Top 20 players of 2019: CeRq (18)

The 18th place on the Top 20 players of 2019 ranking, powered by Xtrfy and LOOT.BET, belongs to Tsvetelin "⁠CeRq⁠" Dimitrov, who becomes the first-ever Bulgarian player to make the list as one of the stars of his team's successful year.

Top 20 players of 2019: Introduction

CeRq began his career as a member of WinFiction, a constellation of unknown Bulgarian players, who quickly made their mark locally in mid-2016 as they started threatening the more experienced and renowned competition in HEADSHOTBG and MK. After becoming Outlaws late in the year, the team worked their way up to the status of one of the best in the region, with CeRq leading them to several titles on the Balkan scene and in European online tournaments. His aggressive AWPing style began to earn him international fandom when he appeared in more and more competitions at the lower tier, with numbers such as a 1.20 rating and 0.81 kills per round in only the first year of his career making it clear that he was a player to keep a close eye on for the future.

"I remember trying to join forces with SPELLAN and I got denied at the time with Partodis. He and I kept grinding matchmaking and FACEIT, played in some teams that weren't that serious on the side, and eventually we made WinFiction/Outlaws with SPELLAN, Partodis, acl, Rock1ng, and myself. We became one of the best Balkan teams starting from the very bottom and also the best team in Bulgaria, which at the time was very competitive with Bpro and MK."

Word of his talent quickly spread and CeRq received an offer from Rogue, which he declined because he originally wished to stay with Outlaws, but he didn't take long to reach out to another team from the region, NRG. Having just added Allan "⁠AnJ⁠" Jensen, Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele's side had already been looking for outside talent, and things moved rapidly after that as the Bulgarian got a spot on the roster almost immediately.

"It was funny because I had an offer from Rogue and I was going to refuse it, stay in Outlaws and continue playing in Bulgaria. But on the same day I made up my mind about that move, NRG had just parted ways with ptr, and as a joke I messaged AnJ 'let me join your team.' Two minutes later he called me in TeamSpeak with daps, who asked me a couple of questions, and later that night I got in contact with their player manager to sort things out. I was super excited and also a little worried that there might be a huge language barrier because of my English, but it wasn't that bad, looking back at it."

The transition was far from a smooth process, however. As just a 17-year-old, CeRq faced legal issues while his former organization attempted to contest his signing with NRG, but his previous contract with Outlaws was eventually found void and the AWPer was able to look freely towards his future across the Atlantic.

"I wasn't really worried since I talked with a lawyer before doing everything, and he told me my contract with Outlaws wasn't valid at all because I was underage at the time and my parents didn't sign it. Those guys did everything in their power to stop me from transferring, for example messaging every league at the time like ESL, ECS, DreamHack, that I'm still under contract with their organization and that it's illegal for me to play with NRG, but bottom line I'm happy and forever thankful that NRG didn't give up on me and trusted me."

Many others before and after him struggled with living in North America for a longer period of time, but homesickness didn't seem to be a problem for CeRq, who remains a rarity among European players who changed regions and managed to make it their new home long-term, living there to this day, over three years later.

"I just don't really get homesick and I'm still living with ex-NRG manager impulsivE, which helps a lot since he is like a big brother to me and still helps me with everything."

The youngster stayed in shape at the beginning of his tenure in North America, posting great numbers in his first ESL Pro League and ECS season, but it took a couple of changes from the original roster of Jacob "⁠FugLy⁠" Medina, Vincent "⁠Brehze⁠" Cayonte, AnJ, and Dylan "⁠RIKO⁠" Sabin-Arnce before the team found the recipe for success. However, with daps returning to the active lineup after a brief coaching stint at the end of 2017 and Ethan "⁠Ethan⁠" Arnold replacing the Dane as 2018 started, the following year was full of promise from the new NRG.

The Bulgarian was a key figure alongside his new teammate in Ethan while the team first got some online wins on the board in the spring. After a few unsuccessful attempts at IEM Sydney and at ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, international success followed in June when NRG finally translated the online form to a LAN environment at StarSeries i-League Season 5, placing second to Natus Vincere after a tough and long journey in Kiev, with CeRq earning his first-ever EVP mention at the end of it.

"I think StarSeries was the turning point for us. Before that, we were just known as huge onliners because we were destroying everyone online and finished last every LAN tournament, so I guess reaching playoffs and even finals opened our eyes, made us realize that we are not onliners and gave us confidence."

The next few months weren't all positive, as the team failed to qualify for the FACEIT Major with fourth place at the preceding Minor, but they went on another deep run at ECS Season 5 Finals and clinched their first trophy at IEM Shanghai, where CeRq won his first and only MVP medal after dominating TYLOO in the grand final. The success springboarded NRG into the top 10, where they established themselves as a consistent resident in the last few months of 2018 on the back of more deep runs at tournaments such as ESL One New York and the following StarSeries season, as well as another title at cs_summit 3.

Recording a 1.13 LAN rating over the course of 2018, CeRq finished the year just outside of the Top 20 list as one of its breakout players and set his sights on two main goals for 2019: making it to a Major after failing to in the previous year and winning a Big Event.

His first wish came true early on as the Americas Minor in January saw NRG live up to the status of overwhelming favorites with a convincing run. A month later, they repeated a similarly dominant showing in the New Challengers Stage of IEM Katowice, racing through it 3-0 after beating Winstrike, ViCi, and TYLOO, but the second stage turned out terribly for both the team and CeRq, as they were eliminated 0-3 after three close losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas, AVANGAR, and Complexity while the Bulgarian recorded a sub-par 0.91 rating — his lowest of the year.

"We were in good form going into the second stage, I don't really know what happened. Maybe we got a little nervous since it was the Major."

It soon came to light that the North American squad had already decided on their first of two changes of the year ahead of the Polish event, with FugLy out of the door and Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik lined up to replace him after the Major. With the new player came a bittersweet period, as NRG kept contending for deep finishes but never made it past the semi-finals stage to a level where they could compete for the Big Event titles that CeRq had envisioned at the beginning of the year.

"Most of the time we went out in the semis we lost to the winner of the tournament, so at least in my mind it didn't look bad. I wasn't thinking much of it, it was just the other team playing better than us, but when it happens over and over and over again it gets demoralizing."

Placing in the top-four at the following three tournaments, StarSeries i-League Season 7, IEM Sydney, and cs_summit 4, with fnatic and Liquid standing in daps's team's way in the semi-final stage, CeRq kept a steady level as one of the team's three main stars alongside Brehze and Ethan. Only a 9th-12th place at DreamHack Masters Dallas tainted an otherwise admirable resumé while the semi-finals curse continued, with two more top fours at ECS Season 7 Finals and ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals marking the end of an era — daps was on the way out as the team decided to bring in another in-game leader in Peter "⁠stanislaw⁠" Jarguz to try to reach the next level and start competing for titles.

"Obviously, the change was a risk for us because we had been making semis consistently and, after the change, we could have just gone out dead last and there would be no going back. But everyone on the team liked the way stanislaw calls and plays individually, so we just went for it and it panned out."

At first, results didn't improve with the new player as the team placed 5th-6th at ESL One Cologne and added yet another semi-final exit at BLAST Pro Series Los Angeles, with a couple of bad maps against FaZe at the latter tournament putting CeRq into the red zone for the second time of the year. Just before the player break started, NRG once again rallied through the Americas Minor without a single map loss and looked to improve on the IEM Katowice disappointment.

With the off-season and a couple of much-needed weeks of preparation behind them, they managed to do so in Berlin. stanislaw & co went 3-1 in the first stage of the StarLadder Major despite an opening loss to DreamEaters, and this time came out on top of some close encounters the New Legends Stage, beating Renegades, Liquid, and Astralis, with CeRq putting up multiple key performances across both phases en route to his first Major playoffs. Although the 20-year-old dropped off there, he added one more great map to his tally in a close quarter-final triumph over Natus Vincere before the North American team fell to Astralis in a difficult semis rematch.

"At the StarLadder Major, it didn't feel like the rest of the semi-finals. You could tell that everyone was believing in the team and we were very loud and confident, which in the previous semi-finals wasn't there. Our goal was to make the top eight, and even though it would have been nice to go all the way, I think we were satisfied at the end."

In the leadup to ESL One New York, NRG transferred to Evil Geniuses in a surprise move and instantly brought their new organization success, while CeRq found some of the best form of his career to fulfill his second goal for 2019 — to win a Big Event. On the way to his and the team's first big trophy, he put in a 1.27 rating at the home tournament while his squad took revenge on the Danish powerhouse twice, in the group stage and in the best-of-five grand final, coming away with a top-of-the-list EVP mention after narrowly losing the MVP race to his teammate Brehze.

"My favorite memory from 2019 has to be New York, just the first big event win and in front of that crowd, it was an insane feeling."

After traveling directly from New York to Malmö for DreamHack Masters, EG suffered the first last-place exit — the second of the core in 2019 — when Grayhound and MOUZ sent them packing early in Sweden. It was difficult to see that as anything but a result of the relentless schedule, however, when only three weeks later Evil Geniuses were back to winning ways at the next stop in Turkey. CeRq showed up in fantastic shape again at StarSeries i-League Season 8 with another top mention on the tournament's EVP list, this time with Ethan beating him to the highest accolade.

"There was nothing really special about ESL One New York and StarSeries. I think we just played very well teamplay-wise, everything was just going our way, everyone was in an insane form."

As a result of their second title-winning run in three events, Evil Geniuses found themselves at the top of the rankings, taking over the No.1 spot from Astralis for a two-week period around the brink of October and November.

"I expected to get top 2-3 after the Belek win, so I was surprised to see that we are No.1 and it felt nice, but I didn't feel like we are the very best team."

But just as quickly the big spike came, it also went away shortly after. Two trips to China in November ended with top-six placings at the eight-team IEM Beijing and CS:GO Asia Championships, where FaZe, MIBR, and MOUZ stood in stanislaw's team's path, and EG didn't seem to be able to return to the same level they had showcased in the United States and in Turkey for the rest of 2019.

"We set our main goal for 2020 to start making sure our schedule is more clear and that we don't accept every single tournament. We will for sure be more mindful of the schedule, but then again we said the same thing before this year (laughs), so I'm hoping we learned our lesson."

As the year drew to a close, three consecutive events saw EG return to the playoffs stages, but they were once again stopped at the top-four mark at ECS Season 8 Finals and EPICENTER and in the quarter-finals of ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, with Astralis dealing them the final blow in Arlington, while MOUZ remained a thorn in Evil Geniuses' side for the rest of the year with two more wins in the matchup in Odense and in Moscow. CeRq was the team's highest-rated player over the course of the last two months, but his and the other stars' consistency was gone with the wind.

"The worst memory from the last year, at least individually, has to be EPICENTER, the last tournament of the year.

Why was CeRq the 18th best player of 2019?

The Bulgarian made his case as one of the best AWPers of the year, accruing by far the most total kills with the weapon (1850) and the fourth most on average (0.38 per round). Throughout the year he displayed the capacity to open up rounds with a very high success rate (59.8% of opening duels won, sixth most) and close them (60 1vsX situations won, seventh most).

Those abilities shone through the most in Evil Geniuses' two Big-Event wins in 2019 at ESL One New York and at StarSeries i-League Season 8, both of which CeRq finished as a close runner-up in the race for the MVP award. Although the two tournaments were his only award-worthy showings, there were a number of others where he came close to more EVP mentions and he showcased a great event-to-event consistency overall, being deemed a Valuable Player on a total of 13 out of 16 other occasions.

While the consistent output helped him take the 18th spot on the list, an unimpressive 1.04 rating in Big Event playoffs — the lowest out of all players in the Top 20 — prevented him from a higher placing, as he rarely stood out in the biggest matches outside of his contributions in EG's two title-winning campaigns.

Bold prediction

For his bold prediction, CeRq went with his compatriot Georgi "⁠SHiPZ⁠" Grigorov, with whom he played for a short period of time at the end of his tenure in Outlaws, and made a special mention of Complexity's Valentin "⁠poizon⁠" Vasilev.

Georgi "⁠SHiPZ⁠" Grigorov

"SHiPZ and poizon I think are both very underrated and it's just a matter of time for them."

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2019 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected. This year's ranking is supported by:

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