With the year 2011 now behind us, the time has come to look back and see who the biggest stars of Counter Strike 1.6 were. In the same manner as last year, we have prepared a list containing Top 20 players of 2011 who will be revealed gradually over the next few weeks.

Considering how our Top 20 players of 2010 feature turned out to be a big success, we practically had no choice but to make a similar one for 2011. Same as last year, our main guiding factor in creating the ranking will be statistics from major LAN tournaments, as that is the most objective criteria and also because it is impossible to watch every match of every top player.

In addition to statistics, we will consider a player's influence on his team's success, individual awards and contribution in big matches. A minor addition to the selection process this year will be the results of our MVP and All-Star lineup votes gathered at the end of each tournament, which will make it easier to recognize individual awards.

Here is what our list of Top 20 players of 2011 looks like:

The same way as last year, we will be counting down on a daily basis with detailed articles about each player's performance throughout the year, starting from number 20 until we reach the best player of 2011. Yegor "markeloff" Markelov was our number 1 in 2010 and he will, along with 11 other players, repeat his appearance in this year's ranking. To see who those players are, who the new names are and where each of them is positioned, you will have to stick with us for the next few weeks.

As always, we would also like to hear what you think about the list, what you would change and what would your top 20 look like? Feel free to leave a comment and make sure to stay tuned to HLTV.org to see out our countdown of Top 20 players of 2011!