5 CS:GO Players To Watch At ESL Season 11

ESL Pro League Season 11 might have been moved to an online format in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak across the world, however that hasn’t stopped the action commencing in what could be one of the most open and exciting csgo events for quite some time.

The latest event at IEM Katowice once again highlighted the collective dips in form for all the world’s previously dominant sides and was the event’s key storyline, with Evil Geniuses, Team Liquid, Vitality and even the mighty Astralis all falling over some pretty disappointing hurdles over the course of the competition.

The debate over Counter-Strike’s best player in the world is one of the most hotly debated in all of Esports, however, Natus Vincere’s superstar fragger S1mple seemed to put all those arguments to bed with his frankly unbelievable performances, particularly in the latter stages. Whilst the Ukrainean might be the world’s best player, there are plenty of other superstars to check out over this month’s action and beyond.

S1mple — Na’Vi

The world’s number one ranked side, with the world’s number one player alongside them, 2020 has been a kind year to Na’Vi so far. Aleksandr Kostyliev has carried his side in too many tournaments in the past, however the stars seemed to align perfectly with Na’Vi at IEM Katowice and they romped to a crushing series of wins against Astralis and G2 in the finals, with S1mple grabbing the tournament’s MVP award with a final record of 371 kills/252 deaths.

S1mple boasts a record of 1.23 rating against the ‘standard’ 1.00, averages 86.4 damage and contributes to 73% of his side’s rounds and is currently sat with a headshot percentage of 42.3%.

ZywhOo — Team Vitality

Heading into IEM Katowice, the scales of CS:GO’s best player were probably ever so slightly tipped in French superstar ZywhOo’s favour. The 19 year old helped launch Team Vitality to the top five world rankings with strong finishes at DreamHack Malmo and reaching a ranking peak of number two from July until September.

ZywhOo’s record of 1.36 is among the highest in the world, coupling up with his impressive tally of percentage points for contributions in rounds (74%) and headshots at 42.3. He also boasts a higher record of kills per round at 0.87 and more damage output per round than S1mple at 91.

Dupreeh — Astralis

Despite their humbling against Na’Vi at the Katowice semifinals stage, Astralis remain the absolute Gods of Counter-Strike. And whilst the likes of Glave, Magisk and Device are widely known as being absolute titans in-game, Peter ‘Dupreeh’ Rasmussen so often slips under the radar and fails to get the recognition that he truly deserves.

The Danish player more than holds his own with the best in the business in terms of kills per round of 0.74, damage per round of 0.65 and a headshot percentage at an impressive 50.5%.

Stewie2k — Team Liquid

It’s about time we had a Counter-Strike competition where Stewie turned up and absolutely dominated. On his day, there’s arguably no one better in North American CS than Stewie2k, however his form has dropped since Liquid’s early/mid 2019 dominance that led to one of the quickest Intel Grand Slam triumphs in the game’s history. Unikrn had them nestled in amongst the favourites for glory at Katowice, which showcases the respect that Stewie still holds in the game.

Stewie’s kills per round tally of 0.72 is amongst the best of any player in the game currently, his headshot percentage is just shy of half his shots at 49.7% and his impact haul of 1.21 shows exactly how vital he is to how Liquid operate.

KRIMZ — Fnatic

Whilst the genius of Flusha and the brilliant leadership of Golden are the cornerstones of Fnatic’s playstyle, they would be in a much worse position without the brave rifling of Krimz in the mid to late stages of rounds. Not only has the Swede made the top 10 for best players in the world three times, but he has also helped Fnatic to romp to two Major Championships during his time with the roster.

Whilst his numbers might not be at the heights of ZywhOo and S1mple, Krimz comes into ESL with some seriously good form behind him. Not only have Fnatic finished in the top four in their past five competitions, but Krimz has top fragged for Fnatic in their past two events.