The Top 5 CS:GO Players of 2021

A new season of CS:GO is about to start and the first tournaments are right around the corner. But before you start watching, take a look at the stats of the most amazing CS:GO players of 2021.

Number 5

The 5^th best CS:GO player of 2021, according to HLTV and its team of experts, was Ax1Le. The Gambit superstar won the MVP award for ESL Pro League Season 13 and IEM Summer. He also won the EVP award for 7 other tournaments. And keep in mind, he’s just 19.

In 2021, Gambit Esports won 6 important trophies and finished in the top 4 at 5 other events. Arguably, this was Gambit’s best season to date and Ax1Le played a huge role in his team’s success. His stats are impressive:

KPR: 0.74
ADR: 81.4
Rating 2.0: 1.18
K-D: +650
Clutches: 59

It will be interesting to watch this young player develop in the coming years. Let’s not forget that s1mple, at 19, was still far away from winning his first Major, despite being a superstar. Ax1Le has a good chance of accomplishing big things in 2022 but he’ll have to keep playing as well as he did in 2021. Gambit is unlikely to make any roster moves in the next 3 – 6 months, and that’s a big advantage when you want to get top results with a formidable team.

Number 4

The 4^th best CS:GO player of 2021 is sh1ro, who is Ax1Le’s teammate at Gambit. In many ways, his contribution was just as important as Ax1Le’s but most of his stats were significantly better:

KPR: 0.76
ADR: 75.7
Rating 2.0: 1.24
K-D: +1294
Clutches: 112

With players like him, Gambit has a real chance of causing big problems to Na’Vi, G2, and Vitality in 2022. Let’s hope that the new year will have a lot of LAN events where we’ll be able to watch players like sh1ro live.

Number 3

The 3^rd best player of 2021 is none other than NiKo. His results with G2 Esports weren’t as good as he would have liked, but his individual performance was absolutely stellar. With the exception of his famous Deagle miss that cost him the Major, NiKo was a beast in 2021. He helped his team finish 2^nd at the 2 biggest events of the year, IEM Cologne and PGL Major, and in the top 4 at 5 other tournaments: DH Masters Spring, Flashpoint 3, IEM Summer, BLAST Spring Final, and IEM Winter.

Overall, NiKo’s stats look impressive:

KPR: 0.78
ADR: 86.6
Rating 2.0: 1.21
K-D: +595
Clutches: 64

Another great thing about this player is his consistency. NiKo had a rating higher than 1.00 on 78% of the maps he played. This means that even when his team lost, he still did a pretty good job. And although none of his stats was the best of all the players, many of them put him in the top 5.

Number 2

The number 2 spot goes to ZywOo, who had a rough season with Vitality but an extraordinary year individually. Let’s not forget that he is the one who won the race in 2019 and 2020. In 2021, ZywOo helped his team win the IEM Winter, finish 2^nd at ESL Pro League S14 and BLAST Fall Final, and get 4 other top 4 results: at BLAST Global Final 2020, IEM Summer, IEM Fall EU, and BLAST World Final 2021.

In the stats department, very few players can do what ZywOo does. His ability to get kills, deal damage and stay alive is absolutely impressive. Just have a look at these numbers:

KPR: 0.81
ADR: 84.4
Rating 2.0: 1.29
K-D: +970
Clutches: 87

Furthermore, he survived 40% of the rounds and had the highest pistol round rating of any player: 1.46. In most categories, he was either 2^nd or 3^rd. Therefore, his position is perfectly justified even though his team achieved considerably less than those of other players on this list.

Number 1

And finally, after 2 years of being ranked 2^nd, s1mple is back to being the number 1 player in the world. Arguably, 2021 was by far the best season of his career and the best season in the history of Natus Vincere. It will be extremely hard to repeat that performance, which reminded everyone of the Astralis team that dominated the professional CS:GO scene several years ago.

In 2021, s1mple won no less than 8 important trophies with Natus Vincere and although his teammates were instrumental to the team’s success, his personal contribution was worthy of the many MVP awards he won. For the first time in his career, the Ukrainian won a Major, as well as the Intel Grand Slam. And the reason why he had no 3^rd – 4^th place results is because he either won or finished 2^nd every time his team made a deep run. His 2021 list of tournaments he won includes the following:

BLAST Global Final 2020
DH Masters Spring
StarLadder CIS RMR
IEM Cologne
ESL Pro League S14
PGL Major
BLAST Fall Final
BLAST World Final 2021

He also finished 2^nd at BLAST Spring Final and IEM Fall CIS.

What’s truly impressive about s1mple’s results in 2021 is the fact that although his team was clearly stronger than ever, his individual performances were nothing short of a miracle. From the list of stats taken into account by the staff of HLTV, s1mple finished 1^st in 11 categories. These were some of his most impressive numbers:

KPR: 0.88
ADR: 88.2
Rating 2.0: 1.35
K-D: +1487
Clutches: 65

Unlike other great players, who often choke right when it counts the most, s1mple always excels in the big matches. His average rating for such matches was 1.40 and his overall impact rating was 1.43. Furthermore, since he’s an excellent AWP player, it’s worth mentioning that his AWP KPR was 0.39. This statistic puts him in the top 5 AWP players for 2021. But unlike other AWP players, who specialize in one role, s1mple can play just about any role with exceptional prowess.

Photo Credit: IEM|Timo-VERDEIL