Top 20 players of 2023: cadiaN (18)

Highlight performances at the very best events earn the former Heroic captain his first-ever Top 20 Players appearance in the 18th spot of the 2023 ranking, powered by 1xBet.

Top 20 players of 2023: Introduction

At 28 years old, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller is singular in making the top 20 ranking for the first time so deep into his career. Having started his Counter-Strike journey already in the late Source days in 2012, he is a veteran with over a decade of experience, but he spent much of that time proving himself worthy of a place at the top.

For the first few years of his CS:GO career the Dane was jumping from team to team, facing issues with slotting in the combined role of AWPer and in-game leader, one that even back then was uncommon. In short tenures with teams such as MOUZ, CPH Wolves, and SK he often gave up one role or the other, and although he made it to the first three out of four Majors, not much came out of that period in the way of results.

While he was between teams and when he failed to make it to all three 2015 Majors, cadiaN appeared on various tournaments as a commentator or analyst throughout that year and early 2016. His insight as a pro player and being his cheeky, talkative self went a long way in enhancing broadcasts, but despite at some point considering on-air work as a career choice, he kept trying to make it as a competitor.

Unable to make a mark with all-Danish teams, cadiaN went part-international with Rogue in the latter half of 2016. Finally in his preferred role, his form took a turn for the better, but the team didn't last long after a couple of changes and broke apart in early 2017, with the American organization instead getting an NA roster featuring the likes of Spencer "⁠Hiko⁠" Martin and Daniel "⁠vice⁠" Kim. cadiaN ended up rejoining the team and making the move to NA not long after, originally just for a three-month contract.

"I rejoined Rogue with the expectation and hope of making myself attractive to the top-three Danish teams, Astralis, Heroic, and North. And I told myself that I if would get one of those offers, I'd instantly leave North America," cadiaN said in a 2020 HLTV Confirmed appearance. He ended up staying there much longer and even declined an offer he had vowed to take, from Heroic, because things were going well in Rogue. It was with them that he finally returned to the Major stage after a nearly four-year drought, at the FACEIT Major in the second half of 2018.

But shortly after the London Major cadiaN got another opportunity to return home and this time decided to take it, joining North to replace Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen. His time there wasn't all it was cracked up to be and only lasted about half of a year, though. Results were up and down, the team mindset was off from the beginning, and, eventually, they didn't believe in him as a leader, according to cadiaN.

"I think it was one of the worst teams I've ever played in. Instantly I didn't feel like this was the spot for me. Things just weren't comfortable for me, there was a lot of 'with MSL we did this, with MSL we did that,'" cadiaN said about what went wrong in North. "valde was already unhappy with the team because he had offers from other teams that he wanted to pursue, but he couldn't go. And there was no one who was willing to give the extra 5 or 10% for the team."

A failure to qualify for the IEM Katowice Major was one of the final nails in the coffin of a team that didn't achieve much at the biggest tournaments outside of some playoffs finishes, and cadiaN was removed from the roster in early 2019.

Fast-forward five months and HEROIC came calling one more time to replace Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer, this time to get cadiaN on as just an AWPer rather than an in-game leader, a role that was already filled on the team by Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer. Though the duo weren't always on the same page and it wasn't a long relationship, it started well with a run to the final at DreamHack Open Rotterdam and a title in another DH Open tournament in Atlanta.

That was enough to garner attention from Chinese organization FunPlus Phoenix, which was about to enter Counter-Strike with the arrival of a new franchise league, Flashpoint, the competitor to the Louvre Agreement, ESL's at the time new partnership deal. All looked set for the HEROIC roster to be transferred — and it was even announced with their participation in the first season of Flashpoint in Los Angeles starting — until the deal fell through at the final hour when Patrick "⁠es3tag⁠" Hansen decided to sign with Astralis instead.

After the fiasco, in-game differences between cadiaN and Snappi meant only one could stay, and the latter was left out after previously relinquishing in-game leadership duties to the AWPer. This brought about a new era for the Heroic organization, one with cadiaN at the helm, heading into the COVID-induced online period.

By the middle of 2020 it was clear that the new HEROIC, embellished by the additions of René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen, Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen, and coach Nicolai "⁠HUNDEN⁠" Petersen clicked and had what it took to compete against the best. In August they won their first trophy in the online iteration of ESL One Cologne, followed by another at DreamHack Open Fall later in the year; cadiaN's erratic, chaotic, dynamic playstyle was finally working when he found the group to buy into it.

In 2021, after the team made the aggressive and controversial call to replace niko and Johannes "⁠b0RUP⁠" Borup with the more hungry Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali and Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck, another trophy quickly followed at ESL Pro League Season 13. In that tournament, cadiaN put in the highlight of the year — a 1v4 clutch against Gambit that secured the Danes the title. After play returned to LAN in the middle of the year HEROIC could no longer compete for titles, but they still made several deep runs, including cadiaN's best Major result to date, a top four at PGL Major Stockholm.

Through the two COVID years cadiaN and his team became embroiled in two controversies to do with HUNDEN and the coach's involvement in the infamous spectator bug scandal. The coach used the bug in two matches in the online era and was one of 37 coaches banned for it, and heavy criticism followed with the team being branded cheaters after their biggest successes came in the COVID period.

In a drawn-out saga, HUNDEN first claimed the rest of the team had no knowledge of his bug abuse and then turned his story around when his time with the organization ended over another scandal involving him leaking the team's strategy folder to a member of the Astralis organization. The trio still left in the team that had been involved in the matches where the bug was used, cadiaN, TeSeS, and Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund, ended up admitting they found out about the use of the bug — and to never reporting it — after the fact but denied knowledge of its use while it was going on.

2022 was a year of redemption for cadiaN and company. Putting the two HUNDEN sagas behind them, they continued to fight for top placings and began to establish themselves as one of the most stable rosters on the top scene. After bringing in Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard to replace refrezh in the middle of the year, they finally broke their Big LAN title duck at the BLAST Premier Fall Final and also reached the grand final of the IEM Rio Major, to head into 2023 as the world's No. 1 team. In 2021 and 2022, cadiaN wasn't far off a placing in the top 20 and received honorable mentions as part of the wider top 30 list twice in a row, but in 2023 he finally broke through that barrier.

Like many others, cadiaN and his troops kicked off 2023 at the BLAST Premier Spring Groups. With a forgiving format and a lot of maps to play before being in danger of elimination, it was a warm-up to the year HEROIC clearly needed. Typically strong in a low-pressure atmosphere such as that and rarely faltering against weak opposition, the Danes had an uncharacteristically shaky run through the tournament, but they ultimately shook off their meme-inspiring opening loss to Evil Geniuses' talent pipeline to make it to the Spring Finals.

cadiaN was up and down from start to finish and recorded a decent albeit middle-of-the-road performance on the year's scale, but he still managed to make it a memorable one. With another 1v5 for the ages in the match loss against Vitality he put in an early entry for the highlight of the year, showcasing the immense clutch ability he's always possessed:

The best was just around the corner, though, with HEROIC's next stop being IEM Katowice at the end of January. Always the cream of the crop when it comes to the level of competition as well as prestige, this year's iteration of the Polish event was no different and as such earned the distinction of one of the "Super-elite" events in our list, and it was there that cadiaN earned the first of his three Exceptionally Valuable Player awards of 2023.

The AWPer and jabbi were two crucial cogs in the HEROIC machine, which got all the way to the final after a dominant run through the groups and semi-finals. Complexity, OG, Vitality, and Natus Vincere fell by the wayside with cadiaN putting up crucial maps in each series. He then led the way as the Danes battled G2 for the trophy, but it was a losing effort, as the pressure-prone Danes gave up 10-5 and 8-1 leads on the first two maps to lose the title decider 1-3.

"I like the pressure, the feeling of playing a game with a lot of intensity, walking out into a sold-out arena and feeding off of big pressure moments," cadiaN said about his two peaks coming when the pressure and prestige was highest, at IEM Katowice and the BLAST.tv Paris Major. "It's also hard to continuously put in that amount of hours in a season when also IGLing and watching demos, preparing things for practice, reviews etc so when those big events come around I guess I naturally just prepare even more - and I try to keep my rituals the same."

The drawn-out ESL Pro League Season 17 was next on the calendar and cadiaN put in another solid event. Outside of a laborious win against BIG, HEROIC started off well with a run straight to first place in Group B at the beginning of March. But when the Danes returned nearly three weeks later to play the quarter-finals, they went out in two maps to Natus Vincere after a gamble in the veto and playing Anubis for the first time in three months came back to bite them.

A few weeks later, it was time for the BLAST.tv Paris Major RMRs, and HEROIC did what was expected of them, passing three underdog teams to secure a Legends Stage berth. There wasn't much to write home about for cadiaN, a 1.02 average rating in four maps, but he and the team got the job done and could breathe easy having over a month left to prepare for the Major itself.

However, before Paris came around there was still IEM Rio left to play and test their might, and that they did. cadiaN struggled as the team went down to the elimination zone early — BIG for the second time running being a thorn in their side —, but he then got back on his feet to help the team make it to the playoffs. For a moment in groups jabbi had to step out due to an illness, but he was back in full force by the bracket stage, and there HEROIC eliminated the hometown heroes of FURIA and took revenge on NAVI for their ESL Pro League loss.

Always the bridesmaids, HEROIC had to settle for second place for the second time in three months. Vitality hoisted the trophy after a close final, one that once again brought about criticism of HEROIC's issues under pressure.

"I think we were the best team in quite a few tournaments that we didn't win. So yes, I think the criticism is warranted. However, you can't be at your best for every tournament, yet we are the team that was the most consistent throughout the last few years, so where other teams didn't make it past the group stage when having a bad event, we still made it to the playoffs."

"It's also important for me to say that, it's not like we weren't able to perform in big arenas. But we did have issues doing it three days in a row. We beat NAVI in Katowice and Rio. FaZe in the Royal Arena and the Paris Major quarter-final. FURIA twice in Brazil. Beating these teams in sold-out arenas is not easy or a small feat. But for sure, we were more consistent and comfortable in group stages."

cadiaN's 0.99 average rating in Rio was perhaps misleading and doesn't quite tell the full picture of his contribution, as it was mainly the first two matches that brought him down, and from there he was present in all their wins on the way to the grand final as well as in the loss to Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire's squad at the end.

But it was almost as if he had something to prove when he and HEROIC arrived in Paris two weeks later. He started off the Legends Stage with a statement 1.72 rating against FaZe and continued to play well as they made it to the playoffs undefeated. A rematch against Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen & co. followed in the Accor Arena, where HEROIC confirmed their status as slight favorites up against a team that had barely made it through the RMR and the first stage.

It all looked destined for HEROIC to face off against Vitality in the grand final as the top two teams in the world ranking at the time, but an underdog GamerLegion team firing on all cylinders stood in the way. Again HEROIC faltered when it mattered most, this time in a position where almost everyone would bank on their success.

"There's a lot [of matches I'd rather forget]. Dallas vs. MOUZ, Major vs. GamerLegion, Cologne vs. Astralis, Rio vs. Vitality are all games where we didn't play to the level we should have."

cadiaN came away with another "Super-elite" EVP nonetheless with a 1.16 tournament rating, 1.18 impact, and great numbers in openers (0.13 per round, 75.4% success). One match after another he was putting up solid performances without faltering once in Paris, not even in the heartbreaking semi-final loss, which he ended as the highest rated in his team.

He then just missed out on another award at IEM Dallas, where HEROIC looked untouchable in groups after landslide wins over MOUZ and G2, but faltered in the semis in a rematch against the former, where cadiaN'd disappearance act cost him the EVP.

He wouldn't have to wait long for his next EVP, however. The season was just about to end, but in a final push before the break HEROIC got the win they'd sorely been missing in 2023 at the BLAST Premier Spring Final in Washington, D. C, with cadiaN as one of their three main performers and their highest-rated player (1.20).

Funnily enough, it wasn't FaZe or Vitality that gave them the most trouble at the tournament; instead Imperial proved to be their biggest headache as the Danes nearly threw away a 15-7 lead on the decider against the Brazilians in the semi-final. Perhaps it was that wake-up call that then allowed HEROIC to finally get one over on Vitality in the grand final — a match cadiaN was particularly proud of.

"The T side comeback in the final on Inferno vs Vitality at Sping Final, and all the preparation I did on Vertigo which helped us win the first map. I stayed in the practice room til 3 AM, just cooking ideas and small gimmicks of how to win that map," cadiaN said when asked about which match he remembers particularly fondly or with pride.

Tier-one play returned at the Fall Groups after a month-long break, and HEROIC breezed through their group, beating BIG and the new Natus Vincere twice to secure a place at the Fall Final.

With the new calendar in place and the break splitting the year more evenly, IEM Cologne now fell in the second half of 2023 for the first time, and that was the next stop for a shaky field of teams, many of whom had just gone through lineup changes in one of the most active transfer periods of all time.

The Danes looked out of sorts from the start and failed to capitalize on their stability, nearly losing their opening series to The MongolZ, a match in which cadiaN ended up making the difference with a massive decider performance — and perhaps also by getting into the heads of the Mongolian side with his controversial antics. HEROIC then got past Monte to secure a quarter-finals berth, but that's where their success ended. ENCE beat them to the top spot in the group in a nail-biter, and in the first round of the playoffs the Danish derby against Astralis went horribly wrong, with poor CT sides costing cadiaN & co. the match. It was a solid tournament for the AWPer individually, although a lack of peaks meant he would remain at two for three when it comes to EVPs at the "Super-elite" events.

For the rest of the year cadiaN couldn't quite live up to some of the standards he had set in the first half of the 2023 season. At Gamers8 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, his rare disappearance in another crucial loss to ENCE likely cost HEROIC their last opportunity to challenge for a big title in 2023, and by the time ESL Pro League Season 18 rolled around it had become clear that something was rotten in the state of Denmark.

cadiaN was quite critical of the team at Pro League, saying they're not "all playing to our philosophies and principles" and sharing his concerns with the team not being able to uphold their usual fundamentals in an interview with HLTV about their exits in Cologne and Riyadh.

Read more

cadiaN: "We're not all playing to our philosophies and principles"

A debacle followed in Malta, with losses to BIG, MOUZ, and Monte causing that five-man lineup's first group stage exit since they played their debut with jabbi at IEM Cologne the year before, ringing alarm bells all over the scene about the future of the team.

Less than a month later in early October, the shocking news came out that cadiaN had been moved to the bench over "differing visions for the future of the team." Explaining the situation in an interview with Dexerto the AWPer suggested he wanted lineup changes that the team disagreed with, but that turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg.

Three weeks after that Heroic announced the "temporary" removal of stavn and jabbi in a scathing announcement that alleged the duo had pushed for cadiaN to get removed with the promise to extend their deals with the organization if the request was met, and that they shortly after turned around and made plans to join Astralis. This was partly contested by the two players — who did end up making the move to Astralis — in a December 21 statement, which claimed the duo never agreed to sign new contracts with Heroic and that the whole team agreed on the removal of cadiaN.

cadiaN did end up playing one final tournament under the organization, and their first after the switch to Counter-Strike 2, at the BLAST Premier Fall Final in Copenhagen. Little was expected of them considering that they had two stand-ins playing in Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen and Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss, but in their final hurrah they still surpassed expectations by sending Astralis home early, with cadiaN front and center in a close Overpass win over his perennial rivals, who had not yet officially brought in his former two teammates.

That small personal victory — and convincing losses to Vitality and Cloud9 — ended the year and a four-year Heroic tenure for cadiaN, who was announced as the new AWPer and in-game leader of the new Liquid roster as the season was drawing to a close.

Read more

Official: cadiaN joins Liquid

"[My goals for 2024 with Liquid are] to develop every day, both inside and outside of the server. Making sure I am the best captain I can be, the best teammate I can be, the best friend I can be. In terms of more specific goals, short term is qualifying for the Major in Copenhagen. I know for the expectations that we and others have for us, it is a goal that might seem easy to reach. However due to the short preparation time for open qualifier, closed qualifier and the RMRs it's important to treat this task with the utmost respect.

"I have very, very high hopes for this group. I loved the retreat and bootcamp we had, and I am very excited to see them all in the new year. I will push myself, and my teammates to reach new heights together and I'm sure that 2024 can be an amazing year for us and anything is possible with this roster, but for now we are taking it step by step and focusing on what's in front of us."

Why was cadiaN the 18th best player of 2023?

cadiaN appears on the list for the first time in his career at 28 years old following a year in which he displayed a solid floor level from tournament to tournament and a few superb peaks.

"That is quite the company to be in. Big legends those three," cadiaN said about joining Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg, Filip "⁠NEO⁠" Kubski, and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard as the only players so far to make the list past the age of 28. "It's personally a big joy for me to finally be here. After two years of being named top 20-30, I think it's a nice reward to be recognized not only as a captain that helps wins games by good calls, but also through individual prowess."

Two of his three best performances came in the fiercest and most prestigious competitions of 2023, the "Super-elite" events — in his case IEM Katowice and the BLAST.tv Paris Major, where he earned Exceptionally Valuable Player nods as the second-best player in HEROIC's runs to the grand final at the former and the semi-finals at the latter.

With another strong EVP in HEROIC's title-winning campaign at the BLAST Premier Spring Final to boot, cadiaN's ceiling surpassed that of several players around him in the top 20 list, which went a long way in securing his place in the ranking.

Statistically, beyond his exceptional level at the Super-elite events cadiaN stood out as one of the most clutch players (58 1vsX situations won, #4) and by extension one of the hardest to kill overall with 0.58 deaths per round (#10).

"I think I have the ability to play situations out both quickly and very drawn out. I am quick to map out opponents, and make a plan in my head," cadiaN shared when talking about his clutch ability. "I also think it has always come natural to me, to be the guy to decide outcomes of things. My friends always said I have that aura, that I can always make it back and hit the shot when the pressure is at its highest."

"[Which clutch was my favorite?] The one I will make in 2024 (laughs)."

Like in previous years he was also one of the very best with utility, averaging 0.11 flash assists per round (#3) and 7.32 utility damage per round (#7) — two things he partly attributes to his experiences with some legendary players from the earlier years in his CS:GO career.

"In terms of the flashes, when I played with gla1ve in 2014 — this was before you could right-click throw, double-click throw and so on — he was telling me about the importance of being able to throw good pop flashes no matter where you stand, he was displaying different ways of throwing a popflash, running forward throw, run jump throw, run backwards throw. I practiced it A LOT, and combined with having a natural instinct for setting up flash plays, addressing teammates to move forward and flash for them, is a big reason why. I also know what teams and players to copy for set flashes, but I think I get a lot of flash assists on intuition flashes.

"As for utility damage, a lot of it was instinct, but in my time in North Ave had some good reasonings of how and when to use them, which I still think about till this day. And obviously some prep too, hehe."

Ultimately, though, cadiaN's relatively low raw output — 0.66 KPR and 71.1 ADR rank him among the lowest in the top 20 — and a slow end to the year, in which he didn't live up to the high standards he had set and missed a few key events, meant he couldn't make it any higher.

Bold prediction by 1xBet

In his first-ever Bold Prediction, cadiaN put the spotlight on former Young Ninjas and current Metizport member Linus "⁠nilo⁠" Bergman.

The 18-year-old Swede has been turning heads for some time now, and in 2023 he averaged a superb 1.22 rating, 1.29 impact, and 0.80 KPR at the lower tier.

"I have high hopes about nilo. I don't know too much about him on a personal level, but I know that he shoots hard and that if he ends up having CS as his main priority he can go very far," cadiaN said about his pick.

---

Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2023 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.