Top 20 players of 2021: huNter- (12)

Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač comes in at No. 12 of the Top 20 players of 2021 ranking, powered by GG.BET, on the back of his elite fragging ability and several award-worthy performances at the year's biggest events.

Top 20 players of 2021: Introduction

Having recently turned 26, huNter- has been making the rounds in the competitive Counter-Strike scene for much longer than many people might realize. While his CS:GO background only dates back to 2015, years before that he played on the Balkan scene in CS 1.6 at a young age, but the switch to the new game saw him take a sabbatical. It was none other than his cousin and now teammate Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač who brought him back and persuaded him to give CS:GO a real shot, and from there it didn't take long for huNter- to come up through the ranks with teams such as GamePub and iNation alongside the likes of Nestor "⁠LETN1⁠" Tanić and Luka "⁠emi⁠" Vuković.

It was under Binary Dragons and later Valiance that the team started to appear more on the international scene once they were able to go full-time in 2017, and that's when huNter- himself began to garner some notoriety, with many people taking notice of the shared last name with his cousin as well as the talent. In 2018, under the latter banner he got his first taste of playing in an English-speaking roster when Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, Rokas "⁠EspiranTo⁠" Milasauskas, and Otto "⁠ottoNd⁠" Sihvo were brought in, and it was this core that went on to find success throughout 2019.

With the organization rebranding to CR4ZY in the meantime, the European mixture worked their way up with solid placings at the second tier and made it to the second stage of the StarLadder Major while huNter- continued to impress in what amounted to the biggest milestone of his career up until that point. Seeing the undeniable talent, G2 brought on the Bosnian and nexa shortly after that, deciding to move away from their all-French squad.

huNter- didn't take long to warm up to the new project and the tier 1 level after he made the step up, with a great start to 2020 helping him earn the 13th place in the year's Top 20 list as he led the team in their campaign to three runners-up finishes at the first four tournaments, including at IEM Katowice just before the pandemic began. The French-Balkan squad slowed down as the year progressed, but it was far from a tragedy for the Bosnian star — not only did he keep up a solid level, he got to fulfill his lifelong dream of teaming up with cousin NiKo at the end of 2020.

For huNter- and G2, 2021 began the same way 2020 had closed. It had been a strenuous end to the previous season for the team, who had a difficult decision to make about whom to keep between François "⁠AMANEK⁠" Delaunay and Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug to make room for NiKo, in the end opting for the former to stay for 2021.

Amid some personal issues, huNter- had an underwhelming run of form towards the end of the year that ended up bleeding over into 2021. At the BLAST Premier Global Final, the 26-year-old averaged a measly 0.87 rating across eight maps to kick off the new year on a bad note, with the European team exiting the event in 5th-6th place as they suffered losses to both of the eventual finalists in Astralis and Natus Vincere.

"I had some personal issues and my wife and I were going through a tough period, it was hard to stay focused on CS:GO just during that period. I was proud of myself because I didn't give up at that point, I kept working, and of course with the help of my teammates and family I got back on track very quickly."

"I wanted to get back on track as soon as possible after playing 2 bad events and it wasn't easy, but I did it."

The Bosnian quickly recovered from the brief slump, but G2 continued to struggle to make it deep at tournaments for the first two months of the year. A failure in the BLAST Premier Spring Groups and a top-eight finish at IEM Katowice, featuring the cousin duo at the top of the board, were a far cry from the results the team aimed for with their new superstar player, and this led to another change in the French-Balkan camp.

This time, Kenny "⁠kennyS⁠" Schrub was on the chopping block and in came JACKZ once again much to the delight of huNter-, who had grown close to the gleeful Frenchman both on and off the server. The removal of the AWPer created new issues inside G2, with NiKo first taking on the sniper duties before AMANEK stepped up to the plate to fulfill the role, but despite that their results took a turn for the better almost immediately.

"JaCkz is someone who means a lot to the team. When I signed for G2, in the first few months, although JaCkz didn't speak such good English, we were even roommates, I could see what kind of person he is and how positively he affected all the people on the team, including the manager and coach, and especially teammates. When the team decided to replace JaCkz, it was very difficult for me to enter TeamSpeak and not hear his voice, his jokes and being at the bootcamp without him was something unthinkable. He is someone who means a lot to our team, inside and especially outside of the game. Team chemistry with him and without him is a big difference.

"At that point, when we decided to bring JaCkz back, we didn't have a choice to have a new player, we needed to work with what we have and NiKo was the only one who was playing AWP in some maps for FaZe Clan back then, even mousesports, and we all decided to try him AWPing because we thought it was best for the team at the time. NiKo didn't show the best, best stats, but he was doing good as well with the AWP at this period and we improved a lot as a team and we started to play better.

"Then later we recognized that we should give a chance to AmaNEk to AWP, because his wish at some point in his career was to try playing AWP, and he did amazing job for the team, and NiKo having the rifle back was big improvement for us. AmaNEk is really great teammate and human being. Since I joined G2 he played almost all roles in the team without saying a thing, he just wanted to succeed as a team and he didn't care about anything else. I respect and love him a lot."

Another top-eight finished followed at ESL Pro League Season 13, where huNter- was the highest-rated player of the team as he recorded solid numbers across the board, in particular standing out as one of the best damage-dealers at the event (86.1 ADR, #5). Successful runs in the BLAST Premier Showdown and the IEM Summer closed qualifier after that meant that G2 had plenty to play in the next few months and take full advantage of their upswing in form, which would go on to see them place at least in the top four at the next five tournaments.

The successful run began at DreamHack Masters Spring, where G2 beat everyone other than the world's best team Gambit at the time en route to their first deep run of the year. Third place at Flashpoint 3 came next as huNter- played a key role leading up to and including the team's narrow victory against Ninjas in Pyjamas, before falling off in the upper final against MOUZ and in the consolidation final rematch against the Swedes.

The two biggest CIS teams had been a thorn in G2's side throughout the whole year, and it was perhaps most apparent in the period leading up to the summer break, when huNter- and company always made it past the groups unscathed before falling at the hands of one of them. At IEM Summer, it was once again Gambit who stopped nexa and company from reaching the title decider, while at BLAST Premier Fall Final the following week Natus Vincere put a halt to their campaign in the semi-finals in what was the first of several close series between G2 and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev's team in 2021.

The next came when competition returned to LAN for the first time in almost a year and a half at IEM Cologne. In Germany, after passing through groups G2 finally beat Gambit after months of struggles against the Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov-led side, and they squeezed past a surprisingly strong-looking Astralis, only to fall short once again when facing Natus Vincere in their first grand final appearance of the year.

"Of course, LAN is something that makes a huge difference. Not just for us, but for many other teams as well. Also, LAN makes a difference for teams that played very well online and won some tournaments in that online era. All these teams want to play LAN and prove that they can do all the same on LAN and that's why LAN has a special charm and will always play a different CS:GO on LAN compared to online, which in my opinion is a huge, huge difference, literally a different game."

Although titles continued to elude G2, the consistency with which the new constellation made it far was at the very least a step in the right direction. During that time, huNter- was there every step of the way as one of the team's two main stars alongside NiKo, sometimes even being able to outdo his superstar cousin, such as when he claimed his first of two EVPs in this period at IEM Summer.

Everything changed when the squad returned from the summer break, however. ESL Pro League Season 14 ended in disaster for G2 as they went 0-5 in their group, losing even to a SINNERS team who were competing in their first tier-one tournament and a Complexity lineup playing with a stand-in. Only NiKo turned up individually while the rest of the roster fell off a cliff, with huNter- putting up a sub-par 0.95 rating across 13 maps.

"We did not start preparations on time, due to some problems of individuals. Some players moved and did not receive conditions on time in the new apartment (internet, computer, etc.). Because of all this, we needed to start our preparation a week later and it was really, really tough to catch up with other teams, even in practice at this period. But honestly, for 0-5, no excuses anyway (laughs). After that, we had a bootcamp immediately and everything started to be better for us."

The Bosnian was back in decent form afterwards, but the rest of the team's individual woes still plagued them. G2 failed to qualify for the BLAST Fall Final either through the Groups or the Showdown, with the latter even seeing them concede a map to Lynn Vision and a best-of-three series to MAD Lions. A shaky run to sixth place at IEM Fall was the highlight of the first three months of the new season for the French-Balkan roster as well as individually for huNter-, who secured his third EVP of the year in the Regional Major Ranking event on the back of his best showing of the year statistically, putting up fantastic numbers such as a 1.30 rating (#3 at the event) and 76.0% KAST (#4).

Though far from impressive, the IEM Fall campaign was good enough to ensure G2 a Legends spot at PGL Major Stockholm, where they would return just a few weeks later and turn up in perhaps their best form yet.

With NiKo in particularly terrifying shape and huNter- joining him with standout performances in the Legends Stage, the European side swept through the first phase of the Major with convincing victories over Copenhagen Flames, FaZe, and Entropiq without losing a single map. Playing in front of a big crowd for the first time ever did little to slow down the Bosnian; if anything it brought out a new side of him as he added a solid series to his name in another landslide victory over crowd favorites Ninjas in Pyjamas.

Truly tested for the first time at the event, G2 fended off a scary Heroic team in a deciding overtime battle in the semi-finals and looked to challenge Natus Vincere yet again, but their 2021 nemesis proved too strong to handle once more. Despite having a 14-7 and later a 15-10 lead on Nuke, huNter-'s team couldn't bring themselves over the finish line, as NAVI pulled off yet another narrow win over the European squad to secure the Major title.

"The whole PGL Major event is the best memory from 2021. The first time in front of the crowd, first Major after more than 2 years, a lot of people around, first Major for me in G2, first Major with NiKo. So, everything was really great. But if I need to choose one, it was when we won against Heroic in semis, that winning moment was something that I will always remember."

As a key player in the groups and a consistent performer in the playoffs, huNter- earned an EVP mention from the biggest tournament of the year, his fourth, and there was one more still to come despite rumors of imminent changes beginning to circle G2 after the Major and nexa being sidelined from one of the last two events.

kennyS stepped back into the roster at IEM Winter due to the Serbian's visa issues, and despite roles being all over the place with the loss of the in-game leader and change of AWPer, G2 pulled out one more deep run spearheaded by the Kovač duo. With close wins over TYLOO, Liquid, and Vitality in the group stage, they made it straight to the semi-finals, where another close encounter didn't go their way this time as a Nicolai "⁠device⁠" Reedtz-less Ninjas in Pyjamas edged them out.

"After the Major, our practice was going really well. We didn't think too much about changing, we were focused to do our best until the end of the year. After we recognized that we will need to play without nexa one or maybe two events, it was really hard for us, because we were doing really good, as I said, and plus playing without our IGL wasn't easy to deal with.

"Then we called Kenny back to play for us and again asking AmaNEk to swap the role and give AWP to Kenny. Most of the maps NiKo was calling, I was calling some, AmaNEk as well, and it was hard for all of us, but we were all happy that Kenny got one more well-deserved chance to get back in CS, and I hope he will get a chance to play competitive CS again. We did okay at IEM Winter under all these circumstances, but we knew at the end that we could've done better."

nexa managed to return in time for the final event of the year at the BLAST World Final, but by then it seemed that the team had run out of steam. It was almost poetic that it was Natus Vincere who sent them off into the break with another series to try to forget, as G2 fell to them again in the second round of the lower bracket, while huNter- recorded a sub-par 0.92 rating at the event to finish the year the same way it began — with a tough individual showing coming amidst changes in the team.

"Honestly, it's never frustrating for me when I lose against a better opponent, and NAVI was better every time they played against us, and they are the best team in the world without any doubts. We had our chances in all games we lost against them, even in the Cologne 0-3 we played some close maps. The Major final, I'm a bit sorry for this loss because we had them on Nuke and the third map was Mirage, so I think we had our chance, but NAVI deserved it more. We just need to learn from 2021 in games against them, because you can learn a lot of things when you play against them and watch the game after and try to improve and do better in 2022."

Why was huNter- the 12th best player of 2021?

Coming in at No. 12, huNter- makes a second consecutive appearance on the list, improving from the 13th spot he earned in his first full year in the tier-one scene in 2020.

The Bosnian star's exceptionally strong fragging throughout the year helped him stand out and make the Top 20 this time, as he averaged the 5th most rounds with a multi-kill (19.1%) and the 10th most kills per round overall (0.74) in 2021. He managed to keep up these numbers across 179 maps in notable events and 82 against top 10 opposition, a significantly larger number when compared to players who have made the top 20 so far.

What mainly set him apart from the players below him were the peak performances that earned him five EVP nods in total — three at Elite events in IEM Cologne, the PGL Major, and IEM Winter —, making him the player with the most awards out of those featured on the list so far. Lastly, another factor that made huNter- appear this high on the list and also went a long way in helping him secure the aforementioned awards was his great play when the stakes were highest in the Big matches, in which he averaged a 1.09 rating (#11) over 46 maps.

On the other hand, the two poor BLAST events on either end of the year and ESL Pro League Season 14 held him back from making up a few more places, along with having the lowest rating against top 10 teams (1.05) amongst all players on the list.

"I don't have any personal goals for 2022. I just want to win some trophies with the team and everything else will come itself. I want to help the team with everything I can to lift some trophies. Expectations, we didn't talk as a team about what we can expect, but our bootcamp is starting soon and, for sure, we will talk and see what we can expect from each other and what you can expect from G2 in 2022. But one thing I can promise is that I will give my best like I was always doing, and everything else we'll see."

Bold prediction by GG.BET

huNter- unsurprisingly picked his newest teammate, Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov, for his bold prediction. The 16-year-old Russian AWPer has earned the nod twice before from players featuring on the Top 20 list, after Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer tipped the former NAVI Junior star to make it big in the future as well.

"My future teammate, amazing talent, only 16 years old," huNter- said. "He will have a chance to compete in all tier 1 events this year and we will help him to secure his spot in top 20 in 2022 without any pressure. I'm just looking forward to seeing what this guy will do and how he will act and on this occasion I officially welcome him!"

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Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2021 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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