I often see one of the worst arguments about superstar players being used in this sub, ever since the coldzera vs NiKo era, it basically goes like this:
"NiKo gets better stats than coldzera because everyone plays for him, since its 4 bots and 1 good player, whereas coldzera gets to have a worse rating since he plays with 3 other elite players and they steal his rating"
The same convo went on to happen with device vs s1mple, s1mple vs ZywOo, donk vs m0nesy vs ZywOo.
It is one of the dumbest takes of all time, and I'll explain why:
You will always have worse rating and a harder time with worse teammates because the game gets prolonged, even if you carry, which means you have more chances to fail and have rounds with no impact.
In a close 13:11 win or 11:13 loss where you carried, you may drop 40 kills, but let's not forget all the rounds you didn't have impact because of your teammates dying early and you being left in a position that you can't help. You'd end up with a 1.40-1.50 rating and that's about it. On the other hand, all of your teammates would have something like a negative rating. The example would be s1mple in a 7-16 loss vs BIG from 2020, where he got 27 kills and 1.60 rating (2nd highest rated was flamie with 13 kills, 0,80 rating), whereas device, who only had 17 kills was the 4th highest rated player in his team with 1.66 (!) rating, better than s1mple's with less kills, and with teammates who got MORE kills than device and with higher rating. Heck, even magisk who was 5th with 11 kills and 66 ADR still had 1.32 rating, which showcases that if you are in a superteam and you are a superstar, it is far easier to get better rating.
s1mple, NiKo and ZywOo themselves are a proof of that. Whenever they awful teammates, even if they were 'setup' for success, their numbers were still worse compared to their years when their teammates were also good; e.g.:
NiKo 2016 (NiKosports, 11h HLTV) -> 1.18 LAN rating
NiKo 2017 (FaZe Superteam, 2nd HLTV) -> 1.23 LAN rating
s1mple 2018 (scuffed Navi with Edward and Zeus + inconsistent flamie, 1st HLTV) -> 1.33 LAN rating
s1mple 2021 (superteam NaVi, 1st HLTV) -> 1.45 LAN rating (although just 50 maps) so if we apply + online vs top20 it is still -> 1.34 rating. Biggest difference is vs top5. In 2018, s1mple had a 1.25 rating vs top5, while in 2021 he maintained 1.33.
ZywOo 2019-2020 (lack of firepower in 2019 and bad team in 2020, top1 hltv both years) -> 1.30 LAN rating 2019 ; 1.28 online vs top20 in 2020.
ZywOo 2025 (best team 2025, probably top1 or top2 HLTV) -> 1.31 rating (keep in mind 3.0 nerfed ZywOo's rating a lot. and during the first season he averaged 1.36, I wonder why?)
And of course, let's not forget the best placement and stats device ever got – 2018! I wonder why.
So in short, with better teammates, your stats also get better. Yeah, they may get more kills than you, but that would be because your team shitstomps the other one, and you don't have more rounds to get more kills. However, as shown by the Astralis example, even though you have less kills, they are worth more in rating. I can show you a dozen examples like that.