sh1ro named IEM Katowice 2021 MVP

28-2-2021 20:48

The Russian youngster has earned his first career MVP award in Gambit's IEM Katowice 2021 title run.

Gambit's 19-year-old AWPer Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov claimed the IEM Katowice 2021 MVP award after he and his teammates defeated Virtus.pro in the grand final after battling their way to the title from the lower bracket following an initial loss to Evil Geniuses.

The Russian squad, who were also the lowest ranking team in the field, eliminated five teams on the way to the final, leaving behind MOUZ, HEROIC, G2, Natus Vincere and Spirit before being crowned champions with a 3-1 victory in the best-of-five grand final.

sh1ro finished the tournament with a 1.27 rating in 17 maps

On his way to being awarded the MVP title sh1ro had above average ratings in 15 of the 17 maps played, topping five different stats leaderboards: KD difference (+111), damage difference per round (+20), deaths per round (0.48), KAST (77.8%), and clutches, with 19 1vsX situations won — the same number as the current Big Event record holder, Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev.

One of sh1ro's highlights in a consistently strong tournament all around came in the quarter-final match against Natus Vincere, where he topped the board with a 1.45 rating and 86% KAST, and although he wasn't as impactful in the last two series, he was still a consistent positive influence in Gambit's victories deep in the bracket while everyone else on the team stepped up at different times.

In the end sh1ro was able to put in enough work in the grand final to outdo the other outstanding performer at IEM Katowice 2021, Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis, to come out on top in the race for the MVP and earn the accolade for the first time in his career.

2021-02-28 20:49

37 replies

WELL PLAYED SH1RO REMINDER THAT EG 2-0 GAMBIT AT THE START OF THE TOURNAMENT

2021-02-28 20:50

31 replies

GAMBIT_NEVER_BEAT_NA

2021-02-28 20:52

17 replies

2021-02-28 20:53

12 replies

2021-02-28 21:13

11 replies

Hobbit major winner , ofc . gambit two times major tittle , lets go!

2021-02-28 21:33

10 replies

Hobbit_never_won_against_NA lul

2021-02-28 22:34

9 replies

hltv.org/matches/2322019/cloud9-vs-gambi.. hltv.org/matches/2322017/gambit-vs-liqui.. lul

2021-03-01 02:31

Liquid?

2021-03-01 03:54

No it was Brazilian Immortals :>

2021-03-01 04:15

6 replies

that doesnt count the entire lineup was wasted during final and they still got 16-4ed on the first map, immortals still the best majorless team to touch CSGO

2021-03-01 05:34

5 replies

Best majorless team is Na'Vi by far.

2021-03-01 05:36

4 replies

NaVi 2018 > NaVI 2021 btw

2021-03-01 09:45

3 replies

No doubt. 2015-16 Na'Vi > Na'Vi 2020-21 btw

2021-03-01 11:40

2 replies

2010 navi > 2021, ez4godmarkeloff :)

2021-03-01 22:04

1 reply

2021-03-02 02:30

they won against C9

2021-02-28 22:18

fuck

2021-02-28 22:19

That's not NA. Only 2 NA players.

2021-02-28 22:26

OMEGALUL

2021-03-01 06:45

Rip eg now Ethan is leaving

2021-02-28 20:55

8 replies

New beginning man. EG is only just getting started, 2021 will become one of their best years.

2021-02-28 20:57

are u dreaming ?

2021-02-28 21:47

ethan was never as good as he was in nrg, i agree it was probably a good time to lose average player.

2021-02-28 22:24

Because he didn't play the same roles, same with Tarik who dropped off when he had to change his roles. Everyone is just looking at their stats and calling for them to be kicked while they actually are the reason why these teams even work. You can't have 5 star players on every map.

2021-03-01 09:47

who said i want 5 starplayers, why would you put your words into my mouth? Hate when people say "not same roles blablabla" ive seen ethan play since he joined nrg up until now and his shots were way better than now.

2021-03-01 19:37

People come and go, old sports give space to new young promises like sh1ro. No need to be sad or anything.

2021-02-28 21:23

ethan is still 20 tho

2021-03-01 08:19

but been around for a while

2021-03-01 20:04

The new xantares online

2021-02-28 21:10

Daily dose of irrelevant information

2021-02-28 21:18

LOL REMIDNER THAT EG LOST IEM KATOWICE ALLTOGETHER

2021-03-01 01:29

Ahmad detected

2021-03-01 09:02

2021-02-28 20:51

my boy

EZ for baiter yeah real mvp is hobbit

2021-02-28 21:21

2021-02-28 21:29

2021-03-01 05:38

7 replies

ez MVP for god sh1ro) youtube.com/watch?v=BmzPhbWCVL0&t=8s&ab_..

holy shit this is a good montage, i hope you become famous someday mens

2021-02-28 21:22

Holy shiet dude. Are you a professional or is editing just a hobby?

2021-03-01 00:13

better edit than half of the hltv editors' clips

2021-03-01 01:05

great video mens)))

2021-03-01 02:16

actual pog

2021-03-01 05:19

god sh1ro

2021-02-28 23:04

ez for god sh1ro. top1 this year

2021-03-01 12:56

deserved

yekindar deserved it more tbh

2021-02-28 21:14

they both showed godlike stats

2021-02-28 21:17

YEKINDAR using only rifles to get his stats is more impressive

that's true, it's more impressive stepping up with rifles imo

while rifles is more impressive for sure, sh1ro had way too much impact and clutched every single time. you do not want to be in a 1x2 with shiro

2021-03-01 02:36

agreed

2021-03-01 09:11

More impact? That's a good one, look at their impact in their games and try again... If you are too lazy for that just look at their impact rating: sh1ro 1.16 Vs YEKINDAR 1.57 YEKINDAR had much more impact and won so many rounds for his team, no matter how bad their situation was, sh1ro only got them the rounds where his team already did the heavy lifting. On this level of play you only win clutches when the opposing team makes mistakes or you team already brought the other team down low.

2021-03-01 09:52

have you seen shiro in clutch? this guy is at the level of old xyp9x but with more aggresive plays

2021-03-01 10:24

don't even bother.

2021-03-01 16:50

2021-03-01 01:42

Respect hobbit and yekindar tho.

jame was awesome aswell

hobbit > shiro

25 replies

mvp handed for whole event, not only final

2021-02-28 21:00

sh1ro stat player, hobbit goes for more risky peeks and also he's more crucial being an igl who handles a good stats

2021-02-28 21:08

16 replies

2021-02-28 21:11

nafany is igl mens

2021-02-28 21:15

Hobbit became IGL right after he was brought into the team. Nafany used to be IGL only for a period of time

2021-02-28 22:40

you don't know what you're talking about liquipedia.net/counterstrike/Gambit_Espo..

2021-02-28 23:01

nafany is igl, the fuck u talkin about

2021-02-28 23:06

It is not. Check your facts. Nafany was the IGL when supra was part of gambit. Once supra was transfer listed and hobbit joined the team, it was hobbit who makes the calls. Go make a thread and ask people so you will realise it

2021-03-01 15:26

I sent you a private message because messages with links for some reason take a long time to be sent

2021-03-01 17:17

Dafuq! When they signed Hobbit i read that he came to take the IGL role. Sorry then, i was misleaded by wrong information

2021-03-01 17:35

np bro :) btw you don't have to reply to my another message with link which will probably come in a few hours :D

2021-03-01 17:44

"Check your facts"

2021-03-01 19:56

Sh1ro won them 19 clutches

Shut up. Hes a baiter stat player. How do you think he got to these clutch situations? I can answer you. By baiting teammates to death. Dont you read hltv forums? Its a common knowledge that he is a baiter. He became one only very recently when he started wooping asses of teams from top10 with 1.40+ rating sometimes. Previously he did not bait. Only baiters like simple, zywoo, niko achieves these ratings on a regular basis

2021-03-01 00:20

None of the three you just mentioned are baiters, they sometimes bait their teammates to win a round where they are the only one with a rifle, but they don't bait like sh1ro, KSCERATO, Jame and some others do. The best way to detect if someone baits for stats is to compare their HLTV rating to their impact rating. If their impact rating is much lower than their HLTV rating you know they don't bring much value in terms of beeing a round deciding factor: baiter. sh1ro had a 1.27 HLTV rating but only 1.16 impact, that's one of the worst ratios in the event. Then look at arT and YEKINDAR who are prime examples of players who don't bait at all and bring much value. 1.57 and 1.53 impact with 1.28 and 1.19 HLTV rating.

2021-03-01 10:04

+1 my man.

That was not a serious opinion. I was mocking hltv forum where when some player begins to show good stats consistently, he automatically becomes a baiter in the eyes of hltv kids.

2021-03-04 10:54

God dammit he didn't. The 1vX metric is flawed on HLTV because a clutch, or true 1vX, is a disadvantage situation. It's defined here as ANY 1vX situation, even if it's coming from an advantage. He helped close out the rounds but it was constantly at the expense of his teammate, and often when he DENIED another team from clutching (often within literal moments of his teammate dying). Closing a round you should win is NOT the same as a clutch. Do not conflate the two. He wasn't doing what Xyp9x or old school flusha do.

2021-03-01 15:27

only in final

2021-02-28 21:06

check other matches

2021-03-01 07:33

What a surprise

Sad :(

#justice4hobbit

I am a hobbit fan but #33

ezzz

expteced

Deserved fully. Congrats to Gambit and sh1ro

his previous haircut 10x better than current

Well deserved!

damn where are toxic EG fans?

They are sad cuz Ethan is leaving Eg

2021-02-28 20:56

Oh shit, it's time to review some older threads axaxax

2021-02-28 21:12

Well done

Easy for ropz the awper

everything is better than s0mple

Hobbit deserved this, but okey

well done, he's like s1mple jr

No he is not, S1mple never had such low impact while having such a high rating.

2021-03-01 10:06

Absolutely deserved!

deserved hobbit played great in the final tho

totally deserved Hobbit is the MVP of the final, but sh1ro is the mvp of the tournament

true

y sh1ro but not yekindar? yekindar had way better ratings doing shittier role

2021-02-28 21:09

He would’ve won if VP won the tournament, he played insanely well

2021-03-01 00:32

yeah, i agree. but def in a fair world the mvp would be yekindar (although he was bad during finals) even with vp loss

2021-03-01 04:44

like i said b4 tournament sh1ro>s2mple

In this katowice, yes. And also very well deserved for sh1ro. But overall, it's not even light-years close :D

2021-03-01 06:39

sh1ro 1.27 rating with only 1.16 impact and 0.48 DPR S1mple 1.31 rating with 1.46 impact and 0.60 DPR It's like YEKINDAR said in the interview after they won the semi final: ppl have no idea how much better S1mple is compared to him and the other new stars of CIS.

2021-03-01 10:10

dang no one expected gambit to win hahahaaaaa

sh1ro > s0mple

CIS era

deserved after 1v1 with s1mpel

who are the EVPs?

twitter.com/Tgwri1s He usually posts them after a day or so

GODbbit the real MVP

*of the final

Deserved, what an epic final

gg wp

2021-02-28 20:54

Totally deserved

Deserved. WP all tournament

Crazy player. Him and YEKINDAR stole the show in Katowice this year. Both contenders for the Top 20 players list after this year is over. Next in line is probably degster from Spirit. All three very hot prospects I can't wait to see more from.

mir was probably nr 3 after these 2

2021-02-28 21:04

Deserved

Deseeved and wp Yekindar too

Hobbit robbed

Lucky win indeed

2021-02-28 20:59

wp totally deserved

sh0ro KEKW

2021-02-28 21:01

EVPs?

2021-02-28 21:02

he hasn't had lower than a -5 KD on any map since July 1st last year. Kinda crazy.

Cause he always saves and never helps with retakes? Seriously mate

2021-02-28 21:36

How many times did he clutch?

He clutches only when team mates made him winable situation.

2021-03-01 08:13

And that's how I know that you don't know what you're talking about.

2021-03-01 09:22

Yes that famous hltv montage of Shiro clutching when its always man advantage for Gambit and Shiro is only trading. Such a clutch master.

2021-03-01 09:27

Also im surprised that having Spirit flair you cant tell diffrence, when somebody actually clutches. Degster and Chopper have that ability in spades.

2021-03-01 09:34

Look felson, I agree that not each and every clutch of sh1ro deserves highlights but going as far as to say that it's nothing special and mostly in thanks to his mates that set him up is just plain dumb. Remember the clutch on Over when he was low and against 3 and managed to clutch it, that's just one example I know because I only have seen last two matchups with him.

2021-03-01 09:41

Mate i disagree, im only saying what i do see. Every time i see Gambit play, Shiro saves when Gambit is loosing and Shiro goes for "clutch" when Gambit have man advantage. More of a retake i would say. This whole tournament every player was outstanding for Gambit, but Shiro takes all credit. Thats dumb if anything.

I don't think it's true, he had the least impact in the finals and I'm pretty sure everyone said the same. As for the clutches, he plays very safe, almost like device to an extent but if you want to see more clutches, I advise you to watch his Overpass games in the playoffs, that map is basically his home.

2021-03-01 09:43

PogChamp

2021-02-28 21:03

Crazy

what a beast dude was next lvl even in pleb youngsters

Hobbit deserved more cause of semi finals and finals... sniper gets MVP as always #nerfAWP

sh1ro 76 adr 1.16 impact raiting 1.27 raiting 2.0 0.73 kpr 0.48dpr biggest baiter ever yekindar 91 adr 1.57 impact 1.28 raiting 2.0 ok 0.82 kpr sh1ro - mvp funny

undeserved mvp, but then again kinda expected as HLTV already made a "Shiro 12 clutch compilation" where 85% of the "clutches" were 2v1 and 3v1 in Gambits favor xD

2021-02-28 22:03

True That's no fault of his own; sh1ro's style of play works for him. However the mvp decision is debatable, if you were to judge from "impact of the tournament" point of view. sh1ro manages to have amazing stats in like 5-10 lost halfs, due to saving every round and doing exits. Sure, you gotta be good at doing it as well, this is his role, he values the economy and manages to preserve it. But when you look at those halves, you're not thinking you're watching an mvp-level performance. You think of mvp-level performance when you see people taking over very important series, in a dominant, impactful manner. That's why players like YEKINDAR and Hobbit (for the most important series) come to mind in this conversation first . What is the right way to choose mvp? Debatable

2021-02-28 22:37

Add: And that's not to say sh1ro didn't have this dominant impact in a number of series and maps (perhaps even higher number than contenders? Gotta count) Maybe one way is to count maps were each player got way above what he was asked for by his role and got the main impact (still subjective ofc) in a map win. Maybe count with a consideration/multiplicator for map closeness (decisive impact) and series importance/difficulty. This way you see, who got the mvp-impact and where, instead of comparing the averaged tournament stats

2021-02-28 22:55

You can’t be MVP if you didn’t win the tournament

2021-03-01 03:35

u can

2021-03-01 04:12

Ofc you can, ZywOo and S1mple do so on a regular basis.

2021-03-01 10:15

You shouldn’t *

2021-03-01 12:51

Why not tho? MVP = Most Valuable Player, why should a player from a loosing team not be able to be the most valuable player of the tournament? Just because his team lost? There are always 4 (or 5 if you take the coach into consideration) other people in the team who have much more impact on the outcome of a game than one single player.

2021-03-01 14:43

hobbit win semi finals and grand final for gambit soooooo of your sentence hobbit its mvp

2021-03-01 16:23

Whole tournament != 2 series So no, he isn't, YEKINDAR should be the MVP.

2021-03-01 17:01

i know YEKINDAR should be the MVP but hltv dont change mvps so this discussion is useless

2021-03-01 17:33

awp abusers MVP always .

YEKINDAR better

2021-02-28 21:07

MVP 100% Yekindar hltv.org/stats?event=5552

Deserved!

I love VP but shiro is just amazing

expected

hahahah, even jame/hobbit/YEKINDAR were better than him XD, bot in final

2021-03-02 08:14

clutch god deserved

didnt deserve it

why? stop embarrassing BR bro.

2021-02-28 22:38

Because YEKINDAR was much more impactful. MVP = Most Valuable Player YEKINDAR was the most valuable player of the tournament.

2021-03-01 10:16

wrong. 0/8

2021-03-01 18:54

Deserved, very WP tournament. Congrats!!

2021-02-28 21:16

well deserved!

god sh1r0

Good kid

Deserved... on his way to greatness.

What a player. Congrats!

2021-02-28 21:24

Im not fan of Gambit but Hobbit deserved it..

2021-02-28 21:27

Sh1ro is not similar with s1mple. He is more like ZywOo or device which plays on their team, and only for them

2021-02-28 21:30

undeserved, always awp

FLUKESTAR

2021-02-28 21:39

nice one academy team after like 1 year winning IEM Katowice when navi or astralis can't do it lul :D

2021-02-28 21:40

cause they are lazy paycheck stealers

2021-03-01 05:25

.48 dpr LOL

2021-02-28 21:53

well played sh1ro! deserved!

2021-02-28 21:54

SH1RO > S0MPLE

2021-02-28 22:09

If SH1RO continues this form for 4-5 years, then SH1RO > s1mple, otherwise...

2021-03-01 05:55

Did we watch the same tournament? S1mple was much more impactful than sh1ro, he would have been the MVP without question if he would have been in the final instead of VP.

2021-03-01 10:18

2021-02-28 22:10

gg youtube.com/watch?v=Ln8LjGkN9zc

2021-02-28 22:21

2021-02-28 22:27

Deserved, sh1ro is a monster, GL

2021-02-28 22:29

YEKINDAR robbed, he is on that s1mple treatment

2021-02-28 22:36

+1, yeki > shiro

ggwp!

guess yekindar sh1ro hobbit were all so close

KEKW

2021-02-28 22:48

some people may say he is a baiter, but even if he his, atleast he is good teammate, not like s0mple which uses his teammates as decoys, i'm happy to see gambit winning this, WP

2021-02-28 22:49

+1 exactly He baits a lot but actually plays for the team

2021-03-01 03:37

What? Abusive awp saver, always waiting for others to take agro often decides to not peek when needed(like that last ct round on overpass vs VP when Axile is taking fight from heaven and Shiro cowards on sandbags not even trying to do something). Simple at least can have big clutch to his name while Shiro needs montages of 2v1 with teammates to call it clutch on hltv.

2021-03-01 08:18

jame is the one who abuse awp and bait, mens, on one map jame had 22 frags, 1 pistol frag and 21 awp frags lmao +JAME TIME +sanji used as piggybank, sh1ro is better teammate than those 2, noone from gambit has to sacrifice himself and he is still doing great job, for example, s1mple play good but to have good stats he needs his teammates to bait 4 him so usually half of the navi has 0,5-0,8 rating cuz they die every round so s0mple can get a frag +sh1ro is young player, needs more experience

Jame saver as much as Shiro and baits as hard as him that i can agree on. Still Jame can make big awp plays, good entrys(when Jame saves awp he often goes agro) one thing he is worse than Shiro is flashing. By saying awp save abuser i meant that Shiro saves almost every round that Gambit loose, and for what? Next round he still plays passive and he still saves again. Shiros stats are just like a bank bubble in beggining of 2k year, looks impressive on paper but in reality theres nothing to it.

2021-03-01 09:15

man give him time, he is new on tier1, it's his 1st real big event, also many times there is no need for him to intervene cuz his teammates sometimes win a round without him involved, gambit has very good squad and they don't rely on one player but on team as a whole, for example navi rely on s1mple and if he plays bad, whole navi loses(like in quarter-final)

I agree that he is young it just as you said whole Gambit plays well, so it angers me when all credit goes for Shiro. Still i dont agree on Simple and Navi thing, but thats just another topic.

2021-03-01 09:56

GamBot just got lucky with the bracket, if they face face Astralis it would be ez 2-0 for Danish team

2021-02-28 23:00

Baiter hahaha

IMPACT RATING: sh1ro: 1.16 YEKINDAR 1.57 Imo YEKINDAR deserved it more, he was by far the most impactful player in the tournament and nobody will argue against the fact that it is much harder to get good ratings as an entry fragging rifler compared to a fairly passive AWPer.

2021-02-28 23:14

true.. yekindar reminds me of watching s1mple before joining liquid. guy is fucking insane above anyone else. sh1ro is way less noticable, it's like that olof vs guardian meme

2021-02-28 23:22

Sh1ro has a lot of clutches

2021-03-01 07:58

YEKINDAR has a shitton of untraded entries which are more valuable than clutches where you have to rely on the opposing team to do mistakes.

2021-03-01 10:22

Yekindar true mvp

2021-02-28 23:18

ez4sh1ro

2021-02-28 23:19

2021-02-28 23:24

Absolutely deserved, he is one of the best players in the world atm. for me.

2021-02-28 23:30

Finally the recognition is coming

2021-02-28 23:41

all pro player team losing for a 13 years old boys this is cool

2021-02-28 23:44

Deserved, robot !

2021-02-28 23:45

this guy looks like 40 year old in 18 year olds body

2021-02-28 23:46

GOD SH1ROOOOOOOOOO

2021-03-01 00:01

CG! best player !

2021-03-01 00:03

s1mple is crying right now

2021-03-01 00:14

Thought Yekindar was better than him this tournament but not underserved^^

biggest baiter ever, he only plays to not die, worse than jame in that aspect, disgusting

2021-03-01 00:49

too much cry

not really, im not fanboy of any player but i hate sh1ro's playstyle, biggest baiter i've seen in a while

2021-03-01 06:16

Slver confirmed

2021-03-01 10:14

stay mad fanboy

2021-03-01 16:58

Total baiter

2021-03-01 00:51

Not at all.

2021-03-01 05:49

EZ for sh1ro won almost every single clutch bringing so much impact to his team.

2021-03-01 02:37

1.16 impact, so impactful lul. Meanwhile YEKINDAR with the casual 1.57 impact.

2021-03-01 10:23

gratz man! u really too good!

2021-03-01 02:38

I actually think Hobbit should have gotten it. such a good tourney from him

2021-03-01 04:05

2021-03-01 04:41

Hobbit was robbed.

2021-03-01 05:48

Undeserved Fluke onliners should not get MVP awards.

2021-03-01 05:56

1.27 rating? is sh1ro the new s1mple?! ... the boy plays very well ... (the hobbit played very well also in this championship ...)

2021-03-01 06:33

Wp hobb1t

Hobbit is MVP. /closed

2021-03-01 07:51

youtube.com/watch?v=lppPwL6dZpM SH1RO

2021-03-01 08:03

sh1 > s1

"The Russian squad were also the lowest ranking team in the field" - let's face the truth: this rank system is a joke

it is a joke and so is tier 1 counter-strike. there are loads of players out there that have the firepower to take down any t1player, but they rarely can come together as teams because of how the scene is built today. basically blast and esl are just circle jerking exercises for top30 teams, because most of them are contracted. gambit is just an exception to the rule.

2021-03-01 10:00

that's true. orgs and tournament operators have contracts and schedule for the whole year. It's more profitable to give 14 invites to "popular teams" than make qualifications and bring strong teams at the moment.

2021-03-01 10:03