We look back at 2022 to build our own CSGO dream team.
2022 has been a pretty interesting year for CSGO. We had the chance to watch a lot of tournaments, some of which were even more exciting than we thought. That said, the BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 came to an end, and with it, the last big CSGO event of 2022.
There won’t be any more action in the upcoming days due to the upcoming Christmas holidays, but 2023 is just around the corner. Before we have the option to watch the top-tier players in action once again, we’ve decided to take a step back and create the perfect CSGO team for 2022.
The players you are about to see in your selection might be different from your favorites, but it is safe to say that all of them deserve to be here. We can’t wait to see if they’ll live up to the expectations in 2023.
In-game Leader – Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen
Despite the fact that many underestimate the in-game leader in CSGO, there is no arguing that this is one of the most important positions, especially regarding competitive CSGO. There are tons of players you can choose from that deserve to be here, but we’ll go with Rasmus “HooXi” Nielsen .
HooXi became a part of G2 Esports a few months ago after spending some time with the likes of MAD Lions, Copenhagen Flames, CPH Flames, and more. Even though he hasn’t had that much time to adapt to the new roster, G2 Esports already won one of the biggest events of the year.
A few days ago, the team from Europe defeated Team Liquid in the Grand Final of BLAST Premier: World Final 2022, which was impressive to say the least. Although all of G2’s players were on another level, HooXi was one of the big reasons why they excelled. Hence, he is our pick when it comes down to in-game leaders.
Rifler – Evgeniy “FL1T” Lebedev
The professional CSGO scene has an abundance of top rifles that people would want to have on their teams. 2022 was a good year for many players, but we think that FL1T has to be one of the names we’d like to add to our roster.
The 21-year-old Russian superstar is one of the most promising professional CSGO players in the world. He became a part of Virtus.Pro in 2021 and quickly established himself as one of the leaders n CIS.
VP was pretty good in 2022 because the team won many events. In addition to the ESL Challenger #48 and the ESL Challenger at DremHack Rotterdam 2022, the highlight of the year was the IEM Rio Major 2022 success. FL1T and his team, who played under the Outsiders banner, defeated Heroic.
AWPer – Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
Choosing your team’s AWPer is one of the most important decisions you have to make when deciding to play CSGO competitively. Although there are many good names, everyone can agree that s1mple is in a league of his own. He is arguably the best CSGO player in the world and the main reason why Natus Vincere has been so successful in the last year.
When it comes to 2022, s1mple won the award for being the best Esports PC player of the year at the Game Awards. Even more impressive is that NAVI’s star achieved this for the second year in a row, something that no one thought was possible.
In terms of his year’s performance, NAVI won the Blast Premier: Spring Finals 2022. Although the team couldn’t lift any other big trophies, it reached the finals of several popular competitions. For example, s1mple and the rest shined during the IEM XVII Cologne and the PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
Considering s1mple’s performance and overall dominance, we can’t wait to see him in action in 2023. Who knows, this might be the year when he will help NAVI reclaim the throne for the best in the world once again.
Rifler – Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
Even though s1mple won the award for the best Esports PC player, there was another big name in CSGO that was also among the nominees. His name is Twistzz, and he is notorious for being one of the best NA CSers in the world.
Twistzz played for several top-tier teams over the years, but he made a name for himself in Team Liquid. That said, he moved to FaZe Clan in 2021, and since then, he and his team have won numerous events.
2022 was one of the best years for FaZe because the team won IEM XVI Katowice, IEM XVII – Cologne, and even the PGL Major Antwerp 2022. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Twistzz was one of the team’s starts in all events, so he definitely deserves to be on the list
Rifler – Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
The last rifler we’d love to have on our team is none other than EliGE. The 25-year-old American has been one of the most loyal CSGO players in the professional scene. He’s been a part of Team Liquid since 2015, meaning he had many ups and downs over the years.
Despite the fact that 2022 hasn’t been ideal for Liquid, the team achieved a lot of impressive things. For example, in just a few days, EliGE helped his team reach the Grand Final in the BLAST Premier: World Final 2022. Sadly, Liquid wasn’t able to defeat the powerful G2 Esports and lost the tournament.
We’ll make sure to keep an eye on Team Liquid in 2023 because they might just be one of the teams that will stand out. They definitely has what it takes to dominate on paper, but there are loads of other top-tier teams in their region, so it won’t be easy.
