2021 is over, enter 2022. The esports scene is getting bigger, covid measures are being lowered. More LAN events and bigger prize pools and of course fiercer competition. Dota 2 The International’s enormous prize pool of $40,018,195 of 2021 should give you an idea of how competitive esports has become in recent years. Let’s look at some of the top dogs that we should pay close attention to in 2022:
CS:GO
We all know s1mple and ZywOo are the top dogs when it comes to CSGO. But there are other sharks in the pool that shouldn’t be ignored.
Robin "ropz" Kool
The ultimate carrier of Mousesports. What makes him so special is his high skill ceiling in comparison to his teammates. He’s known to stay cold-blooded and pull off clutches and make his team a formidable opponent single-handedly. He is a one-man army.
He is by far, my favourite CSGO player. He should be kept a close eye on because of his immense mechanical prowess and his ability to single-handedly carry his marginal team into victory time after time since his joining date of 2017. He left Mousesports at the end of 2021 and surely will find his place in a formidable team soon. Mousesports future looks dark, but ropz’s will undoubtedly shine in 2022.
Nikola "NiKo" Kovač
Without getting into the dispute of “is 1v1 considered a clutch?”. Niko is the ultimate clutch artist. He’s the cool guy that doesn’t show off like s1mple, yet similarly extremely talented. He has gotten out of 1v1 and 1v2 clutch situations and proved that he’s always in control when outnumbered.
NiKo is widely considered as one of the most mechanically gifted players in Global Offensive and has been in contention for the title of the best player in the world at multiple periods throughout his career. With his team changing from Faze to G2 Esports we will closely watch what the future will look like for him.
Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov
Not just an AWPer and AWP Guru. Sh1ro has proven himself against the best of the best: s1mple, ZywOo, dev1ce. He matched s1mple’s clutch record at IEM Katowice 2021. He’s needlessly compared to s1mple all the time because he’s the only one that’s considered an equal AWPer. Really fun player to watch and brings his team good fortune with his opening kills according to his stats:
| Total opening kills |
2474 |
| Opening kill ratio | 1.93 |
| Team win percent after first kill | 76.9 |
VALORANT
Mehmet Yağız “cNed” İpek
He’s a world champion now. cNed had the highest impact on team Acend according to his stats. He’s a Red Bull esports athlete. He got 230 kills at the championships and managed to propel his team to victory in the final against Gambit Esports. We may see him compared to the ultimate players of Valorant soon: Tenz and nAts.
Nikita “Derke” Sirmitev
He is the unexpected star of Valorant Champions Tour. Probably the most promising player of the game too. Among his peers at the World Finals, he had the highest K/D, ACS and highest average damage per round. His team Fnatic were considered a joke at press conferences and it was guessed that they didn’t possess the serious attitude that was needed to win. They proved otherwise. Derke’s incredible performance ended with their loss against KRÜ Esports. But his future should be watched closely.
DOTA 2
Illya "Yatoro" Mulyarchuk
Yatoro was the golden piece of the puzzle that took Team Spirit out of the loser brackets and oh my, oh my; they managed to get on top of the ladder and win against both favourites and unexpectedly won the whole tournament. He is the record holder for most rampages at The International, played 14 heroes over the course of the tournament and achieved 23 kills in a professional game. Yatoro should definitely be watched in 2022.
Wang “Ame” Chunyu
According to the legendary king of Dota 2 Sumail, the best Dota 2 player right now is Ame. PSG.LGD and China’s best carry came in second place after losing to Team Spirit. But right now he’s considered as one of the best carry players.
League of Legends
Lee “Scout“ Ye-chan
He prevented the famous Damwon Gaming from winning the Worlds 2021 and was chosen as champion among his team and the overall tournament’s MVP. What more could be said about him except that he should be followed closely in 2022.
Heo “ShowMaker” Su
He’s the midlaner of famous Damwon Gaming that almost got the victory from EDward Gaming in Worlds 2021 and a great showmaker with surgical skills. We will see how Damwon Gaming will recover from their loss in 2022 and the feats of Heo Su as one of the top 3 midlaners in LoL.
RAINBOW SIX SIEGE
Gustavo "Psycho" Rigal
He’s chosen as the MVP of Invitational 2021 and the captain/in-game leader of Ninjas in Pyjamas’ Rainbow Six Siege team that won first place in the same tournament. One to be kept an eye on, with his rising performance. He’s also one of six players that has won the Six Invitational twice. Psycho and Ninjas in Pyjamas may dominate Rainbow Six Siege in 2022 if they keep it up.
Bonus: Troy "Canadian" Jaroslawski
A Professional Rainbow Six player, this one is an interesting character to keep an eye on. He’s a two-time world champion that retired because of a “lack of passion and motivation for the game.” Yet un-retired himself because of a passport problem of his teammate ahead of the Invitational 2021. He missed the Invitational 2021 and DarkZero Esports flopped big time at the event. With him on the board, they won the 2020’s tournament. Obviously he makes a huge difference in his team and he's also the team’s captain and in-game leader.
We have come to the end of our list, but the tournaments continue non-stop. You can watch tournaments and place bets on Luckbox.
