organization made another move, as they have removed both Martin "stavn" Lund and Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard from the lineup. 

- After ESL Pro League, stavn and jabbi initiated a push to replace cadiaN, which came unexpectedly to both cadiaN and Heroic's management team. Mediation efforts were attempted, but the situation was brought to an ultimatum where Heroic had to choose between cadiaN and the rest of the team. stavn and jabbi agreed that if Heroic let cadiaN go, they would extend their contracts. With clear intentions from stavn and jabbi to extend, Heroic amicably allowed cadiaN to pursue a new path, Heroic writes before revealing a dramatic twist to the story.

- The same day stavn and jabbi were presented with new contracts they communicated having made future plans with Astralis. Their Heroic contracts had almost 10 months until expiration. While handling the short-term uncertainty and planning for a long-term solution, Heroic’s ambition is to bring stavn and jabbi back. Our performance staff have made a plan to support their potential return to the organization. We are open to discussing transfers to organizations with a professional approach and an understanding of our players’ market value.

 William "⁠sirah⁠" Kjærsgaard and Christoffer "⁠Chr1zN⁠" Storgaard has been called in as the replacement players for Heroic's matches at Roobet Cup, where they will play in a few minutes.

For the first time in history, a player from Heroic won an MVP award after their win in Washington last night.

Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard was named MVP by HLTV, while BLAST awarded the prize to Casper "cadiaN" Møller. The two Heroic players were the highest-rated players on the team, while Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač was the highest-rated player in the tournament. Despite winning the BLAST Premier Fall Finals in Copenhagen last year, Heroic did not win the MVP award at that event. Helvijs "broky" Saukants won the award in Copenhagen.

Highest-rated players of BLAST Spring Finals:

The first Grand Finalist in Katowice was found today in the match between NAVI and Heroic. The Danes were the favorites beforehand despite their poor head-to-head record against the CIS team.

But today none of that mattered. Heroic continued their impressive form from the group stage, and simply destroyed NAVI. It was especially Heroic’s T sides that were causing NAVI problems. On Inferno the big revelation of Katowice, Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard delivered another star performance to add more fuel to his MVP candidacy leading Heroic to a very comfortable 16-8 win.

The Danes carried the momentum on to Mirage and converted that into an excellent first half. 11-4 was the score that told the story of a Heroic roster in complete control. Ilya 'Perfecto' Zalutskiy did what he could to help his team with a good overall performance, but that was the only bright light for NAVI, who still has a lot of work to do if they want to reach their previous heights.

Heroic locked in their spot in the Grand Final with another 16-8 win, and will now face the winner of G2 vs Team Liquid tomorrow in Spodek Arena.

MVP: {cflag:DK} René 'TeSeS' Madsen – 1.48 rating / 44-31 K-D / 95.6 ADR

TeSeS

Natus Vincere

The group stage of the highly anticipated IEM Katowice 2023 tournament has come to a close, and the statistics have been analyzed. The results are in, and one player has emerged as the highest rated player of the group stage – jabbi of the Heroic team.

jabbi’s performance over the course of 7 maps and 177 rounds was nothing short of remarkable, as he finished with a +45 K-D diff, 1.42 K/D, and a 1.39 rating. These impressive numbers reflect jabbi’s outstanding ability to secure kills and avoid deaths, making him a crucial component of Heroic’s lineup.

However, jabbi was not the only player who shone during the group stage. Coming in at a close second was Vitality’s ZywOo, who played 7 maps and 176 rounds with a +40 K-D diff, 1.36 K/D, and a 1.34 Rating.

Rounding out the top three is jks from G2, who played 6 maps and 152 rounds with a +36 K-D diff, a 1.44 K/D ratio, and a 1.30 Rating.

The consistency from these top three players has set the bar for the rest of the tournament and has fans excited for what is to come. As the tournament moves into the playoff stage, all eyes will be on jabbi, ZywOo, and jks as they look to continue their stellar performances and lead their teams to victory.

Take a look at the best performers from IEM Katowice 2023 [link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/stats/players?event=6809","isNewTab":true,"text":"right here"}].

Heroic will have to be considered among the favorites to win IEM Katowice after their dominant performance against Team Vitality today.

With Jakob 'jabbi' Nygaard continuing his incredible form the Danes were able to control the game from the start until the end. Both on Inferno and Overpass it was their explosive T sides that cut right through the defense of Vitality.

Heroic won 16-7, 16-4 to qualify directly for the semi-finals at IEM Katowice. The Danes can look back at a superb groupstage play, where jabbi and sjuush have taken their level to new heights as the so-called support players for cadiaN and stavn. 

Vitality will have to go through the quarter-finals in order to try and win the tournament. The playoffs start on Friday.

Heroic – Team Vitality 2-0 | IEM Katowice

MVP: {cflag:DK} Rasmus 'sjuush' Beck - 1.52 rating / 40-24 K-D / 98.7 ADR

Scope.gg has once again revealed some fascinating facts from the BLAST Premier Fall Final event in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Heroic’s stavn got the highest number of wallbang kills throughout the event. A total of 15, as well as 17 kills through smokes. Should his PC be checked to see if there’s any ‘third party software’ running?

FaZe Clan’s ropz became the most accurate rifler of the event with an accuracy of 59.3%.

NiP’s REZ was the fastest sniper of the tournament with TTD (Time to Damage) of 199 ms. Meanwhile, s1mple was the slowest with TTD of 237 ms. TTD is basically the average time it took you from seeing the enemy player to dealing damage to them.

Heroic’s newest addition to the roster, jabbi, admired his skins for 47 minutes! Some players just can’t get enough of looking at their skins.

Aleksib died 13 times with a grenade in his hand or while reloading. For you guys out there, don’t let you self be caught off guard!

Aleksib

s1mple

ropz

Heroic finally broke the curse of winning a big LAN tournament with the victory in Copenhagen at BLAST Fall Finals.

As the newest member of the roster, Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard has been integral in the recent resurgence of Heroic, who also reached the Grand Final in IEM Rio earlier this month.

You can see an interview with the 19-year-old player after yesterday's Grand Final.

Vladislav "nafany" Gorshkov and his Cloud9 squad has been firing on all cylinders lately at IEM Rio Major. The young CIS team is currently on a 10-map winning streak after securing a ticket to playoffs as the first team at the tournament, following their win today against Heroic.

Right after being handed a clear 2-0 loss from Cloud9, we asked Heroic’s Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard why the Russians are so tough to play against at the moment. Hear his answer in the interview down below.

Cloud9

Heroic might have found the right momentum before going into IEM Rio next week.

The Danes played an overall great match against Astralis as BLAST Fall Showdown, where they succeeded in claiming the last spot for BLAST Fall Finals on home soil in Copenhagen.

After the game the desk spoke with Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard about his transition into the Heroic roster, and what he can do better.

- I can still do much better. My pistol rounds are bad sometimes, and in some of the clutches I am too stressed, the Heroic player explained the desk at BLAST.

You can see a part of the interview here.

[twitchClip:GlamorousInexpensiveDaikonCmonBruh-2JXR7WX-K__HujAr]

The future of competitive Counter-Strike is looking bright – very bright. The increased focus and huge investment in talent and academy teams throughout the entire CS:GO circuit in recent times has made it much easier to not only discover the new up-and-coming players, but it has also made it much easier to climb the ranks as a youngster.  

In this article, we’ve taken a look at the best performing teenagers in top-tier CS:GO by listing the 10 highest-rated under-20 players in 2022 so far. And it comes with little surprise that NAVI's Valeriy 'b1t' Vakhovskiy is to be found at the very top, with the promising Ukrainian having made a lightning entry onto the scene after his debut last year. His former NAVI Junior teammate Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov is doing his best to catch up with him as the AWPer is placed right behind him.

1. {cflag:RU} m0nesy (G2) | 1.12 rating / 70.8 ADR / 1.10 Impact rating

2. {cflag:UA} b1t (NAVI) | 1.11 rating / 75.4 ADR / 1.11 Impact rating

3. {cflag:IL} flameZ (OG) | 1.11 rating / 77.5 ADR / 1.17 Impact rating

4. {cflag:RU} Patsi (Spirit) | 1.09 rating / 82.2 / 1.25 Impact rating

5. {cflag:RO} lauNX (Sprout) | 1.09 rating / 79.2 ADR / 1.17 Impact rating

6. {cflag:BR} dumau (00Nation) | 1.09 rating / 78.4 ADR / 1.09 ADR

7. {cflag:RU} fame (Outsiders) | 1.07 rating 73.5 ADR / 1.05 Impact rating

8. {cflag:DK} jabbi (Heroic) | 1.06 rating / 75.7 ADR / 1.08 Impact rating

9. {cflag:LT} bymas (MOUZ) | 1.04 rating / 71.9 ADR / 0.92 Impact rating

10. {cflag:DK} Zyphon (Sprout) | 1.03 rating / 72.5 ADR | 0.97 Impact rating

(Stats are from Top 30 matches - Minimum 30 maps played)

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B1tGOD

fame

m0NESY

Bymas

Zyphon

lauNX

dumau

Patsi

flameZ

Heroic secured their spot at the Play-in of IEM Cologne earlier today by winning against Sprout and MOUZ.

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The Play-in event was the first tournament for Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard, who finished his first four maps for Heroic with a 1.22 rating. An impressive debut for the young Dane, who afterwards received praise from his teammate Martin "stavn" Lund.

- He is really good at finding space and having good ideas mid-round. It's something that has raised our mid-round level even higher. And then it is just a pleasure to play with him.

You can see the full interview with stavn in the video below.

Heroic is a name that you have heard plenty of times, and for good reason. Catapulting themselves into the top of the rankings in the online era, the Danes have since remained one of the absolute best teams in the entire world. Questions about whether or not they are able to take home LAN-events, however, have been raised ever since we got back to regular ways in terms of LAN-events. 

If you ask the newest signing of Heroic, Jakob "jabbi" Nygaard, it is no question whether or not Heroic are able to compete amongst the best for a chance to lift the trophy of the main IEM Cologne event. After a great debut at the IEM Cologne Play-in against Sprout, securing a 1.52 rating in a 16-3 victory, the 18-year-old expressed the following when asked if the main tournament was a necessity for them: 

To hear more about what "jabbi" had to say, just after his debut with Heroic, you can watch the entire exclusive interview posted down below: 

Heroic recently changed their lineup benching Ismail "refrezh" Ali, while adding Copenhagen Flames' Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard in his place.

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The 18-year-old Dane will ignite the Heroic roster with a lot of firepower and talent, as can be seen in the video below. Jabbi was the longest-standing member of the Copenhagen Flames roster, who defied the odds and qualified for both of the PGL Majors in 2021 and 2022. Since then Fredrik "roeJ" Jørgensen and Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjid has been sold to Fnatic.

Copenhagen Flames

Jakob "Jabbi" Nygaard has just been confirmed as the new fifth player on the Heroic roster.

On Heroic's website, the now-former Copenhagen Flames player commented on his move.

Jabbi will replace Ismail "refrezh" Ali, who was benched three days ago.

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refrezh

Ismail “refrezh” Ali’s days as a Heroic member has come to an end with the Norwegian-based organization announcing his departure this Saturday. The 24-year-old rifler joined the Casper “cadiaN” Møller-led team in February last year arriving from MAD Lions.

The news about refrezh’s exit comes only days after a [link:{"url":"https://pley.gg/news/media-heroic-close-signing-with-jabbi","isNewTab":true,"text":"report "}]from TV 2 Sport stating that Heroic is pursuing Copenhagen Flames’ Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard.

- Since the beginning of this 5-man roster, we have always believed that the team were capable of great things. However, during the last year Heroic has been highly competitive in the major tournaments but has struggled to take that final last step. Therefore, despite all the qualities of refrezh, we have decided that it was time to try something new, Heroic wrote in a statement. 

Furthermore Heroic informed that refrezh will continue to be under contract with the organization. 

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{cflag:DK} Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller 

{cflag:DK} Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali (inactive)

The Danes from Heroic did not get to enjoy their first LAN victory at Pinnacle Cup Championships very long before the news of a potential transfer hit the front pages.

Because according to [link:{"url":"https://sport.tv2.dk/e-sport/2022-06-11-stor-handel-paa-vej-hos-danmarks-bedste-cs-hold","isNewTab":true,"text":"TV 2 Sport"}], Heroic is close to signing a deal with the current Copenhagen Flames youngster Jakob “Jabbi” Nygaard. With CPH Flames co-owner Steffen Thomsen saying that [link:{"url":"https://sport.tv2.dk/e-sport/2022-06-11-stor-handel-paa-vej-hos-danmarks-bedste-cs-hold","isNewTab":true,"text":"“it won’t take long”"}] before he’s sold. 

However, Thomsen did not wish to comment on this specific case with Heroic, the Danish media explains. Nor does the article inform which Heroic player is heading out to make room for the 18-year-old talent. 

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/Heroic_roster_coy1hg","originalWidth":3840,"originalHeight":2160,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

Who will be the one to get sacrificed on the current Heroic roster?

If Jabbi completes his move to Heroic it will mean that Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen and Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss are the only remaining players on the payroll at CPH Flames. Yet, the Danish organization has no plans keeping the two players, as they wish to build a completely new roster. 

The first two individuals who left Flames were Fredrik "roeJ" Jørgensen and Nico "nicoodoz" Tamjidi when they joined Fnatic on the 6th of June. 

Heroic’s potential lineup will look as follow:

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	30 days	90 days
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Jabbi

Player stats

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