Filip "Neo" Kubski was voted Player of the Decade right here on HLTV.org, and was also named eSports Player of the year in 2007 and nominated for that award on two more occasions in 2008 and 2009. He continued being one of the best in the world during 2010 leading his team, Frag eXecutors to several podium finishes, which earned him the 7th place in our Top 20 players of 2010 list.

Basic information

Player: Filip "Neo" Kubski
Team: Frag eXecutors
Age: 23

Team achievements in 2010:

1st - e-Stars
2nd - GameGune
3rd - WCG, WEM

Stats from major LAN tournaments in 2010:

Kills per round: 0.77
Deaths per round: 0.64
Rating: 1.14 (?)
Maps played: 76
MoM: 14 times top rated in a match
Best tournament: e-Stars
Best map: de_train
Most notable stat: Top fragger at WCG (270 kills)

In 2005 Filip "Neo" Kubski and his team Pentagram first turned attention to themselves by winning SEC. But they only became internationally famous in the second half of 2006, after creating the lineup which is now known as the Golden Five, winning the WSVG London and then embarking on the big stage by winning the World Cyber Games.

Kubski himself was the biggest star of that lineup from the beginning, which he was recognized for in 2007 when he won the awards for eSports Player of the Year and Best Counter Strike Player, while his team PGS was awarded eSports Team of the Year. At the end of 2007 they were signed by the MYM organization with which they entered 2009. However, they remained without a home in March of that year, but that didn't stop them from being as successful as before, as among other titles, they managed to repeat their 2006 success and become the WCG gold-medalists again, even after changing two more organization.

Kubski himself continued dominating the scene, being nominated for eSports Player of the year for the third time in a row in 2009. In the beginning of 2010, Kubski was also named Player of the Decade right here on HLTV.org, so expectations were the same for both him and the team in the new year, which was being the best in the world.

The first long-term lineup change after more than 3 years

At the start of the new year, the team which was going under the name AGAiN as they were still without a home, made a change in their lineup as Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski replaced one of the original members of the Pentagram team, Łukasz "LUq" Wnek. The team had in the past also made changes to the lineup, but they always ended up returning to the Golden Five. However, it would turn out that this time was different.

Their first event was IEM4 European Championship Finals, for which they were initially not qualified for, but they managed to win the Last Chance Cup and earn themselves a place in Brühl as a replacement team. They didn't have a very good display there, winning two and losing three matches in the group stage and later finishing in 9th place. Despite the team's underperformance, Kubski had an excellent tournament individually with a 1.30 rating (3rd best at the event), which ended up being his best in major tournaments of 2010. He particularly impressed in matches against Ravens (35-20 in team's 11-19 loss) and SK (27-18 while leading the team to an 18-12 win), as well as in their 9th place decider against Alternate.

In mid-February the team was finally picked up by the Frag eXecutors organization and a while later it was announced that they will get a chance to attend the IEM4 World Championship as a replacement for the Asian representative UMX. At that tournament in Hannover, Frag eXecutors suffered the same fate as two months earlier, which was missing the playoffs, although this time they finished fourth in their group with the same score of 2 wins and 3 losses. Kubski was again his team's best rated player, although less impactful this time with a 1.05 rating, but still putting up a good fight in every match.

They attended The Gathering in Norway next, where a Swedish mix-team concode surprised them and knocked them out in the quarter-final. Kubski had a truly impressive performance in the group stage, especially in the matches against the British team vVv and against eventual 3rd place finishers H2k. That enabled him to end up as the best rated player of the event with an impressive 1.53 rating.

In May, the team traveled to Sweden to take part in Arbalet Cup Europe, but their adventures were once again shortened by being knocked out in the first group stage. Kubski put up a good fight once more with another 1.05 rating, although this time as the team's second best player.

In the meantime, Kubski played for the national team of Poland in the ASUS ENC group stage online, where he was the second best rated from his nation with a 1.06 rating. He helped the team to a 3rd place finish in their group, but later missed out on their relegation match against Denmark which the team lost and therefore didn't get a place at the LAN finals. His most impressive performace was in his last match in the competition when he led his team to a win against Austria in the second map, recording a 30-10 score.

At the next big international event, ESWC in Paris, where Kubski and his three teammates were returning champions from both 2007 and 2008, Frag eXecutors finally managed a respectable finish, although they missed out on a medal by finishing 4th. Kubski was the Polish team's best player overall with a 1.11 rating, without many extraordinary performances, but never letting his team down. He performed excellent in their first two group stage matches against KaoS and TeG, as well as in important wins against EG and later BURNING in the quarter-final.

Kubski's ninja-ish defuse and a 1vs3 to win the match vs mouz

Like a few other top teams did after ESWC, Frag eXecutors took part in the online tournament fnatic PLAY BEAT IT finals. They recorded another 4th place, while Kubski played well with a 1.15 rating in the end, although only 3rd best in his team. The most memorable performance at this tournament by him was the one against mix-team sweda, when he made one of his highlights of the year:

Impressive 4 kills with the AK47 during fnatic PLAY BEAT IT finals

First podium finish of the year

Their next LAN tournament was GameGune in Bilbao, Spain. Frag eXecutors had their best display of the year until then, winning 7 matches in a row, including defeating Na`Vi in the Upper Bracket semi-final and fnatic in the Upper Bracket final. However, they were in the end defeated by the Swedes in a very close game in the final and finished in 2nd place. Kubski had an excellent tournament with a 1.23 rating, 2nd best in his team and playing well in every match with 8 of 9 times rated above 1.00. His most crucial contribution was in the clash against Ukrainians Na`Vi when he was the best of both teams with a 28-19 score.

4 frags by Kubski against the Spanish side 4FRAGS at GameGune

A few weeks later, the Poles traveled to Seoul in South Korea to attend the e-Stars event. They struggled in the group stage, with 2 losses in 5 matches, but have in the end managed to come out as winners of the King of the Game tournament. They defeated WeMade FOX in the final and that brought them their only international title in 2010. Kubski was once more his team's leading star and also the event's 5th best rated player with a 1.12 rating. He especially stood out in his team's most important matches, with an amazing performance against TyLoo in the semi-final recording a 31-14 score in the first map and 21-7 in the third. He also excelled in the final as the best rated player of the 3 maps with an overall 1.21 rating against the Koreans. Therefore, he completely deserved to be named the MVP of the tournament, which was voted by our users on the site after the tournament.

Another long distance trip awaited Frag eXecutors in early October, and the destination was now on the other side of the globe, Los Angeles, which hosted the World Cyber Games. The two time gold-medalists from Poland performed great at this event, only losing to Na`Vi in the semi-final which left them with the bronze medal in the end. As usual, Kubski was the team's best rated player, this time with a 1.16 rating as he performed well in every match. He also had one amazing performance in the first map of their battle for 3rd place against the Brazilian team compLexity, when he put up a 31-9 score in a 16-5 win, which earned him his highest rating of the year of 2.25.

A month later they attended World e-Sports Masters in China, which saw Frag eXecutors perform great once more and defeat the likes of fnatic and Na`Vi, but they were twice defeated by the eventual champions WeMade FOX and have in the end finished as 3rd. Kubski had another very good display, this time as 2nd best rated from his team with a 1.18 rating (7th best at the event). His best match of the tournament was against home team TyLoo when he led the scoreboard with 27-13 in his team's 16-9 win.

Ace against fnatic at WEM

The Polish team also took part in the IEM5 European Championship online during October and November, and unlike last year when they failed to qualify for the Finals, they were flawless by winning all 5 of their matches without dropping a single map. Kubski was of one of the crucial factors in that achievement as the 4th best rated player of the entire competition with an impressive 1.36 rating, even though not the best of his team. He consistently performed well, having a rating above 1.10 in each of his 10 maps.

In the last major LAN tournament of the year, DreamHack Winter, Frag eXecutors reached the semi-final once more, but were stopped by Na`Vi just like in WCG, only this time they didn't manage to win the bronze medal fight afterwards, as Lions defeated them in the match for 3rd place. Kubski had an average showing with a 1.04 rating, his lowest of the year, although he was still the 3rd best in his team.

Continues being one of the best year after year

Ever since he appeared on the international scene, he was one of the best players in the world year after year, and 2010 was no exception. He didn't have any bad tournaments throughout the last year and he was more often than not his team's best player while they managed to achieve some very respectable placements.

His team achievements include winning the e-Stars King of the Game tournament, 2nd place at GameGune and 3rd place finishes at WCG and WEM. He also barely missed out on a medal at ESWC and DreamHack Winter, as Frag eXecutors finished 4th on those two occasions.

Individually his biggest success was the MVP-worthy performance at e-Stars, which brought his team their only title of the year, while he also performed excellent in each of their other more successful tournaments - GameGune, WCG and WEM. He was also his team's best player in the first half of the year when things didn't completely click for them. So thanks to all that, he has been placed on the 7th position of our Top 20 players of 2010 list.

Recommended demos of Filip "Neo" Kubski in 2010:

If you want to check out some of his matches that were mentioned in this article, you can find links to those demos right here:

Opponent	Map	Event	Score	Demo
Ravens	train	IEM4 European Finals (Group stage)	35-20	POV
SK	dust2	IEM4 European Finals (Group stage)	28-17	POV
Alternate	inferno	IEM4 European Finals (Group stage)	29-16	POV
mousesports	nuke	IEM4 World Ch'ship (Group stage)	27-16	POV
H2k	train	The Gathering (Group stage)	34-15	HLTV
Austria	tuscan	ASUS ENC 2010 (Group stage, map 2)	30-10	HLTV
KaoS	nuke	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #1)	32-12	POV
TeG	nuke	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #1)	31-14	POV
mousesports	tuscan	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #2)	25-20	POV
sweda	dust2	fnatic PLAY BEAT IT (1/8 final, map 2)	20-10	POV
D4	dust2	GameGune (Upper quarter-final)	25-10	POV
Na`Vi	nuke	GameGune (Upper semi-final)	28-19	POV
TyLoo	train	e-Stars (Semi-final, map 1)	31-14	HLTV
TyLoo	nuke	e-Stars (Semi-final, map 3)	21-7	HLTV
WeMade FOX	nuke	e-Stars (Final, map 1)	29-16	HLTV
SK	train	WCG (1/8 final, map 2)	27-19	HLTV
coL	dust2	WCG (3rd place, map 1)	31-9	HLTV
TyLoo	nuke	WEM (Lower semi-final)	27-13	HLTV

If you missed our previous article about Danny "zonic" Sørensen click here, or if you want to see who else is on the list when it is updated, head over to our Introduction article here.

What do you think about the performance of Filip "Neo" Kubski in 2010? Does he deserve a place in the Top 20? What was your biggest impression of him this year? Feel free to leave a comment on this topic and stay tuned to HLTV.org if you want to see what the rest of the Top 20 looks like, as we will bring you number 6 tomorrow.