Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is considered one of, if not, the greatest esports title to ever exist. Throughout eleven years of development in the professional scene, CS:GO fans have witnessed some of the most talented and hardworking players to ever touch the game.
It’s difficult to make a concrete list of the best CS:GO players of all time, since most of the candidates peaked at different times, and some never got to play against each other at their peak. In this list, we’ve taken careful consideration of individual prowess and career achievements. The list will be conducted in ascending order.
10. Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács
During his prime, GuardiaN was considered one of the most consistent and accurate AWPers in the world. This man would never miss. Kovács was included in the plans of the first Counter-Strike superteam: FaZe Clan.
At the time the international FaZe Clan roster was being considered, there were so many talented AWPers, but karrigan was set on bringing GuardiaN as the team’s first choice. That’s just how good he was.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2013 | #10 |
| 2014 | #11 |
| 2015 | #2 |
| 2016 | #17 |
| 2017 | #9 |
| 2018 | #11 |
Valve Major Victories:
- None
Unfortunately, GuardiaN had never tasted how it feels to lift a Major trophy. He came so close to winning a Major twice. His first failure was in 2016, losing to the best Brazilian roster, Luminosity gaming in the Grand Final.
During his time in FaZe Clan, the star-studded roster fell victim to Cloud9’s miracle run, losing the series after choking a huge lead on the final map, Inferno. Still, GuardiaN won a handful of titles during his time in FaZe Clan, earning himself eight tournament MVPs throughout his career. The only thing missing in such a strong portfolio like GuardiaN has was a Valve Major win.
9. Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
Rasmussen was never at any point considered as the best CS:GO player. However, his legacy in Counter-Strike history cannot be ignored. Though he does not boast the highest ceiling in terms of skill, it is undeniable that he is the most accomplished player in the entire industry.
Dupreeh is the only CS:GO player to attend all 19 Majors, meaning he had always been in a top tier team throughout his career. In 15 of the Majors, dupreeh finished at least top eight. Not only is that a massive flex, he also has the most Major titles under his belt, a total of five, outdoing his teammates in the legendary Astralis roster.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2013 | #18 |
| 2014 | #16 |
| 2015 | #12 |
| 2017 | #10 |
| 2018 | #5 |
| 2019 | #16 |
| 2020 | #9 |
Valve Major Victories:
- ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017
- FACEIT Major: London 2018
- Intel Extreme Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019
- StarLadder Berlin Major 2019
- BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023
The Dane only has two tournament MVPs, but there is no question that he has more internal impact in his teams, something regular fans cannot see from the outside. Or else, there would be no way that dupreeh got lucky throughout his entire decade-long career.
Despite reaching the 30-year-old mark, dupreeh still won the final CS:GO Major, the BLAST.tv Paris Major in 2023 along with Team Vitality, showing that his value as a teammate is nothing to scoff at. He is arguably the most respected player in the entire scene.
8. Kenny “kennyS” Schrub
Kenny is one of the most iconic AWPers to ever touch the game and is known for his lightning-fast flicks and inhuman reaction times. Though kennyS was not as consistent as the other AWPers on this list, it can’t be denied that he was the most entertaining one to watch in CSGO tournament matches.
The Frenchman didn’t have the longest Tier-1 career, but made his mark in the early days of CS:GO by winning his fair share of tournaments. Together with EnVyUs, kennyS was able to lift his first and last Major trophy in 2015, and was crowned the MVP of the tournament.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2013 | #12 |
| 2014 | #6 |
| 2015 | #6 |
| 2016 | #13 |
| 2017 | #7 |
Valve Major Victories:
- DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015 (MVP)
Aside from the Major, the 28-year-old won 18 other titles, and was awarded the Most Valuable Player in 9 of them. He also holds the record for the most AWP kills in LAN tournaments with 9,259 kills, barely overtaking GuardiaN by 54.
During his peak, kennyS would always rock the AWP | Asiimov skin and nicknamed it the “Lightning Stick”. This is a skin known to every classic CS:GO player.
7. Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer
Olof was GeT_RiGhT’s arch nemesis during the peak of the two players. He is known to be one of the most creative players in the scene, always having tricks up his sleeve to outplay his opponents.
Despite earning the title of being one of the best players to ever touch the game, a controversial incident in 2014 has scarred his reputation for life. He was responsible for the game-breaking Overpass boost, where he and fnatic abused a bug. This historical event gave him the nickname of “Boostmeister”.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2014 | #12 |
| 2015 | #1 |
| 2016 | #8 |
| 2017 | #19 |
Tournament MVPs: 8
Valve Major Victories:
- ESL One: Cologne 2015
- ESL One: Katowice 2015 (MVP)
Together with the fnatic roster, olofmeister and company farmed most of the early CS:GO tournaments. In 2015, the Swedish superteam bagged two Major titles, with olofmeister being the MVP of the latter.
At Katowice 2015, the Tec-9 was incredibly overpowered, and olofmesieter was the best player to wield the pistol. At the tournament, olofmeister had more Tec-9 kills than AK-47 kills, giving him the nickname “Tec9meister”.
After his days in fnatic, olofmeister was scouted by FaZe Clan and extended his career with the international roster. Unfortunately, his time was way past and he decided to retire.
6. Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund
Aside from s1mple, GeT_RiGhT is the most well-known Counter-Strike player of all time, and for good reason. He was the most dominant player in the early days of Counter-Strike, before the game was popular. The Swede was known to be the greatest player at controlling the spray pattern of rifles.
He and his team, Ninjas in Pyjamas, held the record for the longest win streak, going 87-0. Unfortunately, fnatic foiled GeT_RiGhT’s plan to win the first few Counter-Strike Majors, but his efforts finally paid off in 2014, where he deservedly won his first Major.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2010 | #2 |
| 2011 | #2 |
| 2013 | #1 |
| 2014 | #1 |
| 2015 | #11 |
| 2016 | #18 |
Valve Major Victories:
- ESL One: Cologne 2014
If you take a look at his player rankings, you can quickly understand he was nearly unmatched in the early days of Counter-Strike. Sadly, he started falling off in 2015 onwards, and he is now retired and pursuing full-time streaming.
The legend of the game won 24 trophies during his time as an active player, and received ten MVP awards during the process.
5. Marcelo “coldzera” David
Along with FalleN, the person to put Brazilian Counter-Strike on the map was none other than coldzera, who was undoubtedly the best Counter Strike player in the 2016-2017 era. He was a part of Luminosity Gaming, later rebranding to SK Gaming, one of the most dominant CS:GO rosters of all time after Astralis.
At his prime, coldzera was feared by the entire world as one of the greatest riflers out there. Despite a short career, coldzera broke through the CS:GO scene and climbed to the top in a flash.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2016 | #1 |
| 2017 | #1 |
| 2018 | #10 |
Tournament MVPs: 8
Valve Major Victories:
- MLG Major Championship: Columbus 2016 (MVP)
- ESL One: Cologne 2016 (MVP)
With his Brazilian teammates, coldzera won two Majors in a row in 2016, and became the first two-time Major MVP, which was a big deal back then. Despite not winning a Major in 2017, coldzera still took home 6 S-Tier titles, in which he was the MVP of 4 of them.
4. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
NiKo, also known as the “uncrowned king” is widely considered as the greatest rifler to ever touch the game.
The Balkan headshot machine was first scouted by mousesports. The roster made an appearance at the MLG Columbus Major in 2016, where NiKo broke a record, scoring 52 kills against Flipsid3 Tactics in a single map. This was when the 20-year-old NiKo put himself on everyone’s radar.
Karrigan really wanted to play with NiKo, and included him as the main part of the first CS:GO superteam, FaZe Clan. The roster was built around him. Unfortunately, they never won any Majors, and Kovač was eventually acquired by G2.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2016 | #11 |
| 2017 | #2 |
| 2018 | #3 |
| 2019 | #11 |
| 2020 | #4 |
| 2021 | #3 |
| 2022 | #5 |
| 2023 | #2 |
Valve Major Victories:
- None
Despite a lack of trophies in his cabinet, nobody that understands Counter-Strike has doubted NiKo’s skill. He is consistently placing within the top 5 players in the world, with the top spots usually taken by AWPers, making him the only rifler.
3. Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
One of the most accomplished Counter-Strike players, given the nickname of “Mr. Consistent” finds himself third on our list. Dev1ce is known to be one of the cleanest AWPers in the game. If you see someone near dev1ce’s crosshair, you know he’s going to land the shot.
As his nickname suggests, Reedtz has been in the upper echelons of Counter-Strike for the longest time, and he always finds himself as one of the best players every year. This level of consistency is unmatched, and dev1ce deserves all the credit he gets.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2014 | #20 |
| 2015 | #3 |
| 2016 | #3 |
| 2017 | #5 |
| 2018 | #2 |
| 2019 | #3 |
| 2020 | #3 |
| 2021 | #11 |
| 2023 | #11 |
Valve Major Victories:
- ELEAGUE Major Atlanta 2017
- FACEIT Major: London 2018 (MVP)
- IEM Masters XIII – Katowice Major 2019
- StarLadder Berlin Major 2019 (MVP)
The 28-year-old was an integral part of the legendary Astralis roster, who helped the team build the most dominant era of CS:GO. Together with his brethren, dev1ce won 4 Valve Majors, the most that any team has won. He was crowned the MVP in two of them.
Other than his Major titles, dev1ce also won 25 other tournaments, and received the HLTV MVP award in 15 of them.
2. Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
Herbaut is one of the most unique players in professional CS:GO, not because of his mind-blowing skill, but because he was born on the exact same day that Counter-Strike was released, November 9, 2000.
It seems like the date wasn’t a coincidence, as ZywOo became the best Counter Strike player in the world after his first year of professional play. The prodigy was scouted by renowned in-game leader apEx, and it didn’t take long for ZywOo to be let loose.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2019 | #1 |
| 2020 | #1 |
| 2021 | #2 |
| 2022 | #2 |
| 2023 | #1 |
Valve Major Victories:
- BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023
In such a short amount of time, ZywOo achieved what took s1mple numerous years to achieve. ZywOo broke records in his professional debut year:
- Youngest player to be ranked #1 on HLTV’s best players (19 years old).
- Most MVP awards from a player’s first year of professional play.
ZywOo’s first year was not a fluke, as he continued to dominate the scene and racked up 18 tournament MVPs in 5 years. His lowest player ranking is #2, only because s1mple is playing. That should be enough to explain how good he is. Fittingly, ZywOo finally won a Counter-Strike Major, and it happened to be the one held on home soil in Paris.
1. Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyljev
The best CS:GO player of all time needs no introduction. It’s no surprise that s1mple is the number one player on the list. Similar to ZywOo, s1mple already started making waves in his debut as a professional player.
However, he was considered to be a very toxic and unfriendly player. Despite these negative traits, there was no question that he had the potential to be the best. The Ukrainian began his Tier 1 career in Team Liquid, where he began reforming as a person.
After a valiant stint in the North American organization, s1mple finally achieved his dream, which was to play for Natus Vincere, his dream organization.
| HLTV Best Player Awards | Rank Placement |
| 2016 | #4 |
| 2017 | #8 |
| 2018 | #1 |
| 2019 | #2 |
| 2020 | #2 |
| 2021 | #1 |
| 2022 | #1 |
| 2023 | #7 |
Valve Major Victories:
- PGL Major Stockholm 2021
Though he was already considered a God, s1mple continued improving during his time in Na’Vi, even though most thought it was impossible for him to become better. But he did. The GOAT continued to reach greater heights, and was easily the most superior player in the entire game.
Though ZywOo hindered his reign, s1mple was fully focused in 2021, finally achieving his CS:GO Major victory in Stockholm. In the same year, he reclaimed the title of being the best in the world.