Being on top of the esports world along sides Dota2 and League of Legends, CS:GO has seen a number of great players over the last 3 years, and over a gfinity.net, Thorin has ranked his top 20. A tough list to make, as there are many CS:GO tournaments to keep track of, but Thorin does a great job, just look at his #10:
10. Janusz “snax” Pogorzelski
Significant accomplishments:
2013 EMS One Fall (3rd-4th)
2013 Techlabs Cup Grand Final (2nd)
2013 StarSeries VIII (1st)
2014 Copenhagen Games (2nd)
2014 StarSeries IX (4th)
2014 ESEA S16 (3rd)
2014 Gfinity G3 (1st)
2014 FACEIT S2 Final (3rd-4th)
2014 ESWC (3rd)
2014 Fragbite Masters S3 (3rd)
2014 ESEA S17 (2nd)
2014 Acer A-Split Invitational (1st)
2015 iOS Pantamera (4th)
2015 Gfinity Spring Masters I (3rd)
2015 Copenhagen Games (1st)
2015 ESEA S18 (1st)
2015 FACEIT Stage 1 (3rd-4th)
2015 Gfinity Spring Masters II (2nd)
2015 ESL ESEA PL S1 (3rd-4th)
2015 CEVO-P S7 (1st)
2015 ESL ESEA PL Dubai Invitational (1st)
2015 Gfinity Champion of Champions (3rd-4th)
Accomplishments at the majors:
2013 Dreamhack Winter (9th-12th)
2014 EMS One Katowice (1st)
2014 ESL One Cologne (5th-8th)
2014 Dreamhack Winter (3rd-4th)
2015 ESL One Katowice (3rd-4th)
2015 ESL One Cologne (3rd-4th)
Major titles: 1
International Titles: 8
International Finals: 12
International Top 4: 26
International Top 8: 34
It can perhaps be considered unsurprisingly that my first exposure to Snax was hearing, back in CS 1.6, that he was both a prospective future talent that the Poles of FX/ESC might recruit and also considered a possible cheater by others. When one looks at the style of play he has made famous in CS:GO, moving through smokes as with an internal radar or spider sense, and with many ludicrous sequences to his name, showing a finely tune game sense, it is understandable that lesser mortals could mistake him for a cheater.
As a CS:GO player, Snax replaced legendary Supportive players when he joined ESC with byali in late 2013. The previous line-up’s 1.6 success was powered by the super-star play of NEO and then a fantastic intuitive sense of team-play from men who had fought alongside each other for years at a time. Snax not only had to follow such expectations up, but step into the shoes of a legend, as NEO’s time as a star had finished with the death of competitive 1.6.
pasha was now the best player in ESC and needed help, which Snax and byali would provide. That all three hit peak form at EMS One Katowice is an enormous component of the destructive dominance Virtus.pro showed at that tournament, thrashing both of the world’s best teams, in Titan and NiP, en route to a major title. In 2013, ESC had seemed a confused line-up, but now everything had come quite clearly into focus and their style was defined: aggressive, abusive and bullying. Snax was an integral part of this new era for the team.
Where so many years of The Golden Five had seen them stellar at majors but then underwhelming over the rest of the circuit, Virtus.pro would change that trend, racking up more top four finishes than any other team in 2014. Snax was playing the role of both a big fragger and one known for huge impact rounds, pulling off plays which broke the spirits of opponents and buoyed his team’s confidence. If Snax was rolling, then there was always a chance.
The great Polish star’s slump in 2015 had seen him no longer worthy of star player status for most of this year, but that has changed in the last couple of months. From CEVO-P onwards, Snax has returned to his brilliant best. It could well be argued he has never played as well as over the last few months, with VP’s run to the ESL ESEA Dubai Invitational title coming thanks to Snax single-handedly smashing apart the FNATIC line-up which I would argue is the greatest team in CS:GO history. In the final, TSM would likely have been able to ride device to the title had it not been for Snax matching him in fragging.
Even at the recent Gfinity Champion of Champions, where VP fell 2:3 to the eventual champion EnVyUs team, Snax was hard at working wrecking the opposition, but was let down by a putrid performance from NEO and shocked by a surprisingly wide map pool from the French side. Snax is back and few can hope to match him when he plays with this level of form. NEO is no longer a deity, pasha is not the player of early 2014 and byali continues to be as inconsistent as he is powerful, but in Snax VP can still trust and rely upon.
So many accomplishments just for the number 10 entry, how dominate have the other been, head over to the full article here to check it out.
