Top 20 players of 2022: huNter- (14)

Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač finishes 14th on the Top 20 players of 2022 ranking, powered by 1xBet, thanks to a great floor and an impressive level at some of the biggest events and deep into tournaments.

Top 20 players of 2022: Introduction

huNter- began his involvement in Counter-Strike at the end of 1.6, when he represented local Balkan teams but failed to reach international recognition due to his young age. Once Global Offensive came out, the Bosnian decided that the game wasn't for him and took a few years away from serious play. No doubt spurred on by the success of his cousin Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, who just started to make waves in the international scene, huNter- caved in and decided to give CS:GO a proper try in 2015. He started his career playing in local teams such as Jake Bube and GamePub, before joining one of the best squads in the region in iNation, where he played alongside the likes of Aleksandar "⁠kassad⁠" Trifunović and Luka "⁠emi⁠" Vuković.

The roster then went through several player changes and transferred to Binary Dragons, where they started to rack up international experience and broke into the top 40 of the World Ranking. Another organization transfer followed as the roster made the jump to Valiance at the end of 2017. It was then that huNter- started to turn heads in the international scene, with the all-Balkan squad attending tier-one tournaments such as DreamHack Masters Marseille 2018. A period of stagnation followed, pushing the organization towards an English-speaking team by signing Nemanja "⁠nexa⁠" Isaković, Rokas "⁠EspiranTo⁠" Milasauskas, and Otto "⁠ottoNd⁠" Sihvo. The team then rebranded to CR4ZY and attended StarLadder Major Berlin 2019 under that moniker, almost reaching the Legends Stage and solidifying their status as one of the best upcoming rosters.

For an in-depth look at huNter-'s early career history, check out his top 20 articles from 2020 and 2021.

It wasn't much of a surprise that higher-ranked teams started showing interest in the CR4ZY players given their performances. Shortly after the Berlin Major, huNter- and nexa were on the way to G2 in what was the beginning of the organization's decision to move away from the French scene. huNter- wasted no time in proving that he is tier-one material, putting in performances that placed him 13th in his first appearance in the Top 20 list. At the end of 2020, he was joined by his cousin NiKo and fulfilled his lifelong dream of playing alongside him. The Kovač duo powered the team to second place at IEM Cologne 2021 and PGL Major Stockholm 2021 and consistently placed well in international events, with huNter- going one better and placing 12th in 2021's top 20 list— but a title eluded them as they moved into 2022.

2022 was a turbulent year for huNter- and his team, as the lineup went through several player changes as well as unexpectedly parting ways with their coach in October. The team had to get used to playing under two new IGLs and their respective calling styles but nonetheless managed to put together some impressive performances as well as end G2's five-year trophy drought.

Coming into 2022, G2 were active in the transfer market. The Berlin-based organization decided to bring in new IGL Aleksi "⁠Aleksib⁠" Virolainen alongside young hotshot Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov to replace the nexa and François "⁠AMANEK⁠" Delaunay, hoping to build on the two grand-final appearances near the end of the previous year.

The team started the year well, making it through the BLAST Premier Spring Groups 2022 in 4-6th place. G2 did just enough to make the Spring Final, huNter- putting up consistent numbers throughout the tournament to finish the event as his squad's third highest-rated player (1.10).

An encouraging debut set the team up nicely for IEM Katowice 2022, where they hoped to build on their decent start. G2 began the tournament with a shock loss to fnatic but turned it around to make the playoffs via the lower bracket. In the playoffs, huNter- ramped up his performances and was the key ingredient of the team's run to the final, first putting up a 1.25 rating against Virtus.pro in the quarter-finals and following that up by getting his team over the line on Mirage against Natus Vincere with 32 kills in regulation. That meant G2 faced off against FaZe in the grand final, who were using Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage as a stand-in at the event. The game was an incredibly close one, with G2 losing in a heartbreaking 0-3 loss — the first two maps ended in overtime and the third 14-16. huNter- was the highest-rated performer on the server despite the loss (1.27), locking in his first Exceptionally Valuable Player (EVP) award of the season in the process.

G2 came into ESL Pro League Season 15 full of confidence, but the month-long break between games failed to do them much good. The European combine struggled massively and posted only two wins, one of them against massive underdogs Looking For Org. Their second win came against Ninjas in Pyjamas, where huNter- put up an incredible 1.78 rating across the series. That helped earn him a Valuable Player (VP) award, as he averaged a 1.17 rating despite his team's shortcomings, keeping up his impressive form in the early part of 2022.

"I had extra motivation because I wanted to show what I'm capable of to the new coach and IGL. I started working alone for like two weeks, maybe even more before bootcamp actually started and I felt really good individually at the beginning of the year and overall our mood, practice and everything else worked pretty well at the beginning."

An up-and-down start to the season meant G2 went into PGL Major Antwerp 2022 with uncertain expectations. Aleksib and company started the Major cycle well, traversing the RMR and looking strong in the Challengers Stage without losing a game, as huNter- finished the first stage with a 1.27 rating. The Legends Stage was a much tougher ordeal for G2, as they bowed out after losing the deciding series of the 2-2 pool against FURIA. huNter- also had his worst event of the year by far, still mustering an average 1.00 rating in the nine maps played.

That was the beginning of the end of the roster led by Aleksib, as they never reached the highs of their Katowice performance in the remaining events. huNter- did manage to keep up his consistent performances even when the team was faltering, matching his early season form and earning a VP award in all three post-Major events that G2 played before the summer break. He improved event-on-event, starting with a 1.07 rated IEM Dallas campaign that ended in his squad suffering another loss to FURIA in the quarter-finals.

The team continued to show inconsistent and ultimately lackluster results, first showing some promise at BLAST Premier Spring Final with a semi-final appearance after defeating Vitality and FaZe in the group stage. IEM Cologne was the final event before the player break, and G2 got the exact opposite of a much-needed good result to end the season. A 9-12th place finish was all they could muster, ending the tournament in the group stage with a single victory. huNter- finished as the team's highest-rated player (1.18) by quite a margin (0.07), capping off the first part of the year with yet another good individual performance that wasn't backed up by a good result. That prompted the team to remove Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug and Aleksib from the active roster, bringing about the second rebuild phase in under six months.

"It was hard because we added a new IGL, new coach, new AWPer, but obviously everybody expected much more with Aleksi, m0NESY, and Remy [XTQZZZ] back then. Aleksi is a good IGL, good individually for this role, m0NESY a great and young AWPer, who showed it throughout the year, and Remy a good coach who had good results back then in Vitality, but it didn’t work out with everyone together. Maybe we needed more time being together to succeed, but unfortunately, we weren’t stable and consistent enough."

The roster shake-up proved especially hard for huNter-, as he lost his close friend and teammate JACKZ, with whom he got along incredibly well inside and outside the server.

"Losing JACKZ is always hard, he is one of the best human beings I know. The first time he went on the bench was really tough for me, because he is the guy that every team needs. Before I was more connected with him in game, when we were taking areas together, when I first joined G2, but in this second part when Aleksi joined, we were both kinda lurks in defaults. But Jacki outside of the game was always my older brother and he will be that forever. I think he got the chance that he deserved and I know that he’s happy now with his French guys in HEET and I'm really happy for him."

Two departures meant that G2 needed to sign an IGL alongside a new rifler, preferably one capable of anchoring sites on CT sides. The players chosen were jks and Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen, who both represented gambles for the European combine. The Australian had been inactive for almost a year since leaving Complexity — if we discount his substitute performance IEM Katowice where he helped FaZe overcome his now-teammates. The HooXi signing also surprised many, considering the Dane came from Copenhagen Flames and thus never led a tier-one team before.

"They [our management staff] were thinking a lot about who to bring, which two players are the best option, and they decided to bring HooXi and jks at the end. Of course, we were asked a bit as players, but we didn’t make any decisions. We heard and we know almost everything about jks, we needed that kind of a player, who can lurk on T and on CT good and safe anchor, so it was an easy and expected decision. For IGL it wasn’t easy, because there weren’t that many good IGLs nowadays and we thought that HooXi is a perfect option after adding jks. We needed a real team player, who will do anything for the team, which HooXi is and guy who is working hard, helping his players, trying to use them the best, so I think our management staff did amazing decisions at the end."

G2's first event with the new roster at BLAST Premier Fall Groups was an unconvincing performance that ultimately got the job done, as they qualified for the BLAST Premier Fall Final 2022 by getting the better of Vitality in the deciding series. huNter- put up a 1.07 rating in an unremarkable performance for his high standards, lagging behind the star duo of m0NESY (1.34) and NiKo (1.24).

The new G2 showed a much better face at their second event, getting a 5-0 record in the opening stage of ESL Pro League Season 16 in a group that included the likes of Outsiders and FaZe. The playoffs showed the team still had some aspects of their game to figure out, as they defeated Natus Vincere before Vitality ended their tournament in the semi-finals. huNter- especially struggled in those two games, having just one map with a rating over 1.00, but his quality performances in the group stage still earned him a VP award.

The second Major cycle came and G2 went into the Road to Rio RMR as massive favorites to make it through to the Major. The tournament started like a dream with a 16-0 win over ECSTATIC before things took a turn for the worse. A close loss to Cloud9 followed the destruction of the Danes before G2's hopes of Major qualification were massively damaged as they lost to 1WIN, in spite of huNter- putting up a 1.50 rating in the loss. The next day they fell to GamerLegion in a shock loss that meant G2 missed out on the Rio Major. huNter- had his highest-rated event under HooXi (1.18), but that did little to lift his spirits after suffering such disappointment.

"We need to deal much better with pressure. I know and we know that everybody is expecting a lot from G2 and it’s normal, we have great players in the team, so pressure and playing not to lose against teams where we were favorites is never good and that’s what we did. It was tough when we lost, we were all quiet, feeling bad about missing this Major in Rio, and after those two decisions from our management staff, it hit us hard. But as I said we stuck together and became a real team after everything and I’m happy with our mindset after all."

If the shock and regret of missing out on the Major were not enough for the entire G2 team, they were hit with the news that their coach Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam and manager Jérôme "⁠NiaK⁠" Sudries decided to step down from the team after the RMR.

"We lost RMR and we were all shocked and feeling bad. I was even more shocked after I received a message from XTQZZZ and NiaK [the team's manager] that they decided to leave after RMR, because that was something that we never expected. I understand and respect that decision, I just thought it was the wrong timing for such a move. But we couldn’t change anything, we needed to move forward as a team, stick together, try our best until the end of 2022 and then see what’s the best to do, what we did at the end."

With the Rio Major out of the picture, the team had almost two months without official games to prepare for the final two BLAST events. The first was BLAST Premier Fall Final, where they failed to show much improvement and exited the tournament in 5-6th place after losing to eventual winners Heroic. huNter- was fantastic against Fluxo on Dust2 where he posted a 1.93 rating, alongside providing resistance in the loss against Heroic with a 1.12 rated performance, which bumped his average rating to 1.11 for the event and earned him a VP award.

huNter- had a slow start to the final event of the year, as G2 lost to FaZe in the opening match of BLAST Premier World Final, the Bosnian finding himself at the bottom of the scoreboard with a 0.90 rating. Their next match was against reigning Major champions Outsiders and huNter- and his team showed a completely different performance, destroying the Russian squad on Mirage 16-1 to book a place in the playoffs.

huNter- had just one more map in the red from the quarter-finals onwards, which came in an overtime Vertigo loss against Vitality. With his teammates picking up the slack against Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and company, it was huNter- who exacted revenge over FaZe in a brilliant performance that garnered a 1.35 rating. Their tournament run meant that G2 found themselves in a familiar situation of a grand-final appearance, with a view of finally breaking their curse. The game against Liquid started on Inferno, where jks (1.59) and huNter- (1.41) dominated the North American side and locked in a 16-7 win. The title was just one map win away, and Mirage was up next. A successful CT side locked in a 16-12 win for G2 and ended the organization's five-year wait for a Big Event win in the $1,000,000 event. huNter- also picked up his second EVP award of the year in Abu Dhabi, finishing the year on a high.

"That World Final was a gift for us and we took that gift the best we could. It felt amazing, especially after the personal problems that happened to HooXi. Once more we showed great mentality and a great mindset in the team and I was really proud."

The BLAST World Final victory gave G2 some much-needed confidence and an assurance that they are finally on the right track, about to spend a player break without the thought of an impending rebuild.

"Lifting that trophy in Abu Dhabi is obviously the best moment of the year. It changed a lot of things, at least I think that and I'm finally happy that we will keep this lineup and not start from zero, because I'm tired of it."

Why was huNter- the 14th best player of 2022?

huNter- earned the 14th spot in our top 20 player ranking thanks in part to his ever-stable performances for G2, with his map-to-map consistency ranked among the best with 89% of maps with a rating of 0.85 and above. He also stood out in his ability to put up multikills (18.4%), ranking him 12th in the metric. The 27-year-old was also a steady presence on the CT sides where he averaged a 1.22 rating, the 16th highest, while his 79.1 ADR and 0.73 KPR also place him 16th and 15th, respectively.

His biggest stand-out statistic of the year is that his average rating (1.12) rose when he played at the events marked as "Elite" (1.14) and in the playoffs of those events (1.26), which led to his two EVPs in G2's early-year run to second place at IEM Katowice and end-of-year title campaign at the BLAST Premier World Final. He was a big-match player in general, again outperforming his average (1.14) when playing deep into competitions.

Ultimately, huNter-'s lack of peaks compared to players around him prevented the Bosnian from placing any higher. A lack of Major performances also counted against him, the Antwerp Major being his lowest-rated event of the year (1.00) while he also missed out on Rio entirely after G2 failed to qualify.

"My goals for 2023 are to work hard and try my best to help the team win games and nothing else."

Bold prediction by 1xBet

huNter-'s bold prediction is 18-year-old Daniil "⁠headtr1ck⁠" Valitov, who is currently sitting on the NAVI Junior bench. If the rumors are to be believed he will not be inactive for long, as he is reportedly set to sign with Ninjas in Pyjamas to fill the AWPing role in the team, meaning he would be thrust into tier-one competition immediately.

"I think he has great individual skills with AWP and rifle. From what I saw he will most likely go to NIP and work with Aleksi, who already has experience with a similar mentality (m0NESY) and he will help him show what he's capable of and he is a great kid who will listen, I'm pretty sure."

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NIP set sights on headtr1ck - Report

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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.