M0NESY shone at IEM Cologne 2023

While it is true that the IEM Cologne MVP went to the experienced 26-year-old Bosnian Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, we cannot overlook the fact that Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, the team’s star AWPer was one of the main architects of G2 Esports’ victory in the tournament.

On the other hand, it is also worth noting that m0NESY also joins a select list of players who managed to lift the title of champions of IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne 2023. Remember that these are two of the most important tournaments in the CS:GO competitive scene after the Majors.

M0NESY is one of the pillars of G2 Esports

There is no doubt that G2 Esports’ wunderkind continues to be one of the team’s mainstays in every tournament they participate in. Recall that, thanks to the 18-year-old Russian, G2 lifted the IEM Katowice trophy in February (he was 17 then), and now he helped G2 win IEM Cologne. As a result, m0NESY marked an important milestone in the CS:GO competitive scene, as he broke Jesper “JW” Wecksell’s record when he won both tournaments with Fnatic when he was 20 years old.

WE OWN THE CATHEDRAL

🏆 YOUR IEM COLOGNE 2023 CHAMPIONS 🏆 pic.twitter.com/kVSzXesGAh

— G2 CS (@G2CSGO) August 6, 2023

On the other hand, it is extremely complicated for someone in the Counter-Strike competitive scene to surpass m0NESY or break his record since it is no secret that most of the players who win these tournaments with their teams are older and have experience in the scene. Likewise, it is worth noting that, should another youngster manage to do it in CS2, m0NESY will be in the history books as the youngest to achieve it in CS:GO.

List of players who have won IEM Katowice and IEM Cologne

As we mentioned, m0NESY joins the list of players who have won these two tournaments; this is a really short list. Below, we will mention the players who, in addition to the current G2 lineup, have managed to lift the trophy of these two tournaments.

• JW
• Robin “flusha” Rönnquist
• Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer Gustafsson
• Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
• Markus “pronax” Wallsten
• Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev
• Denis “electroNic” Sharipov
• Ilya “Perfecto” Zalutskiy
• Kirill “Boombl4” Mikhaylov
• Egor “flamie” Vasilyev
• Håvard “rain” Nygaard
• Helvijs “broky” Saukants
• Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
• Finn “karrigan” Andersen
• Robin “ropz” Kool

The 18-year-old Russian AWPer came close to taking the IEM Cologne 2023 MVP trophy, but his teammate NiKo snatched it away from him in the Grand Final. According to HLTV, m0NESY had a rating of 1.34 for the whole tournament, while NiKo had 1.35; as we can see, a minimal difference completely marked the fate of the MVP trophy.

Similarly, the entire G2 Esports squad was tight throughout the tournament, but both m0NESY and NiKo rose to the occasion and managed to lead the team to victory. As a result, G2 Esports, in addition to lifting the IEM Cologne 2023 champions trophy, won a prize of $400,000.

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