Top 20 players of 2022: b1t (16)

High peaks amid consistent deep playoff runs see Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy make his second Top 20 ranking, supported by 1xBet.

Top 20 players of 2022: Introduction

b1t's career kicked off when he was one of ten players picked out of 1,900 applicants to NAVI Junior by Andrey "⁠B1ad3⁠" Gorodenskiy and Amiran "⁠aMi⁠" Rehviashvili in September 2019. The process favoured someone with the technical ability of b1t, a player whose proficiency with every rifle in the game is immediately obvious after just a few rounds.

In the time before WePlay Academy League, b1t and NAVI Junior plied their trade in open qualifiers. He was the academy side's highest-rated player, even above Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov who joined in early 2020, and a call-up to the main Natus Vincere squad beckoned.

A more in-depth look at b1t's early career can be found in his Top 20 article from 2021.

Initially, this was as a sixth man and only on Inferno (aside from as a mid-map substitute on Overpass once). In this period, b1t's future success was far from a done deal: His raw mechanics were less useful against top opposition, but his slow start eventually turned into one of steady improvement.

By ESL Pro League Season 13, b1t took Egor "⁠flamie⁠" Vasilyev's spots on Mirage and Overpass too. It was a sign of faith, one corroborated by the decision to make b1t their permanent fifth after the event amid a ruling by Valve that discouraged six-man rosters. The new Natus Vincere, despite b1t barely having his feet under the table, took no time to hit the ground running.

Victories awaited at DreamHack Masters Spring and the StarLadder CIS RMR, with b1t earning an EVP at the latter. CS:GO soon returned to LAN at IEM Cologne, the start of a streak of victories for both b1t and his team. Another EVP there was a sign of things to come: He earned three more EVPs as Natus Vincere won every LAN they attended to close 2021 as undisputed kings of the world.

It was a rookie year like few had achieved, up there with Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut's 2019. b1t won every LAN he attended, including the PGL Major in Stockholm, the first event with a crowd since before the pandemic. Nerves did not seem to affect the steely Ukrainian teenager.

He ended the year 9th in our Top 20, with a 1.21 rating on LAN for the year, the 5th highest of all players. He was the third tip of a trident Poseidon himself would have been proud of, fighting alongside Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov and Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev to make one of the deadliest cores of all time. In 2022, an era beckoned.

But that was before the war. It is impossible to talk about Natus Vincere's 2022 without mentioning it, the shadow and asterisk above their decline. The news came in at IEM Katowice, where b1t had his second-worst event of the year. Natus Vincere had beaten Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač's G2 in three playoff series at the back end of 2021, but in Katowice that record slipped. m0NESY, in his LAN debut for G2 after leaving NAVI Junior, and Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač ran riot as Natus Vincere's veil of invulnerability shattered.

"Obviously, the war has affected everyone, and we lost too many hurtful finals and matches. But I don’t like guessing — whatever happened, happened."

Next up for b1t was ESL Pro League Season 15 in Dusseldorf, a studio LAN where b1t benefitted from a generous group draw to put up a 1.29 rating in the group stage. Even in that group, which included #27 Complexity, #48 Evil Geniuses, and #137-ranked AGO, b1t was not just farming the lower tier: A 1.42 rating was crucial to Natus Vincere's win over Heroic in a straight shoot-out for 1st place in the group.

Their reward for that placing was a quarter-final against the high-flying IEM Katowice champions FaZe, where b1t slumped to a 0.83 rating in a convincing 0-2 defeat. His group stage performance was enough for an EVP, a sign of life despite his struggles at Katowice. But his toils against FaZe — Natus Vincere's replacement as the best team in the world — were a worrying sign.

b1t was middle-of-the-road as Natus Vincere qualified for the Antwerp Major, but there was no holding back once he arrived in Belgium. He finished the Legends stage with a 1.43 rating as Natus Vincere defeated G2, BIG, and Ninjas in Pyjamas. Despite their 3-0 record, his rating was not really inflated by stomps; a 1.30 rating in Overtime against G2, and a 1.49 rating in a loss to Ninjas in Pyjamas in the 2-0 match proves as much.

"PGL Major Antwerp was [my best memory of 2022 and] a great tournament for us, but it’s a shame that we couldn’t win the final."

He returned to earth in playoffs with a more reasonable yet still impressive 1.08 rating against Heroic and 1.14 against ENCE. On the other side of the bracket, FaZe had also made it to the grand final, setting up a clash between the two best teams in the world.

On that day, as FaZe ran out winners once more, it was not just b1t who struggled. His 1.04 rating was actually higher than electroNic and s1mple's in the grand final — his team simply could not compete with a rampant Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard and FaZe clan. b1t, a frontrunner for the MVP before the final, had to settle for the first EVP.

The Major proved to be Kirill "⁠Boombl4⁠" Mikhailov's last event, and the addition of Viktor "⁠sdy⁠" Orudzhev soon followed as electroNic took over the in-game leadership. With electroNic moving to more central positions to facilitate his calling, and the loss of the aggressive Boombl4 for the more supportive sdy, b1t's role underwent a small but significant change.

At BLAST Premier Spring Finals, however, none of that mattered. Natus Vincere were at their frontrunning best, recovering from an opening day loss to OG to take the trophy home. The defining match was the quarter-final against FaZe, where Natus Vincere's trident was in full flow. b1t recorded a 1.48 rating in the 2:0 victory, yet was still only the third highest-rated player of the team.

Lisbon represented a solid blueprint for the new Natus Vincere. electroNic's fragging showed no sign of slowing down despite his new role and sdy was a solid supportive force alongside Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy. b1t, too, seemed comfortable in the new set-up and B1ad3's input was just as visible as it had been with Boombl4.

This meant that Natus Vincere and FaZe were neck and neck going into IEM Cologne. FaZe had shown weakness for the first time all year, first at IEM Dallas and then in Lisbon while Natus Vincere seemed to be on the opposite trajectory. The Ukranian side were not as imperious in Cologne's group stage as they had been in Lisbon. b1t himself was hot and cold, but Natus Vincere did enough to top their group and qualify for the semi-final against Astralis.

b1t was back to his best in that semi-final. Nuke was a classic Natus Vincere steamrolling, but Mirage was a true test. Down 3:12 at half-time to a Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer-inspired Astralis, b1t led NAVI on one of the best comebacks of the year. In a tight 19:17 win, he recorded 37 frags and 120 ADR. With s1mple struggling, it was just what they needed.

The grand finale was set: Natus Vincere against FaZe to decide who was the best team in the world in the last match of the season. It was a chance for b1t to expunge his Antwerp demons, for Natus Vincere to prove that Lisbon was a new dawn rather than a short honeymoon. The match delivered, five maps of high-octane Counter-Strike between two genuine heavyweights.

For b1t however, it is not a fond memory. His demons returned, the ice-cold veneer of the rookie that won all four of his first Big Events shattered. He finished the final with a 0.89 rating. In one of the closest and high-quality finals of all time, it is an underperformance that stings: Just a few more rounds of impact from b1t and Natus Vincere could have walked away with the trophy.

"FaZe is a strong team, playing against them is interesting. We gave up too many situations and had a 30 minute break after the third map, which had a bad impact on us. Regarding the fifth map, we lost two important clutch rounds that hurt our economy and couldn’t close it out despite the lead."

"We had great matches against FaZe, but I don’t think they had an edge in finals."

After the summer break, Natus Vincere could not recover their Cologne form. b1t, too, slumped. He finished ESL Pro League Season 16 with a 1.00 rating, eliminated by the new-look G2. The true embarrassment was in groups, however, as Natus Vincere lost 0-2 (16-7, 16-10) to Endpoint — a moment b1t called his worst memory of the year.

Things did not improve at the IEM Rio Major, either. Strong maps against Bad News Eagles and BIG were a respite — he even hit a 1.45 rating in map three of the quarter-final loss to FURIA — but b1t was clearly not the same player as he had been before the break. A string of upsets meant Natus Vincere were many people's favourites ahead of the quarter-finals, but that was more of a reflection on the teams that had been eliminated than teams fearing Natus Vincere. It came to a head at BLAST Premier Fall Finals, with b1t slipping to a 0.88 rating to make it his worst LAN event of all time.

Why the slump came about is a point of interest, and there is no one concrete answer. The M4A1-S meta was part of it; a lower skill ceiling that negated the advantage b1t's mechanical superiority normally supplied. There is also the reality that the war may have had its toll: b1t and Natus Vincere rarely had stability in 2022, moving from place to place and event to event. electroNic taking up IGL duties has also been blamed, with b1t not quite fitting into the adjusted system as well as he had before. A new IGL also might have meant less one-on-one time with B1ad3 for b1t, as Natus Vincere switched their focus.

"I’ve said it before, M4A1-S had to be nerfed. It was very imbalanced, especially when it had 25 rounds in a clip. I’m only happy that it was nerfed."

"Of course, every team started watching and analyzing us after 2021, and we try to make changes to our game. I try to play diverse, so that it would be harder for my opponents to prepare."

Whatever the reason, it did not seem to apply at the BLAST Premier World Final. b1t finished the event with a 1.25 rating on T-Side, putting the AK-47 to good use against the nerfed M4A1-S. Yet it was not as simple as the changes to the CT weapon; the arrival of aggressive NAVI Junior rifler Andrii "⁠npl⁠" Kukharskyi on Inferno and Mirage also released b1t to become more of a pure closer. On Inferno, he was moved to Pit on CT-Side and Appartments on T, averaging a 1.42 rating over two maps.

With npl confirmed for IEM Katowice, there is a chance b1t's roles will change on other maps too, though he "won’t take on a pure lurker role as we have different combinations of roles for different maps." In 2021 he was still very fresh, without much information on his preferred angles and plays. Now, there is an encyclopedia of footage of him; every tendency is tracked, every change noticed.

"I’m sure that this year made me stronger in all aspects."

At the end of 2022, then, there is promise. b1t's sophomore year did not have the heights of his freshman's, but he is no one-season wonder. This young man's career is only just beginning.

Why was b1t the 16th best player of 2022?

b1t was not miles ahead of David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský, edging ahead thanks to highly impactful peaks and a more reliable sample size of deep runs into events. Those deep runs definitely impacted b1t's overall statistics, making it look like he had a worse year than he did. 74.6 ADR, 1.09 Impact, and 71.7% KAST are the statistics of a decent but not quite superstar player.

Ultimately, it was b1t's string of four very good events in the middle of the year that got him this high, with 3 EVPs at ESL Pro League Season 15, PGL Major Antwerp, and BLAST Premier Spring Finals and only narrowly missing out on one at IEM Cologne. Even with his form tailing off after the summer break, he still earned a VP or higher in 8 out of the 9 big events he attended, a percentage just ahead of frozen and a good 23% clear of Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi.

It is also b1t's impact that is so hard to look past. Natus Vincere won 70.3% of rounds that b1t got a kill in, the highest score in the Top 20. The same is true of his multi-kill rounds, that win percentage coming to a sky-high 82.8%.His peaks were also higher and more often than those just below him, sporting a 1.30 rating or higher in 29.6% of maps.

Still, his end-of-year slump made it difficult to place him any higher, with his 16th position being more of an 18a with frozen at 18b and Spinx at 18c. It is a fall compared to his 9th place last year, and there has been a definite drop off as his sample size increased. Yet, if a 'down' year for b1t is 3 EVPs, a VP or higher at every elite event, and only one that was truly bad, Natus Vincere should be very happy indeed.

Bold prediction by 1xBet

Like last year, when b1t selected m0NESY, the Ukranian has once again selected an ex-NAVI Junior AWPer for his bold prediction. b1t did not play with Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov in the academy, but they did share a server for ten maps in 2022 at ESL Pro League Season 15 and BLAST Premier Fall Groups.

headtr1ck has since been placed on the transfer list by Natus Vincere, with reports suggesting interest from Ninjas in Pyjamas. If that move transpires, or one to a different tier one side, b1t's 1.27-rated compatriot may prove to be a smart pick for 2023.

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Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2022 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.