Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’s pistols are powerful weapons in the right hands.
With each CSGO match starting with a pistol round, teams with proficient pistol players start at a distinct advantage. The list of the top five pistol players includes some of CSGO’s best, a testament to how much of an impact skills with the pistol make.
What’s even more interesting is that while Astralis leads teams in overall pistol round win percentage, none of its individual players are included in the top five. Astralis’ lack of top-five pistol round players points to the idea that while an individual’s pistol performance may affect their team’s chances of winning the opening rounds, teamplay may be a more influential factor in determining the team’s pistol round strength.
But it seems as though it is actually more important for a team to avoid poor pistol players than it is to have good ones on the roster.
While having CSGO’s best pistol players on a team doesn’t mean that a team will win pistol rounds, having CSGO’s worst pistol players on the team correlates to a roster losing pistol rounds. mousesports, for example, have two of the worst pistol players over the past year in pro play. Both Chris “chrisJ” de Jong and Finn “karrigan” Andersen are ranked in the bottom five players in pistol round performances, and mousesports is ranked fifth-worst in pistol round win percentage at 46%.
Natus Vincere’s star player currently holds the best kill-to-death differential in CSGO history, and part of that is due to his top-five performances over Na`Vi’s pistol rounds. If these statistics included eco rounds, s1mple would be placed higher thanks to his pinpoint accuracy with the Desert Eagle. But fifth place is still nothing to be ashamed of for one of CSGO’s most talented players.
frozen is the first surprise on the list, ranking fourth out of players on top-20 teams for his overall pistol round performances. But as noted above, his play hasn’t translated into round wins for mousesports. Regardless, frozen is surrounded by some of CSGO’s most recognizable names in the game’s most important rounds.
While the clip below happened on an eco round for mousesports, frozen’s precision is on full display and shows his proficiency with CSGO’s cheapest weapons.
ZywOo was named the number one CSGO player in 2019, and while that ranking was mostly due to the Vitality AWPer’s gun round performances, his pistol round statistics definitely made up a part of why he received the honors. Combined with the list’s number one ranked pistol round player, his positon helps set Vitality off on the right foot in the majority of matches.
Team Liquid’s star player takes the number two spot out of all players with a 1.30 rating during pistol rounds. ELiGE is best known for his rifle play, but statistics show that he is also one of CSGO’s best performers in pistol rounds.
Counter-Strike’s number one pistol player over the past year is a surprising name. French veteran RpK is ranked above the best players and took the number-one pistol round player spot. Over the past year, RpK has out-performed both s1mple and teammate ZywOo, two of CSGO’s top players overall, and has done so with impressive statistics to back up his play. RpK has posted a 1.32 rating, a 1.30 K/D, and a +67 differential. He also leads all players on top-twenty teams over the course of 314 pistol rounds. The Vitality vet leads all players in those categories for an impressive year’s worth of pistol round performances.
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