Top 5 Indian players of the year so far

With Counter-Strike getting more IPs and more organizations investing into the title towards the end of last year, 2024 looked like a promising year for the Indian Counter-Strike scene and with a little over half the year done, the promise has lived up to the hype so far. A win for Carnival Gaming at the Esportz Premier Series kicked off the year for Indian Counter-Strike with Indian teams then taking on international heavyweights in multiple Skyesports tournaments, like the Skyesports Masters and Skyesports Championship 2024. Gods Reign came agonisingly close to making the Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024 Asia RMR, falling at the final hurdle.

Let's take a quick dive into the past and look at the top six performers of this year so far who've been consistent with their impact towards matches, racking up big numbers for their teams. Before we delve into the top six, here are a few honorable mentions who have put up great games themselves but narrowly missed the cut:

*All stats and data are taken from HLTV and the new Attributes feature helps to get a more in-depth analysis and look at player stats

5. R2B2 (Gods Reign)

After brief stints with Revenant and KingPins over the past year, R2B2 quickly elevated his game upon joining Marcos Gaming at the beginning of 2024. Despite losing the Esportz Premier Series grand-final against Enigma Gaming, R2B2 fragged out for Marcos Gaming with over 40 frags across two maps with a positive K/D. He cemented his place as a solid rifler in the Indian scene at BLAST: The Draft, a first-of-it's-kind league featuring top teams from India and Pakistan with a legend of the game drafted into each team.

R2B2 showed fearless aggression throughout the tournament, securing the second most opening kills (39) after his teammate shox (55). He remained consistent for Marcos Gaming at The Draft with just 3 maps where his rating dipped below 1. His best showing in the league came against True Rippers in the deciding map of the grand-final where he dropped 15 frags at an ADR of 100 and a HLTV rating of 1.71. His team, Marcos Gaming secured the title.

R2B2 was picked up by Gods Reign alongside his captain Bhavi and there has been no looking back as the team has produced a dominant run in the first half of 2024. With R2B2, Gods Reign have won four iterations of the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters and the AEC South-Asian qualifier. R2B2 has a rating of 1.15 on HLTV games in 2024 so far with a KAST percentage of 74 and an impact rating of 1.14. Gods Reign definitely felt R2B2's absence at the recently concluded Asia RM Closed Qualifier, with him missing out due to a VAC ban.

4. Rossi (True Rippers)

A familiar name that dates all the back to 2016 in Indian Counter-Strike, Rossi has been terrorizing teams in the Indian scene with his raw mechanics and a diverse, constantly evolving rifling style. For Rossi, 2024 started in flying colors with a title win at the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters #6 and after winning the Indian division, his team, True Rippers came dangerously close to grabbing the inaugural edition of The Draft title, with kennyS in their team.

With Rossi, True Rippers stringed up an array of runners-up finishes in the first half of 2024 at various events including Skyesports Showdown, M88 Open League, Dust2 India 1XBET Masters #10, 11 and the 5E Arena Asia Cup Fall 2024. In HLTV recorded games, Rossi has put up a rating of 1.06 across 47 maps so far in 2024 with a KAST percentage of 72.6.

A 13-1 blow out against Carnival Gaming at the Dust2 India 1XBet Masters #9 saw Rossi put up a 1.85 rating game, his highest in the first half of 2024. In his recent showing at the Skyesports Championship 2024, True Rippers nearly took down The MongolZ, a global top 10 team currently. While the Indian team finished Championship without a single win, tough fights against The MongolZ and BLEED showed a lot of promise for what was to come for the Indian scene.

True Rippers, who finished third at the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier, going down to Gods Reign in the Consolidation Final, promoted Rossi to the in-game leader role, which is going to be a new challenge for the star rifler.

3. Bhavi (Gods Reign)

One of the most successful in-game leaders of the year so far in the Indian Counter-Strike scene, Bhavi started his 2024 with Marcos Gaming. After conceding the grand-final of the Esportz Permier Series, the team went into BLAST's The DRAFT, where Bhavi became the first Indian captain to win an international trophy, picking up BLAST's The DRAFT season 1 title, with shox in his team.

The in-game leader proved himself at The DRAFT with the second highest number of assists (68) at the event. Bhavi also topped the board for the most clutches won (8) at The DRAFT. Marcos Gaming started the event with a couple of 2-0s but went down to the lower bracket after an upper bracket final loss to True Rippers. After setting up their rematch in the grand-final, Bhavi and his team showed remarkable endurance, reverse-sweeping a lengthy bo5 series, 3-2 to win The DRAFT.

Bhavi's best HLTV game of the year so far also came at The DRAFT, where the IGL dropped 24 frags at an ADR of 124 with a HLTV rating of 2.22 against Pak Boyz on Ancient in the consolidation final, setting up their grand-final appearance. After The DRAFT, Bhavi was picked up by Gods Reign along with R2B2 and rev3nnnn following which he led the team to victory at six iterations of the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters (7, 8, 10, 11, 12 & 13).

Winning out the Asian Esports Championship's South Asia Qualifier with a flawless 4-0, Gods Reign have booked an AEC Chengdu 2024 slot. Bhavi continues to impress, most recently having led Gods Reign to the Grand Final of the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier with a stand-in.

2. reV3nnnn (Gods Reign)

reV3nnnn is regarded as one of the best, if not the best AWPer in the Indian Counter-Strike scene, having held the #1 spot in FACEIT's Indian leaderboard for quite a while. reV3nnnn is so far the highest rated Indian player in 2024 on HLTV (50+ maps). Across 51 maps, reV3nnnn holds a HLTV rating of 1.25 with a K-D difference of +219 and an impact rating of 1.30.

Alongside Bhavi, reV3nnnn started his year with Marcos Gaming, securing runners-up status at the Esportz Permier Series. After finishing in second place in The DRAFT's Indian division, reV3nnnn missed out on the main event as he could not fly out to Kuala Lumpur. Following Marcos Gaming's win at The DRAFT, reV3nnnn along with the core of Marcos Gaming was picked up by Gods Reign, after which the team found massive success.

reV3nnnn debuted with his new team at the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters #7 where he topped the charts for the most AWP kills (30) and the best multi-kill rounds percentage (54.5). After winning the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters #7, Gods Reign won the Skyesports Grand Slam 2024 Indian Qualifier after which they secured a second place finish at the main event.

After their Skyesports Grand Slam run, reV3nnnn secured title wins at five more iterations of the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters (8, 10, 11, 12 & 13). reV3nnnn's best performance in 2024 so far has come against True Rippers in the Skyesports Masters 2024 India Closed Qualifier, where his stellar AWPing locked True Rippers out of the map 13-1. With an impressive 2.43 HLTV rating, reV3nnnn dropped 19 frags at an ADR of 130 while maintaining 100% KAST.

reV3nnnn most recently was seen at the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier with Gods Reign, where they finished second. The AWPer had mixed event, finishing with a rating of 1.13 across 8 maps. He was instrumental for the team on the T side, finishing as one of the highest rated players, with a T-sided rating of 1.38 rating. He also had the second most opening kills for Indian players, with a 61.3% success.

1. Ph1NNN (Gods Reign)

Arguably one of the best riflers in the Indian Counter-Strike scene, Ph1NNN has been phenomenal so far in 2024 with over 75 maps clocked in on HLTV this year, he holds an average rating of 1.21 with an impact rating of 1.27 and a KAST percentage of 75.2. His consistency for Gods Reign throughout the first half of 2024, puts him right at the top of this list. Ph1NNN started the year with a first place finish at the Southeast Asian Open Qualifier for the RMR leading up to the PGL Copenhagen Major 2024. He had the highest impact rating in the open qualifier (1.77) and the most opening kills (22).

However, Gods Reign went down 1-2 to Troublemakers in a controversial lower bracket final, crashing out of RMR contention. Ph1NNN's highest rated game in the year so far came against 2EZ Gaming in the semi-final of the Dust2 India 1XBET Masters #7, where he dropped 18 frags on Overpass with a HLTV rating of 2.37 and a colossal 135 ADR.

After their PGL Copenhagen 2024 RMR Qualifier run, Gods Reign saw no victories for a better part of a month. The team even put up an abysmal performance at The DRAFT, where they were the earliest Indian team to exit the competition. Things greatly improved for the team after a core change and just like that, Ph1NNN was back to dropping match-winning performances regularly.

During the course of 2024 so far, Ph1NNN has secured wins at Dust2 India 1XBET Masters 7, 8, 10, 11, 12 and 13 with Gods Reign. The team narrowly missed out on a Skyesports Championship 2024 appearance.

Ph1NNN ended Gods Reign's second place finish at the Asia RMR Closed Qualifier as the second highest rated Indian player at the event, with a 1.23 rating across 8 maps. He was also the second highest rated player overall at the event on the CT side.