Top 20 players of 2023: Spinx (5)

Superb consistency and a high award count land Spinx in the top five of the HLTV Top 20 Players of the Year list, powered by 1xBet.

Top 20 players of 2023: Introduction

Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi enters the top five of our Top 20 Players of the Year ranking after a phenomenal year with Vitality, during which he became a Major champion and solidified his status as one of the best riflers in the world.

Spinx earned his first chance in a notable team with c0ntact after getting noticed through the FPL system like many of his countrymen. While his stint in the team didn't last long, he did enough to convince Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer to take him on board with ENCE, where he would get his first taste of tier-one action.

His first full year on the team went well, as he helped ENCE steer their international project in the right direction and appeared at PGL Major Stockholm 2021 with the organization. The following year was even better, as ENCE became a constant presence at tier-one events and also reached the semi-finals of PGL Major Antwerp.

Shortly after the Belgian event, Spinx was signed by Vitality and continued to rise up the Counter-Strike food chain. Despite struggling to get accustomed to his new team, his highs in the first half of the year earned him 18th place on the top 20 list as the calendar turned over to 2023.

You can read a more in-depth look at Spinx's career in his previous appearance on the top 20 list:

- Top 20 players of 2022: Spinx (18)

Vitality's season started at BLAST Premier Spring Groups, as was the case for most of the top teams. The Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire-led team was quick out of the gates and made sure of their qualification after three straight victories against Astralis, Evil Geniuses, and HEROIC. Spinx also had a fantastic showing, as his "lowest-rated" map came in a 16-1 demolition against Evil Geniuses at a 1.18 rating.

A much tougher test followed for Vitality as they attended IEM Katowice. They started well with wins against Ninjas in Pyjamas and fnatic, where Spinx provided solid backup for Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, but their good form stopped there. Losses to HEROIC and Liquid ended their participation in 5-6th place, and a drop in performances in the last two games meant Spinx finished the event with a 1.06 average, which would end up being his lowest of the entire season.

Even with their early exit, apEX was quick to commend Spinx's mindset in an interview during the tournament. "Now he understands that he is a star and he has to perform. We tried to put him in the best condition possible," the French captain said about Spinx, who struggled during his first season with Vitality (1.03 average rating) and was far away from his level in ENCE (1.15).

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apEX: "Now Spinx understands that he is a star and he has to perform"

Vitality's steady start to the season continued at ESL Pro League Season 17. The team, who were forced to use Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug for the duration of the group stage after Peter "⁠dupreeh⁠" Rasmussen went on parental leave, started their campaign well and qualified for the playoffs with three straight wins. Spinx was once again solid and played well against Grayhound (1.25 rating), OG (1.23), and FaZe (1.01).

dupreeh returned to the roster for the playoffs, where ENCE were their first playoff opponents in the quarter-final. Despite the Dane's return, Spinx's ex-team got the better of Vitality, with ZywOo (1.25) and Spinx (1.12) the only 1.00+ rated members in the deciding loss. "We felt like we had a lot of chances to win this one, and we couldn't. We really wanted to perform after a bad period, and unfortunately, we failed," said Spinx, who described the loss as his worst memory of the year.

It was at that point that something clicked for Vitality. The team flew to Brazil for IEM Rio and had to bounce back from a shock loss to OG. A win against MIBR meant they met FaZe in the lower bracket semi-final, and it was there that Spinx had one of his best performances yet. He put up 73 kills, 126 ADR, and a 1.91 rating against Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen and company to ensure his team marched on to the playoffs.

Date	Matches
IEM Rio 2023
19/04/2023	Vitality Finished 2:0 FaZe	Match

He had another crucial performance in the semi-final against Cloud9, where his stellar 1.51-rated performance on the decider of Overpass got his team a 16-9 win. The Israeli rifler had a much more subdued performance in the grand final victory against HEROIC but still did enough to earn his first EVP of the year and finish third in the MVP race.

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Spinx: "It's important to do well at IEM Rio, it gives us confidence"

In an interview with HLTV during IEM Rio, Spinx admitted Vitality "are really focused on the Major." It was the organization's home Major and the hot-and-cold form of favorites made it impossible to call ahead of the tournament. With Vitality's focus firmly on their appearance in France, Spinx and company entered the competition in the Legends stage.

The start was good. A best-of-one victory against G2, a tough draw in the first round, got them a winning start, and they built on the victory by edging past ENCE in the next round. Monte fell in the decider series, which put Vitality in the playoffs, with Spinx posting impressive numbers throughout.

Into the Breach were Vitality's next test, which they handled with aplomb and moved on to a semi-final clash against Apeks. That match was Spinx's best at the Major, as he got his team over the line and even outshone ZywOo. His 30 kills were influential in the 16-14 win on Mirage, and his fragging output barely slowed down on Vertigo.

The grand final against GamerLegion was a straightforward victory for Vitality as they completed their Major-winning run without losing a map. Spinx (1.24) once again earned an EVP and finished third in the MVP race, only behind Mihai "⁠iM⁠" Ivan (1.35) and, unsurprisingly, ZywOo (1.39). Spinx describes the win in Paris as his best memory of the year and "the best feeling a Counter-Strike player can have."

After achieving their goal for the entire year, there was one more event to play before the summer break. BLAST Premier Spring Final ended the season, and Vitality would bounce back from an opening loss against Imperial to reach the final against HEROIC. Spinx was the top performer in the game against the Danes but couldn't help his team avoid a three-map loss and end the season with a 2nd-place finish.

Vitality were one of the teams to opt for a roster change during the summer off-season by replacing veteran dupreeh with young hot-shot Shahar "⁠flameZ⁠" Shushan on a free transfer. Coach Danny "⁠zonic⁠" Sørensen admitted that dupreeh didn't deserve to be removed due to the team's success. "The decision was definitely not based on him underperforming, but more on a different area of looking into the future, also an economic perspective as well," said zonic.

The move also meant Spinx reunited with his countryman, with whom he played together all the way back in 2020 in Tikitakan and Aequus.

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zonic: "dupreeh didn't deserve to get benched in some way"

Their debut with the revamped lineup at BLAST Premier Fall Groups was successful and secured them a smooth advancement to the Fall Final. Notably, Spinx maintained an average rating of 1.17 throughout the tournament.

Next came IEM Cologne 2023, the last Super-Elite event of the year. Vitality were still getting accustomed to playing with flameZ but were still among the favorites and honored the tag by reaching the semi-finals. Spinx had a good if unspectacular performance in Germany during their games against OG (1.10), MOUZ (1.42), and G2 (0.94) that helped them reach the playoffs. He kept up a similar level in the arena, too, but Vitality once again fell to ENCE buoyed by a red-hot Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García.

Vitality then made the flight over to Saudi Arabia for Gamers8, an event known for its cutthroat single-elimination format. The apEX-led team still went on to win the tournament, however, with their tough road to the trophy consisting of Natus Vincere, G2, and ENCE. Spinx again received an EVP award for his troubles and finished the event with a solid 1.08 rating.

ESL Pro League Season 18 was next on the agenda for Vitality, and it was in Malta that Spinx would have his highest-rated event of the year. As the era of CS:GO started to come to a close, the Israeli rifler put his team on his back during the group stage and reached two 30-kill maps. The first one came against ORKS before he repeated the feat against Ninjas in Pyjamas, against whom he also averaged a staggering 1.62 rating in the series.

The team then had 25 days before their next outing and seemed to have cooled down, losing to Monte in the quarter-final to bow out in 5-8th place. That didn't stop Spinx from securing yet another EVP award with the help of his outstanding group-stage games, though.

After EPL, Vitality and the entire scene would go through a transitional period with the release of CS2. To make matters even harder, the team was hit with the departure of zonic after the organization wanted him to take a pay cut during contract negotiations, according to the coach, with his replacement found in the returning Rémy "⁠XTQZZZ⁠" Quoniam.

"zonic helped me a lot throughout my career. We made many achievements together. We have a strong core, and Remy is doing a great job, he's part of the family already," said Spinx about the switch.

Their first event in CS2, IEM Sydney, proved to be a trial by fire, as Vitality would go on to finish in last place after losses to BetBoom and FaZe. Despite their struggles, Spinx would post a remarkable 1.18 rating in the tournament to finish as Vitality's highest-rated member, showing his adaptation skills in CS2.

"My feeling didn't really change in CS2 as I am still fully confident in my game," Spinx says. "Obviously, some things have changed from CS:GO, and I thought it was going to be difficult to get used to Source 2. But I have been grinding a lot on the new game, so it feels more or less natural now."

As if there weren't enough changes to deal with for Vitality, Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif would go on to announce his departure from the team. The Danish rifler reunited with coach zonic at Falcons, which left a massive void on the Vitality roster.

William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman was the man chosen to replace the experienced Dane. Expectations about the new-look squad were uncertain, but Spinx made sure Vitality won their debut with mezii and put up 109 ADR and a 1.79 rating against HEROIC. Complexity and Cloud9 also fell in the resulting matches, which earned Vitality a grand-final clash against the best team in CS2 at the time, FaZe. This time, though, Spinx and company comfortably won the match to secure their fourth title of the year, while the Israeli rifler earned another EVP award.

BLAST Premier World Final was the final event of the year, and Vitality would provide their most dominant performance yet. Four straight 2-0 victories netted them the trophy and meant they ended the year on a high after once again besting FaZe in the final. Spinx also kept up his impressive form in CS2, finishing 3rd in the MVP race with a 1.17 rating across the event to solidify his place among the best players of the year.

"It feels amazing and a pleasure to see that the hard work is paying off but also making me hungrier and motivated to try and improve it next year to break my own record," said Spinx. When asked about his goals for 2024, he jokingly replied: "To steal one MVP from ZywOo."

Why was Spinx the 5th best player of 2023?

Spinx makes his second consecutive Top 20 appearance on the back of a year in which he improved his floor in a big way from the previous, during which several sub-par events dragged him down to 18th place. This time he improves to a top-five placing after recording all events in the green, which comes as a result of his superb consistency map-to-map with 90.3% maps rated above 0.85 (3rd) as well as round-to-round with 75.1% KAST (6th) and 50.6% rounds with a kill (3rd).

The Israeli rifler played a crucial role in Vitality's superb 2023 during which they won five tournaments, including the BLAST.tv Paris Major, two Elite-level events, Gamers8 and BLAST Premier World Final, and two Big events, IEM Rio and BLAST Premier Fall Final. Spinx earned an Exceptionally Valuable Player award in all of the title-winning campaigns and one more in Vitality's run to the quarter-finals at ESL Pro League Season 18.

The 23-year-old put up great numbers to go along with his exceptional consistency and awards, standing out in particular in fragging (0.75 KPR, 8th and 18.8% rounds with a multi-kill, 8th) and as one of the very best T-sided players (1.16 rating, #5). On the other hand, although frequent, his peaks were comparatively lower than the players above him, especially when it came to the Elite events.

Bold prediction by 1xBet

Spinx returned to his home country for his bold prediction and picked Doron "⁠Zax1e⁠" Prizent. The 19-year-old has recorded just a handful of appearances in HLTV-covered matches but notably stood in for talent factory Endpoint before he joined NOM in October.

"I've been hearing about Zax1e inside our scene for a while and have seen him standing in for Endpoint and recently playing with NOM. I think he could be very good in the future if he keeps working hard and would keep an eye for this guy," Spinx said of his pick.

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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.