So obviously, an easy correlation for the mind to make when thinking of good players, is that they will have high ADR and essentially, high stats in pretty much every category (excluding deaths, in most cases). It’s quite clear that a high ADR (81+ in this case) is a common component of a highly skilled player. Players such as s1mple, coldzera, NiKo, device — all at the top end of the ADR category, as well as rating. Amidst them, however, is one player who you’ll find near the bottom half of the players when it comes to rating: ANGE1. Despite being the IGL for near enough every team he’s played for, he is one of 13 players averaging over 81 ADR. This is phenomenal when considering other IGL’s, such as gob b, Zeus, MSL & karrigan are all coming in with less than 71 ADR. This just shows how crazy of a situation you could potentially have, if ANGE1 were to be surrounded by extremely high skilled players such as s1mple, coldzera, NiKo, etc.

One thing that jumped out to me when first looking through the statistics is that AWPers tend to be post rather low ADR figures. The exception of the rule being device, s1mple, and oskar, who all average over 80 ADR. Most AWPers in the list are posting very weak stats when compared to those around them. Players such as GuardiaN, FalleN, draken, allu, cajunb, mou, Skadoodle, nitr0, chrisJ, , pashaBiceps, jdm64, DeadFox. These are all players who are considered to be below average when compared to the average of the entire pool. You might start thinking — “Hmm, that’s weird. Why is that?” — One of the main reasons, to me, is that while potentially they may be deadly players when wielding the sniper rifle, they are not quite as good when it comes to wielding other weapons such as SMGs or even rifles in this case. The exceptions to the rule, as mentioned earlier are players like device. He is more than capable of rifling and that means he’s capable of having a high ADR despite being an AWPer. Other players who have managed to not be hit by this are the following: kennyS (75.3 ADR), JW (77.4 ADR). These players have mostly, through their careers, been the dedicated team AWPer. There are players who do pick-up the AWP on occasion, such as flamie, coldzera, olofmeister, mixwell. These are perfect examples of players who can hybrid to a very good level.

If a game is going sour for an AWPer, chances are they may not be able to pick up the gun as often, meaning they’re limited to weapons that they are not as skilled with. The simple reason, effectively, behind some of these players posting lower ADR than others is technically the economy during games where they’re losing, and also their ability to wield other weapons as prominently. As well as that, some other individuals may point out that “But an AWP headshot does 450 damage what if they get one of those?”. The amount of damage beyond the killing amount, does not matter. This means if an opponent has 1hp and you hit them for 450 damage with an AWP, you’ll only get the 1 damage logged. It’s the same system that all leagues employ. Otherwise, we’d see a massive rise in ADR for all AWPers. The same can be said for rifles, however. If an opponent has 1hp and you hit them with an AK47 for 110 in 1 — you will still only get the 1 damage logged.

One thing to consider when looking through the statistics given, however, is that whilst a lot of people will rave on about some support players like TACO, bodyy, STYKO, Edward, and kioShima, having low figures — they will never know the true impact that the player brings to their team. It might not be shown through pure damage or kill output, but shown through other metrics. This can range from pure statistical analysis through flash assists, or by simply being a very good team player who works well with others.

As well as support players being victim of criticism because of aggressive stats, such as ADR, the in-game leaders are the same. If you’re an in-game leader who isn’t as strong mechanically in-game, it’s very likely you’ll be under fire from fans if you perform poorly. From looking at the stats, examples of IGL’s who have performed poorly in the server when compared with others are: gob b (65.6 ADR), MSL (69.9 ADR), Zeus (70.4 ADR), karrigan (67.8 ADR). The same situation is set for these players as with supports, their impact on the game is much more than just the mechanical play, this is normally shown by the team’s performances. On the other side of things, there are some IGL’s who have managed to perform to a decent level whilst also leading the team: gla1ve (75.9 ADR), Happy (77.7 ADR). The list may be short, but having an IGL who is capable of fragging is something worth it’s weight in gold, quite literally.

To conclude this piece, I figured I would take a look at who the definitive AVERAGE player is when looking at their damage per round. With the collective average for the entire list being 76.2, our nearest comparison is KRIMZ, who has a career ADR of 76.1. A player who is known for being a rock, and a player you know you can trust to be an anchor on a bombsite when needed. Despite being considered “average” by the statistics, he is however above average when it comes to rating, with a rating of 1.03. With this taken into account, it is likely that he’s adding impact to his game through different outlets. This can be from assists per round to simply getting more kills and dying less considering the rating algorithm does take into consideration the amount of deaths per round a player gets.