The most authoritative site that handles competitive CS:GO, HLTV.org, is done summing up the past year. As before, the site editors identified the top 20 players.
Twenty best players of 2018 according to hltv.org
- Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev
- Nikolay “device” Ridtts
- Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
- Denis “electronic” Sharipov
- Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
- Kit NAF Markovic
- Emile “Magisk” Reif
- Lucas “gla1ve” Rossander
- Freddie “KRIMZ” Johansson
- Marcelo “coldzera” David
- Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács
- Russell “Twistzz” Van Dulken
- Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
- Tomasz “oskar” Stastny
- Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
- Miikka “suNny” Kemppi
- Timothy “autimatic” Ta
- Howard “rain” Nygaard
- Robin “ropz” Kohl
- Waldemar “Valde” Wangse.
Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev ranked first. The editors noted the monstrous level of Alexander’s game. He has the highest rating when it comes to major competitions and the highest number of kills per round. He is the best as far the opening duels are concerned and the second in terms of the number of clutches.
Robin “ropz” Kohl and Russell “Twistzz” Van Dulken turned out to be the youngest players in the TOP-20. Both are 19 years old. The oldest players on this list are Tomasz “oskar” Stastny and Ladislav “GuardiaN”
Kovács . The Czech and the Slovak are both 27.
Predicting most likely rising stars, players most often named Ismail “refresh” Ali (six times). Ere “sergej” Salo took the second spot with four mentions.
This year there are eight debutants in the list. Only one competition below the major level gathered all twenty. By the way, the number of major competitions has grown. In 2018, 21 major competitions were held, and in 2017 – 17.
Denis “electronic” Sharipov, finishing fourth, repeated the success of Michael “Dosia” Stolyarov. So far this is the highest position in the Top-20 occupied by players from Russia. The first time it was Dosia in 2013.
Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen is the real rankings old-timer. He appeared in the Top-20 in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018. He constantly rose up, taking 18th, 16th, 12th, 10th and 5th places respectively. If we continue the sequence, then in 2019 Peter should take the third place 🙂
Compared to last year, Alexander “s1mple” Kostylev rose through the ranks the most, rising through 7 positions, the position of Andreas “Xyp9x” Hoislet remained unchanged, 13th place second year in a row, and of those remaining in the ranking, Howard “rain” Nygaard fell beneath everyone. He fell by 14 positions.
And how to improve the progress in CS:GO, see our next article.
