About the cards

How ratings work

Every card has a hidden 1–99 rating. Here's what goes into it, why some big names are traps, and where the numbers come from.

What's a card?

A card is one player, at one team, in one year: "Crusher · Phoenix Connexion · 2010" or "Kurt · Elite Crew · 2016". The same player can have several cards from different stretches of their career, and each one has its own rating.

During the auction you only see the name, team, year, role, flag and era. The rating and tier stay hidden until the hammer falls. Knowing the scene is the whole game.

The 1–99 rating

Each card scores four things about that player's year, each from 0 to 1. They're blended with the weights below:

What counts	Other roles	IGL
Stats The player's rating for the year, compared with others in the same role. If we don't have a trusted number, it's left out and the other three share its weight.	45%	25%
Top 20 placing Where they finished in HLTV's Top 20 players of the year. #1–#3 stand well clear of #10. Before the list existed, and for solid players just outside it, we use a curated estimate on the same scale.	30%	15%
Trophies Majors won (in the 1.6 days: CPL, WCG, ESWC and IEM world titles), other big titles, and MVP or EVP awards.	15%	35%
Team strength How high their team was ranked that year. A #2 team counts for clearly more than a #10 team.	10%	25%

IGLs are weighted differently: their stats count for less, while trophies and team results count for more. A caller's job is to win, not to top the scoreboard.

The blended score is stretched onto a 50–99 scale, so the very best years reach 99 and an average pro year lands in the 60s or 70s. A few cards get a small hand adjustment when the numbers miss the story.

Ratings are relative to the role, so a great support or IGL can be gold too. Every squad needs exactly one of each.

Tiers

S · 90–99
A · 82–89
B · 74–81
C · 65–73
D · 1–64

Every rating maps to a tier, and the tier sets the card's metal once the hammer falls: gold for S (90+) and A, silver for B, bronze for C and D. S and C are the rare versions, with a striped finish. Gold S cards are the legendary years, and only a small share of the deck.

Best year only

Within any run of back-to-back years, only the player's best year makes the deck. Nobody has to guess between two neighbouring seasons of the same player.

So if Crusher had great seasons in 2010 and 2011, only the better one makes the deck. Years far apart, like Vinny 2013 and Vinny 2022, stay separate cards.

Trap cards

Some cards are a famous player's weak year, at least 20 points below their best: a fallen star past their prime, or a future legend before the fame. Every round has at least one. After the hammer the card shows where that player peaked:

📉 Peaked at 95 with Phoenix Connexion in 2013

Legends and Hall of Fame

Two honours appear on a card only after the hammer, with the rating. ★ Legend marks a season in HLTV's Top 3 players of the year (HLTV's list starts in 2010). Hall of Fame marks every card of a player inducted into the HLTV Hall of Fame.

Legend seasons get a black-and-gold card. Hall of Fame players get a holographic one, which wins when a card is both.

Eras

1.6
1999–2011
1.6 and the early years. Trophies here mean CPL, WCG, ESWC and IEM world titles.
CS:GO
2012–2023
The CS:GO era. 2023 counts here because the Paris Major was played on CS:GO.
CS2
2024 onward
Counter-Strike 2.

A few examples

Made-up cards — classic CS bot names on fictional teams — so nothing real gets spoiled: one per tier, plus two traps. Every real rating stays hidden until the hammer.

Card	Role	Rating
Crusher Phoenix Connexion · 2010	AWPer	97 S
Kurt Elite Crew · 2016	IGL	86 A
Moe Arctic Avengers · 2004	Support	78 B
Shark Guerilla Warfare · 2019	Lurker	69 C
Ringo The Professionals · 2024	Entry	58 D
Vinny Balkan Syndicate · 2022 📉 Peaked at 95 with Phoenix Connexion in 2013	Entry	62 D
Gunner Separatists · 2008 📈 Went on to 93 with Elite Crew in 2012	AWPer	64 D
Blitz Guerilla Warfare · 2015	Entry	92 S
Snake Arctic Avengers · 2007	AWPer	95 S

Where the numbers come from

Ratings come from a hand-curated list of 363 cards: Top 20 placings, trophies, awards and team rankings, run through the published formula above.

They are not live HLTV stats, and they don't change mid-game. Ratings are our take on each year, so expect some debate.

Think a card is wrong? Report it on GitHub, or tell the project owner if you can't open the link.

Formula v1. Not affiliated with Valve or HLTV. Counter-Strike is a trademark of Valve Corporation.