Now let me begin with stating that this is not my opinion on who the top 5 players of the tournament were, instead this is my opinion on the unsung heroes who stood up to give their team victories in high impact situations and did their job to the highest degree working outside of those obvious top 5 MvP’s like Coldzera, F0rest, Rain etc. All of the below are not necessarily rated in order and are subject to my own opinion:

5. Valde – Heroic

Valde topped the rating chart for the entire tournament coming in at a 1.24 closely followed by Coldzera with a 1.23. Valde appears to have come out of no where and has been a great pick up for Heroic so far. He played a pivotal role in giving Heroic, the undeniable underdogs, a chance in the group stages to make it to the play offs. Dropping 31 frags against SK is nothing to turn your nose up at, aswell as 32 frags against Cloud9, a game Heroic lost 16-12. It’s dead unfortunate for Valde that his team didn’t keep up with his pace. I can see great things from this guy, maybe not within Heroic but hopefully he gets picked up by a higher tier team at some point.

4. Smithzz – G2 Esports

Smithzz has been at the butt of almost every joke in CS:GO for the past few months and has been prone to an unfortunate spell of bullying from the community. The criticisms thrown towards Smithz have not be unwarranted. For quite some time he has been well-known to miss way too many key shots that end up G2 losing games, this combined with his passive play style usually shows for an underwhelming AWP player and even though this play style is not incorrect, it doesn’t always provide results that players such as KennyS and Fallen consistently provide. That being said, Smithzz really turned up this tournament and is one of the sole reasons for G2 making it to the Play-offs. Across two of G2’s wins in the group stages he dropped a total of 58 frags in the, but not managing to see much action in the Tyloo game in which G2 smashed them 16-3.

3. Karrigan – FaZe Clan

FaZe Clan recently picked up a missing piece of the puzzle that has eluded them for so long, a strong in game leader to point the star-studded talent of the players that FaZe holds in the right direction. And boy have they shown what they could do this tournament with him at the helm. But he’s on this list for me not just for the way he led FaZe to a 5-0 victory in the group stages but also his fragging prowess. Karrigan had to put a lot more work than he to this tournament, consistently top or second fragging for his team spelt many victories for his team and completing IEM Oakland with a 1.14 rating.

2. Taco – SK Gaming

Taco’s improvement as a player continues to grow and his skill ceiling is higher than most players can even see. Taco provided this tournament handing round after round to SK Gaming in some ridiculous clutch moments and eco round kills (that p250 3k on NIP is something I will never forget). Taco surprised us this tournament however with his skills with an AWP, usually the weapon reserved for Fallen and Coldzera. This bodes well for SK’s future as Taco’s specialty as a player relies on his solo B defenses on maps like Mirage and Dust 2. To place a strong anchor with an AWP on a site is exteremly dangerous for unprepared teams as Taco held his own with flair weilding the big green gun.

1. Pyth – Ninjas in Pyjamas

IEM Oakland sees the return of Pyth to the roster of NiP, the eventual champions at IEM. After a long hiatus with a wrist injury many high-profile personalities in the scene even suspected that he would be replaced with his stand in Maikalele. However this did not come to see fruition and Pyth really came to play this week. The reason I placed him first here is not for his flair, fragging power or time on the scoreboard but for his sheer impact and consistency throughout the tournament did not win NiP the championship but provided the opportunity for them to do so. He held so strong where others on the team would have failed and provided them a fighting chance in highly important rounds. His solo hold on the A site of Cache against SK for example was absolutely stellar. Welcome back Pyth, you deserve a hell of a lot of praise.