If one were to flash back to North America pre 2015, then it would quickly become clear that North America was designated as Hiko’s domain. Ultimately, however, everybody’s time at the top has an expiry date, and upon Hiko’s natural decline in skills, no North American player managed to sufficiently replace the hole that he left in North American Counter Strike.

Rather than simply one player rising up to fill the gap at the top of the North American scene, over the past year and a half, multiple players have risen up from the dredges of the North American talent pool in order to lay claim to the top spot at various points in time. This article is an attempt to take a look at some of the young talent currently present at the lower end of the North American scene that can be seen as some of the future stars of North America.

Sick

The most exciting up and coming North American prospect is unequivocally Sick. Throughout the previous online season of North American Counter Strike, Sick continued to generate hype around himself through good performances online.

However the moment that he truly became the apple of the public’s eye was his performance at the ECS Season 1 finals. At the finals, despite battling some of the greatest players in Counter Strike history, Sick managed to finish the event with a 1.11 rating.

Within the TSM team itself, Sick functions as an entry fragger, utilizing his superb aim in order to win duels that normal professionals are not capable of doing.

While Sick has managed to show that he is an extremely proficient mechanical player, he has also shown his lack of game experience in tense situations and how that hampers him at the highest level. At ECS Season 1 Finals, Sick found himself struggling to an extreme degree when TSM came face-to-face with Luminosity Gaming in the semifinals.

In order for Sick to make the leap from being a simple rising star in North America to becoming an actual full-fledged star player within the region, it will require him to expand upon his experience and build more of an understanding on how to play the game optimally versus the highest level of competition. At this current moment, Sick can not truly be considered as a star player within his region, yet there is no doubt in my mind, in due time, that he could become one of the top players within North America.

Twistzz

Twistzz forms the second half of the rising star duo that currently exists within Team Solomid. Twistzz himself has not yet had a breakout LAN performance that can rival the one had by his teammate Sick, but he still has had his fair share of exciting moments on the server.

Throughout the previous online season of North American Counter Strike, Twistzz impressed to a significant degree. Displaying the type of skill set that reminds one of Swag in his early days, Twistzz has quickly climbed through the ranks of the North American scene and looks to be set to rise even further. Twistzz may have continuously climbed up the ladder in order to reach the point that he is currently at, but if he wishes to establish himself as a bona fide North American star player, then there still remains a ways to go.

Relyks

When Koosta departed from Selfless it appeared to the casual observer that the well had just gone dry. Much to the surprise of most of the North American scene was the fact that the well had not dried up. Relyks from Selfless has turned out to be one of the hottest properties in North America currently.

At ELeague’s group stages, Relyks’s full potential was on display to the rest of the world, and what a treat it was. Relyks dueled some of the hottest players in the world in the form of French superstars Shox and Scream, and still ended up finishing the group stages with a cumulative rating of 1.10.

Since then, Relyks has continued to play well both online and offline, currently sitting on a 1.11 rating after the first week of ESL Pro League Season 4. It is hard to predict whether a player is simply going through a good phase in his career or is truly on the path towards becoming a star. Be that as it may, it seems that it would not be a bad wager to place that Relyks could end up becoming the next North American star player.

Androidx23

The final player on this list is whose origin story is extremely similar to that of a pug (pick-up game) star. A large portion of the hype around Androidx23 has been generated due to his impressive performances in Rank S pugs, where he came seemingly out of nowhere and started dominating some of the best players in North America.

However, while Androidx23 has largely generated hype around himself through pugs, he has also had a few noteworthy performances on LAN. At ELeague group stages, he had a pair of maps versus Envyus and Gambit where he showed the type of player that he can be.

Despite this success, Androidx23 still had an overall lackluster event, and that largely speaks towards the lack of actual game experience. If Androidx23 wishes to become a top player within North America in the future, then that will require him to procure more experience in actual high level team-based Counter Strike.

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Images courtesy of HLTV.