There are few events as prominent and famous as IEM Cologne. Known to be the "Cathedral of Counter-Strike", the German city called Cologne has housed some of the greatest CS:GO events of all time. IEM Cologne 2023 was no different. Having reached a conclusion on August 6th, IEM Cologne 2023 did not fail to produce some amazing highlights. 

From Astralis besting their countrymen of Heroic, to "m0NESY" reminding everyone of just how talented he is with the 'big green', IEM Cologne 2023 was pack-filled with CS:GO when it is absolute best. 

Whilst we are waiting for tier-one CS:GO to continue, with ESL Pro League S18 beginning in 20 days, let's take a look at some of the best moments and craziest highlights from the playoffs of the just-finished IEM Cologne 2023 event. 

m0NESY

The last ever CS:GO tournament in the “Cathedral of Counter-Strike” in Cologne got a fitting ending with one of the all-time greats finally getting his hands on the coveted trophy. Even though Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač never got to win a CS:GO Major, the 26-year-old Bosnian ends the CS:GO era on a high winning both IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne in the final year of the game.

Against ENCE in the Grand Final in front of a sold-out attendance in the Lanxess Arena in Cologne, it was G2 and NiKo who took control out of the gate. Nuke was over almost before it had begun with G2 wiping out ENCE winning their opponents map pick 16-4.

On Mirage ENCE came back to put up a fight, but unfortunately it only lasted the first half. On ENCE’s T-side they kept running into Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov sniper riffle, who took down 18 players during the map leaving Snappi and his men in dire straits. A 16-10 loss left the audience in the Lanxess Arena wondering, if the bo5 match would only deliver three maps.

But on Anubis ENCE finally got their T-side to work. At 15-8 it seemed inevitable that we needed a fourth map in play, but G2 almost caught up on ENCE, who survived the scare winning 16-13.

Ancient ended out being the last map played in the Grand Final with G2 defeating ENCE 16-9 after an excellent second half, where m0NESY and NiKo played lights out to secure G2 the title in Cologne and the nice $400.000 that goes along with it. 

G2 – ENCE 3-1 (IEM Cologne 2023 – Grand Final)

Nuke: 16-4, Mirage: 16-10, Anubis: 13-16, Ancient: 16-9

MVP: {cflag:BA} Nikola 'NiKo' Kovač – 1.49 rating

NiKo

G2 Esports

ENCE

Order seems to have been restored at the top of CS:GO. After the upset-galore Major in Paris, it is the big and established teams that are dominating IEM Cologne 2023.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"astralis-cloud9-complete-playoffs-bracket-iem-cologne-2023","isNewTab":true}]

Alongside them, it is also prolific players such as device, ZywOo, and m0NESY, that are among the best-performing players at the event. Most notable is Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz. The Astralis AWP'er features on almost all of the important leaderboards after the group stage. You can see them here below.

KAST (Percentage of rounds in which the player either had a kill, assist, survived or was traded):

IEM Cologne will continue on Friday with the Quarter-Finals of the event.

device

ZywOo

Astralis

Who has been the best AWPer so far during the 2023 season? (Updated 5/6)

Let’s take a look at the numbers and statistics of all the players carrying around the “big green” at the very top of the game. Down below you’ll find a list of the most important AWP stats.

We at Pley.gg have made out own leaderboard giving the players points for their placements, in the end, you'll find the overall score to see who ends on top. The leaderboard works as follows: 1st place = 5 points / 2nd = 4 points / 3rd = 3 points / 4th = 2 points / 5th = 1 point

Rating (Against top 30 teams - min. 25 maps)

{cflag:FR} 1. ZywOo (Vitality) | 1.36 (62 maps)

{cflag:RU} 2. sh1ro (Cloud9) | 1.25 (84 maps)

{cflag:DK} 3. device (Astralis) | 1.24 (67 maps)

{cflag:UA} 4. s1mple (NAVI) | 1.19 (62 maps)

{cflag:RU} 5. m0NESY (G2) | 1.18 (55 maps)

{cflag:ES} 2. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 0.43

{cflag:ES} 1. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 67.7%

{cflag:ES} 4. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 9

{cflag:RO} 11. regali (Copenhagen Flames) | 2

sh1ro

MartinezSa

s1mple

How closely did you follow the transfer market in competitive Counter-Strike in 2022? 

That's something you can put to the test in today's quiz which consists of a range of questions surrounding transfer and roster moves within top-tier CS:GO. 

[sporcle:<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" id="spFrame63da3c221154f" src="https://www.sporcle.com/framed/?v=8&pm&gid=29b77e9e2933&fid=63da3c221154f&width=580" style="width:100%;"></iframe><script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.sporcle.com/embed/embed.js?v=63da3c221154f"></script>]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"quiz-hltvs-top-20-list-2022","isNewTab":true}]

It does not look like CS:GO will lack great and powerful AWPers in the future with the arrival of numerous top talents throughout the last couple of years. Something the legendary and four-time Major winner Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz also has noted.

As the guest in the most recent [link:{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsdE3aetwFU&t","isNewTab":true,"text":"episode "}]of HLTV Confirmed, dev1ce praises the new generation of AWPers, where he also pin-points what they are doing so good these days and what aspects he’s yet to master himself.

- I think m0NESY is going to be one of the greatest that’s ever touched Counter-Strike. His mechanical skills are absurd and a bit cleaner than what you see with s1mple, where s1mple just has more flair, dev1ce stated. 

- s1mple does impossible things, m0NESY does that as well, but it’s kind of different with the mouse movement because of the difference in mouse sensitivity… but m0NESY is for me the next big, big, big player.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/m0NESY_G2_uilqxo","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

m0NESY, G2's new talisman, gets a lot of honouring words from dev1ce

dev1ce then continues to highlight a young trio of snipers as well.

- degster still has something to learn but he’s also really, really good. Like there are so many CIS AWPers that is good – you can just go through the list of deko and so on, who supposedly is not a very friendly player to play with.

- broky and sh1ro as well. They fit perfectly into their teams and these two are specially very good at trade fragging with the AWP when you execute. That’s something that’s really hard for me, like quick zoom and trade fragging, and is something that I’m working on which is quite new.

When asked Zvonimir “Professeur” Burazin about what makes these new top-tier AWPer stand out, the Astralis superstar quickly points towards one specific aspect; Clutching.

- One common thing is the clutch factor. I think that’s something you’ve seen more and more with AWPers - It has been there with FalleN and others previously - But now you’re thrown into clutches a lot more as an AWPer because you set your team up for executes. 

- Especially broky, m0NESY, and degster. You can just see the highlight reel when you say their name in the clutch situations, dev1ce said. 

You can watch the entire HLTV Confirmed episode down below.

[slugORMA:{"slug":"blamef-dev1ce-have-play-around-lot-make-feel-comfortable","isNewTab":true}]

[slugORMA:{"slug":"200-iq-device-has-lineups-dropping-smokes","isNewTab":true}]

degster

broky

The MVP of BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi, Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov is not only a monster on LAN, but online the young Russian is perhaps even better.

On the biggest platform for top-tier Counter-Strike online FACEIT, m0NESY has been dominating taking over the 1st place on the Global rankings. Here he has dethroned another CS:GO pro, Paweł "dycha" Dycha.

Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov is one of three Russians in the top 4 of the leaderboard, where Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut also features among the best in the world.

You can see the top 10 ranking down below.

1. {cflag:RU} Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov - 6704 ELO / 1.45 K-D / 63% win rate

2. {cflag:PL} Paweł "dycha" Dycha - 6362 ELO / 1.52 K-D / 67% win rate

3. {cflag:RU} Erkhan "gokushima" Bagynanov - 6268 ELO / 1.34 K-D / 56% win rate

4. {cflag:RU} Pyotr "fame" Bolyshev - 6117 ELO / 1.35 K-D / 62% win rate

5. {cflag:RS} 1xigam - 6002 ELO / 2.68 K-D / 80% win rate

6. {cflag:FR} day0sTV - 5951 ELO / 1.53 K-D / 64% win rate

7. {cflag:BR} dique - 5916 ELO / 1.64 K-D / 87% win rate

8. {cflag:SE} avid- 5797 ELO / 1.28 K-D / 54% win rate

9. {cflag:FR} Mathieu "ZywOo" Herbaut / 1.63 K-D / 69% win rate

10. {cflag:NL} Shuaib “D0cC” Ahmad / 1.71 K-D / 64% win rate

You can see the full list [link:{"url":"https://faceitstats.com/leaderboards/elo","isNewTab":true,"text":"here"}], and perhaps even check your own ranking.

fame

dycha

The resurgence of G2 continues in Katowice, where the roster had absolutely no issues taking down the former number one team in the world, NAVI. G2 won the match after two excellent CT sides on Inferno and Nuke where especially Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov played lights out.

The Russian AWPer was the highest rated player on both maps and had a 13-0 K-D against s1mple throughout the match! A very impressive stat from the youngster who had good help from the usual suspects in NiKo and jks, who has been on fire in Katowice.

G2 can now rest and be ready for Saturday’s semi-final, where they will face the winner of Liquid vs Team Vitality.

NAVI is still in the tournament, but will have to go through the quarter-finals on Friday against the winner of Outsiders and Complexity.

MVP: Ilya 'm0NESY' Osipov – 1.56 rating / 42-19 K-D / 87.2 ADR

Natus Vincere

G2’s talented AWPer, Ilya ”m0NESY” Osipov has found yet another bug on the popular map Anubis. Known for discovering smoke bugs that provide players with advantages, m0NESY has once again shown his skills in uncovering exploits on CS:GO maps.

[twitchClip:AlertBelovedPeanutStoneLightning-_DGFegTmZpwq1fVj]

Recently HLTV’s official podcast, HLTV Confirmed, introduced a new dynamic to their episodes at the start of each season, a time capsule. The idea of this dynamic is for the three regular hosts (Professeur, SPUNJ and Striker) and the special guest (in this episode, Pimp) to predict the #1 team at the break, the Major winner and MVP, however they only have 30 seconds to explain themselves.

Striker predicted FaZe to be the #1 team at the break, stating that despite not winning anything in the second half of 2022 he believes their consistency will keep them at a high level. For the Major and MVP, he predicted G2 to win it all and m0NESY to take home the MVP, saying he believes G2 and m0NESY can peak higher than most teams, however they are not consistent.

For Pimp, Heroic will be the #1 team this season because, in his eyes, during the first half of the year the usual favorites will struggle while Heroic lineup will remain strong and stable. Regarding the Major and its MVP, Pimp was tempted to say Heroic but at the end he predicted G2 as the winners and m0NESY as the MVP because he thinks m0NESY will have a fantastic individual year and could even fight for a #1 spot.

Professeur took the same route as Striker for the first question and predicted FaZe as the #1 team at the break because they are “the safest option”. However, for the second question he drifted away and picked Vitality as the Major champions and ZywOo as the MVP, for him the fact that the Major is hosted in Paris will motivate apEX and this will elevate the team as a whole.

SPUNJ thinks that consistently high placings on important tournaments will give Na’Vi the #1 spot by the end of the incoming season. From his perspective, FaZe will win a second Major this season and Twistzz will get his MVP “because he is f- nuts”.

Finally, a deconstruction on the predictions.

Let's start with the prediction that both Striker and Professeur share, FaZe as the #1 team for this first season of 2023.

Both analysts justified their pick on the faith of FaZe’s consistency, however, how consistent FaZe actually are? If we take a look at the first half of 2022 we not only see that Faze are consistent, they are consistently the best team by quite a bit. Nevertheless, if we look at the events after last year’s summer break FaZe only had 2 top 4 appearances (one of them being in a lost final) and failed to win a single match on the Rio Major, not something you would expect out of a consistent team. 

This raises the question of which FaZe are we going to see during this first half of the year? 

Evidently both Striker and Professeur expect something more similar to the first half of 2022 from FaZe and honestly me as well. Karrigan is an excellent IGL and because FaZe didn’t need nor made any roster changes he can just focus on develop further their strat book and adapt their game plan to the obstacles they faced during the latest season and, on top of that, they have three young players in ropz, broky and Twistzz that are hungry for trophies.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Faze_roster_xm480s","originalWidth":1996,"originalHeight":1123,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: PGL"}]

Now let's talk about Pimp’s pick, Heroic.

Heroic is a team that is considered consistent by many and shines when the favorites struggle which can be mainly attributed to the fact they don’t heavily depend on one of their players. Yes, it is true that stavn did perform better than his teammate throughout last year (which granted him the #10 spot on the HLTV top 20 players of 2022) but when he is having an off day it is not as impactful to the team as if ZywOo or S1mple (for example) had an off day which plays on Heroic advantage. 

However, we might be blinded by the superb second half of the year of Heroic and it is only fair to remind everyone that their first half of 2022 was far from perfect, they didn’t reach a final and only once managed to place top 4. Taking this into account the improvement on the second half of the year can be seen from two perspectives, the first, and most optimistic one, is that the break did them a favor and helped them sort out their issues which resulted in a much better performance or that during the second half of the year the teams that were dominating previously started to struggle thus giving room to other teams to fight for titles, without minimizing their improvement made during the break. 

In my opinion it is a bit of both, as Heroic did look much better after the summer break but they had such an amount of success because teams like FaZe and Na’Vi struggled to find their form. Going into the first season of 2023 I think that Heroic will be as solid as they did before the winter break if not more, however I have to disagree with Pimp because I don’t think that other teams (with the exception of, maybe, Na’Vi) will struggle, actually I believe that most top teams will return after the break in great form.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"teams/Heroic_exq52p","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: BLAST and Stephanie Lindgren"}]

Now Na’Vi, SPUNJ’s pick to be the #1 team of the incoming season.

I honestly was surprised by this pick because from my point of view Na’Vi is in a similar situation to the one of FaZe having a fantastic first half of 2022 despite only winning one event and an inconsistent, to say the least, second half but Na’Vi has one more asterisk on them, the replacement of sdy with npl. We haven’t seen much of the ex-academy player, but from the small sample size we could conclude that he is not a direct upgrade to sdy and, from what we know, there is no plan for him to take the IGL role off electroNic’s back, which would justify the change. This move places a question mark on Na’Vi as a whole coming into the season and makes you wonder if B1ad3 can make this work. However, SPUNJ based his prediction on the belief that Na’Vi will achieve high placements on a consistent basis, which is something completely possible if S1mple, electroNic and b1t play as they did in 2021. In my opinion, Na’Vi will have a couple of deep runs but will struggle to find consistency as they will be trying to figure out the best way to utilize their newest addition.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/Npl_je9zkb","originalWidth":2048,"originalHeight":1152,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Stephanie Lindgren"}]

Regarding the predictions of Major winners and MVPs. 

In my opinion, these are a bit more random and there is less to analyze because it is not a matter of which is the best team overall, but of which team peaks at the right time and, if multiple teams peak, which peak is higher. 

I believe all three teams they predicted have an equal chance to peak at the right time as they did not make any roster moves and can use both the break and previous events to prepare properly for the Major, in this regard only Vitality might have a slight edge over the others because of home crowd advantage for apEX and ZywOo.

[image:{"source":"cloudinary","publicId":"players/ZywOo_1_ebpuee","originalWidth":4096,"originalHeight":2731,"customWidth":"100%","customHeight":"100%","cloudinaryAssetData":true,"cloudName":"pley-gg","format":"jpg","caption":"Credit: Michael Konkol, BLAST"}]

Now the tough question, which peak is higher? 

Some could argue that we have already seen all three teams peak, FaZe during their last year’s streak of tournament wins, Vitality during EPL Season 16 and G2 during Blast World Final, however I think we have only seen FaZe’s peak. 

Last year, FaZe had during the first 6 months a dream scenario, Karrigan calling was superb, broky, ropz and Twistzz were not missing and even Rain had the spotlight on him from time to time (specially during the Major), this dream scenario has not happened with neither G2 nor Vitality. 

We have yet to see the trio of m0NESY, NiKo and huNter tear up their opposition and at the same time have HooXi calling as he did in the Blast World Final and jks returning to his top 20 form he once had.

We have yet to see the duo of ZywOo and Spinx live up to the hype it was given (ZywOo kept delivering but Spinx has struggled to regain his ENCE’s form) and at the same time have Magisk and dupreeh return to their prime while apEX calls as confidently as he does when he is feeling it.

As a fan of good counter-strike one can only dream to see the peak of each team face against each other, however it is highly unlikely to happen. We have to conform with predicting which team we think would be better, my personal bet is on G2’s peak. Where is yours?

Twistzz

FaZe

Team Vitality

Heroic

Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov always deliver flashy highlights for CS:GO fans to enjoy. In a recent FPL match where the 17-year-old Russian AWPer got matched up against Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, m0NESY and the rest of his team were walking over s1mple’s men on the server.

Watch m0NESY destroy s1mple with an USP-S in his hands against s1mple’s AK-47: 

[twitchClip:TrustworthyShakingOkapiKAPOW-uW8m3VGOJ4ItIXAG]

On Tuesday, 17-year-old Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov got rewarded for his exceptional debut year in the pro scene of Counter-Strike, with a #7 place finish on HLTV’s Top 20 World Player Ranking.

At the beginning of 2022, m0NESY went from being a NAVI Junior player, playing in the WePlay Academy League to becoming one of G2’s most important key pieces on the roster. And it’s fair to say that the 17-year-old wonderkid hasn’t been looking back since.

In G2’s rather turbulent 2022 year which kicked off with a Grand final spot at the IEM Katowice, there have been three roster changes, including a change of the coach position. Even though m0NESY and company didn’t manage to secure a ticket to the IEM Rio Major in Brazil, they still saw themselves finishing the year on a high note with a 1st place finish at the BLAST Premier World Final, where they took home the trophy and $500.000 in prize earnings.

m0NESY was able to stay consistent throughout his rookie year, in which he showed deadly efficiency and impressive plays against the best players in the world. In the four big tournaments m0NESY participated in, the 17-year-old Russian AWPer delivered an average rating of 1.17. When he was up against one of the world’s best five teams, m0NESY averaged an impressive 1.22 Rating.

In an interview with HLTV, m0NESY revealed that G2’s Bosnian superstar, Nikola “NiKo” Kovac, has helped him become confident on the server. NiKo’s close relationship with the rookie has not only created a deadly duo, but also unmatchable firepower within the squad which many teams struggle against.

“Yeah, we have good relationships with NiKo. He’s an insane player, and a good friend in real life. He’s the guy who wants me to destroy everyone, to be the best, to prove myself. Because of him, I fixed a lot of stuff, so many things we worked on, you just can’t imagine.”

The 25-year-old Bosnian has been a mentor for m0NESY during his rookie year, and the 17-year-old Russian AWPer admitted that things he didn’t want to do on the server, NiKo made him do to make the team better and fast up his development as a Top Tier Counter-Strike player.

“He made me do things that I didn’t want to do and he’s right. I wouldn’t say I was nervous to play with NiKo for the first time, it was just a different experience. They have been playing at this level for a long time and for me, it’s the first year.”

The 17-year-old Russian delivered one of 2022’s most flashy highlights – Watch it right here:

[twitchClip:SavoryPleasantTildeShadyLulu-gcLBbwygwBuSLTq8]

We have gathered the most viewed clips of CS:GO on Twitch in 2022, and it seems like you guys actually prefer to rewatch other things than just insane highlight plays!

Top 10 most-watched Twitch CS:GO clips of 2022:

An interview with Qikert turned into a pure Twitch drama with KRIMZ attracting all the attention in the background!

[twitchClip:RockyShakingCroquetteKappaClaus-bZU3TM8cf_q3WgEC]

2. xQc's epic play on Cache - 386.741 views

One of the most popular streamers in the world, Félix "xQc" Lengyel may not be the best CS:GO player in the world, but he can still deliver one of the most entertaining clips of the year!

[twitchClip:ShySavoryWerewolfTTours-gtkYnILCafbYWyMJ]

3. Do you have any difficulties communicating in English? - 319.072 views

Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia chose the savage way of answering this question at ESL Pro League 16! 

[twitchClip:SlickSteamyPeafowlCorgiDerp-ofLQiHSVwaUT5-wf]

4. What's wrong with Brollan's arm? - 256.453 views

Twitch users were left astounded by the posture of NIP's Ludvig "Brollan" Brolin during an interview. That looks painful!

[twitchClip:DeafAggressiveCobblerBlargNaut-MEkTkl1uVstNvJ2f]

[twitchClip:SolidFlaccidKoalaTF2John--UiIhKHRJtfP5rNo]

6. Everybody loves a good kiss, right? - 220.118 views

We all thought this would be another lovely kiss from the audience, but this turned out to be on another level...

[twitchClip:SilkyFaithfulGrasshopperPipeHype-_I1qsl1jagXfkLUl]

7. Finally an actual highlight clip! - 200.338 views

s1mple's 4K against OG from BLAST Lisbon is the first gameplay clip from a competitive match on this list.

[twitchClip:VivaciousCorrectOrangePJSugar-qdhHIzXjNsJcTfqp]

Another s1mple clip. This time on Overpass with the AWP!

[twitchClip:ZanyAgitatedTildeGivePLZ-YsIN-lyBQQi315iw]

9. TACO plays with a chicken and IHC - 178.351 views

In one of the calmest clutches of the year, Epitácio "TACO" de Melo takes his time playing with a chicken before eliminating Techno4K from IHC.

[twitchClip:AltruisticHonorableGerbilTinyFace-hfbfZ5rZYiYdDahr]

10. m0NESY's unreal clutch on Inferno - 175.202

In his fourth official match for G2, m0NESY gave a hint of what was to come for the exceptional skilled Russian, who ended the year on top with an MVP award at BLAST World Finals. 

KRIMZ

TACO

Brollan

SunPayus

G2 not only won the last big event of the year, but they also made sure to produce some amazing highlights along the way. It was especially the young AWPer Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov, who lit the tournament on fire with several big plays that also earned him the MVP award.

We look back at the last big event of the year, where some of CS:GO biggest stars went head to head for the $500.000 in first prize.

In the Grand Final, it was G2 who lifted the trophy. The star-studded roster also had four of five players in the top 8 best-performing players at the tournament. You can see the top 10 list here.

Highest-rated players at BLAST World Finals 2022:

ropz

huNter

k0nfig

EliGE

Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov not only won his first Tier-1 event in his career at BLAST World Finals in Abu Dhabi. The Russian AWPer could also enjoy being named the Most Valuable Player of the event by both HLTV and BLAST.

m0NESY scored a 1.24 HLTV rating at BLAST World Finals ahead of players such as Twistzz, degster, ropz, and his fellow teammate from G2, NiKo. 

The 17-year-old Russian has been sensational in his first year in top-tier CS:GO, and can now also put a trophy and an MVP award to his name.

The playoffs start today at BLAST World Finals after each team has played two matches in the group stage.

Here FaZe and OG came out on top, and are directly qualified for the Semi-Finals, while G2, Vitality, Liquid, and NAVI will fight later today for the last two spots.

You can see who is leading the rankings at the event here.

You can bet on BLAST World Finals via our betting partners below.

Nikola "NiKo" Kovac was clearly pleased with his teammate Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov after a phenomenal performance from the young AWPer against Outsiders today. 

[slugORMA:{"slug":"hunter-win-lose-together-really-like-that-were-real-team","isNewTab":true}]

G2 took down Outsiders in dominant fashion. The mixed European team secured another game at the BLAST World Finals after a great team performance. We spoke with star rifler Nikola “NiKo” Kovač after the match.

- The game is much easier when m0NESY is pulling off clutches like these. Even against FaZe yesterday on Nuke he had a good first half with clutches which also is the reason why he won the game today. He is the reason why we also took the victory on Inferno as well, and on Mirage he also played well. The game is just easier when he is feeling it on the server, NiKo said to Pley.gg and continues:

- Confidence is definitely one thing that will help us for the next upcoming game. We will keep on trying to play our game because we are not in a comfort zone at all. Today we was but the last couple of months have been really tough. 

Watch the rest of the interview with NiKo down below:

[slugORMA:{"slug":"m0nesy-win-rookie-year-award","isNewTab":true}]

Ilya "m0NESY" Osipov has been taking the Counter-Strike world by storm. The only 17-year-old has been playing lights in his first year as a G2 player. Despite being only 17, the fast AWPer has produced some god-like plays as well as impressive stats doing big tournaments.

Throughout 2022 m0NESY is averaging  1.16 Rating / 73.3 ADR / 0.74 KPR / 1.15 IMPACT.

Watch the best of m0NESY in 2022 right here:

G2’s 17.year-old Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov is slowly warming up for the BLAST World Final in Abu Dhabi, UAE. As you can see in the video below, m0NESY is spending his time wisely by destroying enemies on FACEIT alongside his teammate Justin “jks” Savage.

Watch m0NESY drop a 50 bomb on Ancient right here:

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

m0NESY

Player stats

Articles mentioning m0NESY

Video: Best moments from IEM Cologne 2023 Playoffs

NiKo deliver outstanding Grand Final to lead G2 to victory in Cologne

device dominate leaderboards at IEM Cologne

Here are the best AWPers of 2023 so far!

Quiz: CS:GO Transfer Quiz 2022

dev1ce praises the new generation of AWPers and explains what he wants to learn from them

m0NESY is the new king of FACEIT

G2 speedruns NAVI and qualifies for semi-finals

m0NESY shows another bug on Anubis

Who is winning the Paris Major? Who will be MVP? Who will be the #1 team at the break?

m0NESY destroy s1mple with USP

m0NESY on NiKo as a mentor: He made me do things that I didn’t want to do and he’s right

Video: The 10 most watched CS:GO clips on Twitch in 2022

Video: Highlights from BLAST World Finals

Highest rated players at BLAST World Finals

m0NESY named MVP of BLAST World Finals

FaZe duo is the highest rated players at BLAST World Finals

NiKo on m0NESY: Life is easier when he’s playing like this

m0NESY win Rookie of the Year award

Demo POV: m0NESY with an insane 50 bomb on Ancient

Follow Pley