HLTV Declares s1mple The Best CS: GO Player In The World

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, one of the star players from the Natus Vincere Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team, has been named as the best player in the world for 2018. S1mple took the spot away from Astralis’ Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz, who matched his in-game stats for most of the year as Astralis dominated the scene overall.

Either player could have claimed the title of “best in the world”, however HLTV ultimately awarded the title to s1mple based on his performance compared to other players in past years, and his ability to perform regardless of whether Na’Vi won or lost in tournaments. S1mple closed out 2018 with title wins at StarSeries Season Five, the CS: GO Asia Championship, ESL One Cologne, and BLAST Pro Series Copenhagen.

After a historic year with peak levels never witnessed before, @s1mpleO takes his place at #1 in our Top 20 players of 2018 list

Read more: https://t.co/ZDju3a6xv0

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— HLTV.org (@HLTVorg) January 20, 2019

In the past, only three other players have claimed the title of “best in the world”, including Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund (2013 to 2014), Olof “olofmeister” Kajbjer (2015), and Marcelo “coldzera” David (2016 to 2017). 2018 saw only coldzera make his way back into the top 20 players list.

Here is the complete list of the top 20 players, from HLTV:

1) Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev
2) Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz
3) Nikola “NiKo” Kovac
4) Denis “electronic” Sharipov
5) Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen
6) Keith “NAF” Markovic
7) Emil “Magisk” Reif
8) Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander
9) Freddy “KRIMZ” Johansson
10) Marcelo “coldzera” David
11) Ladislav “GuardiaN” Kovács
12) Russel “Twistzz” Van Dulken
13) Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth
14) Tomáš “oskar” Štastný
15) Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski
16) Miikka “suNny” Kemppi
17) Timothy “autimatic” Ta
18) Håvard “rain” Nygaard
19) Robin “ropz” Kool
20) Valdemar “valde” Bjørn Vangså