Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold opens our ranking of the top 20 players of 2019, powered by Xtrfy and LOOT.BET, due to his important role in his team's impressive year.

Ethan's first steps in the competitive scene date back to early 2016. As a young player with very little experience, he grinded the ladder with some solid displays in online tournaments, first with ACE and then with ex-Astral Authority. In April that year, he joined a team called Prospects, who would help to put him on the map. Alongside players like Jaccob "⁠yay⁠" Whiteaker and Chad "⁠Oderus⁠" Miller, he got to face better opposition more frequently and competed in the iBUYPOWER Invitational 2016 Summer, in which the team almost managed to take a map off the veterans of Cloud9 in the first round of the tournament.

"I began playing with friends in ESEA leagues, then I just slowly moved my way up to Premier and it just went on from there. I just remember being pretty good when I first started playing Open on ESEA and I guess I got noticed by some Premier teams. I think it helped with confidence for sure, getting picked up by a Premier team when you were just in Open didn't happen very often.”

Ethan made headlines that summer for the first time when he joined the Ze Pug Godz roster in eUnited, replacing Steven "⁠rooRoooo⁠" Herrell, but his time there would be short lived. Just two weeks later, he was picked up by CLG alongside Yassine "⁠Subroza⁠" Taoufik.

"I honestly don’t remember much [about what happened with eUnited], I just remember never signing a contract with them because I was still in contact with CLG and trying to work out things with them. So when CLG finally sent me the contract I hopped ship.

"At that point I thought that I could actually make a career out of gaming."

Now playing in a team with Major experience, Ethan had to adapt to a new reality, and his first months with CLG were a bit frustrating as they failed to impress in the Northern Arena stops in Toronto and Montreal, and crashed out of the offline qualifier for the ELEAGUE Major in 12th-14th place with just one victory from four games.

Ethan playing at Northern Arena with CLG

It was in 2017 that Ethan’s quality began to shine through a little more, even if results weren’t always there. With a top-eight finish at the StarSeries i-League Season 3 Finals - Ethan’s first Big Event -, CLG looked destined for a bright future, but it all came crashing down in the months that followed. Third-place finishes at the two Americas Minors held that year - the second of which where Ethan carried the team with an average 1.30 rating - and a couple of semi-final runs at DreamHack Open events were deemed unsatisfactory by the CLG management, who decided to close down both men's teams before the end of the year.

“It wasn't much of a surprise honestly, I'm sure we all knew it was coming, but my time on CLG was definitely an eye-opener. It showed me how tough it was to practice as a professional team and how good you actually needed to be in order to compete at a high level."

As expected, Ethan was not on the market for long, and in January 2018 he completed a move to NRG, where he replaced Allan "⁠AnJ⁠" Jensen. The early signs were extremely positive: the team dominated online leagues (17-1 in ECS Season 5, 17-5 in ESL Pro League Season 7) and won the iBUYPOWER Spring Invitational, but they were given a reality check once they got to a LAN setting, finishing 9th-12th at IEM Sydney and at the EPL Finals.

For the most part, 2018 was an extremely positive year for NRG, who showed the classic signs of a team still trying to find their place at the highest level. Their road included stunning highs - victories at IEM Shanghai and cs_summit 3, and a runner-up finish at StarSeries i-League Season 5 - but also some painful lows, such as a fourth place at the Americas Minor leading to the FACEIT Major following defeats to Complexity and Rogue.

NRG during their grand final run at StarSeries Season 5

A 9th-12th place at the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals was not the way that NRG wanted 2018 to end, but Ethan still had reasons to smile as he welcomed 2019: he had been the team’s top performer on LAN in 2018 (1.17 rating), with two EVP appearances, both of which from StarSeries events, narrowly missing out on a spot in our top 20 player of the year ranking.

"I think we started off that year as best as we could. We destroyed both online leagues, only losing like three or four matches in both leagues combined, I think, which is insane. We were definitely amazing online, which helped with confidence. I think that's why we started off so well, but we definitely had a curse not making the major.

"Going into 2019, making a Major was definitely the first goal. Then making top 5 as a team, then, after completing those, making it to the No.1 spot as a team.”

Ethan Ethan 2019 LAN tournament stats Tournament Event Team (place) Rating 2.0 (in team) ADR KPR DPR Impact KAST Award (15-16th) 1.06 (2nd, +6% ) 82.8 0.72 0.73 1.08 68.9% (3-4th) 1.22 (1st, +14% ) 88.4 0.74 0.64 1.30 71.5% EVP (3-4th) 1.26 (2nd, +11% ) 88.8 0.78 0.63 1.43 70.9% EVP (3-4th) 1.08 (3rd, +3% ) 79.1 0.69 0.69 1.05 73.2% (9-12th) 1.05 (2nd, +7% ) 85.5 0.70 0.75 1.04 69.5% (3-4th) 1.12 (3rd, +2% ) 82.2 0.69 0.70 1.13 71.0% (3-4th) 1.09 (2nd, +6% ) 77.6 0.67 0.68 1.20 68.1% (5-6th) 0.94 (4th, -7% ) 68.3 0.61 0.69 0.86 69.1% (3rd) 1.01 (2nd, +5% ) 79.0 0.69 0.74 1.02 69.4% (3-4th) 0.96 (5th, -12% ) 67.6 0.58 0.67 0.84 70.7% (1st) 1.13 (4th, -4% ) 77.2 0.66 0.61 1.10 74.3% EVP (13-16th) 1.00 (2nd, +10% ) 77.0 0.65 0.73 0.99 69.1% (1st) 1.24 (1st, +11% ) 86.8 0.76 0.61 1.18 76.3% MVP (5-6th) 0.98 (2nd, +4% ) 73.6 0.63 0.72 1.04 66.0% (5-6th) 1.10 (1st, +12% ) 80.2 0.76 0.72 1.12 69.9% (3-4th) 1.00 (3rd, +3% ) 72.4 0.65 0.72 1.16 65.3% (5-6th) 1.02 (2nd, +2% ) 77.6 0.65 0.70 0.91 73.5% (3-4th) 1.05 (2nd, +4% ) 80.6 0.67 0.69 1.03 68.5% 5%+ above average 5%+ above average 5%+ below average 5%+ below average Closer than 5% to average Closer than 5% to average

NRG started the new year with a bang as they won the Americas Minor in Katowice in dominant fashion, beating Imperial, Bravado, Envy and FURIA without losing a single map in the process, with Ethan boasting a 1.41 rating, the second-highest in the team. He continued his hot start to the year in the New Challengers Stage of the Katowice Major, where he averaged a 1.36 rating in the victories over Winstrike, TYLOO and ViCi to help the team to reach the top-16 unscathed.

Internal issues were already affecting the team in Katowice

Big things were expected at the Major from a team in such a rich vein of form, but NRG were, much to everyone’s surprise, among the first to be sent packing in the New Legends Stage following defeats to NiP, AVANGAR and Complexity despite some solid performances from Ethan (1.06 rating, 82.8 ADR), who was second only to Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte. The 0-3 run also meant that the team would have to revisit the Americas Minor - a necessary evil for a team that, at the time, were already planning ahead.

"We knew we were cutting someone going into that event, so I was just happy to make the Major since that was my only goal during that time."

Shortly after the Major, NRG announced that Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik would be replacing Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina in the starting lineup. With the ELEAGUE Boston Major champion, who was signed from MIBR, the team enjoyed a honeymoon period with semi-final runs at their next two Big Events, StarSeries i-League Season 7 and IEM Sydney.

In Shanghai, where NRG were stopped in their tracks by fnatic, Ethan was fourth on the list of EVPs with some team-leading stats, including rating (1.22, 14% higher than the team’s average), clutches (11) and ADR (88.4). In Sydney, where the North Americans beat two teams higher in the rankings in FaZe and MIBR before once again meeting their demise at the hands of fnatic, Ethan brought his tournament rating up to 1.26, but with his best performances coming in the group stage, he had to settle for a place at the very end of the EVP list.

"I was pretty content with how I was doing. Since we were improving I thought that my level of play had something to do with it."

That peak of performance soon descended into a trough. Over the next four LAN events (cs_summit 4, DreamHack Masters Dallas, ECS Season 7 Finals and ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals), Ethan's rating dipped to 1.08 despite NRG still making the semi-finals at three of those tournaments. When compared to the first five months of the year, his Impact had gone down to 1.32 to 1.08, his KPR from 0.75 to 0.68 and his ADR from 86.8 to 80.5, while his DPR had increased from 0.63 to 0.70 - all signs that he was now being forced into more unfavorable situations.

"After making certain roster changes I felt the need to switch into a sort of support role to expedite the process and get our new player incorporated into the team faster. I think this led to me trying to do too much and not playing my own game, which kind of messed with my confidence a bit and led to me slumping for a while."

Ethan's struggles continued into the summer season as he recorded his first below-average tournament rating of the year at ESL One Cologne (0.94) - the first event with Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz -, in part thanks to a 0.73 series rating in the group’s upper bracket final clash against Liquid. After he admitted in an interview with HLTV.org that he had stopped focusing on his own game, there were some encouraging signs at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, where he was NRG’s second-best performer (1.01 rating) following some solid showings in the group stage matches.

ESL One Cologne saw Ethan post his lowest rating of the year

Just like in Katowice, NRG cruised through the Americas Minor in Berlin, where they defeated four Brazilian teams en route to the Major, TeamOne, Sharks, FURIA and INTZ. This time around, the North Americans got off on the wrong foot in the New Challengers Stage, losing to DreamEaters in overtime, but they bounced back with dominant victories over TYLOO, Syman and AVANGAR, with Ethan ending that stage with a team-high 1.47 rating. It looked like this could finally be his Major, but despite the team reaching the semi-finals he mustered a 0.96 rating, the lowest in the team, following three bad maps, two against Astralis and one against Natus Vincere.

"During that whole tournament I honestly thought I was playing pretty well since, as a team, we were playing amazingly. This is the first time that I have seen I played badly, so that is a surprise to me. After that tournament, I think we were all pretty content with how we did, especially coming straight out of a good bootcamp."

The end of the Major brought a change of scenery for the players as they signed with Evil Geniuses, who had been away from Counter-Strike since 2012. The team could not have asked for a better start to life under the new organisation as they won their first Big Event title after taking down the red-hot Astralis in the grand final of ESL One New York. Ethan had a rough start to the tournament with a 0.55 rating in the victory over FaZe but still managed to make the EVP list after some solid performances in the playoffs, in which he averaged a 1.21 rating.

“I think it was a boost in confidence, playing under such a prestigious banner and also being on home soil for our first event with them. All these things, combined with us just playing really well, created the perfect storm to win New York.

"Doing it in front of the home crowd and under the EG banner for our first tournament was definitely my best memory of 2019."

Evil Geniuses came crashing down to earth when they were unable to build on that success at DreamHack Masters Malmö, where they were sent packing in the groups following defeats to Grayhound and mousesports. That setback did not derail the team, however, as they went back to winning ways at StarSeries i-League Season 8, beating fnatic in the final.

Evil Geniuses won their second Big Event title in Belek

After settling for EVP mentions at the previous three StarSeries season tournaments, Ethan went one better and picked up his very first MVP medal after putting up some impressive numbers: 1.24 rating (11% higher than the team’s average), four Player of the Map picks and 13 maps with ratings higher than 1.15, eight of which surpassing the 1.30 mark. The victories in New York and Belek also saw the North Americans rise to No.1 in the rankings, becoming the first team other than Astralis and Liquid to be ranked at the summit since April 2018.

"We definitely brushed Malmö off as we didn't know exactly what happened, but winning StarLadder after that gave our team another boost in confidence and me especially finally getting an MVP and playing pretty well.

"We were all extremely proud of how hard we'd worked up until that point and I'm sure that [being No.1 in the world] was in all of our bucket lists for Counter-Strike."

Evil Geniuses' hectic schedule in the last two months of the year took a toll on the team, and results began to waver. For Ethan, the only positives to take from the last tournaments were a team-leading 1.10 rating from the CS:GO Asia Championships - the least important of the events that EG attended during the last stretch of the season - and some solid performances against Natus Vincere and mousesports in the playoffs of EPICENTER, which brought his tournament rating up to 1.05, 8% higher than the team’s average. As weeks went by and losses mounted, EG progressively slipped down to fifth in the rankings - an anti-climatic end to 2019 after the impressive post-break run.

"The last two months for us were some of the busiest and least productive months for all of us, I feel like. It was just going to tournaments back to back without any time to practice, and on top of that, we weren't even going deep in tournaments, which definitely messed with the team's confidence and mindset.

"I would say that my worst memory was probably the whole last month or two of the year. Way too much traveling and not enough good placings made it feel like a waste of time."

Why was Ethan the 20th best player of 2019?

To put it simply, Ethan was one of the key contributors in one of the best teams of the year. When it came to events that were taken into consideration for the top 20 (those with MVP medals), he was ranked 13th for ADR (80.8), eighth for assists per round, and second for clutches (67). But while this last bit of information may come as a surprise, it is important to stress that his team played the second-most maps.

He hit his peak at StarSeries i-League Season 8, where he was named the MVP, and was among the EVPs at three other events. Moreover, he maintained a decent level at some of the other tournaments that his team attended with at least eight entries into a lesser tournament category that we call Valuable Players (VPs).

Lackluster displays at the biggest events of the year cost Ethan a higher place in the top 20

But there were some lows along the way as well, which coincided with the five biggest events of the year (the two Majors, ESL One Cologne, DreamHack Masters Malmö and the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals). He averaged a 0.99 rating at these events, the lowest among the players who are featured in this top 20, which helps to explain why he could not be ranked any higher and just about made the list.

“In 2020, I would like to get back to No.1 in the world and to win consecutive tournaments."

Bold prediction:

It’s not much of a bold prediction, but Ethan expects big things from Ludvig "⁠Brollan⁠" Brolin, who averaged a 1.15 rating in the last three months of 2019 and ended the year in style with a 1.22 rating at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals:

"If he hasn't already, Brollan from Fnatic. He has been playing insanely recently.

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: