Antitop CS for 2024 – only the worst are here

Savkin - with sad outcomes.

The first six months of 2024 are behind us - a clear milestone for interim assessments of the year. Usually, we choose the best, like HLTV does at their awards, or we do at Cyber Best. Being crowned - pleasant. But it's also necessary to draw sad conclusions.

Worst team

New Year's miracle passed by Cloud9 because the team without a sniper never got into gear. There was a flash - top-8 at the Major, but otherwise - quiet horror. The saddest part isn't even the results, as the lineup fell apart. Only two remain: Bumych and Ax1Le. This is the end of a year-long story that started so beautifully when C9 picked up electronic and Perfecto.

Worst captain

Identifying the worst player overall isn't as simple a task as determining the best. Therefore, it's better to break it down by roles. First up - the captain.

That's Nafany.

His BetBoom Team flopped this half-year: didn't make it to the Major, missed many other LANs, finished last at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, and 13-16th at EPL S19. The only non-disaster was reaching the playoffs at Yalla Compass.

Individually, Nafany had a significant drop: last year his HLTV rating was 0.97, this year it's 0.91. Plus, in 2024, if you filter by the top 30, Vlad is generally the worst player, with a rating of 0.83. Even Aleksib, Hooxi, and Karrigan are ahead.

Worst sniper

The perfect candidate - Nicoodoz. As a sniper, he posted dismal numbers (1.02), but more importantly - something else. After being kicked from Heroic, he said he'd consider a role change and surely won't be exclusively a sniper any more. What is this if not an admission of level? By the way, in those moments when Nikolai put down the AWP and picked up the M4 or AK, he was good.

Worst tournament

By far - the Major in Copenhagen.

0. Problems - surprisingly! - started back in the open qualifiers (now there are no qualifiers or problems - yes, Valve?). They were held on the unpopular and broken ChallengerMode platform, which required installing the Akros anti-cheat. It conflicted with the system as a whole, with CS, and even with mouse software. Sometimes the only solution was to reinstall Windows. The main feature of the anti-cheat was that at random moments it kicked a random player from the server.

The ChallengerMode website and client constantly crashed under load, and the number of slots for Europe was inexplicably limited.

1. CS 2 was too raw and unprepared for the Major. Delays and player dropouts quickly became commonplace. The culmination of Valve's irresponsibility was the elimination match between VP and G2. Jame got kicked from the game at 11:11, with the score tied 4-4 on the second map (the first was won by Virtus.pro) - ultimately, his team lost both Inferno and the match. The only positive moment provoking emotions was Jame's words afterwards. The captain blamed no one but himself and his team for the defeat.

2. Fans stormed the stage, frightening everyone and potentially causing physical harm to players, staff, and other spectators, and even broke the trophy. It was a ridiculous protest against G2's sponsor.

Worst reshuffle

Renting Simple to Falcons can hardly be called a full-fledged reshuffle: after all, he played only one match and returned to chill with NAVI. On the other hand, had he and his temporary team played better, maybe Kostylev would have stayed in the Zon1Q team.