In newly fledged esports such as Fornite, pro players being in their early teens is a pretty regular occurrence. But with an older game like CS:GO which has a well-established professional scene, not so much.
That is unless you’re Ilya ‘m0NESY’ Osipov, the 14-year-old Russian CS:GO player who has just landed himself a spot in the FACEIT Pro League. The youngster, who is currently a trialist for Natus Vincere’s youth team, will be thrown in with other upcoming talent and established pros after earning himself an invite to FPL Europe.
Predicted to be a future star in the CS:GO scene and even dubbed “S1mple 2.0” by some, m0NESY was scouted by Na’Vi and picked up in January as a trialist. Despite only being 14, he has amassed over a year of play time (8,808 hours) on CS:GO, according to his Steam profile, and has even put almost 3,000 hours into another Valve title, Dota 2. He may be young, but he knows how to grind.
I GOT IT. THANKS FOR EVERYONE, I LOVE YOU <3 <3 <# pic.twitter.com/k7y9rIHzdl
— Ilya Osipov (@m0NESY13) March 15, 2020
How the prodigy will get on against some FPL regulars remains to be seen, but the fact that a player in his early teens is at such a high level on a game that was released years before they were even born speaks volumes.
Despite Counter-Strike being a game that is two decades old now, its playerbase has just surpassed the 1 million mark and is at its highest levels ever.
