Top 20 players of 2021: NAF (14)

Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic lands himself 14th place on the top 20 players of 2021 ranking, powered by GG.BET, thanks to his effective clutching and outstanding floor level and consistency.

Top 20 players of 2021: Introduction

The top 20 is not a place unfamiliar to NAF, who has now placed on the list three times within four years. However, before finding a long-term home within Liquid in early 2018, NAF was somewhat of a journeyman. Being part of the initial Denial lineup that was picked up by Liquid in 2015, he found himself quickly replaced after only a couple months by the one and only Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski.

NAF then bounced around a couple of different teams during the rest of 2015, first of which was Luminosity. This was the Canadian organization's first CS:GO team, based originally on one of the earliest Mythic lineups. Featuring the likes of Jacob "⁠pyth⁠" Mourujärvi and Peter "⁠ptr⁠" Gurney, NAF only remained on the team for two months before moving on.

The next stop was Elevate, where he linked up with both Damian "⁠daps⁠" Steele and William "⁠RUSH⁠" Wierzba. Pretty soon, the team decided to split up, with the aforementioned core going on to create Sponsorless alongside the additions of Shahzeb "⁠ShahZaM⁠" Khan and Ronnie "⁠ryx⁠" Bylicki.

This core is the one that went on to become Conquest and then OpTic, landing NAF a home all the way until Summer 2017 when the North American OpTic lineup disbanded following the departure of Tarik "⁠tarik⁠" Celik and RUSH to Cloud9. In the beginning of September that year, NAF joined Renegades, which featured the old core of Aaron "⁠AZR⁠" Ward, Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage, and Karlo "⁠USTILO⁠" Pivac along with Noah "⁠Nifty⁠" Francis.

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This is the point where NAF ascended as an individual, becoming a hard carry for the team. His play with the Aussie-majority side put him in prime position to get picked up by Liquid at the start of 2018 as a replacement for Josh "⁠jdm64⁠" Marzano. Liquid then went on to have much success over the next two years, with NAF being an integral piece.

Liquid in 2018 was one of the most consistent teams in the world, repeatedly making grand finals only to lose to peak Astralis time and time again. After such a prolonged period of time losing to the greatest team ever, Liquid developed a mental block both against the Danish powerhouse and in grand final matches. Despite this, NAF stood out as the star of this Liquid, accruing a 1.18 rating over the year, and earning himself the 6th place on the 2018 top 20, the highest any North American player had ever placed at the time.

To try and shake things up, the team picked up Jake "⁠Stewie2K⁠" Yip from MIBR, sending Epitacio "⁠TACO⁠" de Melo and Wilton "⁠zews⁠" Prado back to their Brazilian brothers. The addition of a strong voice proved to be the key, and Liquid had one of the most dominant runs in the history of CS:GO during the spring and summer of 2019, winning IEM Sydney, DreamHack Dallas, ESL Pro League Season 9 Finals, and ESL One Cologne in quick succession and taking the Intel Grand Slam in record time.

The tournament break evidently put a hamper on their momentum, and after falling short against Astralis once again at the StarLadder Berlin Major, the team's old mental issues reared their head. Despite the weaker end to the year, Liquid were still comfortably the second best team of the whole year, with NAF serving as the consistent second star to EliGE, this time placing 7th on the Top 20 players of 2019.

2020 was a rough year for all of North America, Liquid included. After being relegated to competing almost exclusively within NA, teams and players were unable to test their mettle against European opposition, and thus their accomplishments simply couldn't stack up. In August, Nick "⁠nitr0⁠" Cannella made the bold move to make the transition to VALORANT, and the team picked up upcomer Michael "⁠Grim⁠" Wince.

The team didn't have exceptional results during the year, even against NA opposition, and while NAF certainly played quite well, it wasn't his form from years prior. By the end of the year, the team had dropped below rank #15 and it was clear that something needed to change. The change came with the departure of Russel "⁠Twistzz⁠" Van Dulken, and Liquid moved into 2021 looking to return to the top internationally.

Eventually, the team decided on the addition of legendary Brazilian in-game leader and AWPer Gabriel "⁠FalleN⁠" Toledo, with the goal of bringing back a strong AWPing presence along with the experience of a seasoned caller, rather than continuing to rely on the smarts of Stewie2K.

Liquid kicked off their year fairly strong, placing top four at both the BLAST Global Final and IEM Katowice, picking up series wins against Natus Vincere, OG, FaZe, and Vitality. NAF secured up his first EVP of the year at the BLAST Global Final, putting up an impressive 1.26 rating and 87 ADR. He continued with a strong performance at IEM Katowice too, averaging a 1.31 rating in the Play-In and a 1.12 rating at the main event.

Despite some stumbling blocks at the BLAST Spring Groups and the local DreamHack Open March, the first of which saw NAF heavily underperform in his worst event of the year, things were still looking bright for Liquid.

"Picking up FalleN was nice, it was great to have the AWP and IGL role finally in place, and who better to take up those obligations? We started off pretty well at BLAST and Katowice, but after mid-way through the season we started having issues with how the leading needed to be in-game and we started playing the game very individualistic, when we really just needed the trust and chemistry to flow."

Next was ESL Pro League Season 13, which saw Liquid put up a respectable, but likely overall disappointing, placing of 9th-12th, making the playoffs but losing in the first round to G2. Afterward however came Liquid's worst event of the year in the BLAST Spring Showdown. Here, the North American side were handily defeated by Dignitas in the very first round, putting them out of contention for the BLAST Spring Finals.

Following such a result, the squad returned to North America for the first RMR event leading into PGL Stockholm. Despite dropping a series in the group stage to Extra Salt, Liquid had a fairly straightforward victory, taking an early lead in the RMR standings and potentially restoring some confidence going into IEM Cologne.

However, hopes of returning to the deep stages of elite tournaments were dashed following a group stage exit after losses to Ninjas in Pyjamas and BIG. While NAF was the highest rated player on Liquid at the event, it still wasn't particularly impressive, sitting at an average 1.05.

"Yeah, after the Digintas loss I feel like that is where we hit rock bottom and that we need to step up a lot if we want any shot at success with this lineup."

"Coming into Cologne, I feel that mentally we weren't ready to play at this event and I just remember starting off pretty rough against NIP, where they bashed us on the last 2 maps of the series. Next game we played MOUZ, a team that we felt was also a bit on the struggle, as a team we played a solid series and gave us hope moving forward. Going up against BIG, I think I underestimated them as we would usually come out on top against them no matter the circumstances, I recall making some bad mistakes and as a team I feel we underperformed hard."

"I never really cared too much about the leadership changes, I know my role on this team is lurking and that if my centerpiece players on the map are having a hard time and we're getting bashed, it's going to be a hard game for me to make plays and find ways to find my impact on the game."

The player break gave the team some much needed time to address the ongoing leadership conflicts and to reset mentally going into the next season of play. The first tournament after the break, ESL Pro League Season 14, was NAF's second best event of the year. The team secured a top eight placing, with series wins over Ninjas in Pyjamas, Entropiq, FURIA, and fnatic. The final game against HEROIC was also very close, going to overtime on map three, with NAF putting up a superb performance despite the heartbreaking loss.

"refrezh' 1v5 was a huge blow, if that happened on LAN I think I would be haunted by this memory until the end of time, but I believe since it happened online it's been out of my head. I remember the following day I had to go meet my girlfriend's parents for the first time and I remember at about 08:00 when she woke up I told her I never went to bed, I was just laying there for like 9 hours and all I could think of was refrezh 1v5'ing us."

BLAST was once again a weak spot for this version of Liquid, as they once again failed to qualify from the Fall group stage, being sent down to the Fall Showdown. This unfortunately meant they would have to travel back to Europe earlier, cutting into potential preparation time for the Major.

"These times were a bit of a blur on remembering things for me, but I believe we all knew that we had a rough first half of the year and that we needed to start achieving success if this roster wanted to have longevity."

"I honestly enjoy my time being over in the EU in the Netherlands and I never really get homesick or anything, so I don't mind spending long lengths in the EU, I know this is what I signed up for and that I just need to perform my best for my organization and teammates."

Back in North America, Liquid swept the group stage of IEM Fall, securing themselves a spot at the PGL Major. At the BLAST Fall Showdown, NAF was the key player in Liquid's victories against both Virtus.pro and MAD Lions, helping push them to qualify for the Fall Finals after the Major.

The PGL Stockholm Major was do or die for this Team Liquid lineup, and the players knew that they had immense pressure to perform. As they qualified as Legends, they were able to bypass the first stage but were unable to make things click. After an initial loss against Entropiq, Liquid were unable to work out the kinks and exited the Swiss stage 1-3. NAF also had a lackluster tournament, underperforming heavily in the team's matches against FURIA and FaZe.

"I think we all held high expectations for ourselves at the Stockholm Major, as I think a lot of us knew changes would happen if we underperform and fail. We started against Entropiq, a team I believe we all knew that we should beat, but in the end we started off 0-1 which gave us some doubt about how strong we really are at this moment."

"Second matchup was against ENCE. I believe we had a big experience edge against them and that we didn't have to play a special way to achieve the win. FURIA was our third opponent, I felt confident going into the game, but as a team we could not find the right answers to get a grip on the game and when we went on the CT side we started off lost and the game ended pretty swiftly. For our final game against FaZe I do believe we had our chances to take it to a 3rd map but we choked in some moments and broky played a good AWP game and it cost us in the end."

Immediately following the Major, reports emerged of roster changes within Liquid, beginning with the departures of FalleN and Stewie2K. Whatever the specifics of the lineup alterations, it was all but confirmed that changes were guaranteed going into the BLAST Fall Finals and the other final events of the year.

"I'm pretty sure we already knew in the back of our minds that if we don't put up a solid placing that this team will probably not go on for much longer."

"During this time I wasn't really sure as to what the new lineup would be, as I was thinking of going into a new project with other players."

It wasn't long until a report emerged that NAF was in talks to join Evil Geniuses alongside Stewie2K. The move didn't come to fruition, as the Canadian eventually re-signed with Liquid, but he confirmed that talks did occur and that he was all but set on leaving his long-time home.

"I was pretty set on leaving initially. I told Liquid that I'd rather look at other options, since my contract was coming up next year. I really wanted to try and create the old NRG lineup that had Daps, Brehze, and Cerq, I know we tried to see if Ethan wanted to come back to CS, but we knew he was really happy with VALORANT, so I thought if we could create that lineup, we would make a solid contender. Talking with EG, it seemed they had ideas of their own and I didn't want to go down that route, so I pretty much backed out of it."

"I believe I made a good choice to re-sign with Liquid, as I believe they're the best organization in esports. I believe they made good choices on the players that they want for the future of Liquid CS."

"I think oSee has great potential to be one of the best awpers out of NA and can also become one of the best in the world if he puts his mind into it."

"When I was talking to Liquid about leaving, they brought up that shox was really interested in joining TL and I remember just thinking 'damn, that's pretty dope.' He's been someone I've looked up to ever since starting competitive CS back in Source, I'd watch all his highlights all the time for motivation. My biggest goal in CS:GO was to become good enough and play against him and now he's my teammate, that's awesome!"

With much less pressure to perform, the final three events of the year saw Liquid perform quite a bit better than they had for most of the year. NAF was also the highest rated player for Liquid in all of their final events, giving him a definite edge over his teammates in the top 20 race. Liquid picked up yet another win over Ninjas in Pyjamas at the BLAST Fall Finals due to a masterclass 1.44 rating performance from NAF, and once again played close against HEROIC.

"Nothing really changed for me [after the lineup was dead]. I know I'm here to perform and give it my best. For the overall team aura that we had was that we have no pressure and that at the end of the year we know it's over for us, so let's just go out and give our best."

"[My] best memory [in 2021] was definitely playing in the Royal Arena for the BLAST Fall Finals. Playing in front of a crowd again was so refreshing and it's something I dearly missed, I had a really good time at that event and I can't wait for more to come back."

IEM Winter also offered another milestone for the Liquid core in the form of defeating Astralis 2-0 for the first time ever, even though it was a different core for the Danish side. Finishing off the year at the BLAST World Final, Liquid pulled off an incredible series win over event winners Natus Vincere, with NAF serving as the key player for the NA side in that match.

They then played a close game against Gambit and repeated a 2-0 victory against Astralis to secure a top four placing. As the final roster of the new-look Team Liquid slowly formed during the tournament break, NAF is hopeful that they will be able to have a more stable environment and work towards winning tournaments again.

"I think towards the end of the year it showed that if we gave each other more patience and faith in one another we could've maybe squeaked out better results and had a stronger end of the year. Going into next year I know it's going to be something fresh, so I'm excited to see what the future holds."

Why was NAF the 14th best player of 2021?

After barely missing out on the list last year, NAF makes a return to the Top 20 as one of the more consistent players and one of the most effective clutchers of the year.

"It definitely feels good to be back in the top 20, it's a nice reminder that you played a good year of CS."

"I recall coming into 2020 and not playing so great at the start of the year at BLAST and Katowice and that I need to step up more individually. Later on the pandemic started to heat up and that a lot of the year for us would mainly be playing NA matchups, in which we started off pretty well by beating EG for the NA Pro League trophy. I feel about halfway through the year we really started to drag and fatigue and that changes needed to be made. I think my motivation took a dip after a lot of the issues on the team started to pile up, but I feel I still put up decent CS that year."

Aside from the unsuccessful attempts at qualifying for the BLAST Premier Spring Final (at both the Groups and Showdown), he put up 1.05 or higher ratings at every other event he attended. Further showcasing NAF's consistency was the rarity of bad maps, as he had a 0.85+ rating or higher 89% of the time (8th most often), as well as a high round-to-round consistecy (72.9% KAST, 9th)

NAF ranked 17th in total 1vsX situations won (53), but looking at it on a per-round average he ranks 5th. Combining that with his good damage dealing (80.2, #15), he still ended up decently impactful despite having the lowest opening duel attempt rate within the Top 20. Most importantly, he achieved those by playing mainly in Big events and against top opposition, ending up with a 1.13 Big event rating (#12) and 1.12 against Top 20 teams (#12).

He came away with two notable awards, the EVPs at BLAST Premier Global Final 2020 and ESL Pro League Season 14, and was very close to another one during Liquid's biggest success of the year, the 3-4th place at IEM Katowice. NAF was also either Liquid's best or second best player at every other event, including their decent runs at BLAST Premier World Final 2021, IEM Winter, and ESL Pro League Season 13.

While he was very solid throughout the year, NAF lacked the higher peaks or even higher floor that would push him toward a higher spot on the list.

"I hope we can strive for a good healthy team environment and with that trophies will finally start falling back into Liquid hands. I think it'll be a fun experience to play with shox, he's a legend of CS and an inspiration to me, so I think it would be great to find success together."

Bold prediction by GG.BET

A regular recurring feature in the Top 20 player ranking series, the Bold prediction segment returns in 2021, this time around requiring players to choose a player that is under the age of 20 and has yet to play in a top 20 team.

NAF chose another MOUZ NXT player, Miłosz "⁠mhL⁠" Knasiak, a Polish AWPer who made his name playing in AGO. Filling the shoes of Ádám "⁠torzsi⁠" Torzsás will be a tall task, but NAF believes he has what it takes to really break out in 2022, "I think mhL has the potential, I see he got picked up by MOUZ NXT, so I think he has a huge opportunity to get himself to the next level in the future. I wish him the best of luck."

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Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2021 ranking and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected. This year's ranking is supported by:

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