If you’ve been following Counter-Strike for a while, you may have noticed the huge skill increase of new players. It’s been rising for years now but now more than ever it’s glaringly obvious.

For months now, the veterans of the game have been dropping-off and the amount young players on top-tier teams are at an all-time high.

Just look to Virtus.pro, a team that had and still has some of the oldest and most respected players in the game. Current team leader, Filip “NEO” Kubski, was regarded as the best in the world in the 1.6 era. It’s hard to say but he and his team are simply outclassed by the new generation of players and results reflect this.

Now, take a look at Space Soldiers, the Turkish roster has an average age of 22.4 and have been rapidly climbing the ranks. Without doubt, a lot of their success can be credited to 19-year-old, Buğra “Calyx” Arkın, who has an HLTV rating of 1.13, and 22-year-old, Ismailcan “XANTARES” Dörtkardeş, who is arguably one of the most individually skilled players in the world. Compare that to NEO and his recently kicked ex-teammate, Wiktor “TaZ” Wojtas, who each have a rating of 0.91.

Of the emerging generation of players, there is a handful that has caught my eye as potential future top-20 players and I want to put them under the spotlight.

David “frozen” Čerňanský

It’s hard to describe frozen as anything other than a prodigy.

He’s currently only 15-years-old and is recently competed against giants Mousesports and Faze Clan, along with the veteran roster Virtus.pro, in the V4 Future Sports Festival. He had a reasonable performance at the tournament with a hltv.org rating of 1.04. It wasn’t his best performance but he went up giant pro’s who had been playing since before his birth as well as against the world’s best team, Faze.

I can hype up this kid as much as I want but without any actual stats it means nothing. So far, he has a rating of 1.19, the 9th best rating on HLTV right now. Furthermore, he has a K/D ratio of 1.22, that’s higher than Nikola ‘NiKo’ Kovač’s K/D. While he is playing against weaker opponents than NiKo, he’s six years younger than him. Here is a player who, if given the necessary resources, has the potential to be number one.

Now he is young, but he certainly isn’t inexperienced. If you thought 15-years-old was too young then you’ll be blown away by the fact that his first professional contract was given to him by the organization nEophyte when he was just 13-years-old, barely a teenager. Frozen already has two years of professional experience under his belt, some of the current top-tier pros didn’t start playing professionally until they were adults.

It’s seriously worth looking frozen up if you watch a frag movie or demo of his the first thing you’ll notice is his pinpoint accuracy, his mechanics are impeccable. Mechanics aren’t everything though, his team play needs to be on-par with his skill if he’s to reach the top and the fact that he’s been with the same core team since 2015 says that he’s already bonded well and fits nicely into a team system, a talent that not even the likes of Aleksandr ‘s1mple’ Kostyliev acquired until recent years.

Rokas ‘EspiranTo’ Milasauskas

EspiranTo is a 16-year-old Lithuanian who is currently playing alongside Danish duo Asger “AcilioN” Larsen and Jesper “tenzki” Plougmann on Imperial. Until around a month ago he was a relatively unknown name, but after winning FPL in February and being picked up by the Imperial org he’s gained a lot of exposure and people are starting to see how much talent this youngster has. He has a rating of 1.12, that doesn’t seem as impressive as frozen’s 1.22 rating, but, if you look at Imperial’s recent matches, they have had more difficult opponents compared to eXtatus.

EspiranTo is an all-around incredible player, his aim is top-tier and his reactions match that. However, something special about him compared to many other young players is his game sense and decision making: It’s on par with some of the best pros in the scene. If you watched one of his demos and took away the name, you’d assume it was a tier-one player or a cheater. Speaking of cheating, that’s something that many people have accused him of since his ability is just that insane.

He has a headshot percentage of 52 percent and on average deals 80 damage per round. These stats tell a tale of a player who is already a killing machine and at 16-years-old he’s only going to get better.

A very exciting prospect for EspiranTo is that he now has an org that can give him the resources he needs to dedicate himself to the game. His natural talent is out of this world and now that he can practice and play full-time his ability will sky-rocket. I think we’ll be seeing a whole lot more of EspiranTo over the coming 12 months.

Ludvig ‘Brollan’ Brolin

And they say Swedish CS is dead…

Brollan is one of Godsent’s newer players and no one had really heard of him prior to his stint on Fnatic during the WESG qualifiers. I think everyone was surprised when they saw him play, a 15-year-old who came out of nowhere was out-dueling players like XANTARES, Egor ‘flamie’ Vasilyev and Denis ‘electronic’ Sharipov.

His talent is unquestionable, however, something that is a problem for Brollan is consistency. When he pops-off, he really pops-off, but when he doesn’t he struggles to get into the game at all. Although, this isn’t that worrying since a lot of younger players struggle to keep their consistency. Here’s a relevant quote from his well-known teammate, Simon “twist” Eliasson:

“Brollan is a youngster, he is a raw talent and Sweden’s next big thing, in my opinion. He just needs some time, he is just 15-years-old and he’s not used to these kinds of events, he is a bit nervous and such things, but it will go away.”

He’s only going to get better and more consistent with age and experience and we could definitely be seeing him on a team like Ninjas In Pyjamas or Fnatic within the next few years.

An impressive stat is that he has an impact in 72.4 percent of the rounds he plays and gets 0.76 kills per round. These stats look incredible when you compare them s1mple’s (the current best player in the world,) s1mple has an impact in 75.3 percent of his rounds and averages 0.85 kills per round. Brollan has got a bright future and these stats reflect that.

Mathieu ‘ZywOo’ Herbaut

Where do I even begin with ZywOo. His 1.40 rating? Maybe his 0.91 kills per round? Or I could mention that he’s only 17-years-old and has been approached by multiple tier-two organizations.

Everything about this player is incredible. He’s been active since he was just 13 and has already amassed over $15,000 in prize money. However, that doesn’t seem too substantial when you compare it to the $15,000 a month he had been offered by EnVyUs.

If you watch one of his demos, you’ll notice that whatever gun he has, he dominates with. Be it pistol, rifle or AWP, ZywOo will get kills and lots of them. The way he plays paints a picture of mastery, it seems like he has the game down to a tee and he hasn’t even finished school yet. He seems like such a versatile player and you could play him as an AWPer, entry or anchor and he would shine above the rest in each role.

So many pros have praised him as the next big thing, ZywOo is clearly heading for a successful future, the only real question now is which team will be able to snap him up first.

Zack ‘XotiC’ Elshani

I first saw XotiC just after he joined up with Splyce and as someone who had never heard of him prior to that, I was in awe. It’s hard to find good footage of him without looking at his demos. I highly recommend watching Splyce’s next game because you need to see XotiC play.

He’s 17-years-old and from the USA. He really is NA’s next big thing, a young flashy AWPer is something that NA could really do with since at the top of the food chain, AWPers are in short supply.

Unfortunately, he has been suffering from a slump as of late and is struggling to put up the numbers, but considering he is playing in the most prestigious online league in NA, it’s understandable why he might be feeling the pressure. On the bright side, most of the time after a slump, a player improves all round and once XotiC gets back into gear he’ll be styling on NA once again.

Regardless of his recent performances, he has a 1.14 rating and 69.5 percent round contribution. XotiC is a high impact player and he still has many years to improve and reach his peak. And based on his stats, it’s gonna be one hell of a peak.