Top 20 players of 2024: frozen (10)

A nigh-unmatched floor level and blistering start to the year land frozen his best placing yet in the 10th spot of the Top 20 players of 2024 ranking by 1xBet and SkinClub.

Top 20 players of 2024: Introduction

David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský makes his third appearance on HLTV's Top 20 players of the year ranking after previously coming 17th in 2022 and 12th in 2023, making his first full year with FaZe an individual success as he places 10th overall.

The 22-year-old Slovak's history with Counter-Strike dates back to when he was a child, having recorded thousands of hours in CS 1.6 and upon the release of CS:GO. He started competing at local LANs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia at the age of 13, winning one of his first-ever LANs by beating eSuba to lift the Mistrovství ČR 2015 trophy with nEophyte.

His excellent raw fragging output and skill soon earned him the call-up to eXtatus, where frozen powered the team to four LAN victories over the course of a year while averaging a 1.20 rating over 68 maps.

His performances on domestic lineups and in FACEIT Pro League soon gained frozen international attention and he was offered an opportunity to play for NoChance, but his stint with the team was short-lived because the Slovak talent had caught the eye of Finn "⁠karrigan⁠" Andersen, who invited him to join MOUZ.

frozen spent nearly five years playing for MOUZ, winning six notable trophies including CS:GO Asia Championships 2019 and the final Big Event in CS:GO, ESL Pro League Season 18. He remained the stalwart through multiple iterations of the roster after karrigan departed for FaZe, individually excelling and later becoming the senior figurehead after multiple players were promoted from the organization's academy roster, MOUZ NXT.

His ever-present consistency helped him debut in 17th on the Top 20 Players ranking in 2022, which he improved upon to 12th in 2023 with a higher overall floor and excellent Big Event showings amidst a far more successful year for the team as a whole. His efforts led to him reuniting with karrigan on FaZe after Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken left at the tail end of 2023, with the team immediately reaching the final of BLAST World Final in frozen's debut in what the team hoped would set the stage for 2024.

"It felt great but also a bit unreal in a way," frozen says of his start on FaZe. "I joined the team that won every CS2 tournament before that while replacing a very high-caliber player and after a few practice days, we made instant finals. I can say that coming into 2024 I was very confident in what we could achieve."

For a more in-depth look at frozen's early career and backstory, you can read through his previous appearances in our Top 20 ranking:

- Top 20 players of 2022: frozen (17)
- Top 20 players of 2023: frozen (12)

That confidence showed as frozen started 2024 in terrifying form, helping FaZe recover from an opening loss at BLAST Spring Groups by throttling a Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets and Boris "⁠magixx⁠" Vorobiev-less Spirit (2.04 rating), getting revenge over GamerLegion (1.15), and beating Liquid (1.16) to seal a spot at the Spring Final.

Although not an MVP-eligible event, Spring Groups served as a fitting warm-up for the year's first Super-Elite event, IEM Katowice, where FaZe extended their grand final streak to six in a row (two with frozen).

The Slovak kicked off the event with a masterclass showing against Rebels, shrugging off any remaining questions as to how he would adapt to a slight change in T side roles on FaZe, bashing the Polish home team with a 1.77 rating and 115.3 ADR series.

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frozen: "With the positions I took over in FaZe, it's in my hands how I'm going to perform"

A labored three-mapper against Eternal Fire showed there were still chinks in FaZe's armor, however, and a decisive loss to Spirit in the upper bracket final added additional rust to the coat as FaZe headed into the Spodek with their confidence knocked down a peg.

But once in the arena, FaZe rose to the occasion as was their norm, stamping out G2 and MOUZ 2-0 en route to the final.

Revenge over Spirit in the title decider was the hope for karrigan's troops, but that wish did not manifest into reality as donk drummed up an absurd 1.93 rating over three maps to put the seal on a record-matching 1.70-rated event and deny FaZe an early title with frozen.

"It was my first time playing in Spodek and the experience was really unforgettable, it filled all my expectations and I definitely want to play there again," frozen tells HLTV. "As for the result, we thought that after losing to Spirit in groups we would be better prepared when we met them in the final. The veto was looking good, the fire and hunger was there, but we just couldn't stop them. They played very well and obviously, donk put up a hell of a show."

frozen ended the event as FaZe's best player, garnering a 1.20 rating, 1.06 KPRW, and 108.1 ADRW, and his strong performances against G2 (1.37 rating) and MOUZ (1.29 rating) in the playoffs helped him earn the second-highest Exceptionally Valuable Player (EVP) mention after Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov.

The Europe RMR for PGL Major Copenhagen came next and FaZe advanced without much trouble, falling in the 2-0 pool to G2 before beating Eternal Fire again to advance and earn karrigan a spot at his home Major.

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huNter-: "We wanted revenge over FaZe so badly"

A few weeks later at the Major proper, FaZe quickly ended up in dire straits. They went 1-1 on the first day of the Swiss group stage, with frozen posting a 1.18 rating in a loss to HEROIC and 1.12 in a win over FURIA, but faced the wrath of Eternal Fire as the Turks demolished them on Overpass, 13-1.

Down in the 1-2 pool, FaZe fought back from the brink of elimination against Imperial with what karrigan referred to as his team's "B game," which was just enough to take the series in three maps before they sealed a playoff berth over Complexity off the back of 1.46 and 1.42 ratings from frozen and Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants.

Some sweet revenge over Spirit followed in the quarter-finals, an instant classic of a series that went to all three maps and where FaZe floated their usual ban, Vertigo, allowing it through as the decider. frozen topped the board on Mirage with a 1.69 rating and 104.8 ADR to steal Spirit's pick, but dropped off on Nuke as FaZe fell short of completing a comeback in double overtime.

FaZe then stormed ahead on Vertigo, going up 7-0 and 12-5, but couldn't close out the map in regulation and needed overtime to finish exacting their revenge. "It was a good chance to put our balls on the table," frozen said of floating Vertigo after the game.

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frozen on floating Vertigo: "It was a good chance to put our balls on the table"

Those balls were crushed by Vitality in the ensuing semi-final, FaZe's attempt to float the map again backfiring in spectacular fashion in a 13-5 pummeling. It mattered not, however, thanks to frozen and Håvard "⁠rain⁠" Nygaard leading their side to decisive victories on Nuke and Inferno, with the Slovakian rifler topping the board with a 1.21 rating and 0.76 KPR.

The Major trophy was within reach with only the Major's surprise dark horse, Natus Vincere, standing in the way, but frozen missed yet another chance to lift the silverware and his first Major trophy. Natus Vincere won out a tight battle on Ancient to start the series and frozen and Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool helped reply with dominance on Mirage, only for Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy to enter an unstoppable flow-state on the Inferno decider and crush FaZe 13-3 to take away the crown.

frozen earned another EVP for his efforts, ending the Major with a 1.15 rating, 1.18 playoffs rating, 1.02 KPRW and 105.5 ADRW, but the accolade did little to soften the blow of the defeat.

"Thinking back about it, losing at the Major obviously sucks a lot in general but the way we lost on the third map was just…painful," frozen says, later adding that the final against Natus Vincere was his worst memory of the year. "It was our Major to take but we failed, big time."

frozen's hunt for a trophy with FaZe was finally brought to an end two weeks later in China, where he earned another EVP mention with a 1.17 rating (1.18 in playoffs) in what would be the team's sole trophy of the year.

He struggled against Astralis, who FaZe lost to in upper bracket semi-final and beat in a rematch in the playoffs, but shone bright in wins over Cloud9 (1.24 rating), FlyQuest (1.73), Liquid (1.19), and MOUZ in the final (1.26).

"After all those finals it felt relieving to finally touch the trophy, but I think that winning one of the tournaments before would have helped the team much more with form moving forward," frozen says.

FaZe's grand final streak then came to an end, halted at eight when the team exited ESL Pro League Season 19 in the quarter-finals. An early playoff exit at IEM Dallas followed, and the cracks in FaZe's armor shown earlier in the year started to spiderweb across the plate.

It was a down period for frozen, too, as he tallied his two worst events of the year. He did well against FaZe's initial opponents in Malta, topping the board against Imperial, Astralis, and Virtus.pro, but fell apart against Eternal Fire (0.73 rating) and in a Big Match, the quarter-final against Vitality (0.55).

IEM Dallas started off well with an easy win over M80 and frozen having a good series against Virtus.pro to earn FaZe a rare trip straight through the group stage, but he again fell short in the two most important matches. magixx powered Spirit past FaZe in the upper bracket final and the rivalry between the teams raged on, and FaZe couldn't get anything past an exceptional m0NESY in the quarter-final as they were cast out in 5-6th by G2.

"It all comes down to the mental side," frozen says of his showing at the two events. "I don't think I was in the right state of mind at those tournaments."

That state of mind turned around quickly, but FaZe's results did not. frozen's respectable floor level returned at BLAST Spring Final (1.13 rating, 0.79 KPRW) and Esports World Cup (1.12 rating, 1.08 KPRW), but FaZe again were eliminated short of the semi-finals.

A loss to Natus Vincere in each and one to Vitality meant FaZe had no chance at another trophy, and FaZe went from in the conversation as title contenders to potential dark horses as the focus turned to the likes of Natus Vincere, G2, Vitality, and MOUZ.

"We always kept it positive no matter what," frozen says of the team environment during that stretch. "We believed that we could make it to any final even though things didn't look that pretty."

Such was the down period FaZe were experiencing that questions were asked about whether IEM Cologne was "make or break" for them. Internally, things clearly needed to change, and that was done just five days before the event as karrigan told the team they had to "throw the structure out of the boat."

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Is Cologne make or break for FaZe?

"The way we've been playing, people are not finding the gaps, we're not [winning] individually, don't understand the full philosophy, we're not playing off each other, so now I'm back to micro-managing like we have a stand-in," the Danish captain said in an interview during the tournament.

"It's very hard to call like that, it's mentally draining and my level is going to drop, but it has been dropped for the past few months anyway so if I can call us home getting some decent T sides, I'll do everything for us to win. We could go the whole way, or we could go out in groups."

FaZe did neither of those, but the change did pay off. A far more invigorated and proactive FaZe arrived in Germany and claimed a win over Liquid in their opener, but came alive too late on map two against Vitality to lose the series 1-2 and got knocked down to the lower bracket.

"You know, when you are riding on a high wave, heads are clicking, people are taking initiative and things are connecting naturally, it is easy to play the 'loose style' that we all shine in," frozen says of FaZe changing their approach in Cologne. "But once things go a little south such as suddenly missing playoffs or making it only to the semis, we got a little shy and we didn't play with big balls anymore. Honestly, I think we just started to overthink."

They bounced back with a win over Falcons to set up a rematch against Liquid for a spot in the LANXESS Arena, and another instant classic played out with FaZe mounting one of the most outrageous comebacks to date in Counter-Strike 2.

frozen claimed dominion over Banana on Inferno (1.62 rating, 23-12 K-D) to grant FaZe a 1-0 lead in the series, but his best efforts (1.29 rating) weren't enough to clinch victory on Nuke after Liquid recovered a near-impossible 3v5 and used that momentum to steal victory in overtime.

Twistzz looked poised to beat his old captain and team for the first time as Liquid put up an impenetrable defense on the Mirage decider, going up 11-1 at the break, and a win in the first full gun round seemed to seal the deal with FaZe sitting on the cusp of defeat at 3-12 down.

A preposterous second half then saw FaZe tally nine straight rounds to force overtime and run away the victors, 16-13, completing what had looked to be an almost impossible comeback at the break and earning their team a spot in the LANXESS.

"That one will stay in my memory for a very very long time, I don't think I have experienced such a comeback before," frozen smiles when asked to reflect on the moment. "That comeback against Liquid was historic, so why not [put it as my favorite moment of the year]."

FaZe couldn't get the job done in the arena, however, a number of sloppy rounds and squandered advantages backfiring against a SAW on a Cinderella run.

The Portuguese side were not even close to favorites with their young stars playing in front of a roaring crowd against the experienced veterans of FaZe, but showed tenacity and edged out victory in the series, helped by a momentum-shifting 1v4 from 32-year-old Christopher "⁠MUTiRiS⁠" Fernandes.

"I can't remember all the stuff that happened but that 1v4 against MUTiRiS on the last map was a cherry on top," frozen says. "Until that point, I think we had very high chances of winning even though SAW kept us on our feet the whole game."

frozen finished the event with a 1.09 rating, bolstered by his showing against Liquid in the LANXESS-qualifying match (1.28 rating) and his strong floor in the group stage, but again had a quiet performance in the Big Match against SAW that resulted in FaZe's elimination (0.93).

Another disappointing showing in Malta for ESL Pro League Season 20 followed for FaZe, who were unable to make the best of an authoritative 1.33 rating, 1.21 KPRW, and 128.5 ADRW performance from frozen. The team lost to Sangal in their opener for an early trip down to the lower bracket but got revenge over them to make the playoffs after beating Ninjas in Pyjamas and FlyQuest, only to exit the playoffs in the first round after losing to Johnny "⁠JT⁠" Theodosiou's Complexity for the first time.

FaZe remained out of title contention at BLAST Fall Final and IEM Rio, reaching the quarter-finals of the former and missing playoffs at the latter. The early exit in Rio had some salt rubbed in the wound as it was dealt by MOUZ, who finally claimed their first win over FaZe to break an 0-7 series streak since the move to CS2.

frozen's floor again remained dependable, with a 1.08 rating in Copenhagen and 1.16 in Rio a decent overall showing but far from his peak at the start of the year, but any remaining taste of victory that lingered from Chengdu had long gone from bitter to sour as FaZe approached the end of the season.

"For us, for FaZe, anything but trophies is a disappointment," frozen states. "That's who we are and that's what we play for."

FaZe managed to get revenge over Natus Vincere at BLAST World Final for beating them in the Fall Final semis, their first win over them in five months, but even that victory was only good enough for a 5-6th finish as frozen had another quiet Big Match (0.92) in a close two-map series loss to Spirit in the quarters.

One last chance at a trophy awaited at the end of the year, with FaZe now far from the favorites they were in Copenhagen coming into the Perfect World Shanghai Major. The team went 3-1 through the Europe RMR to qualify but didn't remain in China, unlike most others, instead returning to Europe after karrigan's older brother and ropz's grandmother passed away, to allow the two to mourn and attend funerals.

Two weeks later, FaZe returned to Shanghai for the Major proper, reaching the 2-1 qualifying round after wins over Wildcard and MOUZ and a loss HEROIC. A disastrous first attempt to reach the playoffs against G2 saw FaZe blasted out of the server 13-4 and 13-3, but they converted on their second effort with ropz starting to show the kind of level he had upon CS2's release.

frozen ended the group stage with a 1.07 rating and 1.01 KPRW but his performance dipped in the playoffs, a 1.01 rating, 0.77 KPRW, and only four out of eight positive maps. Instead, it was a spectacular effort from ropz that powered FaZe's unlikely run past Vitality and G2 to reach the grand final against Spirit in a rematch of the very one that started the year in Katowice.

"I felt a lot of glimpses of how we played earlier in the year, taking the gaps, playing off each other, and winning rounds that might look impossible," frozen says. "We always believed that we could win and it felt amazing to play all of those games."

FaZe couldn't get the job done despite another three-map thriller, though, a near-comeback on the Dust2 decider falling just short as Spirit denied frozen his second chance to grab a Major trophy in 2024 and consigning him to just one piece of silverware in his debut year with FaZe.

In setting his goals for 2025 with these results behind him, frozen was clear: "I just want us to be better than in the last year but most importantly, climb to the top again."

Why was frozen the 10th best player of 2024?

frozen made his third consecutive placing on the top 20 list after showcasing a nigh-unmatched floor level as at least a valuable player at every single event he attended, averaging a 1.00 rating or better every time.

That consistency allowed him to accrue a solid statistical base no matter the level of competition, averaging a 1.13 rating overall, 1.12 at the Big Events and 1.11 at Elite and better.

Coupled with his blistering start to the year, during which he put on EVP-worthy performances in FaZe's runner-up finishes at IEM Katowice and PGL Major Copenhagen (two Super-Elite events) and in their sole victory at IEM Chengdu, frozen managed his highest and first ever placing in the top 10.

"I'm happy that I made it to the list again, but I can't say that I feel satisfied with the year overall," he says.

Considering the group of players above him, he was held back from an even higher placing due to a lack of more standout events, caused by his significant drop following the first few months.

Despite averaging a 1.15 playoff rating in the first three tournaments, after he slowed down he ended up with only a 1.02 rating in big matches for the whole year, the lowest of all players in the top 20. He also didn't stand out enough in the arenas (1.06) and against the best teams (1.04 vs top 5, 1.07 vs top 10) to improve his placing in this group.

Bold prediction by 1xBet

frozen was the third person to give the nod to Spirit Academy superstar-in-the-making Maxim "⁠kyousuke⁠" Lukin, following after Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi and ropz, shouting out the 16-year-old rifler who averaged a 1.29 rating in 2024.

"Even though he will be mentioned here a lot, there is a good reason for that," frozen says. "I am more than sure that if he keeps this up, we will see him getting signed by some big team very soon."

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Stay tuned to our Top 20 Players of 2024 ranking and learn more about how the players were selected in our introduction article.