Top 20 players of 2019: ropz (10)

Remarkable impact and consistency over 2019 earn Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool the 10th place in the ranking of the top 20 players of the year, powered by Xtrfy and LOOT.BET.

Top 20 players of 2019: Introduction

ropz is one of CS:GO's trailblazers. There used to be a set way of becoming a pro in the game, which was rising through the ranks of your national or regional teams until you reach the top. When you got there, your overall success was defined by how many other good players there were in your region, or, in rare cases, you joined international squads that were almost never competing for titles.

In that kind of an environment, ropz would have a low chance of becoming an international star, and even if it were to happen, it would've been a much longer process. Coming from Estonia, a country with a population of just over a million people, it is unlikely that he would ever be able to assemble a team that could make it to the big stages, which is something ropz realized as a 16-year-old after trying out with OnlineBOTS and playing a couple of Baltic LANs.

His way out was through FACEIT, one of the two predominant pick-up game services in CS:GO. ropz only started with the game in 2014 but had played casual and KZ CS 1.6 since he was seven years old, which helped him reach FPL-C by 2016. After eight months in the Challenger division, during which he first started making money in CS, ropz qualified for the FACEIT Pro League in December 2016, finally getting to measure himself against some of the game's best players.

The young Estonian, with practically no experience and just a handful of low-tier HLTV matches played, started dominating the pros from the get-go, winning his first month in FPL. That didn't sit well with a number of players, with the stream clip of Jesper "⁠JW⁠" Wecksell saying that the Estonian was "never going to show up on LAN" passed around as cheating accusations spread. ropz tried streaming and playing with a webcam, but, in the end, it was only after an invitation to play some games from FACEIT's offices in March 2017 that his name was cleared.

Just a month later, he signed his first professional contract with mousesports.

"I believe my case has been very unique and it has set an example that it is possible. The cheating accusations were a big problem back then but they weren't so surprising, because I was a player with zero CS background making a big rise. It does take a mental toll on the player and it's not good to spit out cheating accusations when there is nothing to back them up. It hurts the player and even the accuser in many different ways. It's fine if a random fan says it, but if a pro were to publicly say something like that it's not healthy for anyone, you have a big following and you're making a statement. In the end, pros are also basically your colleagues. I've seen it happen in other games and I hope no one has to go through that.

"Proving myself worthy definitely made people more open-minded to the fact that this is how superstars are made overnight, which gives more hope to younger players who have immense talent. It used to be that you go from team to team and build your name, but I feel like as a collective we have created a new way through pugging, mainly FPL, and that's definitely something to be proud of. There already are many more cases of people coming straight out of FPL and making a huge leap in their career.

"My advice [to players trying to make it] would be to stick to your daily life. I went to school for almost two years while playing CS on a professional level, switching between traveling and studying. And to put it out there, I never finished my high school (gymnasium) studies. I decided to leave at the beginning of my last year after the FACEIT Major. It had become clear to me that I was going to have a future in CS, a healthy career."

ropz wasn't the first pugger to get a chance in a pro team, but, unlike some other players, he had practically no team experience, not even from ESEA MDL or online cups. His rocky start in MOUZ was therefore expected, especially as the team was still recovering from the loss of their main asset - Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač.

ropz impressed at his first Big Event, posting a 1.12 rating in MOUZ' 5th-6th placing at the ESL Pro League Season 5 Finals, and dominated in the offline qualifier for PGL Major Krakow with a 1.49 rating to qualify for his first Major. Back then, ropz revealed that only recently people had been asking him if he wanted to go to the event as a viewer, so attending it as a player was "just really weird, but a dream come true".

A couple of poor big tournaments followed for ropz and mousesports, with things stabilizing after they brought in Miikka "⁠suNny⁠" Kemppi and Martin "⁠STYKO⁠" Styk, creating the lineup that won ESG Tour Mykonos and went on a playoff streak that started in the second part of the year and continued into 2018. MOUZ managed 11 playoffs in a row (big and small events), including the ELEAGUE 2018 Major, and won two notable events in that span — StarSeries i-League Season 4 and V4 Future Festival 2018 — with ropz posting above-average ratings at every one of them and picking up a number of EVP mentions.

A rough patch for mousesports and a dip in form from ropz followed as the squad replaced STYKO with Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski, hoping that the move would get them one step further and allow them to win titles consistently. Even though the European mixture managed another title before the end of the year, pulling off a big comeback in the grand final of ESL One New York against Liquid, their overall level went down, with a 15-16th placing at the FACEIT Major sending ropz and co. back to the Minor system ahead of IEM Katowice.

"The funny part was when we got a top 8 slot in Boston and said: 'So we are in at least the next two Majors now'. Then the changes came to the Major where the last-placed team would go straight out. That played out quite ironically…"

Snax was removed and STYKO brought back after MOUZ had crashed out of StarSeries i-League Season 6, a tournament they had been favorites for, and they managed to finish the year with two more playoff berths, at ESL Pro League and IEM Chicago. Despite rarely being the main factor behind his team's success, ropz's high efficiency (5th lowest DPR), clutching ability (46 1vX's won), and event-to-event consistency saw him named the 19th best player of 2018, confirming his status as an elite player just two years after he had made it into FPL and had been forced to fight off cheating accusations and prove the doubters wrong.

"I believe I didn't give my best in 2018 because we got comfortable as a team and as individuals. As the year went on, fewer hours were put in and out of the game. I'm the person who sits behind the PC almost the whole day, all the time, and to think I didn't play enough at some point made me say that I could put more hours and become a better player. It's definitely motivation speaking here because we had less and less of it each day last year. We had a successful run, top 5 for almost the whole year but no progress after that. That eventually collapsed the lineup.

"I'm sure we would've had more success if I had worked harder because that usually flows onto your teammates and inspires everyone to push the limits. I'd like to mention suNny here, as he worked his ass off in 2018 — and I might've not understood it then but I do now. That is what inspires me. He kept giving his best through thick and thin."

MOUZ were off to a dreadful start to 2019 as two losses to Valiance at the Europe Minor ended their run in the tournament in the group stage. As the players packed their bags and returned home, it was apparent that big changes were looming.

"The EU Minor could've bought the lineup more time if we had gone through, but everyone knew if we went out that was it. We even did it quite half-assed, we didn't prepare as much, no bootcamp, the motivation and hunger weren't there anymore. I'm sure some, if not all of us, had thoughts in the back of our heads what would happen if we didn't go through. The pressure was high, we were the favorites, it meant a lot for us and the organization. The worst part was that the year started with the Major, which meant the first there months were all about the Major.

"Missing out that much was horrible, an undeserved vacation."

With mousesports bound to change, ropz, who was nearing his second year of professional play and was still playing for the first team he had signed a contract for, was faced with a big decision. Should he look for other options, or stick around and try to fix the team? The initial idea was to rebuild around suNny, Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný, and himself, but that didn't pan out.

"To summarize the process we went through, I'll start with saying that the lineup just grew apart and we needed something fresh to build up motivation and hunger again. We started with the core we had and threw some names around but it got set in stone quite fast. We wanted to go with flusha and allu and that was our only deal. But to put it into perspective, our relationship with the mousesports organisation wasn't the best back then and it was just 'a take it or leave it' situation for both sides. In the end it couldn't be done because of technical reasons like timings, buyouts, etc., so it was best for the core to part ways and start a new chapter.

"The thing for me was that I was always kind of the third wheel because I am very young and in my first-ever professional team. I always trusted my teammates in these big decisions because they knew what they were doing - and it had always worked out. This was the first time I was in a position like that where I had to make decisions for myself, which brought a whole lot of uncertainty. It was not possible to go to another team and I didn't want to sit out my contract and be out of competition. So the only option was to stay and I told myself I would give my best no matter who would join, almost a quarter of the year was over and I didn't want to waste the rest of it."

Unlike suNny, who sat out more than half of the year and eventually joined ENCE, ropz missed "just" three months of action, playing his first match with the new MOUZ on April 12. Chris "⁠chrisJ⁠" de Jong was the only member besides himself who stayed with Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen coming in as the IGL and bringing in Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský. ropz was still one of the three young players on the team but he was now one of the more experienced members, with more expectations on his back as frozen was playing his rookie year and woxic had yet to find much success on the highest level.

Having lost the core of their previous line-up, MOUZ had to fight hard to reclaim their status as an elite team in the rankings. They took first place in their ESL Pro League group and went to IEM Sydney to reach the playoffs in their first attempt, but were stopped there easily by MIBR. In 2018, ropz had often failed to keep up his level in the playoffs, and that was the case in the match against the Brazilians as well - with a 0.82 rating, he was worst MOUZ player in that series.

ropz was the best player of the tournament at DreamHack Open Tours, a small, non-MVP event, where MOUZ secured a win to ge closer to the top 10 in the rankings. At their next event, the ESL Pro League S9 Finals, the European squad got revenge on MIBR and then 2-0'd HellRaisers and FaZe to reach the playoffs again. This time they ran into an in-form Liquid, who were too much for them to handle, settling for a 3rd-4th placing. ropz was great in the group stage but again struggled in the playoff match, leaving him without an EVP despite a 1.17 rating and an impressive 0.55 DPR.

ESL One Cologne is an event where MOUZ have historically had a tough time, and the 2019 edition of the tournament was no exception. A BO1 and a BO3 defeat to Natus Vincere kept karrigan's men off of a playoff berth this time, with ropz playing up to a solid level, but unable to be the difference-maker in the deciding series (0.98 rating vs. Na`Vi).

"We didn't find instant success because of lack of experience and chemistry as a team. Three of us are very young and still finding ourselves while chrisJ and karrigan try to complete the puzzle. The opportunity also played quite a big factor, I have to mention that we played a few knock-out matches against Liquid while they were on fire so it was tough to go further in some tournaments.

"We didn't really feel that much pressure because it actually felt we were making a lot of progress outside of the rankings with things inside and outside of the game. It was frustrating to go out in groups but that was more and more experience we got and we worked on chemistry all the time. We went into every tournament with a positive mindset, expecting to do well and it was a matter of time before things began to click"

A big and important step was getting through the Europe Minor in Berlin, but it wasn't an easy one. mousesports suffered an opening loss to STYKO's NoChance and were staring down the barrel of the gun, failing on Train and finding themselves 12-3 down on Dust2 against Sprout. An incredible comeback, 13-0 in the second half, got them back into the game. They finished the series 2-1 and then got revenge on NoChance before easily dispatching what should've been the toughest opponents at the event, fnatic and North, to get back into the Major cycle.

Coming back from the player break, ropz's team showed their class by going 3-0 in the New Challengers Stage of the StarLadder Major, and made sure they didn't have to go back to the Minor anytime soon by securing a 2-1 record in the New Legends Stage. There, their issues started once again, as they needed to beat either Liquid or Vitality to get to the playoffs. Again, the young team wasn't able to upset the big names, with ropz finishing this stage with a 0.98 rating, his only below-average rated event of the year and his first one "in the red" since the FACEIT Major, a year before.

"At the StarLadder Major we felt on point as a team and we were very close to going to the playoffs. Personally looking back, when we reached a 2-1 record in the New Legends Stage it felt like I started to overthink. We knew that it was going to be very tough because the only matchups we could get were Vitality and Liquid. I started to play very carefully, probably a little too much, becoming scared to do some moves. Those were the biggest matches for this lineup at the time, and finishing top-eight at the Major had been our long-term goal. It was maybe the only time when the pressure got to me this year, which made me lose confidence.

"I also have a problem with heights… I wish tables and chairs were adjustable in every event in the future. In most tournaments one out of the two you can't usually change, which makes me uncomfortable in-game. For me it's a very personal setting, like the mouse or resolution you use. For example, the tables at cs_summit were a nightmare, everything else was perfect, of course."

Rating-wise, ropz's best event was the V4 Future Sports Festival. He earned his first EVP of the year for a 1.27-rated performance and an 88.4 ADR, but that tournament, which had a large prize pool but missed a lot of the top teams, was a disappointment from the team's perspective as they crashed out in the semis to Virtus.pro. Poor form carried on to the start of DreamHack Masters Malmö as they fell to Ninjas in Pyjamas, but they managed to get to the playoffs thanks to a good run in the lower bracket, where they took down Evil Geniuses. In the quarter-finals, ropz played lights-out and had his best map of the year, a 1.73-rated (31K-13D) Inferno against Vitality, but his first impressive Big playoff series of the year wasn't enough for the win, leaving him with another 5-6th finish and his second EVP of 2019.

"Working with a sports psychologist has been only positive for us. Certain exercises help clear the mind, have higher focus levels and be more positive. It's hard to say if it showed in individual performance but it definitely helped on a team level with chemistry. Part of that is getting to know your teammates and what they need in order to perform at their highest level, you get to know each other way better. It has opened us up in that way and we can reach our goals easier if we talk about them together."

It was October and the tournament schedule was getting tight as the final stretch of events was coming in. Soon after Malmö, MOUZ were playing in Belek, Turkey, at StarSeries i-League Season 8. The European mixture had been fluttering around the top 10 for six months at that point, unable to break through to the elite, with this event being another great opportunity for a deep run as the likes of Astralis and Liquid were not in attendance. What happened was quite the opposite as they fell to a struggling North and barely edged out Invictus (16-14, 16-14) before being eliminated by a rejuvenated fnatic.

The team opted to shift up some roles after that event, and while ropz wasn't a part of those changes and his overall stats remained similar for the most part, MOUZ started finding more success starting from the CS:GO Asia Championship in Shanghai.

"The role change would have probably been done either way even if we had a better placing at StarSeries. It just makes more sense as we have learnt over time. karrigan has mentioned that it's impossible to instantly put everyone in the 'correct' position when you build a completely new lineup and I totally agree. chrisJ has always been a strong entry and that's where he is thriving. There have been many rounds where he goes in and gets the round done alone. He has balls of steel. And I think a more passive role works way better for frozen, he's very talented and that way he gets more opportunities to put that talent to use."

Looking at ropz individually, the biggest difference in his play at the last four events of the year was that he had practically no poor series. MOUZ' impressive run started by winning CAC, where ropz's efforts were crucial to the comeback against TYLOO in the semi-final, and to the following victory over ENCE in the grand final.

The second event, ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, was where he really shined, averaging a 1.24 rating as his team took down Evil Geniuses, Astralis, and fnatic, with a 1.39-rated grand final pushing him to the pole position in the race for the MVP medal, the first one of his career. It must be noted that crucial to this win was a comeback against Astralis in the semis, making it the third year-defining comeback MOUZ managed in 2019, after the ones against Sprout at the Minor and TYLOO in Shanghai.

"I think the biggest reasons for my improvement came from this new lineup and a new system, everything else came with it. To compare it with the old lineup, playing with a dedicated IGL such as karrigan is way less stressful. The old lineup was all over the place. chrisJ was never meant to be an IGL, but it was the only option so he gave his best. We even had a period where suNny played as a main caller. chrisJ is way better as just a player, being there for you when no one else can. He has a strong voice and makes really good use of that in critical situations. That's also why the system is working great, karrigan sets up the general strategy and calls, but we have another strong voice in the team to fall back on.

"All of that has helped me define my own game, have better and more clear decision making in general, know my own limits within my role, etc. Having one person dictate the game makes it easy to follow. You start to understand the reasons behind every call since all the mid-game decision making is made based on a certain scenario like enemy rotation, etc.

"The fact that karrigan is doing a lot of micro-managing also helps our individuals to shine. It's always cool to read stuff like, 'karrigan did it again, giving players resurgence'. We even had a funny talk about it ourselves. Obviously it's not only karrigan, but let's just say he makes it easier for us. Of course, putting in hours and working harder is still mandatory to improve."

cs_summit 5 was the least important event of the last stretch, but ropz showed impressive form nonetheless as he helped MOUZ win the tournament with a stand-in and a coach playing most of the grand final in woxic's absence. To finish off the year, MOUZ headed to Moscow, where they secured two more BO3 wins over Evil Geniuses (8-1 in maps in 2019) and reached the grand final, but ropz's strong showing there wasn't able to counter Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut's 1.87-rated super-carry performance.

"The best time of the year was of course our trophy run. I'd like to summarize that and make it one moment, because it felt like one continuous event going from tournament to tournament. It's always tough traveling, country to country, hotel to hotel, it gets very stressful. When we won these tournaments, it felt amazing, I was in such a good mood and didn't care about the future at all. It was all about living in the moment"

A successful second part of the year, especially the final few months, allowed ropz to make up for the absence from competition early on. He earned individual accolades at six out of the eight events played after the break, including an MVP from ESL Pro League S10 Finals, and in addition to that, he was in the MVP race at all four final events of 2019. However, similarly to 2019, he was rarely the best-performing player in his team. That happened at just three events, EPL Finals S10, V4 Future Sports Festival, and cs_summit 5, the last of which where woxic wasn't present due to visa issues.

"Our goal for 2020 is definitely to become the No.1 team in the world. Personally I would like to reach new heights, so of course become even better. I hope to play on the biggest stages this year, those are the moments you live for."

Why was ropz the 10th best player of 2019?

ropz secured his place in the top 20 with a strong finish to 2019, which included an MVP award from the ESL Pro League S10 Finals — one of the most competitive events of the year —, and five EVPs from the other six events he played after the StarLadder Major. The Estonian was just average in Berlin, missed the Major in Katowice, and didn't win any individual awards in the first half of the year, but the starting seven months weren't a write-off as he still performed very well at the events he managed to attend with MOUZ' reformed lineup.

Overall, ropz put up impressive numbers in some of the most important categories. His 0.77 KPR (sixth-most), 0.60 DPR (seventh-best), 74.7% KAST (fourth-most), 81.2 ADR (eight-most) and 5.9% of rounds with 3+ kills (fifth-most) help him to secure the sixth-highest rating - 1.20.

"I really do enjoy my role, I like playing CS in a 'correct' way, trying to make the best decision every time. Having this playstyle enables that because I gather a lot of information from my teammates while providing my own from the side of the map. I think I've become one of the world's best at this and it suits me well. Although maybe I'll be an AWPer and hit quickscopes one day, you never know (laughs).

"I don't think my role limits me, it almost always puts me in the best possible scenario where I can frag out, clutch or make a decision to win the round. It's also not like I always have to be passive. If I see an opening, I always go for it and most of the times it works out. The reason that it almost always works out is that I try to play very calculated CS, I have time to do that in my role. I take duels and make moves which I know favor me. About my ceiling… I'm not sure, I grew inside and outside of the game in 2019. Feels to me like this will continue and my ceiling will only rise from here."

The 20-year-old's impact and consistency were remarkable, but his quiet first half of the year and the fact that he had the lowest sample size of all players in the top 20 in terms of Big Events (just eight tournaments of this stature and 77 maps played), gave his performances less weight in comparison to those ranked above him and stopped him from getting a single-digit placing.

Bold prediction

Surprisingly enough, ropz was the only player to name ZywOo as his bold pick at the start of 2019. He went for a fairly safe prediction this time as well, and followed in woxic's footsteps in naming teammate frozen as a player to make the list in 2020:

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský

"It's hard to name an unknown player and be accurate, so I'd like to name my young friend frozen. The man has such sharp aim and decision making, he's destined to do one of these interviews in the future. "

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:

Xtrfy - Built on experience
LOOT.BET - Professional esports betting provider and an HLTV.org trusted partner since 2016