This past year has been one of the most exciting and competitive time periods within Counter Strike history. Throughout this year we have witnessed a multitude of teams compete at the highest level of the game. All of those teams have been powered by individual players whose level of in gameplay directly correlated with the results of their teams. This specific list was formulated in order to identify the top ten overall players of 2017 so far.

Methodology

As most sort of overall player ranking lists tend to rely on the concept of subjective interpretation, I felt it is best to outline the methodology that goes behind this specific list. In order to formulate my rankings, I took a look at the gameplay for players at 16 events this year which I deemed to have a sufficiently high level of competition to warrant consideration within the rankings. These events were primarily international LAN tournaments. The most important factors for the players in this ranking were level of individual play, their place within the team, the strength of competition at the lans they shined brightest in, and whether the player in question was a group stage warrior or was a monster that came alive in the high pressure situations of the bracket stage. Finally, in case I was unable to get a definitive conclusion between two players through these factors, I would take a look at team accomplishments in order to edge one player over another.

Lan Tournaments:

Eleague major

PGL Major

IEM Katowice

ESL Cologne

Dreamhack Masters Las Vegas

Starseries Season 3 Finals

ECS Finals

IEM Sydney

ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals

Dreamhack Open Summer

PGL Major Qualifier

Dreamhack Open Austin

CS Summit

Dreamhack Open Tours

1.)Coldzera

Coming in at the top of this list is quite a familiar face to most of the Counter Strike community,the Brazilian terminator himself, Coldzera. While there have been times during this past year where other players have seemingly captured the title of best player in the world, when one purviews the totality of work that players have put out this year, it becomes quite clear that Coldzera belongs at the top of the list. Coldzera brings to the table consistent, high impact fragging which translates into ridiculous statistical totals at some of the most prestigious and competitive tournaments of the year. Out of my top ten tournaments in terms of prestige, Coldzera attended all of them and counted a 1.10 rating as the worst statistical performance for any of them.

Coldzera has been an absolute monster this entire year in the face of some of the toughest competition that the Counter Strike scene has ever seen. As such, he finds himself rewarded with the top spot on this list.

2.) AdreN

In contrast to the first place on this list, the second place might come as a pleasant surprise to readers as it is occupied by one of the ever so beloved Kazakhstani players. While at first glance this placing may seem to come out of the blue, when all factors are taken into account, the path to second place becomes clearer than ever. The primary reason that AdreN finds himself ranked second on this list is due to his mind boggling performances at the two most prestigious events of the year, Eleague Major and PGL Major.

At PGL AdreN added to his legacy by finishing with a 1.26 rating, securing the title of mvp, and putting on some fantastic showings versus some of the best teams in the world. Furthermore, at the Eleague major, AdreN finished with a 1.34 rating versus some pretty good competition. With these two gems at the forefront of AdreN’s resume, flanked alongside by other great performances at other tournaments AdreN has attended, it should come as no surprise that he finds himself so high up on this list.

3.) Fer

One of the more important factors taken into account en route to the formulation of my rankings has been whether or not a player has been the best player on his team. In the case of Fer over this past year the fact of the matter is that he has not been the best player on his team; however, that is no slight on his individual play as he happens to be on the same team as Coldzera.

Be that as it may, Fer has definitely had his moments to shine throughout this past year, even at times outshining Coldzera, and as such, he finds himself up above other superstar level talents who are clearly the best players on his team. The key to climbing up the rankings in the latter half of the year for Fer lies in more performances akin to what he showed at ECS finals, where he managed to clearly outshine his teammate Cold as the best player on his team. Regardless of how the minutiae pans out over the latter half of the year, the fact of the matter is that Fer has solidly placed himself at the higher end of this list through persistently high level performances versus some of the best teams in the world.

4.)Niko

Finding himself at the fourth position on this list is Niko from Faze. This past year marked a turning point in Niko’s career, as his introduction into the main lineup of Faze finally allowed him the opportunity to showcase his talents at the biggest stages, and showcase his talents is what he has done.

Pretty much at every single one of the tournaments Niko has attended this year he has been the best player on his team. That is quite an impressive fact when one considers all the top 2 and top 4 placings that his team has managed to accumulate this year so far. However, the reason Niko finds himself below players like Coldzera and AdreN is due to the fact that his major performances have not been superstar level, especially when taking into account the types of teams he has played at those majors. Despite those inconvenient truths, majors are not the final showcase of Counter Strike; rather, they are simply one part of the ongoing journey, and as such, Niko’s performances at other events firmly secure him the fourth place on this list.

5.)Device

Rounding out the top five of this list is Device from Astralis. Device is without a doubt the backbone of Astralis and one of the main driving forces behind their exceptional levels of success this year. For most readers at first glance this ranking for Device may look to be too low as, after all, Device is the primary star of the most successful team of this year.

Be that as it may, the reason that Device finds himself below some of the other superstars is due to the fact that Device is the player who benefits most out of the depth of talent present within his team. Out of all the tournaments Astralis attended this year, I found myself rating Device as the best player on their team for only three of them, none of which they won. In contrast, at tournaments like IEM Katowice and Eleague major, the most prestigious championships that Astralis won, Device found himself outshone at high pressure scenarios by the rest of his team. Despite all that, Device still found himself consistently putting up high level numbers for a majority of the year, and as such, when taken as an aggregate, he is rated as not only the best player on Astralis but also a top five player in the world.

6.)Kjaerbye

Kjaerbye’s introduction into this list largely comes off of his monstrous performances at some of the most important and prestigious lans to take place this year. At the Eleague Major, Kjaerbye finished the event with a 1.21 rating and claimed the MVP title for the entire tournament. His play in the finals was the main reason that Astralis is actually able to call themselves major champions. Furthermore, Kjaerbye also had a fantastic performance at one of the other most competitive lans of the year, IEM Katowice, where he finished with a 1.18 rating and had a decent claim to the title of MVP. All in all Kjaerbye’s fantastic performances throughout this year rightfully grant him the sixth spot in the list, and his youthful nature makes him one of the most exciting players to watch going forward for the rest of the year.

7.)S1mple

Clocking in at the seventh spot in this list is everyone's favorite Ukrainian superstar, S1mple. While the seventh spot in and of itself is a fantastic result, the fact of the matter is that for a man of S1mple’s talents, it is not something to be celebrating. Close to the end of last year it had seemed that S1mple had finally found himself in a situation that would allow him to consistently compete against the highest level of competition deep in tournaments. Sadly, however, as a team, Natus Vincere has struggled for most of this year and as such prevented S1mple from exhibiting how deep his well of talent actually runs.

Be that as it may, with Na’vi reportedly looking to make changes, the potential may emerge for S1mple in the latter half of the year to once again show the world exactly how deadly he can be. Until then, however, S1mple will simply have to content himself with the seventh spot.

8.) KennyS

One of the greatest things to come out of this year so far has been the French shuffle, as it has finally culminated in a platform for KennyS to once again showcase how phenomenally talented he actually is.

On G2, and Envyus at the Eleague Major, Kennys has once again proven himself as a hard carry Awper. With his devastatingly quick flick shots, he has helped his team to emerge as champions at ESL Pro League finals, and has also helped them accumulate some relatively decent placings at other events. Despite this decent success behind him, it must be said that KennyS still has potential to climb higher up on this list. All that it would require from Kennys in the latter half of the year is to showcase more of that vintage AWPing and hard carrying that the community has come view as the norm from him.

9.)Dupreeh

Dupreeh’s placing on this list goes to show the depth of talent that is present within the Astralis roster, as his presence makes Astralis the only team to have three members on this top ten list. The reason Dupreeh finds himself on the ninth spot is largely due to his consistency throughout the year.

Pretty much at most of the high level tournaments that Astralis played throughout the year Dupreeh would come in clutch at some of the more high pressure singular moments. A great example of this was at IEM Katowice where he had his ups and downs but his single map performances would be enough to push Astralis over the top and win them series. All in all Dupreeh’s presence on this list is due to the fact that he has been a consistent secondary/tertiary star level presence on Astralis throughout this year, which is why he has been rewarded with the ninth place spot.

10.) Snax

Rounding out this list is Snax, someone whose might come as a surprise as it is largely due to phenomenal performances at the earlier part of the year. For most of the year, Snax has not been the consistent superstar that most of the community expects him to be. Despite that, his performances at the Eleague major and Dreamhack Masters Las Vegas—some of my higher ranked LANs— were enough to edge him into this list. At those, Snax had MVP level numbers against some of the best competition in the world.

Despite those performances, as this year goes, on the greater the likelihood Snax falls out of any further rankings that are made. If he wishes to retain his spot on these types of lists, then it is best that he find a way to reclaim the form that made him a contender for best player in the world back in the early days of 2017.