With just under three months to go in the year, I want to highlight four players who will not make HLTV’s Top 20 but should be noted for their standout performances in what I consider Tier 1.5. The Tier 1.5 teams will be defined as those that hover around the 15th-30th best in the world according to HLTV’s rankings. These are teams you would expect to qualify for about 30%-60% of the S-Tier events in a year but will only rarely make a significant impact in that competition.
It would not be fair to say that some of these players are being held back by their teams. Oftentimes, the systems are designed for these players to shine, and they may fall off in the higher tiers of Counter-Strike. A good example of this is Grim, who was hyped up by many North American faithfuls, including myself, but his time on Liquid and Complexity has shown him to be a decent player in Tier 1 with Complexity, although he wasn’t able to carry over his star qualities. The final player I discuss in this article has a team that seems to be undergoing some serious changes, which could affect his performance for better or worse.
My first player is a sleeper, but he has a bit of history. At 24 years of age, dav1deuS is the lone Chilean representative among all players on HLTV Top 30 teams. Given that Chile does not have a national team, he has gone from the Argentinian 9z and now finds himself on RED Canids, led by nython. I have been really impressed by how quickly RED Canids has gelled since the addition of HEN1, taking down the domestic CBCS Masters 2024 Finals. This event was carried by HEN1, but it was won over Imperial and BESTIA. Technically, paiN was in attendance as well, but RED Canids did not face them.

In terms of gameplay, I’ve enjoyed seeing dav1deuS on map control positions like the middle of Ancient. His ability to slow down his play and speed it back up to pull off flanks has given him a level of consistency that is not only founded on great mechanics but also on good game sense. Over the last 6 months, he has a 1.09 rating vs. Top 30 opponents, but his Damage Per Round is a whopping 117.0. That is an extremely high number, and much of RED Canids’ success relies on his output. Before moving on, I would also love to shout out his teammate HEN1, who is having a great career resurgence. Statistically, HEN1 may be doing better than dav1deuS, and I think he is a fantastic player, but I greatly value dav1deuS’ role.
The next player that deserves a heap of praise is INS. FlyQuest has had up-and-down results all year long. They showed promise at ESL Pro League Season 19, entering the playoffs by beating BetBoom and then narrowly missing out on defeating Team Liquid, losing 1-2 with map loss scorelines of 13-10 and 13-10. Even through a slew of bad beats and poor placings, INS’ rifling has maintained consistency. He does have some inconsistency in his positions, where he’s a space-taker on Ancient and Inferno, but his lurking is where he really shines. On Vertigo, he is able to put a lot of pressure on the B site with his lurks, and that seems to be his trend on other maps as well, while not dying too much—essential for anyone in his roles.

FlyQuest is on the rise, and that’s great for INS. After winning ESL Challenger Atlanta, they’ve moved up to 21st in the world, thanks to a fantastic Alistair performance in the Grand Finals. It’s difficult to believe that there won’t be some sort of regression to the mean for Alistair from his Grand Finals performance and dexter for being a tournament-wide MVP, but if INS gets 15% more from all of his teammates, we can cross our fingers that one day he’ll enter the HLTV Top 20.
Everyone knows that I love BIG Clan. I have consistently seen the upside of their roster, and I admire the fact that they have stuck it out as a German core, even when going international is much more tempting on multiple levels. The expected salaries of players in Central and Eastern Europe are lower than those of Germans, and everyone mentions this. The most frequently mentioned player is Krimbo. I think Krimbo is fantastic, and he is BIG’s best player. He’s incredibly clutch and has such consistently strong game sense. But I want to talk about someone else who is having a great redemption: JDC.

JDC was the glue guy on MOUZ and one of the architects of their roster. He sacrificed his own performance so players like torzsi, xertioN, and even dexter could have space. BIG has unleashed JDC. He’s one of the best middle defenders on Ancient that I see. I almost never see him getting unseated by similar Tier 1.5 teams. He is a bastion of consistency on that map for them. I’m not sure how much more he has to grow, but he has definitely unlocked himself as an individual on this map. It also helps tremendously that BIG has recognized this and frequently picks Ancient first against the stronger teams they face (The Mongolz, Complexity, and FlyQuest).
Over the last 6 months, JDC has a 1.10 rating against Top 10 opposition over 28 maps. BIG is winning less than 40% of their maps with a Top 20 filter during that time period. He has been extremely consistent for them despite the difficulties the roster as a whole has faced. I find it unlikely that JDC will get the call to a better team anytime soon, but it’s clear that his potential was not being realized on several of his previous rosters, as he had to fill more of the support roles for MOUZ. I won’t even start on 00Nation, which was quite disastrous.
The last player’s team looks like they’re going through a big overhaul. I hope that his performances were not shambolic because ewjerkz is actually such a solid rifler for SAW. He also plays a lot of roles that do not necessarily lead to star performances. ewjerkz fights as the secondary apartments player on the T-side on Inferno, lurks Long A on Dust2, and fights mid on Mirage. Semi-lurking, space-taking, incredibly flexible. SAW looked much stronger once BERRY joined and they had their Cologne run, but the team’s performances have started to look shaky. arrozdoce and BERRY are no longer with the team, so it’s difficult to say for certain if ewjerkz will continue his strong T-side performances (currently 1.30 in the last 3 months) with some of his key team components now missing.

All of these players are worth studying the demos of. dav1deuS (24 years old), INS (26), JDC (24), and ewjerkz (24) all have enough reps under their belts at this point that they have participated in thousands of iterations of various situations, and I picked them because their playstyles are also fairly balanced. It’s easy to look at a player like donk right now and recognize what he’s excellent at. These ones will take a bit more time to familiarize yourself with, but they are all worth keeping your eyes on.