Michael McGhee takes a look at the last five of the 10 CS:S players he see's as the most over rated in the history of the game.

Well that was interesting... After publishing the first part of my ten most overrated players article I knew that people would disagree and it would cause some debate but I didn't quite expect the response it got. The crowd went completely wild, throwing venomous jibes and angry insults at myself for being so misinformed, hell even the players took it badly, with one going 'full tilt' in the comments section and another threatening me with a law suit.

Unfortunately due to the revolutionary court ruling earlier this week won by Duke Breen the media are no longer able to print the names of players it portrays in a negative light. That affects us too I'm afraid and in particular this article, as such you're going to have to guess who the players are from the descriptions. I know I know, that means actually reading the article but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Back in the early days of CS:S the Finnish scene was considered one of the strongest in Europe with heaps of talented youngsters eager to make a mark on the wider European scene. This freakishly ginger haired man was one of those many youngsters having started playing CS:S alongside the now famous Sami 'Samitsky' Kuivala; giving the now eXelon star his first taste of competitive play by picking him up for his team. Afterwards the two players took very different paths, as Sami grew in stature amongst his countrymen the very opposite happened to our man, who became something of a villain in the Finnish scene.

After years of playing his first big break came when he was playing alongside Estonian team Defining Stars when old friend Samitsky decided to give him a chance to prove his worth as a player at the top end of the European scene, picking him up as a replacement for National Service bound Juha 'aNGeldusT' Kurppa in Team Logitech.fi. Sadly the team failed to live up to expectations and never quite scaled the dizzy heights that people thought they would and before long the team had been branded with the "onliner" tag, consistently choking when the pressure was on.

Despite the failure to replicate his online form at LAN events he managed to build a cult following amongst Europeans and was always considered one of the better Finnish players in recent times. His inability to perform when it mattered most came to light once more at TeX 09' when up against Swedish side Vitriolic in the upper bracket and again against Team Dignitas in the lower bracket. A 4th place finish for the team was almost solely down to the fantastic performances of Olli "kononen" Salmi and Ole-Christian "gem" Slaattene.

Shortly after the event the team parted ways and our player went into a year long hiatus, choosing to step back from competitive play. He made a return around a year later alongside Team Excello - the side who would later go on to join CKRAS - but it was clear that he wasn't up to the other players standard and a few months later found himself out in the cold. Despite being nothing more than an above average player down the lines he has been given the opportunity to join numerous top tier teams and to this day carries a cult following of fans who believe him to be one of the best Finnish players of his era, something that couldn't be further from the truth.

The second American to be entered into the list is one that most probably wouldn't expect, after all to many he is one of the best AWP players to grace the American scene and the impact he made during the CGS was enough to secure his team qualification to the World Finals not once but twice. Still, was he really as good as people make out? In my humble opinion he wasn't. Hailing from the West Coast of the US he broke onto the scene with Devastation alongside the likes of Rich 'sauce' Cannon and Steven "Sasquatch" Csikos. After impressing hugely during his time with the team as well as a strong performance at the CGI 07 event with Hyper! he was recruited by the mighty verGe Gaming.

It was with verGe that he would make a name for himself as one of the biggest impact players in the States, pulling out big performances against top opposition, however his biggest issue - as with most impact players - was doing it consistently, something he struggled to do for a number of years. For every fantastic performance there was an awful one, a pattern even documented by our very own Dr.Gonzo later in his career in an article published on Gotfrag. Another issue was his inability to stay with a team for any length of time, constantly jumping from lineup to lineup, representing numerous organisations including verGe, Hyper!, flow, Heroic, Pandemic and zomblerz before the CGS.

Before the CGS came to town our man joined up with the former Pandemic 1.6 squad in the hope of doing well at the CGS Combine. Despite him and his team being decidedly average they were taken on board by Mark Dolven, GM of the Carolina Core. Throughout his time in the CGS he was bettered as an AWPer by the likes of Danny 'fRoD' Montanner and Eric 'brawwwwrski' Neer, something many people tend to forget. Their reasoning for forgetting? Why it's those frag clips in Youtube.

Season One of the CGS saw him shoot to fame thanks to a spectacular deagle shot on de_inferno whilst the second season saw him do something even more incredible, once more in the pit of de_inferno. Those two frags gave birth to the huge following he has now and according to various reports the god complex that was instilled in the player in the aftermath. In truth, he was not on the level of the other top AWP players in the CGS, he stood out because the rest of his teammates were sub-par - not counting the solid and at times fantastic DAFF - and he is remembered for hitting two shots which, for the most part were nothing but luck.

One of the better American AWP players down the years he most definitely is, however to speak of him in the same breath as the likes of fRoD, RattlesnK, zid, brawwwr or nickn0it would be unfair.

Now here is a difficult one to include. Many people will claim he isn't really rated whilst others will say he is deserving of the credit he gets. For me though he will go down in history as one of the most overhyped players in the UK - mainly by his own hands. When he first broke onto the scene he was known as a loudmouth "racist" and as cocky as they come despite never achieving anything of note. Six years down the line and not much has changed as he remains the very same person that became a hate figure to most of the European scene and he remains a player who has failed to achieve much despite ample opportunity to do so.

His first foray into the top tier of UK CS:S was with a team titled Room26 alongside the likes of Ben 'Ben0' Balcome and Kyle 'fataL' Mardell - another player who had built up a reputation as arrogant and obnoxious. Soon after he was given the chance to become a fully fledged member of Zboard, a team who were at the time considered one of the best in the UK. Shortly after leaving Zboard he linked up with a number of different teams before finding a long term home with Reason Gaming. It was with Reason Gaming that he started to show people why he was being given a chance in these top teams with some strong performances, most notably at LAN79 where the team finished 4th despite having a last minute replacement in the shape of Lewis 'Hughsy' Hughes. The team were later picked up by 4kings but before long our man had decided to part ways with the team - despite them being shoe-ins for a spot in the CGS, a move which to this day people are still baffled by.

After leaving 4kings he spent a short time back at Zboard, finishing 3rd at i31 before he decided to take a break from competitive gaming, missing the entire first season of the CGS. Before long he was back though and playing alongside CGS Franchise London MiNT - the team he left in the run up to the first CGS Combine - in place of Tom 'beta' Hanna. He would remain part of London Mint for the second season of the CGS before it was announced that it would be closing down, after which he joined team Crack Clan, backed by his former London Mint manager Ben Woodward.

Crack Clan was a team featuring some of the best players in Europe and led by a player many consider one of the best callers in the game yet time and time again they would fail to live up to expectations. A 5th place finish at i36 - where they lost out to 4kings in overtime - was followed by a disappointing 4th at LAN79 and 2nd at the Alienware Area-51 Pro Challenge - tournament featuring only 4 teams, two of which were ill prepared mix teams. To be fair to our player he was Crack Clan's stand out performer at the event but that, to my knowledge has been his only notable event in terms of performance.

To this day he is regarded as one of the best ever UK players despite only having won his first 'major' event last month at i42. During his time with Reason Gaming the main man was Henry 'HenryG' Greer, alongside London MiNT it was George 'hudzG' Hoskins whilst in Crack Clan it was either Erik 'HaZ' Holm or Lewis 'Hughsy' Hughes picking up the slack yet his own - and his fans - delusions of grandeur lead him to believe that not only is he the best player in the world, but the best player ever, a statement that couldn't be further from the truth.

This one is certain to have opinion split down the middle. For every fan of the super Swede there is a critic, much like Marmite depending on who you speak to he is either the best player to ever grace the game or the most overhyped player there has been. There is no denying that the former Reason Gaming, Check-Six and Stockholm Magnetik player had talent, his aim was arguably the best in Europe in his prime yet even now, 3 years after he has quit playing he is heralded as the best rifle player to touch the game, a statement I cannot bring myself to agree with.

He started out as an Enemy Territory player before making the switch to CS:S. His first major international team was Reason Gaming alongside countryman Erik 'HaZ' Holm - someone I see as twice the player of the man in question - and three Englishmen. During his time with Reason Gaming he earned a reputation as one of the best point men in the game, constantly working picks and putting big numbers on the board in online performances.

His defining moment came during the i29 CS:S tournament where he lay waste to most teams in his path but when up against the mighty temp.css him and his team could do little to stop the Dutch powerhouse, finishing second place overall. Shortly after the tournament it was announced that Reason Gaming would be going all-UK, leaving the two Swedes to find a new home. It didn't take them long to find a new home in the shape of Check-Six, an all Swedish roster which on paper looked like one of the strongest in Europe.

Shortly after helping his team to a second place finish at LAN79 our man was left out in the cold once more, this time because of his age and the fact he was too young to compete in the CGS. After a lengthy break from the game he returned in time for the second CGS Combine alongside Stockholm Magnetik, a move that came about thanks to his past ties with one of the teams key men Erik 'HaZ' Holm. His return was met with widespread excitement from the many fans he had built up during his brief but brilliant spell in the game before his time out but at the Combine he failed to deliver.

Despite having a pretty poor event he was picked up by Stockholm Magnetik to take part in the second season of the CGS but no matter how much time or effort he put into the game he failed to recapture the form he had just a year previous, the two stand out players being Erik 'HaZ' Holm and Louis 'RED' Nyberg. Shortly after the demise of the CGS he disappeared from the scene once more, going back to play Enemy Territory and the odd mix when time allows. There is no denying that he will go down as one of the most gifted players to pick up a mouse, but to put him on the same pedestal as the likes of Quint 'Blaze' Speirenburg, Erik 'HaZ' Holm, Richard 'shox' Papilon or Pete 'pt' Wright would be completely wrong.

One of the many German players to win over a huge following in his home country despite failing to perform at LAN on numerous occassions. He rose to fame as part of Alternate aTTaX, the German side who, at their peek, were considered one of the best in Europe and the best in their country by a fair distance. The teams first major International event was the SGHOpen in Denmark back in 2007, it would be the event that gave birth to the nickname Alt+Tab aTTaX after one of the players was found to be using the well known bug during their consolidation final match against Logitech.fi.

Originally the team were disqualified from the tournament, losing their third place finish but upon revising the situation the admins decided to award them the third place finish they had earned. From that point on the pressure was on for the team, and this player in particular to prove they were legitimate players. The teams next chance to do that was at LAN79, however they were dumped by all-UK side Reason Gaming twice during the elimination stages to finish a disappointing 5/6th. That feat was repeated a year later at LAN79 2008 where once more the team were disappointing.

Despite a number of poor performances at major LAN events the team were almost unchallenged in their home country, winning the ESL Pro Series seasons 9, 10 and 12. This was enough to see them kept on and enough to see the player hailed by fans in Germany as one of the best in Europe. After being dropped by Alternate aTTaX he linked up with arguably the third best team in Germany, Hoorai.Xilence before later joining up with mTw shortly after their win in the 14th season of the EPS.

Once more he found himself playing for the best team in Germany despite never really proving his worth on an international scale, being out-shot consistently by other teams more experienced and altogether better AWP players. To this day he remains one of Germany's biggest players and currently resides under the mousesports organisation, it's beyond me how he's lasted so long.