CS:GO is a game where individual skill plays a crucial role, and an outstanding play can change the course of the entire match. In recent years, with the overall development of CS:GO and the pro scene specifically, many players, despite their young age, have proven their capabilities and become pillars on the world’s top teams. Let’s spotlight these exceptional names!
1/ ZywOo – Team Vitality
There’s probably no need to elaborate on this French prodigy, as the title of the best player of 2019 speaks volumes about ZywOo’s excellence. Joining Vitality in October 2018, ZywOo quickly showcased his skills and has been the “carry” factor for Vitality ever since.
In every championship that the French bees have won, ZywOo’s mark is very clear with outstanding performances and incredibly stable form. Three LAN championships and five MVP titles in 2019 helped him surpass extremely tough competitors like S1mple and dev1ce to receive the title of best player of 2019 from hltv, and he is also the youngest player ever honored with this title.
2/ frozen – Mousesports
Only 15 years old when he first donned the Mousesports jersey in March 2019, frozen helped raise a struggling Mousesports team back to its top-tier status. Playing as a lurker, frozen contributed significantly to a streak of reaching the finals at five consecutive LAN tournaments at the end of 2019. While he hasn’t yet claimed any individual titles, a bright future awaits frozen, given his young age.
3/ ropz – Mousesports
One of the young talents rising from FPL, ropz was selected by NIKo and dennis as part of their “Bold prediction” in 2017, and he has lived up to their expectations by ranking #19 and #10 in the top 20 player rankings for 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Playing for Mousesports since 2017, Ropz has always been the star of the team with incredibly stable performance and top-tier rifle skills. In terms of individual accolades, ropz was named MVP at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, where Mousesports convincingly defeated Fnatic 3-0 in the grand finals.
4/ Brollan – Fnatic
Similar to ropz, Brollan gained recognition when he was invited to FPL at just 15 years old. Officially joining Fnatic in October 2018, Brollan quickly proved his capabilities with outstanding performances.
He is also known as one of the best and most frequent users of the SG553, and at the recent ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe, Brollan was honored as the MVP of the tournament, marking his second individual title in his career, after ranking #19 in the top 20 players of 2019.
5/ oBo – Complexity
oBo is the youngest player on this list, as this American player was born in 2013 and just turned 16 this year. Like the others mentioned, oBo caught attention after winning FPL-C and was invited to play in FPL at just 14 years old. Just a year later, oBo officially joined Complexity, and at the ECS Season 7 Finals shortly after, he and his teammates impressively finished 5-6th with a rating of 1.17.
Although he hasn’t won any individual titles yet, competing alongside outstanding players like poizon, BlameF, and konfig will help oBo grow rapidly and become a true star in the coming years.
Other Notable Names
m0NESY is arguably one of the most notable young talents in professional CS:GO, as he was invited to join FPL at just 14 years old and is currently playing for the Na`vi Junior team. m0NESY has been playing CS 1.6 since he was 6 years old, and by the age of 9, he switched to CS:GO, achieving the GE rank in just a year; by 12, he reached level 10 on FACEIT (after just 150 games) and has almost 9,000 hours in CS:GO. Before transitioning to CS:GO, m0NESY had logged 3,000 hours in Dota 2, but later abandoned it to pursue a professional career in CS:GO following encouragement from his brother.
Another noteworthy name is Jamppi, the newest member of ENCE. Despite the controversies surrounding his Major ban due to a VAC-banned Steam account, Jamppi is considered the brightest young talent in Finnish CS, and in his first match in ENCE colors, he and his teammates defeated Na`vi 2-0, paving the way for ENCE to advance in the DreamHack Masters Spring 2020.
