xertioN ranked above NiKo at #16

Israeli rifler Dorian "xertioN" Berman has secured the #16 spot in HLTV's Top 20, marking his second consecutive appearance after debuting ay #14 last year. After his breakthrough 2024 campaign, xertioN maintained his numbers despite MOUZ's turbulent season that saw roster changes and near-misses at big trophies. MOUZ's rifler collected two EVPs at big events and another at the Elite IEM Chengdu, alongside strong showings at both Majors, cementing his spot in the Top 20 despite some inconsistency in the biggest matches.

MOUZ's start to 2025 wasn't so great. They crashed out of the BLAST Bounty Spring 2025: Closed Qualifier and then had a disappointing early exit at IEM Katowice 2025 but that was the last of it. Bringing in Spinx to replace siuhy immediately paid off for MOUZ as they took down the star-studded Falcons to secure an S-tier win at PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025. With a 1.09 tournament rating and a KAST of 74.3%, xertioN bagged an EVP award for the event. xertioN came agonizingly close to extra EVPs at BLAST.tv Austin Major and IEM Cologne.

We could sense from the very first moment that we can win this year.
xertioN on Spinx's addition to MOUZ

MOUZ couldn't quite match their studio dominance with multiple trophy hauls in 2025, but xertioN still walked away with EVPs at PGL Cluj-Napoca and BLAST Bounty Season 2, capping it off with another at IEM Chengdu. At Chengdu, xertioN hardly dropped below elite level in groups and turned it up when MOUZ needed him most, including an insane 1.60 rating on Inferno against Vitality that nearly sent them to the grand final.

After a solid first half spent battling Vitality's legendary streak, MOUZ ran into consistency problems. While consistently clearing the group stages and making playoffs appearances, MOUZ would almost always fall flat in the playoffs, failing to go the distance. xertioN's standout map of the year came in MOUZ's semi-final upset over Vitality at IEM Cologne. An absolutely crushing 1.83 rating with a 12-0 opening K-D from xertioN saw MOUZ send Vitality home in the semi-final before conceding yet another grand-final.

xertioN's numbers are also ranked pretty high up, putting him in the top five under a number of statistical categories:

• 0.26 assists per round (#1)

• 3.15 attacks per round (#4)

• 82.1 damage per round (#5)

• 106.4 damage per round win (#5)

All things considered, xertioN's performances across a ton of big events while consistently making deep runs against some of the world's best teams earns him a comfortable spot in HLTV's Top 20. His grand final struggles kept him from climbing higher despite putting up impressive numbers in earlier games. For his bold prediction, xertioN picked 20-year old Russian player kl1m who is currently with MIBR. xertioN lauds the Russian rifler's mechanical skill, confidently stating that he would make it into the Top 20 sometime soon.

HLTV Top 20 (2025) so far:

• #16 xertioN

• #17 torzsi

• #18 NiKo

• #19 iM

• #20 b1t