The GOAT of CS:GO, Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, has etched his name in the history books once again. This time, the Ukrainian prodigy has secured himself a third HLTV #1 award in a row, a feat achieved by no one else. Despite a rocky second half of the year, NAVI and s1mple’s dominance in the first half has earned him the title of #1. He bests ZywOo and sh1ro in second and third to leapfrog into first place.
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s1mple makes history as the first CS:GO player to be crowned #1 for three years in a row
History https://t.co/p5AlOPTBir
— Sasha (@s1mpleO) January 14, 2023
With s1mple taking the top spot, here are the complete HLTV top 20 rankings for 2022:
- Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
- Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut
- Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov
- Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov
- Nikola “NiKo” Kovač
- Helvijs “broky” Saukants
- Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov
- Robin “ropz” Kool
- Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato
- Martin “stavn” Lund
- Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
- Benjamin “blameF” Bremer
- Håvard “rain” Nygaard
- Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač
- Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis
- Valeriy “b1t” Vakhovskiy
- David “frozen” Čerňanský
- Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
- Yuri “yuurih” Santos
- Dzhami “Jame” Ali
s1mple ends the year with a monstrous 1.26 rating and two MVP awards. His two MVP awards come from the Blast Spring Final and IEM Cologne where he led NAVI to victory at the former event. Taking second place at IEM Cologne and the Antwerp Major, s1mple had no shortage of playoff appearances. He also won five HLTV EVP (Exceptionally Valuable Player) awards across all the tournaments he attended.
The Major winner trumps ZywOo and sh1ro to gett the top spot this year. While both the runner-ups were stellar, s1mple’s early 2022 momentum was simply too much to outdo. s1mple’s worst CS:GO performance of the year was 1.10, which speaks volumes about how high his skill floor is. As NAVI reels from a rough end to the year, all eyes are on s1mple and co. to rebuild.
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