NertZ

NertZ — Guy Iluz

A documentary biography of the Israeli rifler who carried ENCE to a Dallas title, earned Rookie of the Year honours, and rebuilt his career through HEROIC, Liquid and G2, built from HLTV profile data, HLTV news records and published interviews.

1. Kiryat Motzkin to 1.6 Locals: An Israeli Beginning Marked by Accusation

Guy Iluz was listed at 27 years of age at the time of the profile record, competing for G2, with Israel listed as his country and $362,432 in recorded career prize money. His nick, NertZ, had by then appeared in 369 HLTV news items, a volume that reflects nearly a decade of professional play across nine organisations. Yet the origin story preserved in his Top 20 profile for 2023 begins not with an organisation but with a family: at eight years old he watched his brother's friends playing Counter-Strike and began playing with them, falling for the game slowly and then completely.

The Israeli context matters because it defined both his opportunity structure and his early adversity. Israel has produced a small number of internationally competitive players, but no sustained tier-one team, no domestic league that feeds directly into European invites, and no academy pipeline comparable to those in Denmark, Sweden or the CIS region. A talented Israeli teenager in the mid-2010s had two options: grind European FACEIT and FPL from high ping relative to central Europe, or leave the country for a European team house before he was legally an adult. Iluz chose the first path for years, accumulating what would eventually become one of the longer junior records in the dataset.

The most quoted anecdote from his childhood concerns cheating accusations. At twelve, playing local 1.6 teams, so many opponents refused to play in front of him because they believed he was cheating that he stopped playing for a year. He later recalled crying to his mother about it, laughing at the memory as an adult but preserving the detail that it kept him away from the game for twelve months. The episode is worth dwelling on because it recurs in the biographies of several elite riflers — ropz among them — who were accused of cheating as young teenagers precisely because their aim development outpaced their reputations. For Iluz, the consequence was a year's absence followed by a return prompted by his cousin Ziv "zi" Tuaf, with whom he would play almost his entire early career. The cousin's phone call, as he tells it, was the reason he came back.

When he returned, he did so with a specific ambition already formed. He described hearing about HLTV, downloading a demo, watching it, and feeling that he belonged there — belonged, that is, not on a local Israeli team but on the website that records professional Counter-Strike. Competitive play began in earnest in 2017, toward the end of the year, when he took part in lower-tier events that do not appear in his trophy section but that established him as a prospect worth tracking. The teams listed in his early history — UniqueStars from August 2017 to November 2018, NOM in early 2019, Finest across 2019 and 2020, UniqueStars again in mid-2021, NOM again in late 2021 — describe a player cycling through the only Israeli organisations that existed, none of which could offer him a path beyond the Middle Eastern qualifiers.

The statistical residue of that period is preserved in his FACEIT summary: 8,110 recorded matches at 60% win rate, a 25-match win streak, 1.24 average KDR, 53% headshots, with historic FPL Europe placements scattered across 2021 and 2022. The volume is lower than that of players who stayed in European FPL full-time, but the win rate and headshot share already suggested a rifler whose aim translated across ping and roster instability. His FPL Europe CS:GO May 2021 victory, listed in his trophy section as a Faceit winner entry, was the first formal honour of his career — a ladder title, not a LAN, but a signal that European professionals had started to notice him in pug environments.

2. Endpoint and the English Detour: Proving It Outside Israel

In November 2021 NertZ joined Endpoint, a British organisation, where he would remain until February 2023 — fifteen months, the first sustained tenure outside Israel and the first time he played in a team whose working language was English. The move is easy to understate in a career that later included ENCE, HEROIC, Liquid and G2, but it was the decisive break: the moment an Israeli player proved he could hold a starting place in a European team that played for ESL Pro League qualification rather than regional cups.

Endpoint won no trophy recorded in his trophy section during those fifteen months. The news index for that period contains no headline centred on him winning an event. What Endpoint provided was exposure to the European tier-two circuit at full density — CCT cups, ESL Challenger qualifiers, Thunderpick invitations — and a demo reel in English-speaking Counter-Strike that larger organisations could evaluate without worrying about communication. His attribute profile years later — Opening 89, Firepower 88, Utility 64, Clutching 48, Trading 42, Entrying 31 — already existed in embryonic form at Endpoint: a player who sought opening duels constantly, who could win them without utility support, and who was not the designated entry fragger walking first into sites.

The timing of his departure clarifies his value. In February 2023 ENCE, a Finnish organisation that had spent the previous year rebuilding around in-game leader Marco "Snappi" Pfeiffer, signed him. ENCE in early 2023 were not a trophy contender; they were a playoff aspirant that had lost its previous core and needed a rifler who could create advantages without star resources. That they chose a 23-year-old Israeli from Endpoint, rather than a Finnish academy graduate or an established tier-one rifler, indicates how highly his Endpoint demos were rated. The transfer took him from a team that had never contended for a tier-one title to one that would, within four months, win one.

3. ENCE 2023: Dallas, Cologne, Gamers8 and the Rookie of the Year Season

The ENCE tenure ran from February 2023 to December 2023 — eleven months that constitute the most concentrated success of his career and the season that earned him Rookie of the Year and 14th place in the HLTV Top 20 for 2023. The achievements table lists the results without commentary, but the commentary is necessary: 3rd-4th at ESL Pro League Season 17; 1st at IEM Dallas 2023; 2nd at IEM Cologne 2023; 2nd at Gamers8 2023; 3rd-4th at ESL Pro League Season 18; 3rd-4th at CS Asia Championships 2023; 3rd-4th at Elisa Masters Espoo 2023. Seven deep runs in eleven months, including a title, two runner-up finishes at the two most prestigious summer events, and a Legends finish at the BLAST.tv Paris Major 2023.

Dallas in June 2023 was the title. ENCE arrived in Texas not as favourites — Vitality, Heroic and G2 held that status — but as a team whose map pool had hardened through the spring. The final, and NertZ's EVP mention for the event, confirmed his role in it: not the MVP, but one of the best five players in the tournament, the rifler whose opening duels allowed SunPayus on the AWP and Maden and dycha on the flanks to play their games. The trophy section lists IEM Dallas 2023 as his first LAN trophy, and the news index preserves the context: ENCE's victory was reported as a breakthrough for an organisation that had not won a tier-one event in years.

Cologne and Gamers8, both lost finals, were arguably more impressive as evidence of consistency. IEM Cologne is the second-most prestigious annual event after the Major; reaching the final there, then reaching the final at Gamers8 in Riyadh weeks later, meant ENCE had sustained a top-three level across different patches, different crowds, and different formats. His EVP mentions for Gamers8 and ESL Pro League Season 18, plus the CS Asia Championships 2023 EVP, accumulated across that stretch confirm that his individual level did not dip when the team lost finals. He was not a player who farmed a single good event; he was a player who held a 1.13 rating across the ENCE tenure, as later trade coverage noted, over a sample that included every elite team in the world.

The Top 20 profile published on 2 January 2024 framed that season as a debut: his first-ever appearance on the list, at No. 14, on the strength of raw output and deep runs. The Rookie of the Year award, listed in his trophy section alongside the Dallas trophy, formalised the same judgment. At 24, he was older than the typical rookie — donk would win the same award at 17 the following year — but the delay reflected his geography rather than his talent. He had needed four years in Israeli teams and fifteen months at Endpoint to reach a team that could display him. Once displayed, he was immediately recognised.

4. HEROIC: The Danish Interlude and Two Majors as a Contender

In December 2023 NertZ moved to HEROIC, where he would remain until January 2025 — thirteen months that coincided with the most turbulent period in that organisation's history. HEROIC in late 2023 had lost its previous core to Falcons and was rebuilding around a mix of Danish talent and international additions; that they chose an Israeli rifler as a cornerstone indicates how highly his ENCE season was valued. His rating across the HEROIC tenure, 1.12 as later reported, essentially matched his ENCE level, suggesting the move did not diminish his output even as the team's results became less consistent.

The Major record for the HEROIC period contains two entries: Legends at PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024, and quarter-final at Perfect World Shanghai Major 2024. Copenhagen, played in March 2024 in front of Danish crowds, ended before the playoffs; Shanghai, in December, ended in the quarter-finals with an EVP-adjacent level that the achievements table does not fully capture but that the news index corroborates through match reports. Between those Majors came a series of semi-final finishes — 3rd-4th at BetBoom Dacha Belgrade 2024, 3rd-4th at IEM Rio 2024, the latter earning him another EVP mention — that kept HEROIC in the top ten without returning them to a final.

His own words from that period, preserved in two interviews, describe a team that was clicking without dominating. In October 2024, during the Rio run, he said: "Less talks, more play, that's a big part of why we're clicking right now." In December, after securing a Major badge that teammates Maden and dycha had teased him about — "Where Major badge?" — he noted with satisfaction: "Now, I have a badge." The second quotation, trivial on its face, captures something real about his career stage: at 25, after seven years of professional play, he had finally accumulated the sticker collection — Paris Legends, Copenhagen Legends, Shanghai quarter-final — that players from larger scenes take for granted by 21.

"Less talks, more play, that's a big part of why we're clicking right now."

The HEROIC exit in January 2025 was part of a broader dissolution. Falcons signed a triple HEROIC contingent, sjuush left, and NertZ reached agreement with Liquid, as media reported on 29 December 2024 before the official announcement on 6 January 2025. That he left HEROIC not for another European contender but for Liquid, a North American organisation entering its fourth rebuild in three years, surprised some analysts; the Stat Check piece published on 9 January — "NertZ is a good signing for any team but Liquid still lack a true bomb-site entry" — captured the scepticism. He was a good player joining a structurally flawed team. The question was whether he could fix it.

5. Liquid: Personality Clashes, a 1.05 Rating and the Trade

The Liquid tenure ran from January 2025 to March 2026 — fourteen months that he later described, with unusual candour, as a clash of personalities that held the team back. The results support the description: Stage 3 at BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025, Stage 3 at StarLadder Budapest Major 2025, 3rd at CS Asia Championships 2025, 3rd-4th at FISSURE Playground 2, and a series of group-stage exits — Cologne Stage 2 lower bracket, EWC elimination by Vitality, BLAST Bounty semi-final loss to Vitality — that kept Liquid outside the trophy conversation. His rating across the tenure dropped to 1.05, as trade coverage later documented, a full eight points below his ENCE level and seven below HEROIC.

His interviews from the Liquid period trace a gradual erosion of confidence. In February 2025, after Katowice, he reflected: "Two years ago I was full passive, and this is something I didn't like." In March: "When we have the small details and communication, we will be at the Spirit and Vitality level." In August: "You need to be delusional to win sometimes." In September, as Twistzz's departure loomed: "It will be a good Liquid with or without Twistzz, even though he's one of the best players in the world." In October: "Me and EliGE are aligned in the way we see CS." Each quotation describes a team searching for an identity — passive versus aggressive, details versus mentality, Twistzz versus post-Twistzz — without finding one that produced trophies.

"When we have the small details and communication, we will be at the Spirit and Vitality level."

The most revealing account came after he left. In the April 2026 interview given in Barcelona after his G2 debut — "I have full confidence in the players and the system we have" — he looked back on Liquid explicitly: "I didn't have the best performance in Liquid. I feel like the bigger thing is about personality clashes during my time in Liquid, and I think this is what held us back. Liquid is one of the best organizations in the world, so for me, it was just disappointing that we couldn't even make it to be a good team. Overall, it was a clash of personalities. As flashie said in another interview, they want only two big voices on the team, and that's fair enough."

The "two big voices" remark, attributed to coach flashie, explains the tactical fit better than any statistic. Liquid wanted a hierarchy with two dominant communicators; NertZ, by his own account and by the trade coverage that called him "yet another loud voice," is a third. In ENCE and HEROIC, where Snappi and then HEROIC's callers managed multiple voices, his communication was an asset. In Liquid, it was a surplus. The March 2026 trade — G2 and Liquid swapping malbsMd and NertZ, announced on 13 March, with VRS implications that returned Liquid to an American core ahead of the Major cut-off — resolved the surplus by moving him to a team that explicitly wanted his voice.

The Stat Check comparison published on 19 March — "NertZ and malbsMd swap jerseys at the same career crossroads" — framed both players as talents whose ratings had dipped below their peaks and who needed new systems to recover. malbsMd had struggled after the departures of NiKo and m0NESY from G2; NertZ had struggled in Liquid's hierarchy. The trade was, in that telling, an exchange of reclamation projects. What happened next suggests only one of them was reclaimed.

6. G2 Reunion: sAw, SunPayus and the 2.04 Against Nemesis

The G2 tenure began in March 2026 and, at the time of the profile record, was ongoing — the eighth distinct organisation of his career, but the first that reunited him with a coach and teammate who had already extracted his best Counter-Strike. Eetu "sAw" Saha had coached him at ENCE during the Dallas title run; Álvaro "SunPayus" García had been his AWPer in that same team. That G2 also employed sAw as head coach and SunPayus as AWPer meant NertZ arrived not into an unfamiliar system but into a partial reconstruction of the only system in which he had won a tier-one trophy.

His debut supplied immediate evidence. In G2's Stake Ranked Episode 1 opener he posted a 2.04 series rating against Nemesis, a number that, while compiled partly against eco rounds as he himself noted — "I think most of my kills were eco" — still signalled a player enjoying his Counter-Strike again. G2 went on to secure what HLTV called their maiden title with NertZ at that event on 5 April, a minor online trophy that nonetheless broke a months-long drought. SunPayus said he loved playing with NertZ and was happy he was there; sAw said he knew what NertZ could bring when given the right resources and good positions; HeavyGod said NertZ maybe wasn't the best in Liquid but he knew what he was capable of. Three teammates, three versions of the same point: the player Liquid had underused was available again.

His own assessment in that April interview balanced optimism with realism. "The vibe in G2 is incredible. I feel like we're on the same page with the jokes, we're all trolling each other, having fun, and this is for me something that's very important in a team because it's something that also affects inside the game. Also, to come back and play with sAw, that made me happy, and I feel like the whole team is trying to push me to play better and better." On roles, he credited others' sacrifice: "huNter- sacrifices a lot. Also, MATYS sacrifices a lot because I joined." The acknowledgment matters because it names the cost of his reintegration — MATYS moving to B Mirage and Long Dust2, huNter- taking lurking roles unusual for an IGL — and treats that cost as a debt rather than an entitlement.

"huNter- sacrifices a lot. Also, MATYS sacrifices a lot because I joined."

The subsequent results were mixed but pointed upward. G2 dominated Monte en route to the Astana playoffs in May; Spirit marched past them in the semis. In June, at the Cologne Major, NertZ gave the interview headlined by his remark on trust — "When your coach and captain show you trust, it's super important because I don't think it works like this in every team" — after G2 breezed past BIG and got revenge on FUT to reach Stage 3. The Major ended in the quarter-finals, his best Major finish since Shanghai, with G2 listed in his achievements as reaching the last eight at IEM Cologne Major 2026. FISSURE Playground 3 in September brought another final — a 0-3 loss to Legacy on 13 September — and another EVP mention, his sixth, confirming that his individual level across the event exceeded his team's result.

His three-month rating at the time of the record was 1.15, ten points above his Liquid level and within two points of his ENCE peak. The recovery was not complete — he had not yet won a tier-one trophy with G2, had not yet made a Major semi-final, had not yet returned to the Top 20 — but the direction was clear. At 27, an age when many riflers decline, he was playing his best Counter-Strike in two years.

7. Tactical Profile: Opening Duels Without Entry Assignments

HLTV's attributes assign NertZ seven scores: Firepower 88, Opening 89, Trading 42, Entrying 31, Clutching 48, Sniping 0, Utility 64. The shape describes a specific and increasingly rare player type: a rifler who seeks first contact constantly without being the designated entry fragger, who wins those duels through aim rather than utility, and who contributes grenade value without anchoring the team's protocols.

The Opening-Entrying gap — 89 versus 31 — is the most informative pair. A pure entry fragger walks first into sites on executes and absorbs the defence's crosshairs; NertZ does not. His 31 Entrying score, one of the lowest among starting riflers on top-ten teams, confirms he is rarely the first body through a doorway. Instead his 89 Opening score reflects a player who hunts first kills in the opening fifteen seconds on his own terms: aggressive spawn plays, mid-round re-peeks, lurk timings that catch rotators. The distinction matters because it explains both his value and his volatility. When his opening duels land, as in the 2.04 against Nemesis or the Dallas run, he creates 5v4s that his team's AWPer and anchors convert. When they miss, as during the Liquid tenure, he dies first and leaves his team in 4v5s without having absorbed any utility.

Firepower 88 corroborates the aim base: across 8,110 FACEIT matches at 53% headshots, with a May 2021 FPL title, he has demonstrated a first-shot orientation that translates across roles. Utility 64, his third-highest score, points to a player who uses grenades functionally rather than decoratively — pop flashes for his own peeks, molotovs that delay rather than lineups that require set-ups. Trading 42 and Clutching 48, both mid-range, confirm he is neither a second-man re-fragger nor a late-round specialist; his rounds are decided early, one way or the other. Sniping 0 is literal: he has never taken the AWP in a professional setting.

The map-pool implication follows. As an opener rather than an entry fragger, his position in the first fifteen seconds defines his team's default. Coaches who have maximised him — sAw at ENCE and now at G2 — have given him aggressive spawns and permission to freelance within the default, trusting that his duels will produce information even when they fail. Coaches who constrained him, or teams with too many voices competing for the same aggressive timings, have seen his rating fall to 1.05. The June 2026 remark about trust — coach and captain showing it — is therefore not sentiment but tactics: an opener who does not feel trusted stops taking the duels that justify his place.

8. Legacy, Numbers and the Horizon at 27

The aggregate record can be stated in a paragraph. Guy Iluz, 27, Israel, $362,432 in prize money, one tier-one trophy from twelve LAN finals listed in his achievements, six EVP mentions spanning Dallas 2023 to FISSURE Playground 3 in 2026, no Major title and no Major MVP, a best Major finish of quarter-final at Shanghai 2024 and Cologne 2026, one Top 20 finish at No. 14 for 2023, Rookie of the Year for 2023, a three-month rating of 1.15, and a career that has passed through Finest, NOM, UniqueStars, Endpoint, ENCE, HEROIC, Liquid and G2. Three hundred and sixty-nine news items, more than any other player in this assignment except the longest-serving IGLs.

The comparative framing that record supports is generational and geographic rather than pantheon-based. Among Israeli players, he is the most decorated rifler of the modern era by every available measure — prize money, Top 20 placement, tier-one trophies, Major quarter-finals — in a scene that has produced no other Top 20 player. Among the 2023 rookie class, he belongs to the cohort that broke through at 23-24 after years in tier-two, alongside players whose development was delayed by geography rather than ability. That he won Rookie of the Year at 24, while donk won it at 17 the following year, is not a mark against him; it is a mark of how much longer his road was.

What the record does not contain is a second trophy, a Major semi-final, or a second Top 20 finish, and at 27 the window for all three is narrowing but not closed. The G2 reunion offers the most plausible path: a coach who has already won with him, an AWPer who has already played behind his openings, an IGL in huNter- who has publicly sacrificed roles to accommodate him, and a three-month rating of 1.15 that suggests the Liquid decline has been arrested. Whether that produces a London-style title — G2's September 2025 victory remains the organisation's only recent tier-one trophy — will depend less on his aim, which has never been in doubt, than on whether a team with four loud voices can agree on who takes the first duel. He has spent nine years proving he can win it. The remaining question is whether his team will let him.

Sources

• https://www.hltv.org/news/37882/top-20-players-of-2023-nertz-14 — Top 20 profile for 2023 (No. 14); origin biography, cheating accusations, cousin zi, HLTV demo anecdote.
• https://www.hltv.org/news/44073/g2-and-liquid-swap-malbsmd-and-nertz — Trade announcement, March 2026; VRS implications, rating comparisons (1.05 Liquid vs 1.13 ENCE/1.12 HEROIC), reunion with sAw and SunPayus.
• https://www.hltv.org/news/44241/nertz-i-have-full-confidence-in-the-players-and-the-system-we-have — Barcelona interview, April 2026; personality clashes at Liquid, two big voices, 2.04 vs Nemesis, role sacrifices.
• https://www.hltv.org/news/44123/stat-check-nertz-and-malbsmd-swap-jerseys-at-the-same-career-crossroads — Statistical comparison of trade pieces.
• https://www.hltv.org/news/44836/nertz-when-your-coach-and-captain-show-you-trust-its-super-important-because-i-dont-think-it-works-like-this-in-every-team — Cologne Major trust interview, June 2026.
• https://www.hltv.org/news/40689/liquid-announce-nertz-signing — Liquid signing, January 2025.
• https://www.hltv.org/news/40678/stat-check-nertz-is-a-good-signing-for-any-team-but-liquid-still-lack-a-true-bomb-site-entry — Pre-signing analysis.
• https://www.hltv.org/events/6861/iem-dallas-2023 — Sole tier-one trophy.
• HLTV news headline index for the player (369 items) — dates, scorelines, roster transactions cited throughout.
• HLTV player profile record (player ID 9436) — attributes, prize money, team tenure, Major and LAN placements, trophy/EVP/Top 20 inventories, FACEIT statistics.

Data source: HLTV player profile record. Generated: 2026-10-10.