This article is part of our CS:GO series.
Is this it? The light at the end of the tunnel? The CS:GO player break is over and the premier FPS esports is back with the BLAST Premier Fall Groups kicking off an absolutely jam-packed Fall schedule. Here's a look at some players to target and fade with rostermania behind us and a new season of CS:GO coming up!
Players to Target
syrsoN
Let's kick it off with syrsoN, the sniper for BIG. This BIG Clan roster has made a minor change over the break, replacing tiziaN with academy player, and former first-team player, k1to. While this change isn't a big one on the face of it, it could make all the difference in opening up space for syrsoN. k1to is a selfless support who played around syrsoN to great effect in 2020 and 2021, when syrsoN was named the 10th best player of the year according to HLTV.org. With k1to back on the team and syrsoN in seemingly strong form, it's hard to look past the German AWPer as one of the top options in the first tournament back.
Twistzz
The Canadian aim god finds himself right back in the "Players to Target" section like nothing even changed, and why should it? Over the three months before the player break Twistzz posted a 1.14 rating, 0.71 kills per round and only 0.61 deaths per round all while playing for the best team in the world. The talent and situation are both incredible and the form is leaving nothing on the table for Twistzz. FaZe Clan will be hard-pressed to keep up their dominance from the first half of the year simply due to how incredible they were. There's a ton of room for regression that would still see FaZe Clan sit alone at the top of the world rankings.
Spinx
Vitality have a new member. This is a roster that had issues. They had a true superstar in ZywOo but seemingly lacked the firepower around him; well they're trying to remedy that now. Spinx was the superstar of ENCE before departing the team, making a case for himself among the top players in the world early in the season. There is risk here though - over the past three months Spinx has actually been below average while ENCE have struggled. I tend to think his head was turned by Vitality and he wasn't giving it his all, because when he's on his talent is unstoppable. The fall-off is extremely noticeable though. Over them past 12 months - 1.15 rating, 0.64 deaths per round with a 1.16 Impact score. Over the past three months - 1.02 rating, 0.68 deaths per round, 0.99 Impact score. With ZywOo taking the attention on Vitality it's up to Spinx to show he is a true superstar rifler.
Players to Fade
HooXi
The newest member of G2 Esports and their new in-game leader, replacing Aleksib, is HooXi. Coming over from Copenhagen Flames where he had some incredible success, the veteran in-game leader will hope to lead yet another team into the top five of the world rankings. HooXi has always been more of a coach on the server than anything else, with some of the worst individual numbers in all of pro play, including a 0.76 rating and 0.47 kills per round in the last three months.
JT
The only reason HooXi is "just" one of the worst individual numbers in pro play is JT. The in-game leader for Complexity is simply awful individually with a 0.85 rating in the easier North American region and just 0.54 kills per round. JT might bring plenty of things off the server to keep himself on teams as one of North America's top in-game leaders, but he offers very little for fantasy managers. Add to that the fact that Complexity sit among the bottom teams at the tournament and it's hard to see a path to fantasy relevance for JT, or really any member of Complexity.
HexT
The newest member of Evil Geniuses, HexT, is playing his first major international event and has a good chance of being entirely outclassed. To put it frankly his numbers in the second and third tier of North America weren't overly impressive. 1.05 rating, 0.69 kills per round and 0.71 deaths per round wouldn't be show-stopping numbers in international play let alone against semi-pro teams in North America. Well he gets to open his international career against FaZe Clan. There is little more to be said, everyone on Evil Geniuses is a fade heading into BLAST Premier Groups 2022, but HexT is the fadiest of the fades.
Stats courtesy of HLTV.org
