Impressive form in the first half of the year and high event-to-event consistency earned Jere "⁠sergej⁠" Salo the 13th spot on the top 20 players of 2019 list, powered by Xtrfy and LOOT.BET.

There was nothing special about sergej's first encounter with Counter-Strike. As a young teenager, he started playing the game because of his friends, and then slowly but surely got into the competitive side of things. As early as 2015, 13 years old at the time, sergej was playing his first FACEIT and ESL cups, and soon started turning heads at BYOC LANs in a team called 5CORE.RED.

The maturity he displayed in the game left his teammates in disbelief about his young age, which together with his immense skill ensured a rapid progression through the ranks in Finland. sergej played two local LAN tournaments at the start of 2016, Lantrek and Vectorama, and impressed in a 2-1 semi-final loss at the latter tournament to Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen's and Otto "⁠ottoNd⁠" Sihvo's Findictus, which earned him a move up from 5CORE.RED to a more serious team, SkitLite.

Around the same time, sergej had his HLTV debut in King of Nordic, topfragging for his side (2.32 rating) as they 16-0'd their Danish opposition, instantly showing promise. During his SkitLite days, sergej was an AWPer and the star player in the team, but he was still left behind as the rest of the team was bought out by ENCE, due to his young age. The team would end up rebuilding and see him play alongside his current teammate Jani "⁠Aerial⁠" Jussila, with the squad having a decent run at Lantrek 2017 where they placed fourth after losing to Aleksib's ENCORE and Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi's ajuri.

"Back in the days I didn't have any practice routines or things I did on a daily basis. I just played when I felt like it so I could enjoy the game as much as I can. I played on average maybe 3-4 hours a day.

"My parents always supported me in my career. Even when I just played for fun they never complained about me playing because I handled school on the side very well." - sergej

Good reputation, consistent performances and as the cherry on top, a memorable 35-frag performance on Mirage against ENCORE at Lantrek, earned sergej a spot in that team as they got signed by HAVU and Taneli "⁠disturbed⁠" Veikkola stepped down. At the age of 15, sergej was playing in a team that had the potential to be the best domestically.

Playing alongside Aleksib and ottoNd in HAVU, sergej dominated the Finnish scene

Things clicked in HAVU immediately, with his transition from an AWPer into a pure rifler (just 13 AWP kills over 167 maps played with the team) going flawlessly. His team would go on to dominate in Finland, winning all seven local LAN events they attended, and make strides internationally, participating in StarLadder Invitational Shanghai and IESF World Championship. At both events sergej put up solid numbers, but both he and the team showed a lack of experience, ending 7-8th in China and 5-8th in Korea after disappointing losses.

Overall, his 2017 was great for such a young player as he averaged a 1.24 rating, dominated locally and started to gain international experience. At the time, HAVU fused young talent in Aleksib and ottoNd with Finnish veterancy in Mikko "⁠xartE⁠" Välimaa and Jesse "⁠KHRN⁠" Grandell, and the future seemed bright. More spotlight was shone on sergej as the year was nearing its end, with a "One for the future" about him released, but just three days after the big article, sergej announced a break from gaming.

"Personal reasons and lack of motivation" were cited, seeing sergej spend four months on the sidelines before emerging in a newly formed ENCE team spearheaded by the country's most established player - Aleksi "⁠allu⁠" Jalli.

"I lost my drive to play CS back then. I decided to take a break until I finish my school. When allu asked me to play in a team with him I got excited again.

"Initially I got approached by Mr. allu at the start of 2018. Instantly I got very excited by the chance I was given and we started thinking about the players we would want. allu didn't have that much knowledge of Finnish players back then since he had been away from the scene for a while, so we worked together to gather up the players."

Playing with the cream of the Finnish crop, sergej admitted that he was progressing faster than in previous teams, with his form not dropping off despite ENCE playing against a higher tier of international opponents on a more regular basis. In the domestic landscape, it was more of the same as in 2018 sergej claimed trophies at Vectorama, Assembly, and the Finnish Championship.

"It has been really great playing with allu from the start and I still enjoy playing with him a lot. He has given me a lot of experience and insight about playing at the highest level. From me, allu has gotten more motivation to play the game and perform."

In hindsight, the most important event of the year for ENCE was probably the GG.BET Majestic ESL One Cologne Qualifier, a four-team event that took place in Moscow. That was the team's first LAN event, before which they were ranked 57th in the world. Taking the win over Spirit propelled them into the top 30, with the display at ESL One Cologne a month later, where they finished 7-8th, putting them on the radar internationally.

Three generations of Finnish CS united in ENCE: natu, allu, and sergej

sergej, playing the first Big Event of his career, was a huge part of ENCE's success in Cologne. The 16-year-old broke out with a 1.31-rated tournament while playing against some of the best teams in the world — Astralis, Natus Vincere, mousesports, and NiP —, finishing just one map with a rating below 1.00.

A lot of hype was surrounding ENCE leading into the Europe Minor that followed shortly, but the tournament was a disappointing affair as the Finns lost their two crucial playoff games, finishing short of a place at the Major, while sergej recorded his first below-average rated LAN event.

"At the Europe Minor we didn’t really feel that good as a team. We had like four players ill there and I was one of them. Also at the final tournament day the schedule was pretty horrible for us, we had to play two BO3 in a row with about a 15min break in between, so we got demolished against NiP in the last game. I don’t think we had any pressure to get to the Major, it was more the contrary, that we got more power from that, but in the end, we couldn’t just do it."

Finishing second at DreamHack Open Montreal preceded ENCE's biggest achievement of the year, winning their first $250,000+ event in StarSeries i-League Season 6. The tournament didn't feature the caliber of teams that usually attends these events, but ENCE still had to take down mousesports, BIG, OpTic, and finally, Vega Squadron in a thrilling BO5 grand final to claim their first international trophy. sergej was once again at the forefront of this achievement, boasting a 1.25 rating and being rewarded with the title of the MVP - becoming the youngest player to ever receive an MVP award.

"We had good confidence as a team and also me as an individual at StarSeries. We knew going into that tournament that we had a really good chance of winning the whole thing. Winning there didn’t have any negative impact on us, it really showed us that we are improving and it was good for us."

sergej became the youngest MVP winner at StarSeries i-League Season 6

A blunder at EPICENTER 2018, where the Finns ended up placing last, was improved upon by winning the last event of the year, DreamHack Open Winter. ENCE, therefore, finished 2018 as a solid top 15 team, with sergej finishing the year with a 1.17 rating. The youngster impressed many, which is reflected in him being selected as the "bold prediction" for 2019 by four players: suNny, Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David, Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, and Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz.

sergej sergej 2019 LAN tournament stats Tournament Event Team (place) Rating 2.0 (in team) ADR KPR DPR Impact KAST Award (2nd) 1.01 (4th, -1% ) 74.3 0.64 0.69 1.00 69.7% (3rd) 1.20 (1st, +9% ) 81.5 0.82 0.60 1.25 69.2% EVP (5-8th) 1.15 (1st, +9% ) 81.5 0.75 0.64 1.09 73.1% EVP (1st) 1.12 (2nd, 1% ) 71.4 0.65 0.55 1.07 74.0% EVP (3-4th) 1.15 (1st, +13% ) 82.0 0.77 0.67 1.12 74.3% EVP (2nd) 1.23 (1st, +14% ) 84.7 0.80 0.64 1.37 71.5% EVP (13-16th) 1.09 (1st, +11% ) 80.5 0.69 0.72 1.25 67.3% (2nd) 1.13 (1st, +7% ) 80.6 0.71 0.69 1.18 73.3% EVP (5-8th) 1.24 (2nd, +11% ) 84.3 0.73 0.62 1.23 77.6% (5th) 0.90 (3rd, -4% ) 60.1 0.55 0.68 0.82 69.9% (5-6th) 1.10 (3rd, +4% ) 74.9 0.70 0.66 1.03 74.3% (9-12th) 1.05 (1st, +9% ) 69.9 0.64 0.66 1.17 69.4% (5-6th) 1.04 (3rd, +8% ) 74.0 0.72 0.67 1.04 67.2% (2nd) 1.08 (1st, +4% ) 76.1 0.65 0.62 0.94 73.3% EVP 5%+ above average 5%+ above average 5%+ below average 5%+ below average Closer than 5% to average Closer than 5% to average

The Finnish side continued where they left off at the start of 2019, getting through the Europe Minor and the Main Qualifier while squeezing in a domestic win at ASUS ROG Winter 2019. sergej put in good performances at all three events, but it was only the Main Qualifier that played a (minimal) part in his Top 20 ranking.

The main part of IEM Katowice Major kicked off with ENCE suffering two defeats despite sergej's impressive showings, before the Finns brought it back with three BO3 wins in the Swiss stage, reaching the playoffs. The Cinderella story would continue until the grand final as ENCE took down Liquid and Natus Vincere, making sergej the youngest Major grand finalist, and then Astralis shut the door on them and claimed the trophy.

ENCE took two huge scalps on the way to the grand final at Katowice

Looking at the overall numbers, it seems that sergej didn't have a great event (1.01 rating, 50% of maps below 1.00), but he was the team's second-best player in the playoffs — behind an inspired Sami "⁠xseveN⁠" Laasanen—, and played a crucial role in wins over Liquid and Natus Vincere.

"Katowice Major was great for us. We had insane comebacks there in many matches. We went step by step into every match and our goal there was just to play our best CS and get as far as we can. Reaching the grand final at our first Major was unbelievable but I think we really deserved it with the level we were playing at."

With his debut Major behind him, sergej was back to a high level at the next event, BLAST Pro Series São Paulo 2019. A 0.82 KPR (personal high of 2019), a 1.20 average rating, and an above 1.00 rating on every map played in Brazil resulted in three wins, a 16-14 loss to Astralis, and a 15-15 tie with Liquid - seeing ENCE finish third and fall short of a chance to challenge the Danes for the title in the grand final.

Both Astralis and Liquid were missing from StarSeries i-League Season 7, which got ENCE hoping to add another title to their name. They were unable to repeat their success from Season 6, though, falling short to the eventual champions Natus Vincere in the quarter-finals. sergej recorded only one poor map at the event, in an overtime loss to FaZe, and was once again a consistent contributor for ENCE, finishing with a 1.15 rating.

What the Finnish side was unable to do in São Paulo, they did at BLAST Pro Series Madrid. Four wins and one loss in the group stage set up a rematch of the Major grand final, where they broke Astralis' 31-map Nuke streak and took the 2-0 victory, seeing sergej lift his second international trophy in ENCE. The young rifler was again solid (74% KAST, 1.12 rating), but the main force behind the success in Spain was Aerial, who put up a monstrous performance against the Danes.

"Hmm, I guess there were two really good moments in 2019. Our Katowice Major run was really nice even though the final was kinda sad against Astralis. But getting our revenge against Astralis at BLAST Pro Series Madrid and winning the tournament was also great. Also, we ended their Nuke record ;)"

sergej pointed out the victory over Astralis in Madrid as one of his favorite moments of the year

sergej was back to topping the boards for his team at cs_summit 4, but his 1.22-rated series against Vitality in the semi-final was outdone by Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut's 1.38, seeing the Frenchmen pull through in overtime of the third map, eventually winning the event. Another exquisite event followed for the youngster, DreamHack Masters Dallas, where he had an impressive 1.23 rating. He was crucial in ENCE's wins, pushing them to another grand final, but this time they faltered to Liquid who were on course to their Intel Grand Slam win.

"I think I don't have any regrets from 2019. The least favorite moment or the saddest moment was probably when we lost the Dreamhack Masters Dallas grand final against Liquid. I felt like we really should have won that tournament."

Despite not winning the two tournaments in North America, sergej was in the MVP race at both cs_summit 4 and DreamHack Masters Dallas, overall securing EVP mentions at five consecutive tournaments played since the Katowice Major (BLAST São Paulo, StarSeries S7, São Paulo Madrid, cs_summit, DH Dallas). He was also the best performing player for his team at each of those events except BLAST Madrid, where he was second to the MVP Aerial.

As the player break was nearing, sergej's streak of EVPs was stopped at ESL One Cologne in July. It was a combination of bad luck and poor play, as an upset by Heroic and a lower bracket run-in with Vitality saw the Finns place last in Germany. For the last tournament of the first half of the year, ENCE returned to North America for IEM Chicago. Wins over Heroic, Renegades in poor form, and MIBR playing with a coach that led them to another grand final defeat to Liquid weren't much to write home about, but another second-place showed ENCE's consistency, as well as sergej's — the youngster added another EVP mention to his name with a high number of opening kills (0.15 per round) and a 1.13 rating.

sergej's form dropped after Aleksib departed ENCE

Five days before ENCE were set to kick off their campaign at the second Major of the year, StarLadder Berlin, the community was shocked with news announcing the departure of the team's in-game leader, Aleksib. He would still play out the Major with the squad due to the roster lock, after which suNny, previously benched on mousesports, would take his place.

As a "dead team", ENCE swept the group stage, taking down AVANGAR, MIBR, and Vitality, not giving up more than 10 rounds on any map, but showed up deflated in the playoffs, dropping to Renegades 2-0. sergej's high rating (1.24) wasn't enough to earn him an EVP in Berlin, as he played just six maps in total and fell off in the playoffs (0.87 rating).

"My roles in-game haven't really changed at all after we switched Aleksib for suNny so I don’t think I've had that much of a hard time adapting to allu’s leadership. I'm pretty much doing the same things. As a team it has taken a bit of time because allu hasn't been a dedicated IGL for a long time and we were really used to Aleksib leading - but we are getting better and better."

The process of adapting to allu's leadership started after that, and ENCE struggled. It all started with BLAST Pro Series Moscow, where the Finns were the highest-ranked team, but finished with just one win, two losses and two ties. At his first event without Aleksib — under whom he played since joining HAVU in 2017 —, sergej played his worst tournament ever, finishing with a 0.90 rating and four out of five maps "in the red". The event in Moscow is only the second below-average rated event sergej recorded to this day.

The poor results continued at the following two events, ESL One New York (5-6th) and DreamHack Masters Malmö (9-12th), with the congested schedule surely not helping ENCE get back on their feet. However, even after a month-long break before going into IEM Beijing, allu and co. were unable to make a good impression, finishing 5-6th, and just like at the preceding two events, were only able to secure BO3 wins against teams outside of the top 30.

In the second part of 2019, ENCE got used to bowing out of tournaments early

sergej's individual level suffered during that period as well, but it wasn't as concerning as at the initial event without Aleksib - the youngster floated between 1.04 and 1.10 ratings, showing that the problems were elsewhere in the team. Capping of the year, ENCE attended the CSGO Asia Championships where they finally managed a notable placing, beating mousesports and MIBR to get to the grand final which they eventually lost in a rematch with the European team. Once again the best player of the team in that campaign was sergej, finishing the year with his seventh EVP, and giving hope to Finnish fans that the squad could reclaim form after struggling for the second part of the year.

"My personal goal is just to improve as a player in 2020. As a team we want to first get back to the form we were in 2019 when we could consistently give good results. After we achieve that, we want to become a top 5 team again and I have a good feeling we can get there."

Despite the fall-off in the second part of the year, sergej's first full year on the top level is nothing short of impressive. After becoming the youngest MVP winner and youngest Major grand finalist, sergej has become the second 17-year-old to make it into the top 20, with 2019's #19 — Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin — eclipsing him as the youngest player to make the list.

Why was sergej the 13th best player of 2019?

sergej's first half of 2019 put him in contention for a spot well inside the top 10. He had EVP-worthy performances at six out of the eight events he played before the break, peaking at DreamHack Masters where he was second in the MVP race despite losing the grand final to Liquid. He wasn't able to keep up that level in the second half of the year, however, but was still a solid player, recording only one below-average-rated event (BLAST Moscow) and adding his seventh EVP of the year at the CS:GO Asia Championship.

Improving individually and getting the team back in form are sergej's goals for 2020

While sergej didn't particularly stand out in any notable statistical category, he was well above average at almost everything. Worth noting is his 1.14 rating in matches between top 5 teams — which ENCE were for a large part of the year —, and the fact his performances didn't drop off in the big matches, reflected in a 1.11 Big event playoffs rating.

With a rating of at least 1.05 at 11 of the 14 events he played, and with an above-team-average rating at 12 of the 14, sergej proved to be one of the most consistent players on an event-to-event basis. In the end, it was the drop-off in the second part of the year that kept the 17-year-old from placing higher in his debut on the top 20 players of the year list.

Bold prediction

When selecting a player that could shine in 2020 and make the top 20 list, sergej opted for another player featured in a "One for the future" article, the 18-year-old Gambit Youngsters star Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov:

Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov

"sh1ro is my pick. We have practiced a lot against him and his team and it seems he is always doing smart moves and has a really good aim."

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2019 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected. This year's ranking is supported by: