The year 2022 was a crazy one when it comes to professional CSGO. We had lots of ups and downs, twists and turns, and one of the biggest upsets ever at Rio Major where Heroic took the title in front of everyone’s noses.
However, what makes the game is the players, and today we will be discussing three of them that were the most successful in 2022 in terms of individual accomplishments and showcasing their skills.
3. Dmitry #sh1ro Sokolov
When Gambit returned to LAN in July, the young Russian AWPer had maintained his performance from earlier in the year. However, the team’s inexperience became apparent when they reached the arena stage of top-tier tournaments, and they were unable to win a Big Event title despite consistently producing strong offline results.
Sergey #Ax1Le and Sh1ro The challenges that Gambit faced in the later part of the year, deep into the largest tournaments, were a problem that lingered when play began in 2022, despite Rykhtorov turning in world-class performances.
2. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
Before starting his actual career, ZywOo was already hailed as a talent, garnering accolades from people like French icon Richard #shox Papillon as early as 2017. While waiting for his education to be completed, the teenage AWPer wreaked havoc on the French sub-top scene, as seen by his outstanding achievements in the ESL National Championship Summer 2018, where his team won.
By joining Vitality in the latter part of 2018, he finally made the transition into tier 1, and he lost no time in demonstrating his credentials by leading the team to the DreamHack Open Atlanta championship in his first big LAN. Since then, Oleksandr #s1mple Kostyliev has been vying with ZywOo for the title of best player in the world.
ZywOo has been one of the top superstar talents in CS:GO, consistently putting on tournament performances that lesser players can only imagine. In his first full year as a professional in 2019 and again in 2020, he won that fight twice, but his Ukrainian opponent pushed him off the top in 2021.
1. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
S1mple has succeeded once more! As he leaves behind two-time back-to-back champions, the Ukrainian superstar has set a new milestone by becoming the first player to be named the best in the world three times, twice in a row. Christopher #GeT RiGhT Alesund, Mathieu #ZywOo, and Marcelo #coldzera David.
He has spent the past five years among the top two players in the world, finishing only behind ZywOo in 2019 and 2020 during the online era. His stunning first place finishes in the Top 20 Players of the Year rankings are part of this remarkable run.
The 25-year-old, who has now spent seven consecutive years in the top 20 Players of the Year rankings, helped the historically significant Natus Vincere team remain competitive throughout tournaments in 2022 by turning in world-beating individual performances that included five EVPs and two MVPs to stand out from the competition.
