It has been a monumental year of CS:GO, and we've seen some fantastic showings from players around the world. With 2016 drawing to a close, theScore esports' Dennis Gonzales gives his list of players that stood above the rest this season.

10. Timothy "autimatic" Ta - autimatic is a young gun who’s quickly established himself as one of the top players to come out of North America. His addition to Cloud9 saw a noticeable rise in performance for the team overall, while TSM have dropped off since his departure. He has yet to attend a Major, but that's likely to change in 2017.

9. Emil "Magiskb0Y" Reif - A rising star who’s been a little quiet on his previous teams, SK Gaming and Team X, but ever since he’s joined up with Team Dignitas he’s come into his own. He's headed to his first Major in January with the team, and all eyes will be on him.

8. Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund - One of the old CS dogs still chugging along after nearly a decade of competition, GeT_RiGhT still puts up some crazy plays and impressive numbers, all while having debilitating ulcerative colitis. He’s not on this list just because he's had to overcome a handicap, but to say that he's had an easy road would be dishonest.

7. Richard "shox" Papillon - shox is a clutch player and one of the big guns on G2 that keeps the team competing at a top level. ScreaM is the other half of the equation, and in many ways matches or even exceeds shox’s performance, but there’s much more pressure on shox as the leader of the team — and he still performs as well as he does.

6. Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski - Virtus.pro is a rock in CS:GO, and Snax is its solid diamond core. While others on the team may go through slumps, Snax remains consistent as one of the best lurkers in the scene.

5. Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo - FalleN has led his squad to win two Majors this year. He's likely a top contender for best AWPer of the year, but there’s simply no question about who’s been the best in-game leader.

4. Nikola "NiKo" Kovač - NiKo is able to carry his team out of unwinnable situations. Even though he's prone to succumbing to pressure and falling short when he’s needed most — like at the Majors — when he shines, he shines bright.

3. Nicolai "dev1ce" Reedtz - While he’s probably not the flashiest AWPer, he’s one of the most consistent, and one that’s not hamstrung with a rifle. He’s been playing out of his mind in big LAN events, regardless of whether Astralis win or not, pulling numbers second only to coldzera. As of the ECS Season 2 Finals, he's now the highest HLTV-rated player of the year in +$250,000 events.

2. Oleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev - There aren't many players that can claim they boosted their team to Top 4 finishes at back-to-back Majors the way s1mple did with Team Liquid. Despite his confrontational personality and his struggles to find a long-term home, s1mple is simply a monster on the map.

1. Marcelo "coldzera" David - Winner of both Majors of the year, pulls insane numbers online, on LAN and in Majors, and constantly making highlight-worthy plays. coldzera is definitively the best CS:GO player of the year.