Symbolic teams of the CIS and the world in CS: GO – results of 2023

Cybersport.ru made up two teams, which included the stars of the world stage and the CIS. We not only recruited five strong performers, but also took into account possible synergies, positions and, of course, our own preferences – nevertheless, even the best still have something to strive for.

CIS national team

On the whole, the year was rather successful for the CIS. Despite the fact that forZe has lost ground and is no longer even included in the top 4 teams in the region, the rest of the ambitious teams have made a qualitative leap. It concerns how Natus Vincere, who have become much more stable than in previous years, and teams like Team Spirit and Gambit Esports, who not only entrenched themselves among the tops of our region, but also managed to prove themselves in the international arena.

The first reifler in our team is Denis electronic Sharipov… For several years now, Sharipov has been proving that he is second only to s1mple in terms of his level of play in the CIS, and in some matches his contribution to the victory is even greater than that of the Ukrainian. Electronic usually remains in the shadow of a stellar partner, and 2023 is no exception – however, in the context of the entire scene, the Russian remains one of the most individually strong performers.

In 2023, electronic dropped somewhat in the HLTV.org rating (1.14 per year), but it remains one of the best in the world in terms of average impact per round. Interestingly, the Russian plays best against the most top rivals, but the lower the opponent in the rating, the worse electronic can perform: against players from the top 5, its average rating is 1.21, but against opponents from the top 10 / top 30 – already 1.14.

There is no doubt that electronic will be among the top 10 players by the end of the year. However, it will most likely be lower than in 2019 and 2018, when he got the sixth and fourth lines, respectively.

The second candidate for the CIS national team – Nikolay mir Bityukov… The Russian was one of the main striking forces of Team Spirit, which this year has confidently entrenched itself in the world top 20. After three regional qualifying tournaments for the Major, Spirit confidently topped the final table – the team will definitely get into the main stage of the next Major, unless Valve adds new qualifications.

In 2023, Bityukov showed phenomenal individual results against tier-2 teams. In all respects, the Russian became the best in the squad – for example, according to the average rating, he is 0.1 ahead Artyom iDISBALANCE Egorovawho came second. Almost all of Bityukov’s charts on HLTV.org are off scale at the end of the year, and his average damage in the round is especially impressive – 84.7.

Despite the excellent performance, the esportsman scored most of them against teams from the top 50, but against the top teams, his statistics are noticeably worse. If in games with tier-2 teams the mir rating is usually 1.2, then against opponents from the top-5 it drops to 1.05. However, this applies not only to Bityukov, but also to the team as a whole. Spirit has proved that it can fight against the top, but in decisive matches (especially in the playoffs) the team is often lost and makes a lot of mistakes. Team Spirit definitely has the potential to gain a foothold in the elite, but there is still a lot of work to do, including mir.

The third candidate for the national team – Marek YEKINDAR Galinskis… Someone will object that a Latvian cannot be a member of the CIS top team, but still Galinskis speaks excellent Russian and is generally known for his performances in the teams of our region – at first pro100, and now Virtus.pro…

Let’s make a reservation right away that YEKINDAR got into the team thanks not to individual performance, but to the overall contribution to the breakthrough Virtus.pro made with his arrival. The Latvian fit perfectly into the team and at the same time closed one important problem area of ​​the team – now he takes the rap for everyone in most interviews.

Joking aside, Galinskis is second only to the captain and the sniper in Virtus.pro rating Jami Jame Ali… With the arrival of YEKINDAR, the team has been incredibly transformed – now it plays several times better than in the iteration of the roster with Dauren AdreN Kystaubaev… At the same time, if you look at the graphs, the Latvian stands out strongly in only one, but key indicator – the impact parameter, which is 1.33. This means that his open frags, kill streaks and clutches were decisive for Virtus.pro to win in specific rounds.

As a sniper of the national team, we chose Dmitry sh1ro Sokolov from Gambit Esports. 2023 became the most successful for the young club’s roster, which first played under the Gambit Youngsters tag, and sh1ro turned out to be its main striking force.

Sh1ro himself is very shy when it comes to statistics – the player believes that most of the work is done by teammates, and he only helps them. The numbers really confirm this: the KAST parameter (the percentage of rounds where the player made a frag, an assist, was exchanged or survived) is extremely high 76.5%, and sh1ro also dies only in half the rounds. However, in terms of the overall impact parameter, Sokolov is incredibly good – 1.23.

Of course, the success of Gambit is the merit of the entire team, including the coach and analyst. Ivana F_1N Kochugova and even the head of the club Constantine Groove Pikiner, who is also involved in the training process. However, against the background of all the members of the collective, sh1ro stands out much more than others. At the same time, Sokolov plays excellently against all opponents, his rating depends little on whether his team’s rival is from the top 5 or from the top 50: in any case, the Russian is consistently gaining at least 1.18 per match.

CIS national team without Alexandra s1mple Kostyleva cannot claim legitimacy, and we decided that in our team Kostylev would be … the in-game leader. Yes, in NAVI he is listed as the captain, but all calls remain on Boombl4’s conscience. In our team, s1mple is, in every sense, the central figure on which everything depends.

We will not go into the statistics of the Ukrainian at the end of the year, everyone already knows that now his only competitor is ZywOo. The Ukrainian has nowhere to grow, he is an unconditional superstar and one of the most sought-after esportsmen in the world. So what’s next? It seems to us that the next step is to become an in-game leader, that is, to doom yourself to a much greater responsibility than the player bears now. We believe this is what will allow him to mature even more.

In modern NAVI, teams are generally responsible for the game Andrey B1ad3 Gorodensky and Kirill Boombl4 Mikhailovwho build a plan for each match. This unties the hands of the team’s main demage dealers (and especially s1mple), who can only show their best game. But at the same time, we know very well that s1mple is very fond of calling – so what if this becomes the main responsibility of the player? For the same FalleN, in his best form, the duties of the in-game leader did not prevent him from showing an incredible game with AWP and winning two majors. We believe that s1mple is in no way inferior to the Brazilian in this regard.

World team

The international dream-team is, if you will, the ideal FaZe Clan line-up – a set of insanely strong performers who will play with a 50/50 probability. It seems to us that the resulting world team would have every chance to fight for trophies, because it brings together experienced players who know each other well in FPL and tournament matches and, it seems to us, are suitable for each other in mentality and roles.

Well, what is the world team without Mathieu ZywOo Herbaud? At the last tournament of 2023, the Frenchman and his main rival s1mple did not perform in the best way, but on the whole, they were constantly riveting highlights throughout the year. Erbo will now definitely become the best player according to HLTV.org – for the second year in a row, which has not happened since coldzera, when he was at his peak.

ZywOo does not matter at all against whom, on what map and with what weapon he plays – the Frenchman is incredibly stable. His average rating for the year was 1.29, and in matches with teams from the top 5 this indicator is even better – 1.31. Erbo dies a little, does a lot of frags and makes an incredible impact in most rounds. Yes that we are scattered, you already know everything.

Astralis spent the end of the year in an outstanding manner and Nikolai device Ridtz was the main star of the team – as always. Before the holidays, the Danes managed to win the last major tournament of 2023 – IEM Global Challenge 2023where Ridtz did not disappoint either.

Device is not lucky that he plays at the same time as s1mple and ZywOo – if not for them, the Dane would have become the best player of the year for several years already, but, alas, now he will also probably become the third. However, Ridtz has long since proved everything to everyone, and for stability he can only be applauded. Dream-team is impossible without a device.

Hard work earned a place in the national team and Robin ropz Kohl – he is the only one who somehow smoothed out the impression of mousesports’ failures in 2023. Compared to last year, the Estonian has somewhat lost in the overall rating (1.19 versus 1.17), but this is rather a “merit” of the entire team, since the esportsman only gained in other individual parameters, especially in terms of average damage per round and overall impact. If not for ropz, mousesports would never have finished the year in the top 10.

The Estonian looks better than all his teammates and, in general, has long earned a place in the team at a higher level. Ropz can strengthen any European roster, the only problem is that he has very few options right now. If I would definitely not get lost in the conditional FaZe Clan, OG, Complexity Gaming – and in our team too.

No matter how badly Nikola NiKo Kovacs, he remains one of the most powerful performers in the world. The Bosnian has been in the final top 5 for several years and is only now risking falling a little lower.

Even as the captain of FaZe, Kovacs managed to show incredible statistics, especially in terms of average damage in a round – he has a player’s 86.1. In addition, NiKo plays best against top rivals: his average rating against teams from the top 5 is 1.24, but with simpler opponents he occasionally has problems, although at such moments Kovacs’s rating still does not fall below 1 ,19.

After moving to G2, the Bosnian can finally focus only on individual play, which means that in 2023 he will become even stronger – there is no doubt about that. In our national team, Kovacs is also not a captain, and therefore has every opportunity to prove himself.

Maybe in advance, but we are giving up the captain position in the world team Benjamin blameF Bremer – the Dane plays too cool in the problem Complexity Gaming. The fact that the team is one step away from the top 10 is largely due to him.

Despite a lot of problems, for Complexity Gaming 2023 was the best year in the history of CS: GO – the team had comparable successes only in the 1.6 era. At the same time, blameF is the central figure of the team, as his teammates have repeatedly said. The main quality of a Dane is his adaptability. He is a captain, but not an authoritarian one – as the player himself admitted, it is important for him that all team members feel comfortable, this is his priority task. And with that, it looks like Complexity is doing fine. The team’s main problem is that it consists of representatives from different regions – the same oBo could not stand such a long stay outside the United States and left. COL has not yet recovered from this.

Perhaps it would be more correct to take in the world team not blameF, but Alexi Aleksib Virolainen, who managed to gain a foothold with OG in the top 10. But we believe that the Dane is in no way inferior to the Finn in terms of leadership qualities, and according to the same statistics, he surpasses his counterpart, and much more: with its individual form, it is blameF that stands out against the background of all the other stage captains, so we take him to the world team.

CIS national team	World team
Denis electronic Sharipov	Mathieu ZywOo Herbaud
Nikolay mir Bityukov	Nikolai device Ridtz
Marek YEKINDAR Galinskis	Robin ropz Kohl
Dmitry sh1ro Sokolov	Nikola NiKo Kovacs
Alexander s1mple Kostylev	Benjamin blameF Bremer