Opinion: KSCERATO is the third best player in the world
KSCERATO is the third best player in the world and I don’t care if you disagree.
FURIA are hanging around like a bad smell in the top 5 - at least until the Thunderpick tournament - and it’s all because KSCERATO is dragging them there.
Just like the good ol’ days.
There was a point around the Rio Major where FURIA were clinging on to relevance in the top 10-15, struggling to make playoffs (except, obviously, at the Rio Major) and only remaining in our minds because they were the best of the Brazilian bunch. Well, that, and KSCERATO being absolutely ridiculous.
He dragged FURIA to the Major, was one of the best players at the Major, had an incredible ESL Pro League even as FURIA failed to make top eight and did pretty much the same thing in Katowice. He was well and truly stuck on that team that was dragging him down, as he was more than good enough to play on one of the best teams in the world. Reportedly, some teams tried, but he wanted to stay in the country and when FalleN was reported to join a bit later, that sealed the deal for him.
The case is still that outside of Brazil, there are very few - if any - teams that aren’t immediately improved by his addition. He is remarkably consistent, not just game to game but year on year. His in-game mistakes are so rare that you could count them on an abacus. His first bullet is exceptionally accurate, and yet his spray control never suffers. He’s incredibly patient, but not to the point of missing opportunities. He’s basically the ideal anchor, rotator and late-round player.
What makes him special is that unlike donk and many other of the hard carry riflers, he’s not doing it from an aggressive position. KSCERATO is a player you can plug into a lot of teams purely because he’s so versatile and doesn’t just take every good spot. donk does, but he obviously is worth it, but even other star riflers take up spots that KSCERATO is happy to concede.
You could put him anywhere and he’d be the best player on the team, 99% of the time.
He’s back doing it again now, where he is once more keeping FURIA in conversations they don’t really belong in. Their form has dipped massively with everyone knowing the team is going to fall apart by the start of next year, and yet KSCERATO is still regularly putting up maps as the top fragger with single figure deaths. At Thunderpick, he had a 19-9, 15-6, 22-9 and 21-8 map in four back-to-back series including the grand final. The regularity with which he pumps out these scorelines is barely human.
FURIA were capable of winning events when YEKINDAR and molodoy were firing at their absolute peak, but that that they have fallen off so much and FURIA are still capable of winning - albeit smaller - events and stick around in the playoffs is testament to KSCERATO’s unwavering brilliance. Because he is more of that stable, patient player he is more insulated from external factors, thus allowing him to keep up this incredible form for, essentially, ten years now. Whether or not KSCERATO wins trophies is on his teammates, not him. He will always be good enough, and he will keep ‘getting his’.
One could argue that that is a point against him, that he wouldn’t be able to drag a team to a trophy - but in truth, who could? In this modern game, there are so many teams with insane depth of firepower that one player is almost never enough, unless that player is donk. KSCERATO is the only one really firing regularly on FURIA at the moment, and they’re still top five. The same is not true of any other non-donk player.
You can’t really make the argument that his brilliance is inefficient - that his numbers are inflated by meaningless kills - because the results back him up too. We haven’t seen KSCERATO on a genuine top team for any serious length of time, but the few times FURIA have been good he has levelled up even more and still been the best player in the server.
Make no mistake; KSCERATO is comfortably better than any other rifler in the world who isn’t donk, and if you ask me, he’s better than m0NESY, kyousuke, flameZ, ropz - whoever you want to put there. ropz is the closest in style and impact, but it’s been a long time since he’s dragged a team to relevance like this. He’s incredible, of course, and he is also a facilitator like KSCERATO - I’m just not sure that swapping the two is a downgrade for Vitality.
m0NESY is the obvious shout for third in that, well, he’s a fantastic player. He’s comfortably Falcons’ biggest asset and probably the only reason they remain in the same spots as FURIA. I’m not going to make the boring, obvious AWP vs rifler angle because in CS2 it’s less of a closed debate, but actually that m0NESY has had more around him throughout his career, and even now. kyousuke might not be consistent, but peak vs peak he’s better than YEKINDAR for me. NiKo vs yuurih isn’t even a question, though FalleN and karrigan is probably pipped by FalleN. Man for man, Falcons look better than FURIA, even in the dip in form, and I don’t think that’s massively controversial.
m0NESY has become a very reliable player and can definitely be your answer to the third best player in the world, but I think he improves one fewer team than KSCERATO does. I don’t think any team in the world isn’t improved by KSCERATO, but I think Vitality would be slightly downgraded by adding m0NESY. I recognise that that in itself doesn’t make him better, but KSCERATO is arguably as good or better while playing a more facilitating role.
It’s marginal. I can accept that. But if I was building a team from scratch, I’d rather have KSCERATO to build around.
