The all-new rookie rankings for this season have kicked off, with xelex taking the top spot after winning the BLAST Bounty Season 2 championship with MOUZ.
Following our summer update to the eligibility criteria, a total of 31 players graduated from the previous leaderboard, including xKacpersky and dziugss, who have long occupied the top positions on the list.
However, starting in August, the graduation mechanism will be processed on a monthly basis. Participants will graduate as soon as they exceed our eligibility limit, rather than being updated every six months per season.
This should help keep the top 10 fresh with each update and prevent players that fans are already familiar with from staying on the list for too long. Therefore, although xelex currently tops the list, he may not remain in this position for long as MOUZ plays more maps against top-tier opponents.
Players like JBOEN, who have already turned 21 after S2 ended, will also be eliminated as the new mechanism takes effect next month. Below is a reminder of the complete eligibility criteria:
HLTV Prospects Eligibility Criteria (effective from August 1, 2026):
Under 21 years old
Played fewer than 50 maps in major tournaments
Top 20 teams vs. top 20 teams with fewer than 50 maps played
Fewer than 100 maps played in Top 30 vs Top 30 matchups
Played fewer than 300 maps as a top 50 team against top 50 teams.
Total career maps less than 1,000
Looking further down the August rankings, kl1m, currently teamless after a successful loan stint with MIBR, ranks second, while Dawy takes third place.
K27 duo xeedo and qw1nk1 both finished in the top six, while Swedish rising stars MaiL09 and poiii both placed in the top seven.
JBOEN and Jorko made blockbuster summer transfers to FaZe and Liquid respectively, and both got off to a strong start, propelling them rapidly up the rankings.
This month, many other rookies also left their mark on the offline stage, from Kazakhstan's tasman to Russia's b1st, and Australia's sliimey.
22 of the players in our top 50 did not appear in last month's ranking update, and among these new faces, the fastest climber is Botpa1 (ranked 21st), who has been in excellent form for Omega, posting a 1.20 LAN Rating across 20 maps over the past month.
In terms of regional representation, Western Europe has n0te, while Marsborne's teammates ogwizard and WUMBO carry the flag for North America.
Russia leads with 15 competitors, Denmark has 8, Kazakhstan has 6, and Ukraine and Brazil each have 4.
Players who just missed out on the top 50 include rud, Joey, tired73, and rim3.
Data Overview
In this month's scatter plot, we decided to examine the performance differences of our rookies when the team wins or loses a round.
Snipers like b1st, Aldikon, and Alkaren (with a relatively small sample size) perform strongly in rounds won but poorly in rounds lost, suggesting some costly deaths.
Meanwhile, our more passive riflemen performed well in lost rounds, such as ayuki and nut nut, but they didn't contribute much in terms of KPRW.
In the top right corner, we see the players who deliver high damage output when winning rounds while avoiding unnecessary deaths when losing them: kl1m, sliimey, Dawy, and St0m4k are among the standouts.
Best Recommendations for Each Position
St0m4k was also mentioned in our Best Player Recommendations by Position segment. He has been released from HEROIC's academy. He is currently competing for 9INE at Stake Pulse, but officially remains a free agent, with a 1.16 rating over the past three months.
Botpa1's performance in Kazakhstan also earned him a spot, while we selected Junyme as our promising sniper prospect, who previously delivered some solid performances for the G2 Ares academy team.
Our top recommendation is the CIS trio of flouzer, syph0, and b1st, whose Rating against top 50 teams and at LAN events has exceeded 1.10 over the past six months.
Transfer News
kl1m remains on the G2 Ares substitute bench, with no transfer news at the moment.
MaiL09 returns to Metizport
Jorko joined Liquid
nut nut was tagged by ECSTATIC
lattykk was benched after 1win acquired TDK.
Alkaren returns to CYBERSHOKE on loan.
tikuak has been signed by The MongolZ
St0m4k, who is currently on trial for 9INE, along with the remaining members of the HEROIC Academy youth roster, have all been released.
cej0t transfers to Phantom