NAF wins iBUYPOWER Masters MVP award

Liquid star Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic is the winner of the Most Valuable Player (MVP) award of iBUYPOWER Masters 2019 by HLTV.org and betway.

The Canadian player secured the medal after inspiring Liquid to make a comeback against Astralis in the final with a team-leading 1.23 rating, capping off a great series with a 1.36 rating on Overpass.

WIth his grand final performance, NAF beat off competition from Andreas "⁠Xyp9x⁠" Højsleth, who was another strong contender for the award for his great play in the playoffs (1.32 rating, the highest in his team). Other notable mentions include Astralis duo Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif, who were in the running after the first map of the final, and Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, who had a quiet performance against the Danes.

NAF claims his fourth MVP medal

NAF, who had the second-highest rating at 1.30, ended the tournament in 11 stats leaderboards, leading four of them: KDD (+50), total kills (167), deaths per round (0.56) and assists (35). He also averaged 0.10 flash assists per round, the most of any player who reached the playoffs.

This is the fourth MVP medal of NAF's career, the third since joining Liquid, nearly a year ago. The 21-year-old was the sixth best player of 2018, when he averaged a 1.17 rating at Big Events, the fourth-highest in the world.