Top 20 players of 2021: Ax1Le (5)

Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov makes the Top 20 players of the year ranking by GG.BET for the first time in fifth place as one of the big revelations of 2021, showing impressive consistency, great play in Big events and several standout performances.

Top 20 players of 2021: Introduction

Ax1Le was introduced to the Counter-Strike series at a young age, four or five years old, when he would sit next to his father and watch him play different games on the computer, CS 1.6 being among them. When allowed to, he would even sit and play a bit by himself, 15 or 20 minutes at a time, and with each passing year he would play more and more.

He made the jump to CS:GO in 2014, starting to follow Major tournaments while ranking up in matchmaking all the way to Global Elite without any issues. Then it was time for something more serious, so he moved on to FACEIT, where he reached level 10. "Why don't I create a team and try myself in different tournaments?" Ax1Le then thought, after going as far as he could individually, so he brought together some of his classmates and some friends from FACEIT and made a team.

Ax1Le himself took up both AWPing and in-game leading, participating in all kinds of tournaments to no avail. The team eventually parted ways, but he continued to play, diving into esports and believing early on that he could make it far because he was already a good player for his age.

Bored of online tournaments, Ax1Le took the next step and started to attend local LAN events in his hometown of St. Petersburg, Russia. At one of those offline events he was spotted by current VP.Prodigy captain Aleksei "⁠RuFire⁠" Burakov, who offered to take the youngster to a LAN in Finland, Lantrek 2018, with his team. Playing under the KoVi banner, they failed to make an impression as the Russians lost two matches to HAVU and iGame.com, but the up-and-coming youngster was given a spot in the team, named 5balls, regardless.

"That was probably the team in which I first proved myself as a professional player," Ax1Le says, "I knew right then that I had the chance to become one of the best players. People knew about me, they talked about me, and with each passing game I could feel my growth as a player."

Ax1Le was called up by Winstrike to play the WESG 2018 Russia qualifier, where alongside Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov and David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan he beat Vyalie Pitoni in his opening match, a team featuring future teammates Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov and Vladislav "⁠nafany⁠" Gorshkov. They then lost to forZe, where Ax1Le was a standout despite the defeat with a 1.27 rating, before Vyalie Pitoni took their revenge and knocked Winstrike out in the tournament's consolidation final.

Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy was in charge of restructuring Gambit in late 2018, as the Major-winning organization's team had slowly been deteriorating in the year following Danylo "⁠Zeus⁠" Teslenko's departure and they were eager to bring in new blood. "B1ade3 reached out to me," Ax1Le recalls. "He said that Gambit wanted to recruit young players and that was the moment I had been waiting for. They contacted me, and offered to play some practice matches. Seemingly everything had gone well, so it was decided that I would be signed.

"I went to the bootcamp immediately, I was a bit shy at the beginning, but the guys were friendly so I fit in quickly. We didn't find success in our results, but I liked them as human beings and it was cool playing with such players, especially at such a young age. I couldn't even believe that it was happening to me at first."

After further plummeting in the rankings, Gambit decided to get rid of its team and keep their youth squad, which would be made up of Ax1Le and four more players in sh1ro, nafany, Timofey "⁠interz⁠" Yakushin and Anton "⁠supra⁠" Tšernobai, restarting the whole project from scratch with Ivan "⁠F_1N⁠" Kochugov and Konstantin "⁠groove⁠" Pikiner on the coaching staff as B1ad3 moved to Natus Vincere to become their esports director.

Gambit Youngsters went on to establish themselves as a tier two team in 2019, playing two CIS Minors and even winning their first LAN event, ESL One New York's sideshow at the Barclays Center, the MSI MGA 2019 Finals. They beat ViCi and ex-Epsilon in the four-team tournament and Ax1Le was the second highest rated player there with a 1.32 rating. By the end of the year Gambit Youngsters had a semi-final finish at WePlay Forge of Masters Season 2 Finals and an appearance at DreamHack Open Sevilla 2019, where they went out last following losses to MAD Lions and GODSENT.

Gambit Youngsters' explosion came in 2020, when amid the coronavirus pandemic the Russian squad put their heads down and worked harder than anyone amassing hundreds and hundreds of maps played in any and all possible tournaments from their bootcamp facilities in Moscow. The team kept grinding away in the second tier and through the summer, while other teams were on vacation. Some changes came in August, when they brought on Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khasenov, who ended up being a catalyst for the team to take its next step, and the ESIC investigation into the coaching bug forced F_1N to the sidelines as groove took over and jumped in the server with his players.

"I think my best memories in 2020 are from summer, that's when we decided to skip the break and keep playing tournaments. We won a lot, which gave us more confidence, and that also gave us more points, so we moved up in the rankings. On top of that, the majority of teams were on vacation, and that played its part as well. We were earning ranking points while the others were resting."

After securing a handful of the ubiquitous Malta Vibes and Nine to Five cups that sprouted during the lockdown days of the coronavirus pandemic, and solidifying their top 30 presence while navigating a ruthless sea of second tier teams, Gambit Youngsters were promoted from being an academy team and were named Gambit's main squad in October, filling the spot that had been left vacant by the organization for a year and a half.

Ax1Le finished 2020 with a 1.19 rating, the same as his impact rating, and 82.8 ADR as he and his team closed the year out on a high, continuing to win smaller online cups and even the DreamHack Open November stop before making the DreamHack Masters Winter Europe playoffs with victories over Cloud9 and Complexity, although they finally fell to Astralis in the quarter-finals. Gambit weren't able to take home a second DreamHack Open trophy, but they did make the semi-finals at their final event of the year, DreamHack Open December.

In hindsight it's hard to believe Gambit's first tournament of 2021 was the lowly Vulkan Fight Series, which they won in January, as they were not yet consolidated and were not yet considered an elite team in the world, ranked in 15th place. They then followed up their win with a semi-final finish at DreamHack Open January, where they beat Sprout and Spirit before falling to FunPlus Phoenix, the team they'd soon after lose to again in one of their many Snow Sweet Snow grand final appearances.

It was at IEM Katowice that Gambit's year started in earnest, dropping everyone's jaws in a meteoric rise even taking into account that the Russian squad was already on everyone's radar as a hot up-and-coming team. Victories over TeamOne and MOUZ in the tournament's play-in furthered their cause as a team to watch at the main event, although an early loss to Evil Geniuses cast doubts on whether HObbit and company would pull through. Only one loss away from elimination for the rest of the tournament, Gambit won six series in a row, taking out the likes of Heroic, G2 and Natus Vincere, on the way to a best-of-five grand final victory over Virtus.pro. Ax1Le earned his first EVP of the year there thanks to a 1.14 rating, 1.13 impact and 78.8 ADR.

"We became more confident after winning IEM Katowice, we could finally see that the time we spent wasn't for nothing, and it was paying off right before our eyes. We understood that we were moving in the right direction and started putting more effort because we got very excited by the prospect of winning other tournaments. I think everyone on the team thought that this is our breakout year, that we could reach tier 1 and stay up there."

Gambit then backed it up at ESL Pro League Season 13, and although the Russians weren't able to win the tournament, they did make the second grand final in a row, proving to everyone that they were ready to break out and make a name for themselves among the elite teams by beating the likes of ​​Natus Vincere, Astralis, and NIP before losing an agonizing five-map final to Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller's Heroic, another team on the rise. Despite the loss, Ax1Le was named MVP of the tournament after posting a 1.28 rating, 1.30 impact and 85.4 ADR across a staggering 23 maps in the team's longest tournament of the year.

"I think I peaked during the spring. I felt great about myself, worked a lot on CS:GO, on my studies, on sport, and on my mentality as well. Your close ones help you a lot with the latter, they see you from a different perspective and show you what you can improve and become better. ESL Pro League Season 13 was probably the most memorable event to me, I claimed the MVP despite losing. It was nice, but it was a long, tough, and bitter final at the same time. But it's a story that you remember with a smile on your face, time flies and there is no reason to be sad about your past."

"I think this award showed me that I'm capable of many things, that I can be an MVP despite losing a tournament. Of course the emotions were different due to the fact we lost the tournament, but I was happy nonetheless. It was my goal to earn an MVP medal that year and I managed to do it, even exceeded it. Now I will try to get more and more awards year after year."

Gambit then secured a spot at the BLAST Spring Finals through the Showdown, knocking out Heroic in their last match of the bracket before moving on to another one of their Big events of 2021, DreamHack Masters Spring. They beat G2 twice and Natus Vincere once, but in the grand final it was Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev and company who came out on top to take revenge on Gambit in what was starting to become the rise of a new powerhouse. Ax1Le's 1.13 rating and 79.8 ADR in the team's second place finish was good enough for a second EVP.

Gambit then won the first CIS Regional Major Ranking event of the year, EPIC League CIS, an issue-laden tournament where Ax1Le continued to shine, earning another EVP in his team's victory. But it was at the following event, IEM Summer, that Ax1Le peaked with a 1.33 rating, 1.49 impact rating, 86.3 ADR and 74.4% KAST to earn an MVP in Gambit's championship run, which included a stellar grand final showing against OG with a 1.49 rating and 95.6 ADR in three maps.

"I felt very confident at IEM Summer, I was playing without distractions so I could perform well and I was very satisfied with my game as I exceeded my aforementioned goal and was already sure that I would make it to the Top 20 of 2021. I wanted to claim more awards after that one, but unfortunately couldn't do it."

Gambit's good form continued at the BLAST Premier Spring Final, where they beat Evil Geniuses, Complexity and Natus Vincere twice to take home the grand prize, although a small dip in form by Ax1Le, who finished the tournament with a 1.09 rating, ended up in him only getting a VP mention in the Russian squad's victory. Gambit then went on to finish second in the second RMR event of the year, StarLadder CIS RMR, falling to Natus Vincere in the grand final, although on a personal note Ax1Le was back up to a 1.21 rating and earned himself another EVP.

The end of the season came at the first LAN event of the year, IEM Cologne, where teams like Gambit were about to be put under the microscope as they had come of age in the cocoon of online CS that developed during the lockdown days of the coronavirus pandemic. Early victories against MOUZ and NIP showed potential, but subsequent losses to the more experienced G2 and FaZe ended the youngsters' dreams in 5-6th place. Ax1Le ended the Elite event with a 1.16 rating and 1.20 impact and came away with a VP mention.

"It wasn't easy to play on LAN at first, we were making mistakes that we didn't make online. We were worried and communicated worse during matches, so it affected how we played retakes and post-plant scenarios. But every time we did it, we got more used to the studio environment, and now I think we have gone through every possible scenario so studio events will be ordinary for us in 2022."

ESL Pro League Season 14 opened the second half of 2021, although the event scheduled to be played in Malta was moved online due to the coronavirus' Delta variant wreaking havoc around the globe, This could have been the talisman Gambit needed to start off the second half of the year with a big result as they had made the grand final of ESL's flagship league earlier in the year, also online, but this time around they had to settle for 5-8th place as early victories gave way to back-to-back losses at the hands of NIP and Vitality. A 1.11 rating kept Ax1Le as a VP despite the early playoff exit.

A victory at IEM Fall CIS secured a top spot for Gambit at the Major, and Ax1Le once again found top form, ending the 11-map affair with a 1.22 rating, 1.31 impact and 84.1 ADR as he and his teammates soared to the top by beating a burgeoning Entropiq as well as their main CIS opponents, Natus Vincere. nafany and his men then returned to LAN in Sweden for the most important event in their young careers — Major-winner HObbit excluded —, the PGL Major in Stockholm.

"There wasn't any specific pressure [at the Major], I just couldn't play my own game in some matches. I felt that something was wrong because I wasn't sure of myself during games. I also had liver issues before the Major, which I had to deal with because I couldn't ignore it, my body consumed much-needed energy to recover and I had to take pills, which sometimes caused different side effects."

Gambit beat a shaky ENCE before going to the 1-1 pool with a loss to Dmitry "⁠hooch⁠" Bogdanov's Entropiq, but a timely 16-14 victory over Virtus.pro and a convincing 2-0 series against NIP put the CIS squad in the playoffs, where they knocked out FURIA in their first arena match before taking a beating at the hands of s1mple and his teammates.

A 3-4th place for a team comprised of mostly rookies at Majors and with four of the players never having been in an arena event was a big victory, but on a personal level Ax1Le struggled with both health issues and the pressure of playing in a hectic environment, ending the tournament with a year-low 1.02 rating.

"It was much harder with arena events. It was too much for me, personally, as I wasn't used to lights, flashes, shouting, Big matches, vibrations and so on. There were many things all at once and I got a headache right after the first map, I couldn't think as fast and clearly as before. I think we need more arena experience, but we've already felt it and that's the most important thing."

After the Major Gambit didn't slow down, and the team traveled to Hungary to play at the V4 Future Sports Festival, a Medium-level event where they faced minor opposition. They kicked it off on the wrong foot with an upset loss in the opening best-of-one to Fiend, before claiming the title with playoff victories over BIG in the semis and Entropiq in the best-of-five grand final. Ax1Le's performance there, as the team's third-highest rated player, got him an EVP mention with a 1.17 rating and 1.23 impact.

Ax1Le was given another EVP nod at IEM Winter, where he and his teammates were taken out early in the playoffs by an in-shape Vitality as Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut guided his side to victory in the quarter-final match-up between the two teams with a 1.61 rating. Gambit were out in 5-6th place, but Ax1Le's contributions in the group stage wins against fnatic and FaZe, which helped him reach a 1.20 rating, 1.27 impact and a year-high 86.5 ADR, were enough for him to get the aforementioned individual accolade.

The last event of the year, BLAST World Final, was Gambit's chance at taking a coveted Elite level LAN tournament as they had accrued enough experience throughout the year to be comfortable in such a setting. groove's men beat Heroic, Liquid and Vitality in the upper bracket and took their rightful place in the grand final, where they would be joined by a Natus Vincere that struggled through the tournament but snowballed their momentum in the lower bracket all the way to their consolidation final victory over Vitality right before the title match.

Two maps into the grand final, Gambit and Natus Vincere were tied, 1-1, having each taken the other team's pick, but in the end it was s1mple who carried his team to a dominating and anticlimactic 16-6 victory on Inferno to take the title. Ax1Le didn't shine particularly bright throughout the event in Denmark, but despite that he was still a VP with solid numbers, including a 1.13 rating, 1.10 impact and 79.5 ADR.

"I wouldn't say that NAVI are our biggest rivals. Sure, they played well last year, but I think that we're our biggest rivals. Yes, they crushed us at the Major, but I don't want to look for excuses as we performed badly on that day. It doesn't matter what was happening to each one of us at that moment, but the result does. We won the first map at BLAST World Final, everything was in our hands, we should have won Ancient, ending the year on a good note, but here we are.

"I believe in the guys, I believe in our team, we are capable of many things. It's important that we work on our mentality during games, having everything under control, holding our own, and showing our best so that other teams have a small chance of beating us."

Why was Ax1Le the 5th best player of 2021?

Ax1Le was one of the biggest revelations of 2021, crowning his foray into the highest tier of CS with the fifth spot in our Top 20 players of the year ranking thanks to his impressive consistency, great play in Big events and several standout performances. Regarding his consistency, he was never even close to having a bad event as even numbers in his nadir, the PGL Major, are deceivingly low due to Gambit's one-sided semi-final loss.

He was always at least decently valuable in some way and most of the time he was not only valuable, but exceptionally so, collecting seven EVP awards and two MVPs. On a map-to-map basis he had a 1.00 or higher rating in 76% of his maps and a 1.30 or higher 38% of the time (both 5th most frequent). That ability to maintain a high level of performance across the entire year made him one of the most consistent and one of the players with the highest floor.

"I had practically no bad moments related to CS:GO, I don't regret anything that happened last year. It was a great year, so much experience in just a year — it was even possible to travel though it seemed it wouldn't be due to Covid. Maybe I slowed down a bit after the first half of the year, and maybe I would have liked to play better on LAN than I did."

While indeed Ax1Le had lower peaks in the second half of the year compared to his great start, the two strong MVPs — his IEM Summer being one of the most convincing MVPs of the year —, as well as better play on average in the Big events (1.18 rating, #6) and better performances when facing the very best with a 1.14 rating vs. top 5 opposition (6th highest), separated him ever so slightly from the other competitors for the fifth spot

As is expected of someone ranked this high, Ax1Le impressed in Big matches with a 1.14 rating (tied for the fifth highest), as well as in a number of statistical categories such as pistol round rating (1.37, #4), multi-kills (18.8%, #7), damage per round (81.4, #10), 1vsX situations won (59, #12) and more, which resulted in him being one of the most impactful players of the year (1.19 Impact rating, #9).

"In 2022 I'm committed to making the Top 5 players of the year, earning at least 3 MVPs, and becoming the No. 1 team. And of course, I want to become better in every way."

The reason this was as high as Ax1Le could climb this year is mainly because the competition for the top 4 spots in the ranking was in a tier of its own, which makes the 19-year-old Russian rifler the best of the rest.

Bold prediction by GG.BET

A regular recurring feature in the Top 20 player ranking series, the Bold prediction segment returns in 2021, this time around requiring players to choose a player that is under the age of 20 and has yet to play in a top 20 team.

Ax1Le joins Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato in picking Argentinian youngster Santino "⁠try⁠" Rigal as his bold prediction. "Firstly, he is a young AWPer that already boasts a good rating," Ax1Le says. "Secondly, we played a few praccs against 9z and he was doing well. As everyone knows, the AWP is a weapon that can win you matches — you can be very impactful with it. When the guy starts playing top tier events I think he will have a real shot at making the Top 20 players of the year ranking in the future. The main thing is for him to keep going. Go all the way."

The 19-year-old also mentioned fellow countryman and recent G2 signing Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov. "He's going to attend the biggest tournaments now and he has a good gamesense with the AWP," Ax1Le says. "He has a good chance of making the list at the end of the year, it will be interesting to follow his results, but I'm picking Santino [try] anyway."

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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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