There’s something to be said for a young player impressing on a big stage, and that’s what Heroic’s Rasmus “sjuush” Beck has done this month.
Amongst the usual pro players on this week’s top 10 CSGO players is an unlikely name, but it’s one that deserves attention thanks to his special performances. sjuush shot to number two this week thanks to some impressive performances on Train, Vertigo, and Mirage.
It’s been an odd week across the board heading into the ESL Pro League Season 13 playoffs. Although Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev retained his top spot, several others slipped. Nikola “NiKo” Kovač fell to number nine, but his slide is more about players like sjuush making the most of their time on the server rather than his own recent matches.
That said, sjuush didn’t get to number two with a big match or two. Instead, sjuush has been quietly fantastic on certain maps.
sjuush’s defensive dominance puts him at CSGO’s number two spot
It’s odd to think of maps like Mirage and Vertigo as specialty maps but the reality is that CSGO has teams that tend to play well on a map, but lacks singularly dominant players who teams will veto around. sjuush is one of those rare players. In the past month, the 22-year-old hasn’t been as consistent as we’d normally see from a top-five player, but numbers show that he’s a particularly scary one to face on certain maps.
On Train, sjuush’s 1.50 rating game against Voyoda and a 1.54 finish against Renegades show that when he’s the last line of defense, sjuush is deadly. It’s hard to deny an 85% kill participation score and 105 ADR against the Aussies or his standout game against Voyoda where he topped the server in kills, first frags, total damage, and rating.
These aren’t stats we expect to see from players who haven’t spent much time in the big leagues, but his in-game leader is the key to his success. Veteran Casper “cadiaN” Møller is once again behind a young player’s massive numbers.
cadiaN has never been afraid to put his players in big spots, and they perform more often than not. He’s done it with Valdemar “valde” Vangså on North, and he continues to do it with his current crop of players on Heroic, including René “TeSeS” Madsen and Martin “stavn” Lund. But even cadiaN can’t manufacture talent unless there was something there to begin with.
sjuush is at his best when outnumbered and isolated
In the past, players like Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt became notorious for their skillful play on specific maps, in NBK-‘s case, it was Cache. But today, apart from s1mple and Dust 2, it’s difficult to connect many of today’s players with particular maps or positions on a map. That’s more rare in this version of CSGO, but sjuush is making a name for himself.
In addition to Train, sjuush has had showcase performances on Overpass, Mirage, and Vertigo, but there is one catch. As specialized as sjuush is on maps where the rest of CSGO is playing catch-up, sjuush lags behind in matches on the game’s more focused maps.
Nuke and Inferno stand out as sjuush’s weakest maps, but that can be tied to how candiaN has chosen to use him in Heroic’s system. On maps where sjuush plays the same spots he held down during his 2019 tenure with MAD Lions, he’s still a dominant force. It’s not even that he plays badly on those two maps, he just plays better on the rest.
The rifler is at his best on maps where it’s up to him to stall for rotates, and he’s a master at taking duels thanks to his underrated aim. While he sometimes struggles to play off teammates, he still comes through much more often than not.
It will be interesting to see how sjuush continues to grow under cadiaN and alongside the equally good Ismail “refrezh” Ali, but for now fans can sit back and enjoy the show.
