Filip Kubski

Filip Borys Kubski (born June 15, 1987), better known as NEO, is a Polish former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike player, and current professional Counter-Strike 2 coach who last coached for FaZe Clan. 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. 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 1.6s 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 . 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 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. 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. After a coaching stint that saw FaZe reach three Major finals in Copenhagen, Shanghai and Budapest as well as winning four S-tier tournaments, NEO would part ways with FaZe on 16 March 2026, following poor results to start the year.

Notable Results Bold' denotes a CS:GO Major PlacementTournamentLocationDateCounter-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