Photo: By Damian Gatkiewicz for ESL

‘Chiu on This’ is a short and regular opinion blast

The EU Minor has ended with ENCE and Vitality qualifying for the Major. North made third place and will go to the play-in stage where they get one last shot to make the Major. As that’s the case, I wanted to highlight the best players throughout the EU Minor. The criteria were as follows: consistency, peak level of play, role within the system, and the context of their team and opponents. The best players in my estimation were:

4) hunter

Valiance was filled with a bunch of mechanically skilled players who took turns popping off: hunter, nexa, Espiranto, and ottond. Among them though, the most consistent player throughout this event was hunter. He consistently put up the frags and impact throughout the event and in every elimination series which included: Mouz, ENCE, and Vitality. While it seems doubtful that his level of play can stay at this level for a consistently long time, he showed himself to be the best Valiance player here.

3) sergej

The best and most consistent player on ENCE makes it third on my list. While it’s easily arguable that he was the best player at this event, I felt that both ZywOo and Valde had to go above and beyond the call for either of their teams to have any success here. On the other hand, both Allu and Aerial had good performances. ENCE were the best team here as well, so in terms of overall weight that had to be carried, sergej had to do less than either ZywOo or Valde, which is why I’ve put him below them in this ranking.

2- ZywOo

The French phenom makes it second on my list of standout players at the EU Minor. He showed himself to be not only an incredible AWPer, but someone who was versatile and effective on the rifles as well (though mostly on the AUG). As a player, he stepped up huge for Vitality time and time again. His biggest match was probably the third game against Valiance where Vitality were on the verge of elimination and his massive impact on both sides of the map carried Vitality to the finish line. That carry performance and what he did against North in the decider barely pushed ZywOo over sergej for me.

1) valde

The best Danish player outside of Astralis was also my pick for best individual player at this event. The reason I have him at the top is because no one matched his peak level of play. It’s hard to match a 40 bomb done in regulation. Outside of that though, his level of consistency was on par with either sergej or ZywOo. What put him over the top for me though was that North don’t look like that great of a team compared to either ENCE or Vitality. ENCE looked to be the best here while Vitality grew throughout the tournament. In North’s case, I felt like they never found their footing in this tournament as a solid five man unit. As that’s the case I give Valde the nod as the player who stood out the most for me at the EU Minor.

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