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NEO
Current team
Team	FaZe Clan
Role	Coach
Game	Counter-Strike 2
Personal information
Name	Filip Kubski
Nickname(s)	nijo
Born	(1987-06-15) June 15, 1987 (age 37)
Nationality	Polish
Career information
Games	Counter-Strike Counter-Strike: Global Offensive Counter-Strike 2
Playing career	2000–2023
Coaching career	2023–present
Team history
2004–2007	Pentagram G-Shock
2007–2009	MeetYourMakers
2009	Wicked eSports
2009	Vitriolic
2009–2010	AGAiN
2010–2011	Frag eXecutors
2011	AGAiN
2011–2013	ESC Gaming
2013	Universal Soldiers
2013–2014	AGAiN
2014–2019	Virtus.pro
2019	FaZe Clan (Trial)
2020	ARCY
2020–2023	Honoris
As coach:
2023–present	FaZe Clan
Career highlights and awards
CS:GO Major champion (Katowice 2014)

Filip Borys Kubski (born June 15, 1987), better known as NEO, is a Polish professional Counter-Strike 2 coach and former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike player. NEO is considered to be one of the best players in Counter-Strike history. He was also one of the "Golden Five" group of Polish CS players. Most recently he was the coach for FaZe Clan. He has played for Virtus.pro, AGAiN, Universal Soldiers, ESC Gaming, Frag eXecutors, Vitriolic, Wicked eSports, Meet Your Makers, and Pentagram G-Shock. Kubski has been playing professionally since 2004.

NEO is considered to be a mechanically gifted player, with an intelligent mind for the game. Kubski is also considered to be very good at Counter-Strike 1.6's in-game movement, which makes him difficult to counter. In 2010, HLTV users voted Kubski the greatest Counter-Strike player of the decade. He also won the eSports Award for eSports Player of the Year in 2007 and 2008, and was rated by HLTV.org as the best player of 2011.

Counter-Strike 1.6 career

NEO first started playing Counter-Strike at the age of 12. NEO wandered around some Polish teams before joining Pentagram G-Shock, along with what has been called the "Golden Five" lineup of Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, Łukasz "LUq" Wnęk, Mariusz "Loord" Cybulski, and Jakub "kuben" Gurczyński. With this lineup, they won 4 majors, World Cyber Games 2006, ESWC 2007, ESWC 2008, and WCG 2009. Even though there were no Valve organised tournaments in 1.6, generally, ESWC, CPL, WCG, and IEM are considered to be a CS 1.6 major. LUq was eventually replaced by Jarosław "pashaBiceps" Jarząbkowski in 2010. The previous Golden Five lineup is considered one of the best of all time in 1.6, and NEO was by far their best player. Following this change, the lineup would hit a slump. The team ended up winning the last 2 majors in CS 1.6 with ESC Gaming. NEO would be called by many the greatest CS 1.6 player ever. He was also given the #1 spot on the HLTV top 20 ranking in 2011.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive career

2012–2018

NEO continued playing with ESC Gaming, in Global Offensive. He found little success at first, winning only 2 StarLadder events. Loord and kuben were replaced by Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski and Paweł "byali" Bieliński. Loord reacted negatively to this, but said NEO was the only one he didn't hold a grudge against. It wasn't until EMS One Katowice 2014 that NEO won a big tournament, this time with Virtus.pro. At the end of 2015, NEO was awarded the #17 spot on HLTV's top 20 of 2015. Despite this, NEO was no longer by far the best player on his team. His individual skill had dropped off significantly from his performance in 1.6. In May 2016, Virtus.pro won the first season of ELEAGUE, one of the biggest prize pools at the time. In early 2017, Virtus.pro came second to Astralis at ELEAGUE Major 2017. They followed this with a win at DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017. Despite these results, VP eventually hit a massive slump. They had a few decent results after this, including a semifinals finish at PGL Major Kraków, and a second place appearance at EPICENTER 2017.

2018–present

At the ELEAGUE Major 2018, Virtus.pro went out in last place, losing 3 games and winning none. Following this, Virtus.pro ended the longest standing roster in CS:GO history by replacing Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas with Michał "MICHU" Müller. Him and NEO had been playing together for 12 years by this point. Despite this, Virtus.pro would continue their slump, and NEO was replaced in February. His individual form continued to drop off since 2017, but he was signed by FaZe Clan, replacing Dauren "AdreN" Kystaubayev. FaZe needed an In-Game Leader, and NEO had previously been one of the IGLs for Virtus.pro. With FaZe, NEO came second at BLAST Pro Series: Los Angeles, but at the major, he would once again exit in the group stage. His trial with FaZe Clan eventually came to an end, and his contract was not renewed. Before IEM Cologne 2023 FaZe's long time coach, "Robert "⁠RobbaN⁠" Dahlström" surprisingly decided to quit coaching. FaZe then registered NEO as their full time coach.

Notable Results

Bold denotes a CS:GO Major

Placement	Tournament	Location	Date
Counter-Strike
With Pentagram G-Shock
	World Cyber Games 2006	Monza, Italy	2006-10-18 – 2006-10-22
	CPL Winter 2006	Dallas, United States	2006-12-16 – 2006-12-20
	IEM I	Hannover, Germany	2007-03-15 – 2007-03-21
	ESWC 2007	Paris, France	2007-07-03 – 2007-07-08
With MeetYourMakers
	Dreamhack Summer 2008	Jönköping, Sweden	2008-06-15 – 2008-06-17
	ESWC 2008	San Jose, California, United States	2008-08-24 – 2008-08-27
	IEM III	Hannover, Germany	2009-03-06 – 2009-03-08
With AGAiN (2009)
	World Cyber Games 2009	Chengdu, China	2009-11-11 – 2009-11-15
With Frag eXecutors
4th	ESWC 2010	Paris, France	2010-06-30 – 2010-07-04
	World eSports Games: e-Stars 2010	Seoul, South Korea	2010-08-13 – 2010-08-15
	IEM V	Hannover, Germany	2011-03-01 – 2011-03-05
	World eSports Games: e-Stars 2011	Seoul, South Korea	2011-08-18 – 2011-08-20
	Samsung European Championship 2011	Warsaw, Poland	2011-10-07 – 2011-10-09
With AGAiN (2011)
4th	ESWC 2011- CS 1.6	Paris, France	2011-10-20 – 2011-10-25
With ESC Gaming
	World Cyber Games 2011	Busan, South Korea	2011-12-08 – 2011-12-11
	IEM VI	Hannover, Germany	2012-03-06 – 2012-03-10
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
With ESC Gaming
	StarLadder StarSeries IV	Kyiv, Ukraine	2012-12-20 – 2012-12-23
With AGAiN (2013)
	StarLadder StarSeries VIII	Kyiv, Ukraine	2013-12-20 – 2012-12-23
With Virtus.pro
	EMS One Katowice 2014	Katowice, Poland	2014-03-13 – 2014-03-16
	Copenhagen Games 2014	Copenhagen, Denmark	2014-04-16 – 2014-04-20
	FACEIT Spring League 2014	N/A	2014-04-30 – 2014-06-01
	Gfinity G3	London, United Kingdom	2014-08-02 – 2014-08-03
	Dreamhack Winter 2014	Jönköping, Sweden	2014-11-27 – 2014-11-29
	ESL One Katowice 2015	Katowice, Poland	2015-03-12 – 2015-03-15
	Copenhagen Games 2015	Copenhagen, Denmark	2015-04-01 – 2015-04-05
	ESEA Season 18 Finals	Dallas, United States	2015-04-17 – 2015-04-19
	Gfinity Spring Masters 2	London, United Kingdom	2015-05-15 – 2015-05-17
	CEVO Season 7 Finals	Columbus, United States	2015-04-24 – 2015-07-26
	ESL One Cologne 2015	Cologne, Germany	2015-08-20 – 2015-08-23
	ESL ESEA Pro League Invitational	Dubai, United Arab Emirates	2015-09-10 – 2015-09-12
	PGL CS:GO Championship Series Season 1: Finals	Bucharest, Romania	2015-10-02 – 2015-10-04
	CEVO Season 8 Finals	Columbus, United States	2015-08-16 – 2015-11-08
	StarLadder i-League Invitational #1	Kyiv, Ukraine	2016-05-19 – 2016-05-22
	ESL One Cologne 2016	Cologne, Germany	2016-07-05 – 2016-07-10
	ELEAGUE Season 1	Atlanta, United States	2016-05-24 – 2016-07-30
	DreamHack Open Bucharest 2016	Bucharest, Romania	2016-09-16 – 2016-09-18
	ESL One: New York 2016	New York, United States	2016-09-30 – 2016-10-02
	EPICENTER 2016	Moscow, Russia	2016-10-17 – 2016-10-23
	ELEAGUE Major 2017	Atlanta, United States	2017-01-22 – 2017-01-29
	DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017	Las Vegas, United States	2017-02-15 – 2017-02-19
	Adrenaline Cyber League 2017	Moscow, Russia	2017-06-18
	PGL Major Kraków 2017	Kraków, Poland	2017-07-16 – 2017-07-23
	EPICENTER 2017	Saint Petersburg, Russia	2017-10-24 – 2017-10-29
	StarLadder i-League Invitational #2	Shanghai, China	2017-11-02 – 2017-11-05
	V4 Future Sports Festival - Budapest 2018	Budapest, Hungary	2018-03-23 – 2018-03-25
	CS:GO Asia Championships 2018	Shanghai, China	2018-06-14 – 2018-06-18
With FaZe Clan
	BLAST Pro Series: Los Angeles 2019	Los Angeles, United States	2019-07-13 – 2019-07-14

Personal Awards

• eSports Player of the Year: 2007, 2008
• HLTV player of the decade
• HLTV top 20: #7 of 2010, #1 of 2011, #15 of 2015

See also

• Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, fellow "Golden Five" teammate.

References

1. "Player: NEO". SK Gaming. Archived from the original on October 5, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
2. "NEO departs FaZe". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2019-01-20.
3. Lingle, Samuel (July 31, 2014). "The definitive frag video of the best 'Counter-Strike' player ever". The Daily Dot. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
4. Podgórski, Wojciech (November 21, 2015). "Filip 'NEO' Kubski: Jeszcze do końca nie zwariowałem!". Polsat Sport. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
5. "NEO joins FaZe". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2019-05-14.
6. ^ "NEO departs FaZe". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2019-12-15.
7. Kostaszuk, Marcin (March 4, 2012). "Poznaniak Filip Kubski: Małysz gier komputerowych". Głos Wielkopolski. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
8. emanko (2006-12-20), Pentagram neo amazing movement, retrieved 2016-03-04
9. Mike! (2013-10-06), CS 1.6: Neo and Kuben amazing movement!, retrieved 2016-03-04
10. "NEo voted Player of the Decade". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
11. ^ "Top 20 players of 2011: Neo (1)". HLTV.org. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
12. Duda, Dominik (January 13, 2016). "Virtus.pro potwierdza obecność w Katowicach". itzaktv. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
13. Sobociński, Filip (September 2, 2015). "Counter-Strike - rozlosowano grupy europejskich eliminacji mistrzostw świata". NaTemat.pl. Retrieved January 13, 2016.
14. Duncan "Thorin" Shields. Thorin's Thoughts - The CS 1.6 Majors (CS). Retrieved 2019-09-07.
15. Thorin's Thoughts - Who is NEO? (CS:GO). Retrieved 2019-09-07.
16. Shields, Duncan "Thorin". "The Greatest player of all time: part 2 - NEO vs. f0rest". Fragbite. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
17. Abshner, Joseph (28 November 2016). "7 Best Counter-Strike 1.6 Players of All Time". 12up. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
18. Mira, Luis "MIRAA". "Loord slams ESC mates, CS:GO". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
19. Kovanen, Tomi "lurppis". "Virtus.pro win EMS One Katowice". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
20. ^ Mira, Luis "MIRAA". "Top 20 players of 2015: NEO (17)". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
21. "CS:GO Season 1 ELEAGUE". ELEAGUE. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
22. "DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
23. Kelemen, Luci. "Virtus.pro's five-act tragedy". Rivalry. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
24. Mira, Luis "MIRAA". "Cloud9 send Virtus.pro packing in Atlanta". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
25. Wolf, Jacob (6 February 2018). "Virtus.pro benches TaZ, MICHU to replace". ESPN. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
26. Bishop, Sam. "Neo is officially leaving Virtus.Pro". Gamereactor. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
27. Švejda, Milan "Striker". "NEO joins FaZe". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
28. Geddes, George (31 August 2019). "Renegades edge out FaZe Clan in the StarLadder Berlin Major". The Dot Esports. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
29. "MEDIA: NEO RETURNS TO FAZE AS COACH FOR IEM COLOGNE". Retrieved 2023-08-17.
30. Milanovic, Petar "Tgwr1s". "Top 20 players of 2010: Neo (7)". HLTV. Retrieved 7 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

External links

• Neo on Twitter

• 1987 births
• Polish esports players
• Counter-Strike players
• MeetYourMakers players
• Virtus.pro players
• Living people
• People from Poznań