Who carries who? (December 2021)
By: Daniel Ránki
Tags: Esports, Csgo

As the last big CS:GO tournament of 2021 draws nearer to its conclusion, fans and pundits alike begin their usual song and dance of scrutinizing lineups (especially the ones that underperformed according to fan expectations). From praising the obvious stars to identifying weak links and bashing proverbial check stealers (shoutout to By the Numbers, the quintessential CS:GO podcast), I wanted to create a visualization of how much each member of a team contributes to their respective success or failure. My hypothesis going in is that using a polar area chart the standouts and the laggards will be immediately apparent. The obvious choice here is HLTV.org’s eponymous HLTV Rating 2.0, a proprietary formula compressing the performance and impact of a player in the server into a single metric. Admittedly this method can be a bit restrictive since it relies on a single variable, so I’ll be aiming to introduce more detailed forms of visualisation in the future (think spider/radar charts). Charts below use data from the last 3 months (as of 14th of December) and do not account for standins or type of tournament played.

#1 Natus Vincere (Ukraine / Russia)

Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostlyev is inarguably the best player in CS:GO by a country mile, and has been for quite some time. Even with Denis “electronic” Sharipov in tow, s1mple’s impressive collection of individual accolades were sorely missing tournament trophies to go with them, until the addition of 18 year old prodigy Valeriy “B1T” Vakhovskiy to the team. The move took Na’Vi from solid favorite title conteneders to be the team to beat.

#2 Vitality (France)

Despite Dan “apEX” Madesclaire’s stature as the vocal leader and hype man of the squad, it is Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut who stands head and shoulders above the rest, dragging his team to impressive playoff runs despite the imbalance in performance. Jayson “Kyojin” Nguyen Van is an obvious weak link, but with the roster shakeup of the team all but confirmed it seems he will need to prove his worth elsewhere next year.

#3 G2 (France / Bosnia-Hercegovina / Serbia)

Despite their elite placing among the world’s best, this iteration of the G2 lineup has yet to win any tournaments since the blockbuster signing of Nikola “NiKo” Kovač. Their best chances this year (a runner up finish at IEM Cologne and the PGL Stockholm Major) were both foiled by current leaders Na’Vi. The distribution shows the reigning narrative of the Kovač cousins being the engine of the team falter a bit as NiKo is clearly the star player (one a year long time scale Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač is closer, his recent showings being more subdued).

#4 Gambit (Russia / Kazahstan)

The breakout team of the online era seem to struggle to find their footing in the brick and mortar arenas when the cream of the crop (and a crowd) is present. Dmitriy “sh1ro” Sokolov’s impressive rating comes with the caveat he has gone missing in big offline games (the semi-final of the Major against regional rivals Na’Vi or their most recent lost to Vitality at IEM Winter comes to mind).

#5 NIP

With the blockbuster signing of Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz failing to achieve the breakthrough it promised in terms of titles brought home by the Ninjas, another Dane was brought on the other side of the Øresund strait. Journeyman Patrick “es3tag” Hansen is hoping to solidify his status as top-tier talent after a string of disappointing spells at US organizations Cloud9 and Complexity on the back of his standout (albeit similarly short) tenure at Astralis, an aspirational team to join for any Danish CS:GO player. While the issues in communication within the team are well known, es3tag did not kick the door down on his entry to this lineup and is yet to justify his signing on the server.

The swedes in NIP are a mixed bag: in game leader Hampus “hampus” Poser and rifle star Fredrik “REZ” Sterner have consistently posted decent numbers while Nicolas “Plopski” Gonzalez, formerly hailed as new Swedish talent on par with fnatic’s Ludvig “Brollan” Brolin has steadily greyed into mediocrity.

#6 Heroic

In true Scandinavian fashion, no one stands out too drastically from this bunch, asided from Martin “stavn” Lund, who was the only member of the team to show some signs of life during their early exit from IEM Winter. Despite the recent clash with domestic nemesis Astralis forcing Casper “Cadian” Møller to walk back on his pre-game swagger, Heroic have been the better Danish team in 2021, giving a home to a fresh crop of talent while Astralis stuggled to find a lineup and maintain a form worthy of their legacy.