We've assembled an all-star team of the best players at the event in Poland.

For 2022's HLTV Award Show, we used a new method to categorise players for a 'best five' of 2022. Rather than statistics, this method relied on the positions players occupy in defaults. 'Anchor of the year' required a player in supportive CT positions, 'Opener' was for entry-pack players on T-Side, and 'Closer' for those on the extremities. The AWPer and IGL awards need less explanation, with those two rounding out the five.

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The HLTV Award Show panel's best five of 2022

We used the same 'best fives' system for IEM Katowice, although this time around there is no panel; the awards are decided in-house along with the MVPs and EVPs.

Anchor

Justin "⁠jks⁠" Savage became the only player to win IEM Katowice back-to-back with different teams, and he did so from difficult CT positions once again. His performance this year was even more impressive than last, delivering G2's highest rating at the event (1.24) alongside highly impactful maps like his 1.38 rating against FaZe in a 16-14 on Nuke.

While Rasmus "⁠HooXi⁠" Nielsen takes the worst CT spot on most maps, jks is undoubtedly classed as an anchor for this award. On all six maps his position is classed as 'supportive,' from A on Mirage to Ramp on Nuke or A on Ancient. He was brought into G2 as an upgrade over Audric "⁠JACKZ⁠" Jug in these exact anchor positions and he has achieved that purpose with aplomb.

René "⁠TeSeS⁠" Madsen, Rasmus "⁠sjuush⁠" Beck, and Keith "⁠NAF⁠" Markovic came closest to snatching the award away from the Australian, but a strong grand final performance from jks and unrivaled consistency made the decision an easy one.

Opener

The opener award was more hotly contested, with TeSeS eligible once again as were Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund and Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis, with Aleksandr "⁠KaiR0N-⁠" Anashkin emerging as a new contender. Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač, however, had the edge in most metrics: A 1.17 rating was the highest out of all those eligible, while 83.2 ADR was second only to Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman. NiKo can find consistency from aggressive roles like few players can, attempting 28.3% of G2's openers on T side (24.2% on CT) en route to that 1.17 rating.

Ηe had posted 1.38 Impact and 87.5 ADR Before the final and was very much in the race to become MVP. A 1.48 rating against FaZe on Ancient was the highlight, showing the same ability to take over games that he has displayed since 2016. His performance dropped off in the grand final, but his impact beforehand was good enough to put his competitors in this category out of reach.

AWP

The most important role in the game is the AWPer, with star players aplenty in this category. Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov, Håkon "⁠hallzerk⁠" Fjærli, and Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov performed admirably in group stage exits, while Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali's 1.28 rating is inflated by a 55% survival rate — he actually survived more rounds than Outsiders won (51.5%). This meant the award became a three-way battle between Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, and Ilya "⁠m0NESY⁠" Osipov.

ZywOo also struggled at times, costing his team against HEROIC (0.71 rating on Overpass) and then against Liquid with two maps below a 0.91 rating in Vitality's quarter-final exit, leaving just m0NESY and cadiaN. Neither AWPer had outstanding consistency, but cadiaN's 1.16 rating in Spodek puts him beyond m0NESY's 1.08, and even over the whole event cadiaN led in KPR, KAST, and rating.

cadiaN was also his team's best player in the final, his 1.09 rating just eclipsing m0NESY's 1.05. It is close, but cadiaN was deemed more important to his team's success in Katowice, and takes the AWP role in a reward for a significant uptick in the form over the last few months.

IGL

The IGL category was also a tight battle between cadiaN and HooXi. G2's IGL fulfilled his role as sacrificial lamb, but when he did get frags they were always impactful; G2 won 76.9% of rounds in which their IGL got a kill. He has also built a system that brings out the best in four star players, something previous G2 IGLs failed to do.

It is nearly impossible to compare IGLs from the outside, only getting rare snippets of insight into how important a caller is to their team's success. In HooXi's case the impact is obvious — you only need to look at G2 before his arrival.

cadiaN, too, is free from a lot of the usual caveats when it comes to praising IGLs. He is HEROIC's beating heart, and carries the weight of every victory and defeat on his back. It is his system, his unique style of high-trade and pack-heavy CT side play that defines his team, whereas G2 were defined by their individuals.

In the grand final, despite the result, it felt like there were times that HEROIC had the tactical edge. This was especially true on Mirage as they stormed to an 8-1 lead, with HEROIC manipulating rotations as well as ever. On Inferno and Nuke too, HEROIC's preparation enabled strong early leads before G2's mid-game solutions and individual firepower turned the tide.

cadiaN's impact on the game will always be more visible — that is a factor of HEROIC's proactive style, rather than a knock on HooXi — but that is all we can go off, giving cadiaN a second award.

Closer

Nemanja "⁠huNter-⁠" Kovač beat out Jakob "⁠jabbi⁠" Nygaard and jks in the MVP race and the same is true in the closer category. Against top five opposition, huNter- recorded a 1.27 rating compared to jabbi's 1.03 — HEROIC's easier run to the final was probably a factor in jabbi's sensational pre-final form.

The Dane's form, however, was not against 'poor' opposition — jabbi averaged a 1.50 against Vitality, 1.36 against OG, and 1.37 in semis against Natus Vincere. His drop off in the final was significant, but the same can be said for most players who run into the G2 machine.

huNter-'s battle against jks, both for the MVP and here, was a matter of impact. jks was arguably more consistent, both round-to-round (77% KAST vs 72%) and map-to-map — jks finished all 12 maps above a 1.05 rating, while huNter- failed to do so three times.

The difference was where that rating and KAST came from. huNter- had higher KPR and ADR, while jks had a stronger survival rate, helped by saves with a 16% survival rate (vs 4%) in lost rounds. In won rounds, the difference was stark — huNter-'s 1.06 KPR (vs 0.96) in won rounds was the second highest of any playoff player, and the Bosnian's 1.28 rating in the arena was the cherry on top.

Best five

cadiaN winning two awards and operating as the AWP and IGL leaves us with a pretty workable roster, but we need a fifth rifler to complete the squad. This lets us fit jabbi in, the frontrunner for the MVP medal ahead of the grand final.

jabbi would have to return to his old Copenhagen Flames entry pack roles (and pick up a few anchor spots on CT) for this to work in reality, but that would not be as harsh a transition as it would for most lurkers — HEROIC's riflers all share entry duties regardless of their default position.

It is an interesting thought experiment to imagine NiKo, jks and huNter- inside cadiaN's unique system, or even whether the same style could be applied to international teams. But you can bet that neither team would agree on changing what they have right now.

HEROIC have been in three consecutive finals when you exclude their BLAST World Final exit with a stand-in, while G2 are on a 12-match winning streak and the clear best team in the world. If we have any luck, IEM Katowice's grand final was only the first of many in what could turn into a rivalry to match FaZe and Natus Vincere's in 2022.