H0bbit and company from Cloud9 have secured a spot in the upcoming BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Europe following their victory at the RES Eastern European Masters Springs tournament. With a nail-biting 2-0 win against VOYVODA, Cloud9’s AWPer sh1ro showcased an exceptional performance, finishing the series on top of the scoreboard with a 48-22 K/D, 78.4 ADR, and a 1.49 Rating.

The BLAST Showdown event is set to kick off on March 29 and will run until April 2. The event will feature teams such as OG, Ninjas in Pyjamas, Rare Atom, fnatic, 9INE, BIG, and one final squad that will earn a ticket for the event through the Pelaajat Nordic Masters Spring.

Cloud9’s success in the RES Eastern European Masters Springs tournament can be attributed to their team’s overall performance, including the impressive level of Counter-Strike their AWPer sh1ro has showcased recently. With his exceptional stats (1.56 Rating over six maps in their qualifier run) and clutch performances, the Russian AWPer has been a key player for the team and will undoubtedly play a vital role in their upcoming matches.

As they prepare for the BLAST Premier Spring Showdown Europe, Cloud9 will be a team to watch out for.

sh1ro

Cloud9

Group B of ESL Pro League Season 17 is set and over. Five new players are joining the charts as the best performers so far during the event. Heroic came out on top in the group defeating MOUZ to secure a quarter-final spot. Despite Heroic winning all their matches in Group B, three Cloud9 players are to be found inside the top 3. 

You can see the top 10 list here of highest-rated players at ESL Pro League Season 17:

The tournament continues with Group C this Wednesday 08-03-2023.

Who has been the best AWPer so far during the 2023 season? 

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 lists 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

{cflag:ES} 1. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 0.43

{cflag:RO} 5. regali (Copenhagen Flames) | 0.40

{cflag:NO} 1. hallzerk (Complexity) | 322

{cflag:ES} 2. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 67.5%

{cflag:TR} 4. imoRR (Eternal Fire) | 1.19

{cflag:FR} 2. Zywoo (Vitality) | 10 points

{cflag:ES} 3. Martinez (Movistar Riders) | 9 points

{cflag:DK} 5. device (Astralis) | 6 points

{cflag:TR} 6. imoRR (Eternal Fire) | 5 points

{cflag:NO} 7. hallzerk (Complexity) | 5 points

{cflag:DK} 9. nicoodoz (fnatic) | 4 points

{cflag:RO} 15. regali (Copenhagen Flames) | 1 point

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.

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device

m0NESY

degster

broky

Astralis

The ESL Pro League Season 17 Group A is set and over. Cloud9, Outsiders, G2, and fnatic are the teams to qualify for the playoffs. Cloud9 ended the 13-match winning streak from G2 in their most recent match at the event. Besides Cloud9 has Outsiders also been playing insanely well. Among the standout performances were three Russians: sh1iro, Ax1Le, and FL1T. The three players managed to top multiple leaderboards, showcasing their incredible skill and domination in the game. 

At Pley.gg we have made a leaderboard from the ESL Pro League Season 17 group A.

1.  {cflag:RU} sh1ro (Cloud9) – 1.49 Rating

2.  {cflag:RU} Ax1Le (Cloud9) – 1.35 Rating

3.  {cflag:KZ} HObbit (Cloud9) – 1.29 Rating

4.  {cflag:RU} m0NESY (G2) – 1.25 Rating

5.  {cflag:RU} FL1T (Ousiders) – 1.24 Rating

5.  {cflag:TR} XANTARES (Eternal Fire) +22

1.  {cflag:RU} sh1ro (Cloud9) – 1.45 Rating

2.  {cflag:RU} Ax1Le (Cloud9) – 1.39 Rating

3.  {cflag:RU} FL1T (Ousiders) – 1.38 Rating

4.  {cflag:RU} m0NESY (G2) – 1.29 Rating

5.   {cflag:TR} imoRR (Eternal Fire) – 1.18 Rating

2.  {cflag:RU} sh1ro (Ousiders) – 85.8

3.  {cflag:RU} FL1T (Outsiders) – 84.5

4.  {cflag:KZ} HObbit (Cloud9) – 84.4

5.  {cflag:TR} XANTARES (Eternal Fire) – 81.8

5.  {cflag:TR} XANTARES (Eternal Fire) 0.73

One of the biggest question marks before IEM Katowice was how Timur "buster" Tulepov would slot into the Cloud9 squad. The Kazak has replaced Timofey "interz" Yakushin on the CIS team for the 2023 season.

Initially, it looked comfortable for Cloud9. On ENCE’s own map pick of Anubis, it was sh1ro and Ax1Le completely running the show. A 12-3 lead at the break was converted to a 16-10 win.

Then it was time for Inferno. Here it was clear, that some of the positions at Cloud9 have changed. Abay 'HObbit' Khassenov was playing the role of a lurker on the team. On their T-site, it looked fine for the CIS team, but on their CT side, everything fell apart. Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer called a great game and played a great map averaging 100 ADR per round. ENCE won 16-8.

Vertigo was left as the decider. Here the game turned into a true nailbiter. ENCE had a 12-8 lead during the second half, but then C9 got activated. Six consecutive rounds were won on the CT side to give themselves a 14-12 lead, which they managed to turn into a 16-13 win.

ENCE drops down to the lower bracket, where they will get another chance of qualifying Friday.

Cloud9 – ENCE 2-1 | IEM Katowice Play-in

MVP: {cflag:RU} Dmitry 'sh1ro' Sokolov - 1.20 rating / 61-41 K-D / 74.3 ADR

buster

ENCE

The eight winners from Round 1 of the IEM Katowice Play-in face each other in the next round. The winners will advance, while the losers will get a second chance tomorrow to qualify.

16.00: Spirit - Ninjas in Pyjamas (Stream B)

Ninjas in Pyjamas

Spirit

Fnatic

FURIA

In a recent [link:{"url":"https://www.hltv.org/news/35379/top-20-players-of-2022-sh1ro-3","isNewTab":true,"text":"interview with HLTV "}]after sh1ro got announced as the #3 best player in the world, the 21-year-old Russian AWPer opened up about the impact that the ongoing war in Ukraine has had on him and his teammates.

The Russian AWPer explains their performance in the playoffs at IEM Katowice was affected by the conflict and they were unable to perform at their best.

sh1ro, who now plays under the Cloud9 banner, said, 

“No doubt it [the war breaking out in Ukraine] had a big impact on all of us. We were shocked and our level of play in the playoffs was a proof of that. We couldn’t think about the game at that moment.”

 – sh1ro revealed when talking about their performances at IEM Katowice.

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Last night in Stockholm this year's HLTV award show was held. Here the website awarded several awards for the year that has passed.

The most anticipated award was given to Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev. The Ukrainian won the prestigious HLTV Player of the Year award. This was the third time that he was awarded the title winning it last year and in 2018.

ZywOo and sh1ro were named 2nd and 3rd best players of the year.

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Here is a list of all awards from last night's show:

s1mple

ZywOo

Natus Vincere

FaZe

G2 Esports

While it was pure domination from Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev last year, this year has seen more players put up a fight for the top spots on the ranking list of every map. Dmitriy "sh1ro" Sokolov even managed to overtake s1mple in our list, where we have given each top 10 player from each map 10-1 points for their placement on the ranking.

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s1mple scored 60 out of 70 points last year, where NAVI banned Vertigo, which kept s1mple from dominating that map in particular. 

Down below you can see the final list of 2022, where sh1ro managed to squeeze himself in front of s1mple. ZywOo, blameF, and NiKo round off the top 5 list.

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Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno, Overpass, Ancient, Mirage, Vertigo, Dust2, and Nuke)

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NiKo

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 Dust2. 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.

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.

Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno, Overpass, Ancient, Mirage, Vertigo, Dust2)

Despite Nuke being Cloud9 and sh1ro's permanent ban, the Russian sniper can not be caught on our list, and will end as the most versatile player in 2022. See the final list on Monday, when we take a look at Nuke.

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Vertigo. 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.

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

XANTARES

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":"jame-was-2022-king-overpass","isNewTab":true}]

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

Ax1Le

Patsi

SHiPZ

frozen

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Overpass. 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.

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

Jame

Rainwaker

In this list, you will find the best 10 players of Inferno. 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.

Most versatile player of the year: (Inferno)

blameF

stavn

The race for the ‘Player of the Year’ award in CS:GO is beginning to reach its final stages. The prestigious prize, given by HLTV.org, is an accolade only a few individuals will win in their Counter-Strike career and is therefore also a very debated subject within the community.

This year it looks like the battle for the title is between three players. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev from NAVI, Vitality’s Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut and Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov from Cloud9. But as you know, there can only be one winner.

We have tried to compile a number of statistics from this year so far to give a clearer perspective – of course only from a statistical point of view.

{cflag:UA} s1mple: 1st BLAST Premier Spring Final, 2nd PGL Major Antwerp, 2nd IEM Cologne

{cflag:FR} ZywOo: 1st ESL Pro League Season 16, 2nd BLAST Premier Spring Final

{cflag:RU} sh1ro: 1st IEM Dallas, 1st Funspark ULTI 

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.

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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

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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

Cloud9 began IEM Rio Major by losing their two first matchups against Fnatic and Grayhound respectively. However, since then the CIS youngsters have managed to take down every single obstacle on their way, racking up a six-game winning stream. A streak and momentum that MOUZ has to break this evening if they wish to advance to the next stage in Rio de Janeiro.  

But thanks to an extremely well-playing AWPer in Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, it looks like MOUZwill have a tough task ahead of them tonight.

The match will go live at 21:30 (CET) and will be streamed on the following Twitch channel.

MOUZ

The first playoff attendee at IEM Rio Major has been found with the Russian youngsters from Cloud9 securing a Champions Stage ticket as the first team in the tournament.

That became a reality this evening when Vladislav 'nafany' Gorshkov and his men managed to take down Heroic 2-0 in a progression match in the Swiss Legends Stage. The result marks their fifth victory in a row and the third consecutive in the latter stage of the Major, after beating the superstars from NAVI and FaZe.

In today’s series against the Danes from Heroic, it was clear to see that Cloud9 had momentum and was in good shape. On the first map Vertigo, the CIS team kept Heroic away from double-digits through a masterclass performance by Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov, who averaged a stellar 1.84 Rating with an a additional +18 K-D difference.

The victory was settled on Inferno, where Heroic once again were the team on the backfoot as Casper “cadiaN” Møller only put up 9 rounds on the scoreboard against Cloud9’s 16.

The victory means that Cloud9 advances to the next stage, while Heroic will get one more shot tomorrow against another 2-1 team.

Cloud9 – Heroic 2-0 | IEM Major Rio Legends Stage.

16-9 (Vertigo) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro – 1.84 Rating / 28-10 K-D / 106.2 ADR

16-9 (Inferno) | {cflag:RU} sh1ro – 1.79 Rating / 25-12 K-D / 111.0 ADR

MVP: {cflag:RU} Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov – 1.81 Rating / 53-22 K-D / 108.6 ADR

Heroic

The Challengers Stage at IEM Rio Major was concluded yesterday with Fnatic, Cloud9 and Vitality securing the last three spots at the Legends Stage. Before we welcome superstar names like Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev, Robin "ropz" Kool and Jonathan "EliGE" Jablonowski to the tournament, we here present you with the best players from the first four days in Rio de Janeiro.  

And if you have kept up with the action on the server, it will come as no surprise that it’s Cloud9 powerful AWPer Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov who tops several rankings. Find the comprehensive stat leaderboard down below. 

Top 5 Leaderboards | IEM Rio Major Challengers Stage

	30 days	90 days
Fixture count	8	12
Maps count	14	22

sh1ro

Player stats

Articles mentioning sh1ro

Cloud9 ready for BLAST Showdown Europe

Highest rated players at ESL Pro League so far

Here are the best AWPers of 2023 so far!

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

sh1ro masterclass! - Top performers in EPL Group A

Cloud9 through to main event after close encounter with ENCE

Live: IEM Katowice Play-in (Second Round)

sh1ro: No doubt it [the war breaking out in Ukraine] had a big impact on all of us

s1mple wins HLTV's Player of the Year

2022 review: sh1ro was the most versatile player of the year!

2022 review: sh1ro and s1mple crushed Dust2

2022 review: ZywOo best in the heights of Vertigo

2022 review: Cloud9 domination on Ancient!

Jame was the 2022 King of Overpass

2022 review: This is the best Inferno player

Who will be the #1 player this year?

Highest-Rated Players in 2022 so far!

Live: Cloud9 vs MOUZ – IEM Rio Playoff Stage

Cloud9 book Champions Stage spot

Top performers at IEM Rio Major so far

Follow Pley