Top 20 players of 2019: woxic (12)

Another player who makes his first appearance in the top 20 is Özgür "⁠woxic⁠" Eker. The MOUZ star is the 12th best player in our ranking, powered by Xtrfy and LOOT.BET, after consistent performances at Big Events earned him a billing as one of the most impactful AWPers in the game.

Top 20 players of 2019: Introduction

woxic's path to stardom has been anything but linear. His first match on record dates back to 2014, when he played for Turkey in the European Championship, alongside veteran Engin "⁠MAJ3R⁠" Küpeli, who had enjoyed an eventful career in 1.6 in France, and Ismailcan "⁠XANTARES⁠" Dörtkardeş, one of the country's rising stars. The then 16-year-old hardly raised eyebrows - he averaged a disappointing 0.72 rating in the four games that he played -, but the chance to face some of Europe's most accomplished players, including Wiktor "⁠TaZ⁠" Wojtas, Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski and Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon, gave him the motivation to keep working hard.

"I was just playing local LANs with mix rosters. I was trying to show that I could be a good player, and after some time I got an offer from the national team for the European Championship 2014. My first game on HLTV was against Poland and I will not forget how they played so well and I said to myself: 'Man, I can be a player like this and I can play on this level, just work hard, try hard, and if you have a little bit of luck, you are going to make it'.

"Basically, being part of a big official tournament made me hungry to win."

But it would take woxic over two years to get to play his first meaningful international LAN. He continued to climb through the ranks and became a regular presence in European online tournaments in 2016, helping DarkPassage to win four consecutive QuickShot Arena editions against other up-and-coming teams, like iNETKOXTV and Alpha. However, his breakthrough would come from a Middle East tournament: after a second place in WESG Turkey, DarkPassage got to attend the Africa & Middle East Regional Finals, in Dubai, where woxic averaged a 1.26 rating as the team finished third and booked a spot at the main event, in Changzhou.

woxic was one of the main protagonists in China as DarkPassage topped a group that included Ukraine, TYLOO and Selfless, before the team were stopped in the tournament's quarter-final stage by Virtus.pro, who featured three of the players who, back in 2014, had lit a fire in him. This time around, he did not sit at the bottom of the scoreboard but at the very top, a sign of just how far he had come since then.

"We had been trying to qualify for different tournaments all the time that, when we finally managed to do it, we thought it was amazing. I remember when we were playing against Virtus.pro, we had to face them on their best map, Nuke. Before we started, I saw in my team that they did not feel that we were going to lose. That showed me how the team was supposed to be.

"After we started, I saw fire in my teammates' eyes, they wanted to eliminate one of the best teams in the world. When you're feeling that for the first time as a team you can never forget it. Things didn't go well there as we lost two close games but we learned a lot, we wanted to be at these stages more often. That is why, when I talk about that tournament or remember it, I tell myself that part of the reason why I am still here is because I did not give up after those days."

With Space Soldiers also making their mark on the WESG Finals with a fourth-place finish, Turkish Counter-Strike seemed to be on the rise, but DarkPassage were dealt a heavy blow shortly after the event as the players found themselves without an organisation following the expiry of their contracts. Two weeks later, things went from bad to worse as Buğra "⁠Calyx⁠" Arkın, who had been the team's main driving force in China with a 1.32 rating, signed with Space Soldiers, leaving woxic at a crossroads.

The Turkish AWPer did not let that setback slow him down, though, and put his heart into improving his English, confident that it was just a matter of time before an international team came knocking. He started streaming more regularly and became known as a hot prospect with his performances in FPL. After a brief period alongside Swedish legend Rasmus "⁠Gux⁠" Ståhl, formerly of fnatic and SK Gaming, in an ESEA Premier team, he got an offer to join HellRaisers alongside another rising prospect, Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad, who, just like him, had grown too big for his country.

"The main issue with Turkish players was the mentality, most of the guys I had played with were just whining about a lot of things. I also did that, but somehow I did not give up. But it's true that we have a ping problem, most of the talented young players back then did not have great FPS because their families did not want them to have great computers and complained that they stayed too long in front of computers and should go to school or have a normal job. I played with different types of Turkish players, but most of them had similar issues, a big ego for no reason and an attitude that was not good enough to play seriously.

"When Calyx joined Space Soldiers, our team chemistry was gone. We tried some different guys, but somehow we could not get it to work. After I got an invitation to FPL, I said to myself that I had to leave for an international team because the same things kept happening, it was a nightmare."

woxic began his time on HellRaisers with a bang, helping the team to win the FCDB Cup, in Minsk, Belarus, with a tournament-high 1.53 rating, 0.57 AWP kills per round and an 83.8% KAST. Before the end of the year, he attended his first Big Event, the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals, where HellRaisers made it to the playoffs before losing to Misfits. After the match, Sean "⁠seang@res⁠" Gares was seen consoling woxic, who had put up a lacklustre performance after tearing through Liquid, fnatic and a device-less Astralis in the group stage, showing the first signs of a player who tended to struggle in big games.

"When I got the offer from HellRaisers, I told myself, 'it's time'. I did not know how to properly speak English, even if it was just for team communication. I would like to say that I am very thankful they did not joke about my English when it was failing me. I knew my English would never be as good as a native speaker's, but I knew I could do better and I improved. I learned how to speak fluently while playing with them. I knew I had potential and that I had to show it in those tournaments. I had to shine because I felt I had arrived on the big stage late."

2018 was the year when woxic really came to people's attention. He played a crucial role as HellRaisers picked up another LAN title, at the Bets.net Masters, in Kiev, and also won the CIS Minor leading to the FACEIT Major, where he dropped a 40-bomb in the decider map of the final against Spirit.

Playing his first Major, the Turkish AWPer was second to ISSAA in terms of rating as HellRaisers got out of the New Challengers Stage with narrow victories over North, Gambit and OpTic, but he saved his best for the main stages of the tournament, in which he averaged a team-leading 1.16 rating. As the Major came to an end and HellRaisers finished top-eight following victories over Cloud9, TYLOO and fnatic, woxic could only be happy with what he had shown at his first event of this calibre.

"It was super amazing, making the playoffs was the best achievement that a Turkish player who had come from the bottom could get."

But the playoff run in London ended up being a flash in the pan. The next tournaments continued to show the limitations of a team that were still heavily reliant on their two stars, woxic and ISSAA. After a 9th-11th place at StarSeries i-League Season 6 and a 5th-6th place at EPICENTER, Abay "⁠HObbit⁠" Khassenov was brought in to replace Vladyslav "⁠bondik⁠" Nechyporchuk, but results remained inconsistent and the team ended the year with just a top-eight finish at PLG Grand Slam.

"The Major was our peak, for sure. There is not much to say about that, probably ANGE1 and Johnta thought we needed to have fresh blood and decided to get Hobbit instead of bondik and we agreed on that.

"My goals in 2019 were to win a Major and become top 5 in the world."

HellRaisers' poor run continued into the new year as the team struggled to repeat their heroics from London at IEM Katowice, where they went out 1-3 in the New Legends Stage following heavy defeats to FaZe, Ninjas in Pyjamas and Cloud9. Despite the team exiting the tournament with a -31 round record, woxic posted a 1.09 rating (a whopping 29% higher than the team’s average), in part thanks to a 1.69 rating in the victory over ENCE, and an 84.1 ADR, which almost saw him enter the tournament's leaderboards in that category.

"I was whining to myself about leaving the team at that point. I did not see a future for me in that team anymore."

That wound up being woxic's final showing for HellRaisers. Shortly after the Polish event, he was courted by Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen as the Danish in-game leader was putting together a new team for mousesports. With big shoes to fill as he was taking over the AWP from Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný, who had been featured in the top 20 player of the year ranking in the previous two years, the Turkish player had a disastrous Big Event debut for the team, mustering just five kills in a 14-16 defeat to BIG. But he picked up the pace after that and helped MOUZ to get out of the groups, averaging a 1.47 rating in the team's lower bracket final run, against BOOT-d[S], Renegades and BIG, before they were sent packing by MIBR in the playoffs.

"I had a lot of unlucky timings [against BIG], they were also playing differently than usual with the stand-in. But that does not justify the loss and the way that I played. The team was happy to finish top six, I guess we were not ready yet, but of course we wanted to win."

MOUZ picked up their first trophy with the roster at DreamHack Open Tours, where they validated their status as favourites, picking up wins over Windigo, AVANGAR and Valiance en route to the title. The team returned to Big Events at the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, cruising through the group stage before losing to Liquid in the semi-finals. woxic made the tournament's leaderboards for rating (1.25), damage difference per round (+14.3), DPR (0.60) and opening kills per round (0.14), but his low rating in map wins leading to victories (1.19) cost him a place on the list of EVPs.

"My worst memory was from the ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals after we came back from Liquid on Nuke. I won a very important round at 13-15 and we lost the game in overtime. That was the worst one, along with the EPICENTER final."

ESL One Cologne was the next event on the calendar for MOUZ, who could not repeat their top-four from the Pro League Finals as they hit a brick wall called Natus Vincere. It was at this event where woxic had his highest CT rating, 1.43, but he also had one of his worst offensive performances with a 0.87 rating on the T side.

With the summer season in full swing, MOUZ travelled to Berlin aiming for swift qualification for the Major, but they got more than they bargained for as they found themselves on the brink of elimination after losing their opening game against NoChance and the first map of the series against Sprout. In the end, MOUZ managed to win the Minor following dominant performances against fnatic and North, but the early performances certainly left fans worried even if woxic, who led the charge for the team with a 1.21 rating, never lost faith.

"We just stayed calm, listened to karrigan’s calls and stayed focused. I was also reminding people that we could still make it, and the thing I like about this team is that we always believe, whatever the score."

MOUZ returned from the player break in great form and progressed undefeated through the New Challengers Stage, beating FORZE, AVANGAR and G2, with woxic averaging a 1.07 rating, the third-highest in the team. In the New Legends Stage, he was MOUZ' top performer with a 1.05 rating despite a year-low 0.96 Impact, but that offered little solace as the team failed to make it into the playoffs following one-sided defeats to Natus Vincere and FaZe, and a close loss to Liquid.

"We had tough games against FaZe where we could not execute what we had planned. Against Vitality, our Vertigo was a complete fiasco, and the series against Liquid was really close until the end. It came down to small mistakes, timings and our understanding of each other not being on point. After we got eliminated we learned that we needed more time."

Unfortunately, time was a luxury that MOUZ could not afford. In mid-September, the team failed to defend their V4 Future Sports Festival title from 2018 and were sent packing in the semi-finals by a struggling Virtus.pro, with woxic ending the tournament with some of his worst stats of the year: 1.03 rating, 68.4 ADR, 1.08 Impact and 0.67 KPR.

"There is not much to say about that, obviously we wanted to win that tournament. But I felt when we were losing the game against Virtus.pro that we were not 100% focused as a team. You should not be defeated 16-3 on one of your best maps. I cannot actually explain what happened, but something was really wrong."

By now, MOUZ seemed to be a team in crisis mode, and their situation would not improve anytime soon despite woxic's form picking up. He made an EVP list for the first time in 2019 at DreamHack Masters Malmö 2019, where he had team-leading performances against Evil Geniuses (1.31 rating), OpTic (1.51) and Grayhound (1.63), five 1.30+ rated maps, three Player of the Map picks and a year-high 1.35 Impact. He followed that up with another solid showing in the team's group stage exit at StarSeries i-League Season 8 as he averaged a 1.22 rating, 17% higher than squad's average, and posted a +45 KDD and a 1.26 Impact.

woxic carried that form into the CS:GO Asia Championships, where he provided a season-defining moment for his team. As MOUZ stood on the verge of elimination against TYLOO in the semi-finals, he pulled off a 1v3 clutch at 8-15 to keep his side in the game. The European mixture went on to win that map in overtime and the series before dispatching ENCE in the final, picking up a much-needed title after a run of poor form. The Turkish AWPer also left China with an MVP medal in the bag for his key role in MOUZ' campaign, which included seven clutches won, a 1.17 rating (9% higher than the team's average), 0.73 kills per round and five Player of the Map picks.

"They believed in me and I believed in them. karrigan led so well, Rejin tried to hype people up and we tried to do our best. Sometimes, when one of your teammates clutches a round you think like, ‘Let’s go, we can make it, we’re still alive’. At least it’s like that for me.

"It was the first time I won a big tournament, which was more important for me. But at the same time, getting the MVP award and showing people how good you are feels amazing."

There was more to come from MOUZ, who would get their hands on another trophy just days later, this time at the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, where the stakes were much higher. He was third in the race for the MVP medal as his team came out on top of the tournament after beating Evil Geniuses, Astralis and fnatic in the playoffs, leaving Odense with a 1.15 rating (1.23 in the playoffs), five clutches, a 0.73 KPR and 0.38 AWP kills per round.

"When we beat EG, my mindset was like, 'There is a possibility we beat Astralis, it doesn’t matter how good they are, we have one of the best players in the world and so do they, everyone on our team has two hands and the same goes for them. Everything is the same, just do your job and get the trophy’. When we beat them in the semi-finals it was like a game boss had died and we had to go for the last one. Fnatic were playing so damn well, too, but I didn’t feel the pressure like I had against Astralis. People can say that was luck or something that will not happen again, but I’m sure in 2020 we will shock everyone who thinks like that."

woxic watched from home as MOUZ picked up another title at cs_summit 5, where he was replaced by Niels Christian "⁠NaToSaphiX⁠" Sillassen, returning to action at EPICENTER. In Moscow, the Turkish star was a pale shadow of the player who had helped the team to three back-to-back tournament victories as he averaged just a 1.07 rating, posting below-average ratings on half of the 10 maps that he played as well as two year-low stats: 67.9 ADR and a 0.66 KPR.

It was a disappointing way to bring the curtain down on the year and he attributes his performances to the fact that he feels he lost momentum after sitting out the event in Los Angeles.

"I was really sad. If I had played some rounds better maybe we could have won the tournament. I was away from the team for more than a week and I did not play as much as I normally do during that time. I was angry at myself for not being able to play at Summit. I had a hard time adjusting to the team at the beginning and also struggled individually for a while, but after the first game I was there as woxic. But sometimes you cannot play like the way you are supposed to."

Why was woxic the 12th best player of 2019?

woxic staked a claim as one of the most impactful AWPers in the world in 2019 with great numbers all year round. He was ranked fifth overall for AWP kills per round (0.38), seventh for percentage of opening duels won (59.7%), 11th for kills per round (0.74) and 10th for deaths per round (0.61).

He attended just nine Big Events throughout the year but acquitted himself really well at tournaments of this stature, recording the eighth-highest average rating (1.17). It is also important to mention that this includes all five of the most competitive events of the year (the two Majors, ESL One Cologne, DreamHack Masters Malmö and the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals), where he averaged a 1.16 rating.

Besides picking up an MVP medal at the CS:GO Asia Championships, woxic had high EVP placings at DreamHack Masters Malmö and the ESL Pro League Season 10 Finals, and came close to being considered as one of the standout players at two more Big Events, the EPL S9 Finals and IEM Sydney.

But while he was exceptionally consistent and finished all tournaments with above-average ratings, he did not have enough awards or standout performances to compete with the players ranked above him in the top 20. Still, it goes without saying that he did more than enough to silence the critics who considered him nothing more than a "tier-two god".

"I always had the feeling that I could play on a top level, which was the main goal when I joined mousesports. We could have done better but we all appreciated what we accomplished in 2019. When you’re in a new team it’s not easy to make everything right so quickly, you have to sacrifice some tournaments before you get to win some.

"As a player, winning the MVP award at the CS:GO Asia Championships and showing some good individual performances was my best memory. As a team, it has to be winning Pro League Season 10."

Bold prediction:

woxic expects his teammate David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský to break into the top 20 in 2020 after an impressive first year at the highest level with MOUZ.

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský

"He is such a beast and a talented future star. He deserves to be in the top 20."

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2019 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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