The 15th Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Major is about to start in Berlin on Aug. 23.
The competition begins with 11 teams that made their way through the Minors and five squads that took part in the previous Major at IEM Katowice in February.
Here are 10 great players who you should keep an eye on at the StarLadder Berlin Major.
Vitality ZywOo
Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut is the most well-known player on this list and France’s hope for Counter-Strike. The 18-year-old started his professional career on Vitality in October 2018 and it didn’t take too long for him to become their best player.
Although his AWP skills are insane, ZywOo is already a complete player who dominates with rifles and pistols. He helped Vitality win their first major tournament this year at the ECS season seven finals in June.
ZywOo has two MVP awards, one from ECS and the other from cs_summit four, which Vitality won in May. He has a 1.28 rating at big events and some pros already recognize him as the second-best player in the world behind Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev.
NRG Brehze
Vincent “Brehze” Cayonte is a North American talent who’s become one of the best players in the world following NRG’s growth in 2018.
NRG have some other big players like Tarik Celik, Ethan Arnold, and Tsvetelin “CeRq” Dimitrov, but Brehze seems to be the most consistent in 2019. His rifling skills are top-notch, but you’ll often see him getting highlights with the Desert Eagle, one of the toughest guns to master in CS:GO.
FURIA yuurih
Yuri “yuurih” Santos has been one of FURIA’s cornerstone since the Brazilian team moved to the U.S. in the middle of 2018.
He’s only 19 years old and just started playing his first big events this year when FURIA’s rise started. Yuurih forms a great duo with another top Brazilian prospect, Kaike “KSCERATO” Cerato. Both of them were on MIBR’s radar at some point this year since Brazil’s biggest team are struggling to get back in form.
mousesports woxic
Özgür “woxic” Eker first became known with the Turkish team Dark Passage in 2016. His good performances led to him being picked by HellRaisers in 2017, which was his team until he moved to mousesports in March.
Fans are seeing the best of woxic on mousesports: the AWP flicks, decisive kills, and a player who’s becoming more consistent under Finn “karrigan” Andersen’s leadership. Woxic can be the difference-maker between mousesports dropping out of a CS:GO Major or moving through to the playoffs.
CR4ZY huNter
Nemanja “huNter” Kovač isn’t just Nikola “NiKo” Kovač’s cousin anymore. The 23-year-old is one of CR4ZY’s most-talented players.
HuNter has been in the professional scene since playing for iNation in 2016. He’s had good performances over the last year with Valiance, which rebranded to CR4ZY in 2019. If the international team does well at the Major, it may be hard to avoid a scenario where huNter leaves for a bigger organization.
Grayhound Sico
Simon “Sico” Williams showed enough potential with ICON Esports to be hired by Grayhound Gaming in March.
He’s the AWPer Grayhound was missing since losing Sean “Gratisfaction” Kawai to Renegades in September 2018. And the Australian team will certainly need Sico to be at his best if they want to have a chance of making it through the New Legends stage.
AVANGAR qikert
Alexey “qikert” Golubev, alongside in-game leader Ali “Jame” Djami, is the biggest asset to AVANGAR, who’s undoubtedly the second-best CIS team in the world.
The 20-year-old still has to boost his numbers on the biggest stages and the Major certainly is an opportunity to do so. He has the best rifling skills on AVANGAR and also takes some hard spots to cover on the CT side. Qikert is one of the names that may be involved in a transfer to Na’Vi if they underperform at the Major.
Complexity oBo
Owen “oBo” Schlatter will be the youngest player to play at a CS:GO Major. He’ll be 16 years and 53 days old when the competition starts on Aug. 23.
OBo started his professional career in June when he was about to turn 16. He played above all expectations at his first major LAN tournament, the ECS season seven finals. OBo was the highest-rated player on Complexity with a 1.17 rating after playing six maps. He’ll have to perform great again to help his team move forward at the Major.
TYLOO Freeman
Wing Hei “Freeman” Cheung caught everybody’s attention at the previous Major, IEM Katowice in February.
He was the best player on ViCi Gaming, a team that beat North in the Minor play-in to qualify for the Major. His performances allowed him to be poached by the biggest team in the Asia region, TYLOO, in June. Freeman has been playing for TYLOO for just a month, but according to TYLOO’s captain Hansel “BnTeT” Ferdinand, he’s already become one of their best players, contributing a lot to TYLOO’s CT sides.
mousesports frozen
Mousesports are the only team to have two players on this list, which would be incomplete without David “frozen” Čerňanský. He’ll be the second-youngest player at the StarLadder Berlin Major at 17 years and 36 days old.
Frozen made his way into the professional scene by standing out in the FACEIT Pro League, a matchmaking league for the pros. He was picked up by mousesports in March along with woxic and karrigan.
Karrigan doesn’t want to put pressure on frozen yet, but the Slovakian definitely has the potential to be one of the world’s best players in the future.
