In a year filled with cheating scandals, player strikes, and an online era, Counter-Strike has endured its most turbulent year-to-date. While some teams benefited more from the shift to online events, Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev & Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut remain the frontrunners for CS:GO’s yearly Ballon d’Or.
But who else will rub shoulders with the French phenomenon and Ukrainian wonder, and can anyone dethrone the pair as the top two in the world?
Below is our ranking of 2020’s top performers. Make sure to listen to check our video on all the information pertaining to our ranked picks:
- Benjamin ‘blameF’ Bremer
- Nicolai ‘dev1ce’ Reedtz
- Martin ‘stavn’ Lund
- Florian ‘syrsoN’ Rische
- Lukas ‘gla1ve’ Rossander
- Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut
- Oleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev
While it’s no question as to ZyWoo and s1mple giving us a fantastic year of Counter-Strike, the fact of who takes the top spot and reaches that Ballon d’Or is still in question. Both are equally fantastic esports players in differing qualities, yes, which makes the final outcome something that’s hotly debated.
As a whole, Na’Vi is phenomenal — something we saw in IEM Katowice — with s1mple picking up the rarest accolade to be handed out in 2020: a LAN MVP award. Fellow competitors from opposing teams are all in opposition over who will be picked, so the MVP of 2020 is still anyone’s game.