Xyp9x lands in top 10 players with return, NiKo climbs higher

With top Counter-Strike: Global Offensive teams starting to coalesce in Europe, things have started getting hectic once again. Though this winter likely won’t get as busy as 2019’s did, BLAST Premier Fall, IEM New York, and DreamHack Open Fall have all taken place over the last two weeks.

Alongside that have been a number of high-profile roster changes including Cloud9’s acquisition of Patrick “es3tag” Hansen, G2 Esports’ signing of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač, and the reactivation of Andreas “Xyp9x” Højsleth by Astralis. Each of these moves are represented on the top-10, which currently stands as such:

Xyp9x returns to Astralis, lands in eighth place

After an extended hiatus, Xyp9x returned to the active lineup of Astralis for BLAST Premier Fall. Though his stat line wasn’t overly impressive due to Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz posting a white hot performance, the clutch minister lived up to his nickname by gutting out several rounds for Astralis. That was enough to push him back up into the number eight spot in the rankings upon his return.

Alongside Xyp9x, Astralis players es3tag and Emil “Magisk” Reif also improved their standing. Magisk rose one spot, while es3tag rose from eighth to fifth. The one member of Astralis that took a hit was Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander, who dipped from third to ninth.

Astralis did undergo a significant change, with es3tag being transferred to Cloud9 after DreamHack Open Fall. How this will impact the team will be one of the biggest CSGO stories of the winter.

NiKo’s debut with G2 boosts ranking

NiKo’s long tenure with FaZe Clan ended last week, with the star player making his G2 Esports debut at BLAST Premier Fall. The team finished first in its group, defeating Astralis, MIBR, and Furia along the way.

NiKo played a huge part in that, with many marveling at his debut. That was an impressive showing from NiKo, but the first extended look at the new G2 Esports comes in one week at IEM Beijing. That event will see G2 face off against 15 other formidable teams and will set the stage for the G2 NiKo era.