Here are your top 10 CSGO players who dominated IEM Cologne 2023
The last ever IEM of CSGO has concluded with G2 winning the event in a fierce undefeated journey. With 24 teams participating in the event, we saw some of the best of the FPS world compete from the Play-In stage to the Playoffs – and from over a hundred players, here are the top 10 names who dominated the HLTV chart through excellent plays. Note that we selected a single player per team to make this ranking.
Nikola “NiKo” Kovač – G2 Esports
Credit: ESL
- HLTV Rating: 1.35
- Impact Rating: 1.40
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 77.0%
- Average Damage per Round: 88.5
- Kills Per Round: 0.82
The 26-year-old entry fragger for G2 has consistently been one of the top 20 players in the world since 2016, and he is holding onto this glory this year as well. NiKo is the best player of IEM Cologne 2023, with an HLTV rating of 1.35. He passed his teammate Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov by only a 0.01 rating, and both were the heroes of G2 at the event.
NiKo’s best performance at this event, fascinatingly, was during the Grand Final match, where he secured a 1.87 rating on Nuke through a K-D of 22-8, helping his team reserve a great start on the Bo5.
Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz – Astralis
- HLTV Rating: 1.29
- Impact Rating: 1.32
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 76.4%
- Average Damage per Round: 84.1
- Kills Per Round: 0.82
Undoubtedly one of the greatest CS players of all time, dev1ce seems to still be holding onto his golden years after his return to the competitive scene by taking Astralis to great heights at the IEM Cologne. The four-time Major winner outperformed his younger teammates by a margin, becoming the tournament’s third-best player right after NiKo and m0NESY.
The Quarterfinal series against Heroic was the 27-year-old AWPer’s best performance of the event, where he secured a 1.67 rating and a K-D of 26-11 on Ancient, followed by another great map with a 21-11 K-D.
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut – Team Vitality
- HLTV Rating: 1.25
- Impact Rating: 1.37
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.7%
- Average Damage per Round: 79.0
- Kills Per Round: 0.76
The Paris Major MVP has proved once again that he is the best player of 2023 through another incredible tournament performance at the IEM. Although Vitality failed to secure the Grand Final at this event, ZywOo’s brilliance helped them reach the Semifinals.
From the start of the Cologne journey, the French prodigy showed a strong form which we all are familiar with by now. However, his best stats derive from Vitality’s second match of the Group Stage, where ZywOo secured a 1.90 rating against MOUZ on Inferno with a 22-10 K-D.
Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov – Cloud9
- HLTV Rating: 1.23
- Impact Rating: 1.14
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 77.0%
- Average Damage per Round: 76.1
- Kills Per Round: 0.80
With over 304 kills at the event, this 22-year-old AWPer did the most for Cloud9 in their journey to reaching the Playoffs of the IEM. sh1ro has been one of the top 5 players in the world for the last two years, and performances like these are the reason why.
The Russian’s best stats at this event comes from the exciting Cloud9 vs GamerLegion battle, where the winner was moving forward to the Playoffs. After a decent map 1 with a 21-18 K-D, sh1ro decided to dominate on map 2, picking up 28 kills on Ancient with only just 12 deaths, securing a rating of 1.81.
David “frozen” Čerňanský – MOUZ
- HLTV Rating: 1.18
- Impact Rating: 1.25
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 68.3%
- Average Damage per Round: 81.3
- Kills Per Round: 0.79
Not too long ago, frozen earned the third-best player title of IEM Dallas 2023, and with his performance at Cologne, he is proving to be one of the most consistent members of MOUZ. Even though the German squad failed to make it to the Playoffs, they had a long journey due to their Play-In participation.
The rifler for MOUZ only played six maps at the event, and his best performance comes from the exciting battle against NAVI, where frozen was the hero of Ancient, dominating the first map with a 28-14 K-D and a rating of 1.62.
Alvaro “SunPayus” Garcia – ENCE
- HLTV Rating: 1.17
- Impact Rating: 1.19
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 79.8%
- Average Damage per Round: 79.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.72
Although ENCE made it to the Grand Final of the event, there aren’t many players from the squad who secured a top 10 spot, primarily because of how their journey was a great team collaboration. However, the best member of the roster was 24-year-old AWPer SunPayus, who led his team to a near-flawless journey.
The Spanish player performed the best against the strongest contender of this year – Vitality. In the Semifinal Bo3, SunPayus started out hot with a 21-20 K-D performance on Mirage, doing even better on Nuke with a 31-17 K-D. However, the best stats come from the last map, Vertigo, where the player’s excellent 24-9 K-D helped him secure a win and a 1.74 rating.
Aurélien “afro” Drapier – Fnatic
- HLTV Rating: 1.16
- Impact Rating: 1.13
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 69.7%
- Average Damage per Round: 77.2
- Kills Per Round: 0.74
Fnatic had a short journey at the event as they fell out of the Group Stage after doing well in the Play-In, and most of the team’s success, while not many, can be attributed to their 24-year-old AWPer afro. The French player joined Fnatic last month and has already proven himself to be a valuable member of the team and someone to keep under your radar in the team’s future tournaments.
The Fnatic vs GamerLegion battle was the best performance from afro, where he did excellent on all three maps, especially on Vertigo, with a 1.39 rating. Sadly, his team failed to keep up, losing the battle and the chance to compete further in the IEM.
Garidmagnai “bLitz” Byambasuren – The MongolZ
- HLTV Rating: 1.16
- Impact Rating: 1.20
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 70.9%
- Average Damage per Round: 85.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.75
Similar to Fnatic, The MongolZ also passed the test of the Play-In, only to lose out in the Group Stage. The 26-year-old bLitz became the best player on the team during this short stint while only playing two series for the squad.
The Mongolian IGL for the team had the best numbers against Heroic, with a 1.37 rating on Mirage through his 23-16 K-D performance.
Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev – Natus Vincere
- HLTV Rating: 1.14
- Impact Rating: 1.05
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 72.1%
- Average Damage per Round: 74.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.70
While NAVI have been struggling to perform well this year, s1mple is trying to keep his glory alive and has barely made it into this list of top 10 CSGO players at IEM Cologne 2023. The legendary AWPer did everything he could for the team, especially during the match against FaZe. However, NAVI still failed to move past the Group Stage, losing to Astralis in the Lower Bracket Final.
As we mentioned, s1mple’s most notable series of this tournament was against FaZe, where the AWPer was on fire on Overpass, securing 40 kills in 19 deaths and a rating of 1.64.
Viktor “sdy” Orudzhev – Monte
- HLTV Rating: 1.12
- Impact Rating: 1.12
- Kill/Assist/Survived/Traded: 74.5%
- Average Damage per Round: 80.8
- Kills Per Round: 0.68
The final spot goes to sdy, who is still looking for outstanding achievements in his new roster after coming from a great year as a stand-in for NAVI. Monte had a good run in the Play-In but only managed to win a single match in the Group Stage, having an early exit from Cologne.
The 26-year-old IGL for the team played six maps at the event, and his best performance was on Mirage against GamerLegion, where sdy secured a 1.54 rating through 22-11 K-D.
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