Esports analyst Duncan “Thorin” Shields has stated that Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov will be among the top three players in the world in 2025 player rankings.
Sh1ro will take third place in the 2025 top player ranking. Your brains are fighting this statement: ‘But he won’t be in the top three! Will he be stronger than m0NESY or NiKo?’ I didn’t say anything like that. I said that the rankings will place him higher than those players.
And here’s how it will be. Donk will take first place – it’s simple, everyone sees it, if Spirit doesn’t fail at tournaments. Second place will go to ZywOo: Vitality has a very good roster that will surely reach many finals. And then there’s the problem with NiKo and m0NESY.
I believe that m0NESY’s team is finished. I don’t know what should happen to this lineup… If he leaves, it’s not a fact that he will even make the top 20, he might not be lucky with a new team. In any case, G2 will not achieve high results, so it will be difficult for m0NESY to get into symbolic teams from 5-8 places. Falcons, maybe, will also reach the playoffs, but we don’t know how exactly the ranking is compiled – are such successes enough for NiKo to get into the top. Meanwhile, sh1ro with Spirit will surely perform in a bunch of finals, they will be the best team of the year, or at least take second place.
Shields added that, besides m0NESY and NiKo, sh1ro has practically no direct competitors in the fight for the top 3 in the yearly player rankings.
Sh1ro will get his stats. He is a very stable player who only loses to the best in the world. To beat him, you need someone at ZywOo’s level. In this, he is similar to device, who defeated anyone who was below him in the ranking.
At the end of the year, there will be other candidates for the top 3. Ropz will win rounds, but will he get better stats than sh1ro? Probably not. Moreover, among snipers, sh1ro doesn’t have many competitors claiming the top 3. He always has an AWP because donk almost never tries to take this role, and magixx is also in the team: ‘I am SANJI, do you need an AWP, sir?’.
In 2024, sh1ro took sixth place in the player rankings. Then, the top three included Danil “donk” Kryshkovets, Ilya “m0NESY” Osipov, and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut.
