Up-and-Coming: What CS:GO Players Should You Keep an Eye On?

While all players that got to Top-20 by HLTV are telling about young stars, we decided to represent our own list of rather promising talents that are about to pop. Let us mark that some of the gamers have already made their names prominent in the esports community. However, in their cases we are talking about a different level which means class upgrading. But the other representatives of the list will definitely show themselves in the current season despite their young age.

sh1ro

Let us start with the brightest representative of the new generation. sh1ro claimed about himself when he was a member of Vyalie Pitoni but he quickly moved to Gambit Youngsters. That was where sh1ro began to grow together with the same young country men, gradually starting to stand out in the whole crowd. It is logical that he faced some accusations of using cheats. However, Dmitriy proved that those were just some vicious tongues’ conjectures.

In fact, the breakthrough year in the sniper’s career was 2019 when Gambit Youngsters started to appear at TIER-3 championships. Moreover, the team was growing and by the end of the season Gambit Youngsters had won a great deal of championships including CIS Esports Pro Championship and MSI Gaming Arena 2019. In the end, sh1ro finished 2019 with the rating 1.23 which was just about the best indicator at the level where Dmitiry performed.

2020 gave a start to a new chapter in the career of the young sniper and the whole team as well. In the first half of the season, Gambit Youngsters made it to Top-40 of the rating where they competed with stronger opponents. The switch to the online format did not impose any effect on the gamer who continued demonstrating an incredible level of gaming with a sniper rifle. In the summer Gambit Youngsters won several championships where the status of the main gamer was given to sh1ro.

In the autumn the team took another step forward and stopped being called Youngsters. At the end of the season, Dmitriy won a couple of championships including Nine to Five #6, DreamHack Open November 2020 and DreamHack Open December 2020. Besides, Gambit impressed everybody with their performance at DreamHack Masters Winter 2020: Europe where they beat Cloud9 and Complexity. And sh1ro’s statistics, despite the class of the opponents grew up, so 2020 ended with the rating of 1.24 for Dmitriy.

No doubt, sh1ro is one of those we should keep a close eye on. His blistering becoming a leader of the team let Gambit grow up and get to Top-13 in the world rating. And in this season the team is going to participate in big tournaments more often, so Dmitriy has even more chances to cement his position of a superstar.

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degster

Let us introduce another Russian gamer that is hunted by big teams nowadays. Abdulkhalik started his career in 2019 when he joined Espada. It took a long time for the 19-year-old sniper to make it to the top until he got there together with the team in 2020.

At the previous season degster won WINNERS League - Season 3: Europe Invite Division, SECTOR: MOSTBET Season 3, Eden Arena: Malta Vibes - Week 7, and Cyber.Bet Golden League. In the autumn everybody started talking about the prospect of the Russian sniper seriously as he became the most talented player of the season according to HLTV. It was stated in their annual review. degster finished the season as one of the best gamers by raw statistics rated 1.23.

But Espada got disbanded at the beginning of 2021, and now, as it has been stated by the gamer, he has already got an offer from a TIER-1 team. Besides, degster played for Sprout at ESL Meisterschaft: Autumn 2020 where the esportsman beat BIG at the grand final with a rating 1.34.

Ax1Le

This is another gamer from Gambit who deserves as much attention as sh1ro. The 18-year-old gamer had joined Gambit before they became only an academy roster. However, that roster was about to disassemble, so Sergey accepted the offer to become a member of Gambit Youngsters.

His first season ended with a rating of 1.00 for Ax1Le as he showed nothing prominent. However, in 2020 the gamer came up to sh1ro right after he improved his individual gaming skills and got some experience. We should not repeat all Gambit’s regalia. However, we must say that now Ax1Le is extremely valuable for many teams. Finishing the season with 1.18, Sergey has room to grow. Nevertheless, the gamer should take a look at his stability as at the games with rivals from Top-10 Ax1Le often stays in the shadows.

Jackinho

Now we are moving to other countries, the first gamer there is Jackinho who has already signed a contract with fnatic. The 21-year-old sniper from Sweden had been in the shadows right before the end of the previous season until he played at several regional championships together with different stacks. However, at that moment more high-status gamers noticed Jackinho’s huge talent which could be used on the TIER-1 level. We may say that the gamer revealed his talent at Yalla Cup Winter 2020 in December when he together with his team Broderna145 raised a cup over their heads. Three out of four maps resulted in a rating over 1.60 for the Swedish gamer, so he outrated his teammates Plopski, REZ, and Lekr0.

Now Jackinho faced a new challenge when he got invited to join fnatic. And we want to think that the sniper will not get lost and will start to show class starting with his first matches.

ztr

The 17-year-old Swedish gamer started his career in 2018 but he became widely known at the end of the previous year when he became the first member of Young Ninjas. And at the first match where he represented his new team ztr showed that he was ready to compete with TIER-3 teams as he was rated 1.27 at the game with Project X. The gamer is likely to join NiP’s lineup as that roster needs changes. And the young Swede is unlikely to get lost among star gamers of his and older generations.

torzsi

The 18-year-old Hungarian esportsman is now a leader of a rather stable team called Budapest Five. Together with the team, torzsi demonstrated a quick growth at the second half of the previous year when he won Hungarian National Esport Championship: Season 2 and Magyar Esport Bajnokság 2020. We should also take a look at the gamer’s performances at the matches at more prestigious championships like European Development Championship Season 1 or ESEA Season 35: Advanced Division – Europe. There torzsi made a pleasant impression when he stole everybody’s attention with his gaming. As a result, the Hungarian gamer finished the season with a rating of 1.15, and there are premises for him to continue growing even if he joins a less noticeable team.

It is obvious that Junior, flameZ, mhL, fame, Rainwaker, leaf, andKENSIalso deserve careful attention. Every year the number of promising gamers is growing but not everybody can stick to the highest level and show confident gaming. Nevertheless, ropz’ and ZywOo’s stories show that young talents that get a share of fame before the start of their professional career can meet the expectations.