broky picks up first MVP of his career in Katowice

The Latvian produced the best big LAN performance of his life to lead his team to victory despite playing with a stand-in.

Young star Helvijs "⁠broky⁠" Saukants played a stellar event at IEM Katowice and takes home not only a winner's medal, but the MVP award by HLTV & BitSkins. The Latvian AWPer was ever-present at the top of the scoreboard for FaZe as they romped to victory at the first big LAN event of the year, with the team besting G2 in a thriller of a grand final.

This is broky's first MVP and comes not long after the 21-year-old made his first appearance on the HLTV top 20 players of the year ranking, debuting at No. 20.

broky led the event in a plethora of stats including KD-diff (+134), kills per round (0.84), and rating (1.30). He was also the joint best clutcher at the event, alongside Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač, with 10 1vsX won.

He played several outstanding series, with two coming against Liquid and in defeat to Natus Vincere, but the pick of the bunch was his 1.61 rated domination of Gambit in the quarter finals.

It was a tight race for MVP between broky and fellow finalist Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, but the Bosnian rifler's complete lack of impact in the playoffs severely hurt his case for the accolade. The other half of the Kovač duo, huNter-, deserves special mention for managing to claw his way into the race during the playoffs, and for being the best player in the grand final even in defeat.

2022 MVPs by HLTV.org:

IEM Katowice 2022 - broky
Funspark ULTI Finals - sh1ro