Top 20 players of 2023: Final three to be unveiled at HLTV Award Show

12-1-2024 21:03

The Player of the Year and runners-up will be announced during the HLTV Award Show on Saturday.

Seventeen days have passed since we began unveiling HLTV's top 20 players of 2023 one by one, and after the 20th to 4th-best players have been revealed, it is down to the final three.

We probably don't have to tell you who the top three players are, but for the sake of officially announcing the last finalists of the HLTV Awards, they are the leading men behind the three best teams of the year: Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut and Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool.

The Player of the Year and the No. 2 and No. 3 players will be announced as part of the HLTV Award Show, which will go live at 18:00 on Saturday, January 13 on HLTV's Twitch channel.

During it, we will also unveil the winners of the Community Awards, as voted on by HLTV users, the Panel Awards, decided in majority by members of last year's top 20 teams and other experts, and four other HLTV Awards.

You can find all finalists in each category in our announcement articles below:

Award show: Rookie, Team, and Women's Player nominees revealed

Award Show: Panel Awards Nominees revealed

Award Show: Talent, Event, Streamer, and Creator of the Year nominees unveiled

Find out everything about the HLTV Top 20 players here.

ropz top 2 would be a dream

2024-01-12 21:03

25 replies

Keep dreaming

2024-01-12 21:05

23 replies

Ahem... nickname

22 replies

It's 2024, so he still has time.

2024-01-12 22:31

i mean m0NESY top 1 isn't too farfetched, if zywoo has a bad year for his standards then it's anyone's game

2024-01-12 22:41

20 replies

that won't happen tho. I don't see anyone taking top 1 from Zywoo for the next 3 years if he doesn't get mental problems like s1mple

2024-01-12 23:41

14 replies

ropz maybe 2nd instead niko but zywoo definetely 1st

2024-01-12 23:43

1 reply

he is talking about 2024

2024-01-13 17:11

i mean it always could happen, it just probably wont

2024-01-13 00:42

time will tell. Monesy is def a future contender for that number one spot !

2024-01-13 12:23

8 replies

idk, Zywoo finally has a good team built around him, monesy is still the number 2 behind NiKo in G2. imo donk is the biggest contenter for Zywoo in the next years if Spirit become a top 5 team

2024-01-13 12:39

7 replies

Donk still raw imo. Needs more cooking time

2024-01-13 15:02

2 replies

yea, I don’t see him being top 1 in 2024, but in 2025 he might reach that level

2024-01-13 15:38

Even then depends on zywoo too, imo he hasnt peaked yet, maybe 2024 he will peak

2024-01-13 16:13

M0nesy is young so he has alot more time to get better ! Niko is alot older and he will be a great teacher for m0nesy. i def think he could be a future contender for the nr 1 spot.

2024-01-17 01:16

3 replies

NiKo could only teach him how to choke kekw yeah is crazy how young monesy is, but donk is even younger and I think he has a higher skill ceiling. they both need at least 1-2 more years to be top 1 contenders imo

2024-01-17 01:20

yeah its not right now, but in the future he could be. Donk is very exciting too, but monesy is 18 and he was placed 4 already. you could clearly see at the hltv awards that he was fueled to get better and better because of the success and he wants more!

2024-01-17 01:23

I think monesy really got unlucky with the timing. Zywoo is in his prime and I don't see him getting to his level ever. And after that donk is gonna be a really experienced guy, there are also probably lots of 14-15 yo talents that we have never even heard of yet. Also the team u have and how much u win matters a lot in top 20 placings

2024-01-17 01:27

zywoo wouldnt be top 1 if his team was not doing good, like 2022 zywoo played out of his mind but vitality was mid. This is just a matter of meta changing and not zywoo being less good imo.

2024-01-13 20:09

rofl

2024-01-13 20:49

rofl, imagine calling your bad year when you are not #1 in the world :D What a crazy guy zywoo is.

2024-01-13 05:21

well im not saying THAT, just that if zywoo has a bad year for his standards, so anything below say a 1.2, then it gets a lot more up in the air

2024-01-13 05:45

Thats what I mean, your bad year is when you literally demolish everyone a little less :D

2024-01-13 13:16

zywoo's bad year for his standards is still far better than anyone in this game

2024-01-13 19:45

A 1.18 rating for ZywOo is not far better than anyone else

2024-01-13 21:09

I think he deserves it over Niko as Niko had another top 5 player on his team plus doing a lot more that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet like knowing every damned nade in the book.

wdym ropz, niko and zywoo?? where is torzsi

Outside the top 20, where he belongs

2024-01-12 21:42

Only good after the siuhy overtake which was halfway through the year and then an above average performance, top 50 max player in 2023

2024-01-12 22:26

Between top 20-30 where he belongs.

2024-01-13 11:24

Zywoo Ropz Niko

2024-01-12 21:04

have the same, at least i know i have n1 correctly xD 0/17 band

Same

2024-01-12 21:06

Ropz nr2 would be a bigger robbery than having Hooxi nr1

2024-01-13 02:42

where top21-30

1. Zywoo 2. NikO 3. Ropz thank god i atleast got 4/20

Idk why niko even top 3, he should be top 5 max. Ropz has won 5 tournaments this year, 1 major,(8 majors played) 1 Grand slam. Niko has won only 2 tournaments, 0 major(12 majors played) 0 Grand slams. Numbers dont lie.

2024-01-13 16:27

NiKos stats have been better than ropz. Ropz has been only above average up until cs2, that's where he started playing better. Recency bias is the reason why ropz is ranked so high on this list

2024-01-13 17:16

true

2024-01-13 17:31

Robz biggest robbery of all time. Doesn't even deserve top10

4 replies

Name, flag, flair. Everything checks out

2024-01-12 22:15

+1 lmao

2024-01-13 02:50

+111111

2024-01-13 02:35

ropz shoud be top 5 ,monesy top3 ,spinx top4,hltv changed criteria to balance teams and regions

2024-01-13 14:37

If Zywoo, Ropz, Niko I will 9/20 who has better?

2024-01-12 21:11

Nice , you are top 1%?

2024-01-12 21:48

yes top 1% but i don't know what a placement exactly(

2024-01-12 22:06

based placements

2024-01-13 05:52

HLTV putting ropz in top 3 so FaZe gets representation alongside Vitality and G2 LOL

2024-01-12 21:20

if ropz 2nd i start boycot and stop browsing hltv for 15 minutes

2024-01-12 21:22

Good. I can join and up it to 16, who's more?

2024-01-12 22:33

Meh lost faith in the ranking as long as Zywoo gets 1st then lets just move on to 2024

2024-01-13 17:27

What he s done alone for cs2 is enough to get him top 2. Choko getting 3rd is the real robbery here

2024-01-12 21:44

2 months of cs2 with 2 elite events? haha basically 1/5 of all big events maps

2024-01-12 22:36

what he is done? win 2 tourneys and mvps in tier3 tourneys, wow

2024-01-13 13:22

The results have leaked on Telegram already, guys... 3. ELiGE 2. torzsi 1. donk

2024-01-12 22:20

Ty harumi

2024-01-13 12:46

0/17 very good so far

2024-01-12 22:29

Guys wake up please .. Donk will be first definitely.

Niko, ropz, Zywhoo ? Mark my words.

2024-01-12 23:32

Yes, it already says that in the article for them who know how to read.

2024-01-13 07:37

3. Elige 2. Donk 1. XiWu

2024-01-13 00:19

3. Stewie10am 2. JW 1. Olof

2024-01-13 00:40

2/17 so far, at least i got the top5 right

2024-01-13 00:28

What time are they announcing the top players

2024-01-13 00:31

It was at the end of the show last year

2024-01-13 02:19

hopefully im not asleep

2024-01-13 02:30

1. Zywoo 2.Ropz 3.Niko

2024-01-13 01:27

niko will be top 2 while being 2nd best in his team, in a world where Zywoo exists

2024-01-13 02:13

He is above mAY0NESY because mAY0NESY has 0 MVP in 2023 while Niko had event of his life in Cologne and has MVP from this super elite tournament.

2024-01-13 02:54

Zywoo is no question but Niko and Rops… who’s number 3?

2024-01-13 03:52

NiKo is 2nd most likely. Like 90%. I'm a big ropz fan, but there's just too big of a stat difference between the two.

2024-01-13 08:23

astralis 2024 looks scary asf bruh the only player thats not in top 20 rn is staehr, who is also very talented. If these guys resonate its ggs

2024-01-13 05:42

No proper IGL, leader biggest baiter in 20 years of CS and huge role clashes, it’s not about getting 4 stars and hope for the best.

2024-01-13 14:11

it is saturday, January 13, 7.26 pm in korea right now and award show time shows saturday, January 13, 02.00. so is the show already finished or am i tripping?

2024-01-13 11:29

yes robz somehow end 3d

2024-01-13 13:17

Same for me. They seem to automatically adjust time based on timezone but not the date.

2024-01-13 13:23

GG Zywo ! ! !

2024-01-13 12:01

robz TO BE UNVEILED AT HLTV AWARD SHOW

Ropz > Niko

2024-01-13 13:37

1# zywoo 2# ropz 3# Niko

2024-01-13 13:39

2024-01-13 14:03

Thx god no more cringe s1mple speeches while being dressed as 13yo in hoodie and sweat pants while others are wearing suits…

2024-01-13 14:09

I hope zywoo picks up his interview game this time

2024-01-13 14:57

Zywoo top 1 no question

2024-01-13 15:14

ZywOo 1, Ropz 2, niko 3.

2024-01-13 18:07

GL HF at the SHOW!

2024-01-13 19:01

Good AND bad year for danish CS. 6 players in top 20, only nation with many players, but best at #9. Danes on most top teams, but danish teams collapsing. Danes would maybe look strongest on a Top 10 for Igl´s? With top players being from so many different countries, and Russia in bad standing, maybe this will be an era of International Teams?

2024-01-13 19:10

Pretty ez top 1 for zi wu

2024-01-13 19:51

That zywoo highlight is so bad and boring and it won ahah this award show is a joke fr

2024-01-13 21:05

Yeah, it was absolutely terrible decision making. Push Zywoo one by one… They heard him drop down, all info of bomb placement etc.

2024-01-13 21:39

Still hoping for someone on stage to address cheating problem in CS2 and say out loud on cam during this HLTV award show to have Valve come up with a proper anticheat already, it's about time lol :D

2024-01-13 22:02