Gaming
Here are the hottest tickets entering the heat of summer competition.
As summer begins in earnest, so too does a new season of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournaments, kicked-off by last weekend's Gfinity Summer Masters I, in which EnVyUS continued to cement their place at the top by punishing Ninjas In Pyjamas for their current streak of bad form.
But the power struggles of the top are far less interesting than those fast risers from the bottom, especially at the start of a new season. So here are five CS:GO rookies tipped as the hottest tickets going into the heat of summer competition.
Simon ‘fuks’ Florysiak
The LDLC White rifler has earned himself a spotlight after helping secure the team's entrance to this summer's Electronic Sports World Cup in Montreal, beating fellow Frenchmen Melty eSport Club to the spot. He has also been instrumental in several high profile finishes in recent tournaments, including a narrow second place at Gamers Assembly at the hands of Titan. From this clip against fellow up-and-comers FlipSid3 at DreamHack Tours, you can see why he/s one to watch out for.
Daniel ‘roca’ Gustaferri
One of Elevate's most recent recruits is also one of their most valuable, as the entry fragger showed during an ESEA Invite match versus Cloud9 in February. Throughout the game, roca had shown some promise but after picking up a deagle in a late eco round he showed something very special. Picking off a player from the other side of Long on Dust 2 is difficult even without a cannon in your hands. To do it with a headshot and then do it again in a two-against-one clutch is extraordinary.
Nikita ‘waterfaLLZ’ Matveyev
Playing for Russian side PiTER, waterfaLLZ earned his stripes by helping the team through to the offline qualifiers for ESL One Cologne 2015. Though they've yet to make it the rest of the way, a standout solo performance during SLTV Season XII against GGRABB shows waterfaLLZ has some almost inhuman reaction times. Which are always welcome in a CS:GO side.
Markus ‘Kjaerbye’ Kjærbye
The rifler for Team Dignitas may not be newest to the scene, but he's definitely in a position to make a big entrance to premier CS:GO. After some strong performance from Dig, including a dominating first round against Team EnVyUs at Gfinity (before they got their heads back in the game), the 17-year-old Dane showed a lot of potential. And it's not the first time he's put the fear in bigger teams, as those watching Dignitas versus NiP at DreamHack this month can attest to. Deadly switch to that sidearm.
Alexander ‘S1mple’ Kostylev
Another young talent to keep an eye out for is S1mple. You may actually have seen him before, in a brief stint on the HellRaisers team at last year's DreamHack Summer, and several other tournaments, but it's only this year that he's begun to break out. He shows remarkable versatility with both an AK and an AWP, some of the best aim and awareness in the game, yet currently resides in lower tier team FlipSid3. The reason, a ban from an ESL tournament thanks to some unsightly BM last year forced HellRaisers to drop him from the squad. The ban runs out next February, limiting his higher tier team options, but honestly, S1mple could be good enough to carry any team he wants.
