StarSeries IX Finals: Top players

Our Top players series returns with the analysis of SLTV StarSeries IX Finals. We break down Natus Vincere's win, name the MVP and the All-Star lineup of the tournament, as well as analyze performances of the other top players.

SLTV StarSeries IX Finals was the fourth big international LAN of the year, following ESEA S15 Global Finals, EMS One Katowice and Copenhagen Games, and it produced the fourth new champion after iBUYPOWER, Virtus.pro and NiP.

The latter two came to Kiev, Ukraine as the main favorites, with a restored Titan lineup a close 3rd, but it was Natus Vincere (who only got the slot thanks to fnatic's decision to skip the event) that came out on top with the $14,000 cheque.

The mostly Ukrainian squad displayed perfect teamplay and coordination, and all of their members were in shape for every every match. And thanks to that they managed to outplay the world's best in three matches without even dropping a map, thus winning their first international CS:GO title.

Na`Vi certainly deserved the first place last weekend, but how exactly did each of their players contribute to that win? We break it all down right here, also picking the MVP and the All-Star lineup of the tournament, as well as analyzing the other stand-out performers of the event.

Here is an overview of the article (click on a link to jump straight to that section):

1. MVP: seized takes his game to a new level
2. GuardiaN reigns with the AWP
3. Xizt was NiP's only constant
4. Edward steps up in the grand final
5. NBK's one-man army performance for the books
6. Zeus and starix - masters of the end game
7. kennyS and ScreaM - Titan's new building blocks
8. pasha is the most in-form player in the world
9. All-Star lineup of SLTV StarSeries IX Finals

And before we delve into the analysis here is the stats overview of the tournament, with all of its top performers in various categories:

MVP: seized takes his game to a new level

We already mentioned that Denis "seized" Kostin's performance was one of the biggest takeaways from the event in our "What did we learn from StarSeries" article, and that the six of last year's Top 20 players who picked him in their Bold prediction for 2014 might have been on to something.

Those players were Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski, Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev, Richard "Xizt" Landström, Nathan "NBK" Schmitt, Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund. And all six of them were in Kiev last weekend, witnessing first hand the transition of 19-year-old Kostin from a rising star to a match-winner.

seized has come a long way since his Na`Vi debut at DreamHack Bucharest

Every one of Na`Vi's members was an incredibly important part of their machinery, and if only one of them had underperformed they probably wouldn't have ended up on top. So it wasn't easy picking the MVP even though Kostin stands out even at first glance.

MVP of SLTV StarSeries IX Finals

Denis "seized" Kostin (Natus Vincere)

I will cover the contribution of all five Na`Vi members throughout the article, but when it's all said and done in this section you should be able to see why I think Kostin really does deserve the MVP honor.

He was the team's best fragger, most consistent and most dominant player, and he made a big impact in each of their three series. Also, with a 1.25 overall rating he was not only the best of all players, but he had the best tournament of his career so far, elevating his play to a new level.

As shown above, he started with a bang against NiP with a Man of the Match performance in which he not only had the most kills, but also won some crucial rounds practically on his own. He also had 11 entry kills in the series, and a clutch that clinched the series in overtime when he scored four kills and won a 1-on-2 situation.

He had similar impact in the other two series, coming up with big rounds when his team needed them the most, such as the ace on de_mirage against Titan on an eco round, as well as big 3-kill and 4-kill rounds on de_inferno in the grand final against NiP.

According to our "Domination meter" formula, which appreciates rounds with multiple kills, Kostin was the most dominant player of the event with eight 3-kill rounds, three 4-kill rounds and one abovementioned ace. Not only that, but each one of those led to Na`Vi's victory in the round.

Speaking of impact on Na`Vi's round wins, here is how their contribution graph looks like:

As we can see, all members of Na`Vi were around the 70% mark, contributing with a kill or an assist in around 70 of their 99 round wins. But Kostin stood out in that department as well, rising as the main star of the team with 112 kills that led to victory, 19 of which opened up those rounds.

He was indeed the team's primary attacker on the T side, scoring 13 of those 19 winning entries as a terrorist, but what also stands out is that his team was unable to win rounds when he fell first – only winning 3 of the 16 times that happened (3 of 13 on the T side and 0 of 3 on the CT side).

Considering all of the above mentioned, his timely and consistent fragging, his impact on round wins, his importance for the team, Kostin was the Most Valuable Player of the tournament in my mind.

I expect this is just the first chapter in the young Russian's story, marking his step into the big leagues. He will have to show a lot more of the same in the future if he wants to disturb the world order at the end of 2014, but an early MVP award with a performance like this is a good way to start.

GuardiaN reigns with the AWP

Na`Vi's newest recruit, Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács, was the only other big MVP candidate along with his teammate Kostin as far as I'm concerned.

He had similar impact during his Na`Vi debut at the previous StarSeries event, but the way the team made use of his skills on this occasion indicates the time since then was used wisely to integrate him into their style.

GuardiaN's AWP paired up with seized was a great combo for Na`Vi

While Kostin was the team's primary entry killer on the T-side, Kovács was the one who opened up the most rounds for the team in their round wins (22), most of which he did with his AWP (18 total, 11 on CT side, 7 on T side).

In the presence of his main rival for the title of world's best AWP, Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, Kovács reigned supreme and even won their direct duel in the upper bracket final (10:4 in AWP kills in that series). With 77 total AWP kills at the event, Kovács had more than one quarter of what all players contributed in that department, which was undoubtedly a crucial part of Na`Vi's success.

While he wasn't very dominant, having only 5 rounds with three kills, Kovács was one of the players who most often scored at least one kill in a round (52%), contributing in small but lethal doses. And that's what his job was, to get that one round-changing kill.

Also, as we can see on the graph below, he was perhaps the best entry killer of the event, finding himself closest to the sweet spot that is the upper right corner with a total of 25 entry kills and 15 entry deaths.

Let's not forget about the couple of huge clutches he had against NiP in the opening series of the tournament, both with the AWP, the 1-on-3 on de_dust2 in one of the first half's key rounds and a 1-on-2 on the T-side of de_train later on.

And although he wasn't as successful with the big green in the grand final as he was in the rest of the tournament, he still ended up with more kills than deaths in that series too. All that - his entry killing, the AWP impact, the big rounds - make him Na`Vi's close second best at this tournament for me.

Xizt was NiP's only constant

After finally getting back on the throne at Copenhagen Games last month, Ninjas in Pyjamas returned to notching up 2nd place finishes which plagued them far too much in the past eight months.

This time they should maybe even consider themselves lucky they made it that far keeping in mind the form of their players. Their two superstars, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, both recorded a sub-1.00 rating for the first time in their CS:GO careers, while Cph Games All-Star Adam "friberg" Friberg was all but consistent in his contribution, having a number of good rounds, but also having an atrocious 30:56 score in entry duels.

In the end, NiP had to rely on increased production from Richard "Xizt" Landström and Robin "Fifflaren" Johansson in the Titan series to make it to the final, but without their stars they were unable to put up the fight expected of them vs. Na`Vi on the last day.

Xizt's stable play leads NiP to the final

Landström, the team's in-game leader, was in fact the only constant in the team throughout the tournament, repeating his 1.10 rating from Cph Games (then only 4th best in his team, but this time the first).

With 198 total kills he was by far the team's best fragger, and he had the most kills in the event (although they played more maps than anyone else). He was also the one with the most assists (48), which really goes to show that he put in some serious work to help his team.

If we look at the averages, he actually contributed in 67% of NiP's rounds with a kill, assist or by surviving which was by far the most consistent in the Swedish team and 5th most of all players at the event.

But he didn't just nibble on the opponents with a kill here or there, he was flat out the best in three of NiP's four map wins – both maps against Virtus.pro and the deciding map against Titan. While his teammate Johansson also had big contribution in that de_inferno clash with the Frenchmen, it was Landström who topped the charts (25:10, 6 assists), and same as his teammate won two important clutch rounds.

Landström has so far in 2014 went somewhat unnoticed despite putting up the same kind of performances at both EMS One Katowice and Cph Games, but it might be time to start paying more attention to his play from now on.

On one hand it may be a good thing that even without their stars on form NiP can make it to the final, but it looks like that with Landström as their only constant they won't be winning titles again any time soon.

Edward steps up in the grand final

Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev has a role that's hard to define, getting most of his action mid-round, but just like everything else in Na`Vi it worked perfectly at this event. He was in fact one of the team's three very successful entry killers - less aggressive than Kostin and Kovacs, but at the same time more successful. So successful that he was actually the best at the event with 68% of entry duels won (23 of 34).

Edward transforms during the grand final, from 7:15 to 43:30 score

But the majority of his success in that regard came from the CT side (13:2 entry score), as he was great at holding his spot, as well as at pushing up perfectly to grab the opening kill when the opportunity arose.

How important that was for Na`Vi shows the fact they won 81% of the rounds when they got the entry kill (75 of 93; the other three teams had less than 70% conversion rate). And thanks to their trio of Kostin, Kovacs and Sukhariev they were also most successful at actually getting those entry kills (58% success rate) which was one of the main reasons for their triumph.

Sukhariev's hot streak in the final was another way he got himself noticed. After starting with a 7:15 score on the board, and with Na`Vi struggling to repeat their T side performance against NiP from the first match, he stepped up and had 36:15 from that point.

That included holding the B bombsite on de_dust2, and then great play on de_inferno, especially on the CT side where he closed down the A bombsite for a near-perfect side that clinched the title for the Ukrainians.

NBK's one-man army performance for the books

Titan's 3rd place with losses to Na`Vi and NiP will not be a start for the new lineup that they will remember fondly, but the rest of us will remember it for Nathan "NBK" Schmitt's one-man army performance at the start of their renewed rivalry with the Swedes.

But that's not all we saw from Schmitt, as he actually had the second best rating of the tournament (1.17) which continued his great 2014 form as one of Titan's best players at every event so far.

NBK's frenzy was one of the highlights of the tournament

He was the team's and one of the most consistent players at the event with 72% of rounds in which he contributed some way. Although he wasn't really the star of the Virtus.pro series, he did his job and continued on to the next day. In the Na`Vi series he had some big rounds on de_mirage while trying to keep the team alive, and although it wasn't enough, he once again performed well.

Then on day three at the start of the NiP series he pulled off one of his trademark frenzy displays, the like of which we already saw last year at ESEA S13 Global Finals or at the grand final of EMS One Summer. This time it was only one map, but what a map it was.

Schmitt ended up with 32 kills and only 10 deaths, scoring 20 headshots, three 3-kill rounds, one 4-kill round and having at least one kill or assist in 15 of the 16 rounds Titan won. It was a performance for the record books, everything worked for Schmitt and it was certainly one of the most impressive displays in the matches between two top teams to date.

That 16-8 victory on de_dust2 put Titan up 1-0 in the series and one foot into the final, but sometimes even performances like this are not enough to spark the team as they couldn't continue in the same manner on de_nuke and de_inferno.

Zeus & starix: masters of the end game

While Na`Vi's three star fraggers deserve their time in the spotlight, I have to try and point out the importance of Daniil "Zeus" Teslenko and Sergey "starix" Ischuk in their campaign.

The two of Natus Vincere's longest standing members were in peak form just as everybody else, and although their performance is harder to evaluate, without them the team wouldn't have been this successful.

Teslenko's contribution is particularly hard to measure as he is the in-game leader who analyses the opposing team, gives instructions to his teammates and makes decisions mid-round, all of which obviously went great since they won 6 out of 6 maps against world's best teams. But still it's hard to pinpoint things he did right or wrong and which of them were ultimately the key to victory. There is of course a number of examples when he made the perfect call, like the "five players on A" defense on de_dust2 at 14-12 in the final, or examples of his composure with three 1-on-1 clutches in pistol rounds, but overall it can't really be counted.

Similarly, Ischuk is also hard to evaluate as he is a very passive player who doesn't go out looking for a frag, but instead relies on his positioning and decision making in close rounds and clutch situations.

For example, while he had the least kills in the team, Ischuk was in a way their most consistent member, having a kill, assist, or surviving in 70% of Na`Vi's rounds, or if we only look at the rounds they won, he was involved in 89% of  them. Or from the other side, Na`Vi won only 11 rounds when Ischuk died without making some impact first, and his importance was best noticed in the Titan series where he was perhaps the Man of the Match.

starix & Zeus - masters of 2vsX situations

Natus Vincere's triumph was in large part thanks to the great entry killing by their three stars, but they were actually even more successful at winning the end game, the close rounds, the clutches. There were 37 rounds that came down to a 2-on-2 or a 1-on-1 situation and the Ukrainians won 26 of them for an amazingly high 70% success rate.

And who was most involved in those close round wins? Teslenko and Ischuk of course; at least one of them was involved in 19 of those 26 close round wins, and the two of them had a 4-0 record when they were together the only remaining players against two or more opponents.

Both of them were also among the top 3 assisters of the tournament, which also points out they did well in their support roles, making job easier for the team's stars.

In the end it's hard to place the value on Teslenko's and Ischuk's impact, because would any of it matter if the stars didn't deliver? Or would the stars deliver without Teslenko's instructions to follow? Would any of the stars' impact matter if Ischuk wasn't consistently there to help out in almost every round they won?

It's hard to say, but it's obvious that Na`Vi's success was a result of all the pieces fitting together, everyone doing their job and fulfilling their role to near perfection. There is one conclusion though that we can draw about the supporting duo – Teslenko and Ischuk proved to be the masters of the end game by tipping an extraordinary amount of close rounds to their team's favor.

Ultimately, after over a year of struggle in CS:GO and several lineup changes, the founding members of Natus Vincere finally got their new players to buy into their system and it resulted in a dominant performance over the world's best teams.

kennyS & ScreaM - Titan's new building blocks

Losing one of the best players in the world just a week before the tournament was a big blow for Titan. They reverted back to their 2013 lineup with Kenny "kennyS" Schrub, but the soon-to-be 19-year-old Frenchman is not the same player he was when he was removed last year.

He has become even better and has been in incredible form at the start of 2014, leading the charts as the world's best fragger in all competitions, online and LAN combined. And in Ukraine he showed glimpses of what Titan's fans can expect of him in the new-old roster.

kennyS and ScreaM are Titan's future and they need to start working together even better

While Schmitt was the most consistent player in Titan's ranks, Schrub and Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom showed they will be the building blocks of Titan's success, and for the team to win they both need to be contributing with big rounds. They both did already at SLTV, but unfortunately not at the same time.

Schrub had a Man of the Match performance on the opening day vs. Virtus.pro, but he then underperformed against Na`Vi on day two. On the other hand Benrlitom had his match of the year against the Ukrainians (53:37 score, 1.44 rating), but then he didn't do very well against NiP. Those inconsistencies eventually cost Titan, and what's worse the young duo looked particularly weak in close rounds (they only won 2 out of 7 close rounds together).

Apart from having an extraordinary amount of headshots even for his standards, Benrlitom was able to have a bigger impact than usual as one of the most dominant players of the event. At the same time, Schrub's did well on his Titan debut as the third best rated player of the event and he contributed quite well in their three map wins.

Nevertheless, after the departure of Papillon, Titan's two impact players will have to learn to play even better together and to be more consistent. Their potential is huge and it will be up to the more experienced Kevin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans and Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux to help them fulfill it.

pasha is the most in-form player in the world

I'm not directly saying that Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski is the best player in the world at this moment, but can anyone point out someone in better form than him in the past 2 months? Alesund and Lindberg just had the worst event of their careers despite reaching 2nd place, while Papillon hasn't done great at Cph Games and isn't even a member of one of the world's best teams anymore. Who can compete with Jarząbkowski then?

pasha with a lonely good performance for Virtus.pro

While the other top players are slacking, Jarząbkowski has been so good lately that this was the third international LAN in a row which he ended as the top fragger, following EMS One Katowice and Copenhagen Games. And just like in Denmark last month, he was once again clearly the team's most valuable player, getting a kill or an assist in 80% of their round-wins.

Unfortunately, despite his consistency Virtus.pro's results have been getting slightly worse. This time his great play wasn't enough to even win one series, even though he had some solid help from Janusz "Snax" Pogorzelski, as Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas had his own worst tournament ever, and rising star Paweł "byali" Bieliński wasn't up to the standards he set in the past two tournaments.

Jarząbkowski currently looks like the best player in the world, but for him to claim that title Virtus.pro will have to win a few more tournaments by the end of the year.

All-Star lineup of SLTV StarSeries IX Finals

Denis "seized" Kostin (Natus Vincere)
Ladislav "GuardiaN" Kovács (Natus Vincere)
Richard "Xizt" Landström (NiP)
Nathan "NBK" Schmitt (Titan)
Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev (Natus Vincere)

Kostin and Kovács were my MVP candidates so they obviously make it to the All-Star lineup, and Landström was the main reason NiP made it to 2nd place, so he has to be there as well.

But the last two spots were up for grabs with a number of legitimate candidates. Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski had another great individual tournament, but his team ended up with only one map win out of five, so his contribution wasn't very useful.

Titan's two young stars Schrub and Benrlitom had some great games but they also didn't perform in some key maps and moments which eventually led to their team's demise.

Nathan "NBK" Schmitt on the other hand was the most consistent player in Titan and he contributed in all three of their map wins, as well as in all the other maps. So for that consistency, and the explosive one-man army performance against NiP, he gets a place in the All-Star lineup.

And as none of NiP's other members than Landström did enough to be stars of the event, the last spot is destined for another Na`Vi member. Teslenko and Ischuk had immense contribution, but they also can't be called stars even within their own team, so Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev's display in the final and his effectiveness throughout the tournament earn him the final All-Star lineup spot.

That concludes are analysis of the best players at SLTV StarSeries IX Finals. The best players will now have some time to get in shape before the next big event which is expected to be DreamHack Summer mid-June, followed by ESEA Season 16 Global Finals.

(责任编辑：cs cases)