We take a look back at SL i-League StarSeries S2 Finals through the lens of player performances and name our MVP, EVPs and other valuable players.

With a few notable names like SK, fnatic and Liquid not in attendance, and most of the other teams not in their top shape due to the off-season break or lineup changes, some surprising results and performances took place last weekend in the Palace "Ukraina" in the battle for a share of the $300,000 prize pool.

In case you missed the event or want to remind yourself about what happened, check out our post-event recap in the "What we learned" article. But in short – NiP won with a stand-in over G2 in the grand final, while Natus Vincere, Virtus.pro and GODSENT were knocked out in the group stage. Cloud9 and Dignitas notched up top four finishes, which for both was the biggest success in a long while.

And as usual, some players had to perform better than others in order for their teams to go far at the event, and here we will inspect who they were.

We already announced on our Twitter feed that Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg is our MVP of the event, so here we'll go into more detail to explain what it was he did so well. After that we'll also single out the Exceptionally Valuable Players (EVPs) of the tournament, as well as Valuable Players.

Here is the list of our "Top players" of SL i-League StarSeries S2 Finals, with each player's name linking to the part of the article describing his performance:

MVP: f0rest displays superb consistency

MVP of SL i-League StarSeries S2 Finals Patrik "⁠f0rest⁠" Lindberg (NiP)

NiP's surprising triumphant campaign with a stand-in in form of Mikail "⁠Maikelele⁠" Bill came at the back of the entire team's consistent and timely contribution – everyone stepped up at some point, no one had particularly bad matches and rarely did any of them take over any games.

But when all things were said and done f0rest did stand as the Ninjas' most consistent player from start to finish and he earned his first MVP award since DreamHack Summer 2014.



f0rest earned his first MVP award since DH Summer 2014

Though, going into the grand final the MVP race was still in full speed as it could have ended with practically anyone from NiP or one of G2's stars ahead, depending on who stepped up in the $130,000 game, with Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon coming in as the best performer of the event until that point.

Even after map 1 (Cache), you'd still be hard pressed to pin-point NiP's best player as it was a big team effort that led to the 16-7 routing of G2. But as the second map developed and turned into one of the best battles of the year, f0rest turned up the heat with his numerous opening kills to bring his team closer to the title.

He ended up with the event-record 13 kills that opened a round (with just 2 first deaths) on Overpass, 10 of which led to a round win for NiP. He also ended up as the highest rated player of the map (38:29, 1.34 rating), dealt the most damage (93.0 ADR) and was the most impactful with 11 multi-kill rounds.

That performance which helped the Swedes reach the 22-18 double OT victory cemented his MVP honor, but his play in the rest of the tournament also set the grounds up for it.

In every map NiP won in Kiev, f0rest had more kills than deaths and found a way to contribute effectively, ending up with a kill, assist, surviving or a death that was quickly traded in 76% of his rounds throughout the five days (2nd most of all players).



f0rest made the biggest difference for any team at the event

As we can see above, he led the tournament in round shares, making a +15.4 difference for NiP, way ahead of everyone else.

The CT side was where he contributed the most, earning +12.3 round shares (17.0 round win shares and only 4.7 round loss shares) which helped NiP win 70% of the rounds when they were on defense. He was also quite successful at getting the opening kill as a CT, doing so in 21 of his 27 attempts, 19 of which led to a round win.

He was no slouch on T side either, where he was the team's primary AWPer (unlike on CT where it was the stand-in Maikelele) with 0.28 AWP kills per round, good for 4th best at the event.

All-in-all f0rest had his best event in a long while (highest rating since ASUS ROG Winter in January 2015) and he was the most efficient and most consistent player of StarSeries S2, earning himself the MVP award this time.

EVPs: NiP's team effort reflects in numbers, G2's big duo shines again and Cloud9's rising superstar delivers

NiP's other legend, GeT_RiGhT, also had his best tournament in a while, putting up 0.80 kills per round – something he didn't achieve since the Dubai invitational in September last year – and was the closest to f0rest in the MVP race at the end.



Revitalized GeT_RiGhT showed up in Kiev

GeT_RiGhT didn't have a bad match and he brought a ton of impact rounds to the table, reminding us of the times when he was considered the best player in the world.

The 26-year-old actually led NiP in damage dealt per round (86.8) and he did most of his work in the playoffs, with a particularly great performance in the semi-final against Cloud9 (49:27, 107.2 ADR, 1.46 rating).

He also did a good job in his Terrorist entry role overall, getting the first kill of the round 18 times, 16 of which NiP won. Not only that, but he was the player who most often sacrificed himself for the team (along with nV's Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire), seeing 29% of his deaths traded within five seconds.



Xizt provided support and consistency

On the other end of those numerous traded deaths was Xizt, who was the player with the most trade kills at the event. In fact, he was the player who was involved in most trades per round on both sides of the action (0.36) and a big reason why NiP led the tournament in this aspect (23.7% of the deaths in the team were traded).

Another thing he was great at was staying alive, having only 0.59 deaths per round, which in his case came from a lot of good clutch play (including team-high five 1vsX wins). Though Xizt only had one map where he exceeded the 20 kill mark, which was Cobblestone in the semis vs. Cloud9 where he was our Player of the Map (23:14, 93.7 ADR, 1.38 rating), he was still the most consistent after the MVP with at least decent contribution on all 9 maps.

And that's because he was mostly there to provide support, which he did admirably, with team-high 23.7 damage per round that didn't lead to a kill, way above average 3.2 hits per round and event-high 30% support rounds (rounds without a kill, but with an assist, surviving or a death that was traded), which altogether shows he often helped soften up the opponents for his teammates.



Maikelele was there to provide impact kills

One of the reasons that the story of NiP's triumph was so incredible is the seamless inclusion of Maikelele into the lineup only days before the event, and his subsequent performance as a key member of the team.

His contribution largely came down to getting the impact kills and having the odd crazy round, much as he did back when he was a permanent member of the team over 18 months ago.

Those impact kills often came in pairs in his case, as he had two or more frags in 21% of his rounds, second most in NiP. He also played very well with the AWP when he was required to – which was mostly on the CT side (54 of his 68 kills came there), where he recorded 0.50 AWP kills per round, 3rd most at the event.

Looking back at his performance map by map, he stood out a number of times when it was crucial, mostly with a big half, such as the CT comeback on Dust2 against Astralis, or Overpass against the same opponent and Cache against G2 in the grand final.



shox had the highest peak at the event

Over in the G2 camp there was one name that was repeated more often than any other throughout the event, and that was shox's. The 24 year old Frenchman continued his superb run of form that began back in May at the EPL Season 3 Finals and once again propelled his team to a big event final.

All the way up to the clash with NiP, who he never lost to in a grand final in his career before (7:0 score), shox was by far the best player of the tournament.

He opened up his account by thrashing the Koreans MVP project in G2's first match (25:4, 114.4 ADR, 2.35 rating), which was a prelude to the god-mode he entered two days later in the playoffs.

It was Cobblestone that provided the canvas for the French artist, and the first masterpiece was created against his former team EnVyUs where he went head to head with the opposing superstar and came out on top with an incredible performance that secured his team a semi-final spot (37:19, 127.1 ADR, 1.85 rating). Take a look at the highlights of that map below:

Unmoved by that performance, dignitas opted to pick Cobblestone against G2 & shox as the first map of the semi-final, and he once again put on a show to lead his team to a 16-13 win (29:19, 105.9 ADR, 1.48 rating).

However, after that match it was as if he lost energy and quieted down, failing to make similar impact on map two, and more importantly in the grand final against NiP, barring a few moments on Overpass.

In the end he still had the event's highest rating of 1.25, was the PotM most often (4 times) and was one of the most impactful players (40 of his 43 multi-kill rounds resulted in a win for G2), which makes him a clear EVP, but the lackluster finish to the tournament dropped him out of MVP contention.



ScreaM stood side by side with shox in yet another great duo performance

The Belgian headshot machine ScreaM was actually the more consistent part of G2's superstar duo, as he played well throughout the event including the final when he had 35 kills in the double OT loss.

He put up his best numbers in the group winners' match against FaZe with 31:13, 121.5 ADR and 1.76 rating, but it was in the semis against dignitas that he made his biggest contribution, starring in the second half comeback on Dust2 as the team crawled back to a 16-13 victory. Aside from that, he stood out by having at least some contribution in 96% of G2's round wins throughout the event (116 of 121), most often in the team.



Stewie2k leaves his first mark on a big event

The seventh and last EVP of StarSeries S2 is the American up-and-comer, Stewie2K. This 18-year-old has been rising through the ranks faster than anyone in the world, helping Cloud9 reach some great results lately which culminated with the top 4 finish here in Kiev.

If the tournament had stopped after four days, before the semi-finals, there would be no doubt that Stewie2K was the second best player of the event, only trailing G2's shox. Up to that point, he was the PotM in three of Cloud9's four map wins - the group stage matches against EnVyUs and VG.CyberZen, and the third map of the FlipSid3 quarter-final - and he was the second best rated player of the tournament.

However, the youngster then faltered in the semis against NiP where he wasn't able to assert his presence, perhaps understandably so as that was only the second big playoff series of his career (after the quarter-finals of ELEAGUE vs. Na`Vi).

Nevertheless, his contribution to Cloud9's first top four finish at a big event since over a year ago was immense, as despite the lack of impact in the semi-final, he was still the most impactful player of the tournament, considering his ability to open rounds (0.20 opening kills per round, ranked #1) and his damage output (86.4 ADR, ranked #5).

Possibly the most telling number that demonstrates his importance to the team's success is that Cloud9 won 79% of the rounds when he had at least one kill (62 of 79), the highest percentage among all playoff participants.

VPs: NiP's big match man, Danes flood the playoffs and other notable performers



friberg demonstrated how much he can contribute in big matches

The closest to an EVP spot out of the remaining players was NiP's final member, friberg, who showed up in many key moments despite not putting up numbers as impressive as his teammates'. Much like the rest of NiP, friberg's performance reminded us of 2014 when he was one of the best big match players in the world, as he showed up in the grand final against G2 (51:39, 87.0 ADR, 1.19 rating in the series) and in NiP's toughest challenge before that, facing elimination against Astralis on Dust2.

The other team that finished in 3rd-4th place next to Cloud9 was dignitas, but none of their players made it to the EVP list as they didn't stand out much on their own. The new recruit, Magisk, attended his first international event with dignitas (after the local Power-LAN) and continued his impressive form from ELEAGUE when he was representing SK. His display on Overpass against GODSENT in the group decider was one of the best maps by anyone at the event (34:18, 124.1 ADR, 1.69 rating), while he also played solid in both playoff series, against Heroic and G2.

Another player who had one huge performance coupled with a few other good ones was Astralis' 18-year-old Kjaerbye. In fact, the way he played on map 1 (Cache) of the NiP quarter-final probably outshined G2 shox's display against EnVyUs – the youngster put up a 25:8 score, 10 assists, 128.6 ADR, 1.97 rating in the 16-6 win. In addition to that, he had a very good series against TyLoo that sent Astralis to the playoffs, but unfortunately he disappeared in the rest of the NiP match. Nevertheless, his entire POV of map 1 of the 1/4 final series might be worth checking out:

Yet another Dane that had a very good event is former Astralis member, now in dignitas, cajunb, whose only poor map was the throwaway opener against GODSENT. He actually put up the best numbers for dignitas in the rounds they won, which was most evident in the Heroic quarter-final where he also made one of the highlights of the event - an eco ace-clutch.

The third member of dignitas' new big trio that propelled them to a semi-final finish was k0nfig, the team's top fragger for the tournament and the other key player of their quarter-final win over Heroic (72:57, 89.8 ADR, 1.25).



device shut down TyLoo and then had a memorable half on Dust2 vs. NiP

device was another Danish VP of this tournament, partly earning his place in the list with his influence in the TyLoo series, particularly the 3rd map where he perhaps decided the winner with a late ace and a 1vs3 clutch. But he'll probably be mainly remembered for his play on map 2 (Dust2) vs. NiP in the playoffs, where he had one of the best halves of the tournament, putting up 21:9, 145.4 ADR and 6 opening kills on the CT side. Unfortunately, his team wound up losing the map and he was unable to repeat that showing on the decider that followed.

The third mostly-Danish team Heroic surprisingly won their group ahead of Astralis and TyLoo (and also Na`Vi who they didn't get to meet), but then faltered to dignitas in the 1/4 final. Their best player overall in the event was MODDII, as he put on a clinic in the domestic playoff match and was excellent in the groups as well. The series with dignitas will be what we remember him by from this event, as he did everything in his power to keep Heroic in the tournament, including putting up 29:19, 96.1 ADR, 1.40 rating as the highest rated player of map 3 (Mirage). In the end he was responsible for an estimated 25% of Heroic's round wins in the tournament and he contributed in 77% of his rounds, the most of all playoff participants on both accounts.

bodyy was an important part of G2's trip to the final, having done a good job against both EnVyUs and especially dignitas in the playoffs. He also left a good impression in the ending of their big overtime battle against NiP, with calm play under pressure, but still overall didn't have such a good game there, especially on map 1 and the early rounds on Overpass that allowed NiP to accumulate the lead.



autimatic is fitting in well in Cloud9

Cloud9's most recent recruit autimatic was the team's most stable performer, with no bad matches and a contribution in 72% of his rounds. On the other hand, he wasn't the star of any match, but he played great in all of their wins and even put up the biggest fight against NiP in the semi-final.

EnVyUs went back home with only a top 8 finish, but considering they had to field a stand-in without any practice it was a decent display which included eliminating Virtus.pro and giving G2 a hell of a fight in the quarter-final. The man who was the most responsible for leaving that good impression was the team's 21 year old star, kennyS. He went head-to-head with G2's shox in the already classic Cobblestone game, putting up 30:17, 97.3 ADR, 1.56 rating and 10 opening kills in the 13-16 loss. Notably, kennyS was also the most successful AWPer of the event with 0.49 AWP kills per round.



valde's story is just beginning

Our last VP of the event is Heroic's rising star valde. He started the event with two 30+ kill performances in 16-13 wins over Astralis and TyLoo, which secured his team a playoff spot already after day one. Entering the playoffs as perhaps the best performer of the group stage, he wasn't able to replicate that form in the biggest match of his career yet, leaving the tournament in a slight downward spiral. Despite that, he still finished with the highest ADR (92.3) and the second highest rating (1.23) of all playoff participants.

The above discussed 18 participants constitute our "Top players" of the event, but with 62 others in attendance there were definitely a few more who stood out for their teams, so check out our Stats section for the event or the Demos and VODs listings to catch up on some of the notable performances.

And here are a few interesting player-related stats at the end:

With this article we conclude our post-event coverage of SL i-League StarSeries S2 Finals and turn our heads to this weekend's DreamHack Bucharest.