All players

Classic configs. 2011–2015

The top 10 players of each year from 2011–2015, plus Cloud9 and iBUYPOWER in January 2015, with their CS:GO settings converted for CS2: the crosshair converted to the new crosshair system, sensitivity, viewmodel and the rest as console commands. Each config is dated and sourced; when nothing from the exact time is documented (or it can't be converted), the closest one is used and its date shown.

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 C9 & iBP · Jan 2015

Rankings: HLTV's Top 20 Players of the Year (2011, 2013-2015) and Esports Earnings' 2012 CS:GO prize money. Configs come from public archives of pro CS:GO configs (mostly game-written config.cfg files in setup.gg's GitHub archive) and Liquipedia's settings tables. A date comes from the settings a file contains (checked against Valve's release notes), from a date written in the file or on its source (a header comment, Liquipedia's "Updated as of"), or else from the archive's commit date as an upper bound; each page lists its sources and how each date is known.

2011

HLTV Top 20 Players of 2011 hltv.org 1, 2, 3

A CS 1.6 ranking (CS:GO came out in August 2012), so these are the players' CS:GO configs from later, each labelled with its date.

  1. #1NEO at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11NEOESC Gamingconfig 2014-04
  2. #2GeT_RiGhT at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11GeT_RiGhTSK Gamingconfig 2012-08
  3. #3markeloff at IEM Season VI Global Challenge Kyiv 2012, 2012-01-21markeloffNatus Vincereconfig 2015-03-12
  4. #4trace at WCG 2010 Grand Final, 2010-10-02tracemTwno CS:GO config documented
  5. #5f0rest at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11f0restSK Gamingconfig 2012-12-13
  6. #6TaZ at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11TaZESC Gamingconfig 2014
  7. #7Friis, 2011-09-15Friisfnaticconfig 2015-06-13
  8. #8karrigan at DreamHack Winter 2012, 2012-11-22karriganmousesportsconfig 2015
  9. #9Delpan at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11DelpanSK Gamingconfig 2015-04-22
  10. #10Gux at WCG 2009 Grand Final, 2009-11-14Guxfnaticno CS:GO config documented

2012

Esports Earnings: top CS:GO prize-money earners of 2012 esportsearnings.com

HLTV published no player ranking for 2012, the transition year from CS 1.6 to CS:GO. This list ranks CS:GO players by prize money won in 2012 (Esports Earnings), not by skill. Ranks 9 and 10 couldn't be verified, so they're left out.

  1. #1f0rest at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11f0restNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012-12-13
  2. #2GeT_RiGhT at IEM Season VI World Championship (CeBIT 2012), 2012-03-06GeT_RiGhTNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012-08
  3. #3Xizt at WCG 2010 Grand Final, 2010-10-02XiztNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012
  4. #4friberg at DreamHack Winter 2013, 2013-11fribergNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012-12-13
  5. #5Fifflaren at DreamHack Winter 2014, 2014-11FifflarenNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012
  6. #6NBK at IEM Chicago 2019, 2019-07-20NBKVeryGamesconfig 2014
  7. #7RpK at ESL European Nations Championship (team France)RpKVeryGamesconfig 2016-05-27
  8. #8SmithZz at G2 Esports video (YouTube), 2018-03-07SmithZzVeryGamesconfig 2013

2013

HLTV Top 20 Players of 2013 hltv.org 1, 2, 3
  1. #1GeT_RiGhT at IEM Season VI World Championship (CeBIT 2012), 2012-03-06GeT_RiGhTNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2014-10-11
  2. #2f0rest at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11f0restNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012
  3. #3shox at Podcast hosted by ocelote (YouTube), 2018-06-30shoxVeryGamesconfig 2014-07
  4. #4Dosia at World Cyber Games 2011 Grand Final (Moscow Five medal ceremony), 2011-12-11DosiaAstana Dragonsconfig 2013
  5. #5NBK at IEM Chicago 2019, 2019-07-20NBKVeryGamesconfig 2014
  6. #6Xizt at WCG 2010 Grand Final, 2010-10-02XiztNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2012
  7. #7ScreaM, 2013-05ScreaMVeryGamesconfig 2014
  8. #8JW at DreamHack Winter 2014 (quarterfinal vs Team LDLC.com), 2014-11JWfnaticconfig 2013
  9. #9Hiko at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-21HikocompLexity Gamingconfig 2014
  10. #10GuardiaN at DreamHack Leipzig 2016, 2016-01-23GuardiaNNatus Vincereconfig 2014-07

2014

HLTV Top 20 Players of 2014 hltv.org 1, 2, 3
  1. #1GeT_RiGhT at ESL One Cologne 2016, 2016-07-05GeT_RiGhTNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2014-10-11
  2. #2flusha at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, 2015-10-28flushafnaticconfig 2013
  3. #3pashaBiceps at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-21pashaBicepsVirtus.proconfig 2014
  4. #4Snax at MLG Columbus 2016, 2016-03-31SnaxVirtus.proconfig 2013
  5. #5JW at DreamHack Winter 2014 (quarterfinal vs Team LDLC.com), 2014-11JWfnaticconfig 2014
  6. #6kennyS at Podcast hosted by Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez (YouTube), 2018-06-30kennySTitanconfig 2014-04
  7. #7f0rest at WCG 2011 Grand Final, 2011-12-11f0restNinjas in Pyjamasconfig 2014-11-07
  8. #8shox at Podcast hosted by ocelote (YouTube), 2018-06-30shoxLDLCconfig 2014-07
  9. #9KRiMZ at IEM Season X World Championship (Katowice 2016), 2016-03-06KRiMZfnaticconfig 2014
  10. #10Happy at DreamHack Open Tours 2017, 2017-05-06HappyLDLCconfig 2013

2015

HLTV Top 20 Players of 2015 hltv.org 1, 2, 3
  1. #1olofmeister at IEM Season X World Championship (Katowice 2016), 2016-03-06olofmeisterfnaticconfig 2015
  2. #2GuardiaN at DreamHack Leipzig 2016, 2016-01-23GuardiaNNatus Vincereconfig 2015-06-15
  3. #3device at DreamHack Leipzig 2016, 2016-01-23deviceTeam SoloMidconfig 2014
  4. #4Snax at MLG Columbus 2016, 2016-03-31SnaxVirtus.proconfig 2013
  5. #5flusha at DreamHack Open Cluj-Napoca 2015, 2015-10-28flushafnaticconfig 2016-08-08
  6. #6kennyS at Podcast hosted by Carlos "ocelote" Rodríguez (YouTube), 2018-06-30kennySTeam EnVyUsconfig 2014-04
  7. #7KRiMZ at IEM Season X World Championship (Katowice 2016), 2016-03-06KRiMZfnaticconfig 2014
  8. #8Happy at DreamHack Open Tours 2017, 2017-05-06HappyTeam EnVyUsconfig 2015-02-01
  9. #9NBK at IEM Chicago 2019, 2019-07-20NBKTeam EnVyUsconfig 2015
  10. #10JW at DreamHack Winter 2014 (quarterfinal vs Team LDLC.com), 2014-11JWfnaticconfig 2014

Cloud9 and iBUYPOWER

January 2015 gosugamers.net 1, 2, cybersport.ru

North America's two leading teams at the start of 2015. On 15 December 2014 Cloud9 swapped Hiko for ShahZaM and Hiko joined iBUYPOWER, which had just brought back DaZeD. On 5 January the iBUYPOWER five left the organisation and played on as GX until late January, when Valve banned DaZeD, swag and AZK, along with former teammate steel, over a match the 2014 iBUYPOWER team had thrown. steel, who had left in November 2014, is listed with them.

Cloud9

  1. C9n0thing at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-21n0thingCloud9config 2013
  2. C9seang@res at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-21seang@resCloud9config 2017-01-15
  3. C9shroud at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-21shroudCloud9config 2014-07
  4. C9Semphis at ESWC 2014, 2014-10-30SemphisCloud9config 2013
  5. C9ShahZaM at Americas Minor, ELEAGUE Major Boston 2018 qualifier (Toronto), 2017-11-05ShahZaMCloud9config 2015-05-11

iBUYPOWER

  1. iBPAZK, 2013-01-18AZKiBUYPOWERconfig 2014
  2. iBPDaZeD, 2013-04-17DaZeDiBUYPOWERconfig 2014
  3. iBPHiko at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-21HikoiBUYPOWERconfig 2014
  4. iBPSkadoodle at IEM San Jose 2015, 2015-11-22SkadoodleiBUYPOWERconfig 2016-05-27
  5. iBPswag at Gfinity 2014 Summer Masters (album "Gfinity 3 (08/2014)"), 2014-08swagiBUYPOWERconfig 2016
  6. iBPsteeliBUYPOWER until November 2014config 2014-07
Photo credits 41

Freely licensed photos from Wikimedia Commons and Flickr, cropped to fit; the photo closest to each entry's time is used.