M0NESY is ranked 4th CS2 player of 2023

With each passing year, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov is getting closer to the top 3 at the individual level in Counter-Strike 2. In 2022, he finished 7^th. Now he finished 4^th and he completely deserved it. No doubt, his teammate Nikola “NiKo” Kovac will be in the top 3, along with Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, who will most likely win.

What’s extraordinary is that m0NESY is only 18 years old. For someone his age to finish so close to the top in two consecutive years is truly rare. Other great players, such as ZywOo, Aleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, and Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, have achieved similar results. This puts m0NESY in a very special class of CS2 competitors.

M0NESY’s achievements in 2023

M0NESY started 2023 with a victory at IEM Katowice. Winning the $1 million tournament immediately after winning another $1 million event (BLAST Premier World Final) was the dream season start for G2 Esports. But the team soon ran out of steam.

At ESL Pro League S17, they were 17^th. At BLAST.tv Paris Major, they were 12^th – 14^th. At IEM Dallas, they were 5^th – 6^th. And then they made another spectacular run, at IEM Cologne.

CHAMPIONS OF COLOOGNE 🔥🔥🔥❤️ pic.twitter.com/wz8oWRXs5F

— IlyaO (@G2m0NESY) August 6, 2023

Nobody expected G2 to win this tournament because it featured all the world’s greatest teams. The competition had 24 participants and G2 were not even among the favorites to qualify for the playoffs in many people’s eyes.

Despite this perception, G2 won group B by defeating Astralis (2-1), FaZe Clan (2-0), and Team Vitality (2-1). In all three matches, m0NESY was one of the best fraggers.

In particular, the match against Vitality was an absolute masterclass. He finished with a record of 75 – 47 and was by far the best player on the server. To put this performance into perspective, ZywOo had just 54 kills in this match.

In the playoffs, G2 defeated Astralis (2-0) and ENCE (3-1). This was the last trophy they won in 2023. However, they did play reasonably well at several other tournaments in the last five months of the season. They were 3^rd – 4^th at Gamers8, 5^th – 8^th at ESL Pro League S18, 3^rd – 4^th at IEM Sydney, and 5^th – 6^th at BLAST Premier World Final.

One thing that needs to be mentioned is that m0NESY would have likely gotten better results, but the team was dragged down a bit by the inconsistency of some of the players. Eventually, both Justin “jks” Savage and Jan “Swani” Muller left the club before the end of the year. The new coach is Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas, while the 5^th player is now Nemanja “nexa” Isakovic.

For m0NESY, 2024 should be a good year. But his team will need to work hard to catch up with Team Vitality and FaZe Clan. Both of them look very hard to beat at the moment.

Header: BLAST