With xelex officially "graduating" from the HLTV rookie ranking, the competition for the top position has seen new developments.
Dawy, a rifleman from Ukraine, has successfully risen to first place, surpassing kl1m, who previously ranked second and was also the focus of HLTV's last "Rising Star" feature. Dawy had previously impressed during the EWC open qualifiers and has finally completed his journey from the first "Rising Star" list last year to the top spot.
It is worth mentioning that in HLTV's 11 recent editions of the New Stars Ranking, a total of 7 players have never dropped off the list, with 4 of them currently occupying the top 5 positions. As a "veteran" on this list, Dawy rose to second place as early as January this year, later briefly fell out of the top ten, and has now fought his way back to the top of the rankings.
Xeedo from K27 is the only latecomer in this edition's top five. He first entered the rankings in January this year but has steadily climbed since then, now reaching a personal best at second place.
Close behind are kl1m, along with two Swedish players MaiL09 and poiii.
The newly joined Liquid sniper Jorko has entered the top ten for the first time this season, and his performance so far has already made quite an impression.
Meanwhile, gr1ks has also made a strong comeback into the top ten after being absent from the rankings for several months. This BIG player previously achieved a 1.58 Rating in the EWC qualifiers, helping his team successfully advance to the main event.
Botpa1, ranked 22nd, also continues the hot streak from last month. He posted a 1.39 rating in helping Omega secure another championship, while his teammate Aldikon achieved a 1.43 rating in their team's victory at another Kazakhstan LAN event, currently placing 29th.
Other players who have made significant ranking leaps include tikuak, who is gradually integrating into The MongolZ, and tex1y, who achieved a 1.27 Rating at the Moscow Cyber Games.
In the Australian region, sliimey continued to deliver performance significantly outperforming other players. He achieved a 1.36 Rating in August, thus entering the top 20 of the rankings for the first time.
ayuki from Nuclear TigeRES has also seen a steady rise in rankings. He previously helped the team secure victory in the NODWIN Clutch Series 10 and has performed well in multiple offline events over the past month.
Another new face to watch is tired73. The 17-year-old Ukrainian player currently has 4293 FACEIT ELO, with a rating of 1.26 over the past six months.
Graduate contestants
Compared to August, two top ten players have officially "graduated" from this month's rankings, namely xelex and JBOEN.
In addition, AW, Zero, lattykk, mo0N, and Ltz will no longer appear on the Newcomer List.
As HLTV now reassesses players' eligibility for the rising star list every month, young players on the list will appear less frequently in top-tier tournaments in the future.
In the past, some young players could remain on the rankings even as they gradually adapted to top-tier competition; nowadays, with monthly qualification updates, they "graduate" more quickly once they accumulate enough experience at the highest level.
Therefore, more spotlight moments after the Newcomer list may come from smaller offline events or competitions like the EWC's massive final qualifier. As the rankings are continually updated, the overall maturity of top-tier players might dip slightly, though HLTV views this as a deliberate trade-off to keep the list fresh.
As of August 31, 2026, the qualification criteria for the HLTV Rising Stars ranking are as follows:
· Under the age of 21
· Big Events require less than 50 maps played
· Played fewer than 50 maps while being part of a top 20 world team and competing against top 20 teams
· When playing for a top 30 world team and facing top 30 teams, the number of maps played is fewer than 100
· Played for a top 50 team in the world and competed against top 50 teams, with fewer than 300 maps played
· Total maps in career less than 1000
It is important to note that HLTV now rechecks player eligibility every month when the Rising Stars list is updated.
Data Insights: Who can truly change the round?
This month's scatter plot uses a brand-new data set—Round Swing.
With HLTV now able to obtain Round Swing data for each round, they can further calculate "the ratio of negative Swing rounds" and "the ratio of rounds with a Swing over 20%", thereby observing which young players consistently have a significant impact on round outcomes.
The reason HLTV chose 20% as one of the criteria is that when a player contributes more than 20% positive Swing in a single round, their team wins about 90% of these rounds.
One of the most prominent names is tired73. His stats during his time at WBT were impressive, but he has yet to face a top 50 team in official matches.
Another player worth noting is kralle. He performs exceptionally well in the 20%+ metric representing "explosive round impact," but at the same time, over 54% of rounds end with a negative Swing. This "high-risk, high-reward" data distribution is not surprising for such an aggressive rifler.
In comparison, the purple passive rifleman in the image tends to be more left-leaning overall. For example, syph0 has less than half of their rounds ending with a negative Swing, while still managing to maintain a decent explosive impact.
Snipers overall perform quite well under this set of metrics, with b1st and Alkaren, who once faded from view, being the closest to the right-upper area where tired73 is located.
HLTV's Top Picks This Month
HLTV's first selection this time is MaiL09 as a player who is close to "taking the next step".
He performed exceptionally well during his time with Alliance, though the transition to Metizport proved slightly more challenging. However, judging by his performance in the Challenger League, he is gradually adapting to stanislaw's system. Give him a few more months, and this FACEIT prodigy might well be ready for Big Events.
xeedo is one of the many star riflers from the Russian-speaking region on the list. Despite the exceptionally fierce competition among young players of this type, he still managed to prove himself and is regarded by HLTV as one of the most promising talents to watch.
The third recommended slot went to Alkaren. Due to visa issues, his previous tenure with HEROIC was not smooth, but HLTV believes he still possesses the potential that initially attracted HEROIC. Currently on loan to CYBERSHOKE, he is gradually regaining his competitive form.
And in the bolder "dark horse recommendations," HLTV selected North American player WUMBO, along with Europe's ayuki and tired73.
With players like Xelex "graduating" one after another, the HLTV rising star list is also undergoing a new round of reshuffling. Among these young players, who do you think is most likely to become the next rising star to truly establish themselves in the top-tier competition?