Goodbye CS:GO: The best players in CS:GO history
With Counter-Strike 2 now opening up its Limited Test to all players with Prime Status, it’s time to say Goodbye to CS:GO.
Here at BLAST.tv, that’s exactly what we’ll be doing for an entire month, looking back across the eleven years of CS:GO to highlight some of it’s most heartbreaking, iconic, and incredible moments.
It’s time now for us to pay respects to some of the greatest players to ever grace our beloved game. We asked a host of talent including Maniac, Dinko, launders, and Scrawny for their opinions on who are the three greatest players of all time, so stick around for a rather left field option from everyone’s favourite demo reviewer.
Maniac's picks
1. device
"Combining individual brilliance and superb team accomplishment throughout his long career. A perfect piece in a legendary system."
2. s1mple
"The highest peak Counter-Strike has ever known and the definition of impact."
3. ZywOo
"Impeccable consistency at a mindblowingly high level since day one. Time is all he needs."
A solid list, there’s no real surprise in Maniac repping his boy ZywOo. But who could blame him? HLTV number one in your rookie year is an incredible feat.
Photo: Michal KonkolDinko's picks
1. s1mple
"s1mple is the greatest CS:GO player of all time. Number one on the HLTV Top 20 list three times and runner up twice. The difference with other players and s1mple is that when he got number one of the year, no-one could really argue, but in the years ZywOo won number one over him, I think there was conversation around whether s1mple deserved that spot instead.
Quite simply, he does things on the server no-one else can. He makes the magic happen more often than anyone else. He finds that path to the round win, no one else can see."
2. GeT_RiGhT
"What’s impressive about GeT_RiGhT is the fact that he was able to come out of playing at a great level in an older version of Counter-Strike and then become the best in Global Offensive too at such a fast pace.
He helped deliver CSGO’s unbreakable win streak, NIP’s 87-0. He helped define a playstyle and is part of some of the most legendary and memorable moments in all of Counter-Strike history."
3. device
"Despite never topping the charts of HLTV’s Top 20 he was in the top five an incredible six times. This level of excellence with such consistency is unmatched. device was the star player of the greatest Counter-Strike team of all time and has won so many titles and MVP awards. He is one of the only players you can bet on to compete with the CS deities of s1mple, ZywOo, and NiKo."
Another mention of s1mple and device put them in a favourable position, but who can argue with the inclusion of GeT_RiGhT? The first player to top HLTV’s top twenty list as he finished first in the first two years of the release of CS:GO, GeT_RiGhT was a player every team had nightmares about.
Photo: Michal KonkolScrawny's picks
1. dev1ce
"He’s won everything there is to win. With textbook lethality, his reign of terror was one of dominance."
2. s1mple
"The GOAT of CS:GO. Someone who led you to believe every situation is winnable. He’s the embodiment of determination."
3. ZywOo
"An unstoppable force contending for best-of-all-time and the future of Counter-Strike."
Matching Maniac’s list player for player, Scrawny’s choices say a lot about the footprint ZywOo has left despite becoming a professional player years later than s1mple and device.
Photo: Stephanie Lindgrenlaunders' picks
1. s1mple
"The best player to ever do it. Considering it was right in the middle of the Astralis era, with a weaker team, and the strongest HLTV top three ever with s1mple, device and NiKo, s1mple’s 2018 was the strongest and most impressive year of any CS:GO player ever."
2. Xyp9x
"As a support player and closer, Xyp9x in 2018 had a clutch aura that nobody in the game had or thought was possible. Every 1v3 felt 50/50 with Xyp9x alive, and it felt like Astralis won more than a few tournaments based on his individual clutch rounds alone. Truly the scariest clutch player ever."
3. GeT_RiGhT
"The first true superstar of CS:GO, the face of the game in 2013 and 2014, and supremely dominant in the lurk role. The NIP magic that existed back then had so much to do with GeT_RiGhT pulling off perfectly timed flanks over and over again. He misted every opponent, destroyed on LAN and really invented what it meant to be an elite lurker in this game."
We told you, Xyp9x was a truly left-field option from launders here, but it’s one we won’t argue with.
So with that, and with everyone naming s1mple, it goes without saying that the Ukrainian is the greatest CS:GO player of all time.
ZywOo may be the present and the future, and the early dominance of GeT_RiGhT and consistency of device may be incredible, there will never be anyone, or anything, quite like s1mple.