IEM5 GC Shanghai: Top Players

It's time to see which players were the stars of IEM5 Global Challenge Shanghai and take a closer look at their performances in China. Also, like on a few previous occasions we will conduct a vote for the MVP of the tournament, so read on and take your pick at the end!

The beginning of Intel Extreme Masters season 5 was overshadowed by the very tragic accident of Antonio "cyx" Daniloski, which resulted in mousesports withdrawal from the tournament. Add to that the withdrawals of SK and EG earlier, and it meant that we would see 5 home teams and just 3 international ones. However, the event didn't disappoint at all, providing some great matches even in the group stages, but especially in the playoffs. The most memorable one was between fnatic and Na´Vi, a historic 2-day match in semi-final that couldn't have been much closer result-wise and is certainly a candidate for match of the year.

In total we saw 21 maps played in Shanghai, China at the IEM5 Global Challenge, involving 40 different players. Compared to some of the previous international events, those are considerably smaller numbers, but that didn't stop some of the attendees to show their best. Without further ado, let's see who they are and what they did better than the rest.

Best rated players

7) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Qian 'virgo' Jiang TyLoo.raw 0.79 0.69 1.12

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.79 vs TyLoo (Semi-final, nuke)

Qian "virgo" Jiang was one of the two key players in TyLoo.raw's unexpectedly successful 2nd place campaign, as they initially didn't even qualify for the event, receiving the invite only after EG withdrew.

He played especially well in the playoffs, rated 1.00+ in each of the 4 maps, showing his best in the crucial semi-final matchup against TyLoo. Jiang had the 4th best KPR (0.79) and was one of the best clutchers winning 4 rounds 1vsX.

6) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Rasmus 'Gux' Ståhl fnatic 0.77 0.58 1.15

0 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.63 vs TyLoo.raw (Group stage)

Rasmus "Gux" Stahl has again proven how much he was missed in fnatic during the first half of this year, as they won their second event in a row with him in the team.

He was very consistent, rated above 1.00 in 7 of 8 maps, while averaging a very solid 0.77 KPR and 2nd best 0.58 DPR. He also stood out in an area he is usually known for – entry kills, as he was the 2nd best in that category.

5) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov Na´Vi 0.77 0.59 1.16

3 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.52 vs 9ez (Group stage)

Natus Vincere have now concluded their hectic schedule for a while, although, the constant travel and change of time zones didn't seem to bother Yegor "markeloff" Markelov much, as his performances remained on a high level in this tournament as well.

Markelov was top rated in 3 maps, the most telling one was in group stage versus TyLoo, where he had an impressive 20 awp kills. As far as awping goes, he was again among the best of the event, with 2nd best awpKPR (0.28) and highest total amount of awp kills (65). Also, unsurprisingly, he was again one of the hardest to kill, having 3rd best DPR (0.59).

4) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund fnatic 0.79 0.56 1.19

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.70 vs Inner Mongolia (Group stage)

For the umpteenth time Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund finds himself on the list of top rated players, never missing a chance for it in all events his team attended this year.

At this event, he was top rated in 2 maps, although that was against arguably the weakest opponents his team faced. Nevertheless, Alesund was one of the most consistent players at the event, playing well in almost each of his matches, 7 of 8 times rated 1.00+. He was the 5th best fragger of the event (0.79 KPR) and was the hardest to kill (0.56 DPR).

3) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Liu 'Savage' Bin TyLoo.raw 0.80 0.60 1.22

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.90 vs TyLoo (Semi-final, nuke)

The other key man in TyLoo.raw's success was Liu "Savage" Bin whom we would surely like to see more often at bigger events, as this was only the second one the Chinese team attended this year, after Arbalet Cup Asia in late January.

Bin's performances were probably the most pleasant surprise of this event, as he led his team to the final with his great awping, having event-best 0.30 awpKPR. However, his best performance didn't involve the use of the big green when he helped annihilate TyLoo in 2nd map of the semi-final. Apart from having the 3rd best KPR (0.80) and 5th best DPR (0.60), Bin was also the best entry fragger and shared-best clutcher with 5 rounds won when left alone (1 x 1vs1, 2 x 1vs2, 2 x 1vs3).

2) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Sergey 'starix' Ischuk Na´Vi 0.83 0.63 1.24

4 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.99 vs 9ez (Group stage)

Na´Vi's Sergey "starix" Ischuk is starting to get used to being the star of his team, as this is his 3rd event of the last 5 where he was the top rated Ukrainian.

He was yet again one of the most consistent players, being rated above 1.00 in 7 of 8 maps. He was also top rated in 4 of those, most of all players. The most significant of those performances was probably the one in battle for 3rd place, where he almost singlehandedly defeated TyLoo on the first map. Ischuk had the highest amount of total kills in the event (197, 15 more than second best), although he shared the best KPR (0.83). He was also 22% better rated than his team's average, more than any other player, was the 5th best awper of the event and shared-best clutcher (3 x 1vs1, 1 x 1vs3, 1 x 1vs4).

1) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg fnatic 0.83 0.59 1.28

3 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.75 vs TyLoo.raw (Final, train)

Voted the MVP of GameGune last week right here on HLTV.org, fnatic's star Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg repeated his impressive form during another triumph of his team.

Another of the most consistent players at this event, Lindberg stood out most against TyLoo.raw, both in the final and in their group stage match, being top rated in all 3 of those maps. Perhaps the most impressive of those was the last map of the tournament, where he had 17 awp kills, more than half of his total 29 awp kills at the event. He was shared-best fragger of the event with 0.83 KPR and he also had 4th best 0.59 DPR. Another great area of his play was pistol rounds, as he was shared-best in that category as well.

Top Awpers

The battle for the best awper of this event was very close, as Markelov had more total kills, but Bin played significantly less rounds and managed to have a slightly better number of awp kills per round. The third best is fnatic's Harley "dsn" Örwall, who showed his best sniping skills in the overtime match vs Na´Vi, with 17 awp kills.

#	Player	Team	awp Kills	awpKPR	% of kills
1.	Liu 'Savage' Bin	TyLoo.raw	50	0.30	38%
2.	Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov	Na´Vi	65	0.28	36%
3.	Harley 'dsn' Örwall	fnatic	45	0.21	29%
4.	Xue 'GoodRifle' Chao	TyLoo	30	0.16	22%
5.	Sergey 'starix' Ischuk	Na´Vi	38	0.16	19%

Top Pistol Round players

Two fnatic players, Örwall and Lindberg share the first spot as the best pistol round players of the event, so it shouldn't be a big surprise that fnatic was the most successful in those rounds, winning 69% (11/16). The only other team to win more than half of their pistol rounds was TyLoo (64%, 9/14) and it also shows in the stats as they have two players among top5.

#	Player	Team	PR KPR	PR DPR	PR Rating
1.	Harley 'dsn' Örwall	fnatic	1.06	0.63	1.48
2.	Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg	fnatic	1.00	0.50	1.48
3.	Xue 'GoodRifle' Chao	TyLoo	0.93	0.57	1.42
4.	Xue 'xiaoe' Ye	TyLoo.raw	1.07	0.71	1.40
5.	Wang 'karl' Xi	TyLoo	0.86	0.64	1.38

Top Entry-kill players

There weren't really any impressive entry killers at this event, but the one that stood out the most was TyLoo.raw's Bin. Best of the rest were fnatic's Ståhl and another TyLoo.raw's player Wang "prom1se" Nan.

And here are a few possibly interesting stats involving entry kills:

• TyLoo's in-game leader alex was involved in only 10% of his team's opening kills or deaths, the least of all players, but he was the most successful by winning 67% of those duels
• TyLoo lost 19 of 23 rounds when karl died first, and 18 of 22 rounds when GoodRifle died first
• It is a good sign for fnatic when cArn gets the first kill, as they won 21 of 23 such rounds

#	Player	Team	EKpR	EDpR	EK-DpR	Won%
1.	Liu 'Savage' Bin	TyLoo.raw	0.13	0.07	+0.06	65%
2.	Rasmus 'Gux' Ståhl	fnatic	0.13	0.09	+0.04	60%
3.	Wang 'prom1se' Nan	TyLoo.raw	0.12	0.08	+0.04	59%
4.	Bian 'alex' Zhengwei	TyLoo	0.06	0.03	+0.03	67%
5.	Harley 'dsn' Örwall	fnatic	0.10	0.07	+0.03	59%

MVP nominations and honorable mention

Along with the players already mentioned, we should give credit to a couple more that didn't make it past group stage. WeMade FOX's Min-Soo "glow" Kim had the highest rating at the event (1.38) as he really carried his team in the 3 maps they played, especially in the draw against Na´Vi.

Another player who deserves some credit is one internationally completely unknown, Li "forget" Lei from team Inner Mongolia. Even though his team won only 13 rounds in 3 matches, Lei managed to have the event-highest KPR (0.89) and was an astonishing 75% better rated than his team's average. His best performance came in a 16-8 loss to vice-champions TyLoo.raw, where he collected 31 kills for a 1.86 rating.

We have nominated the top player from each of the top 3 teams in the event for you to vote for. So, don't miss your chance to select who you think was the MVP in Shanghai based on what you saw live and from demos or based on your interpretation of the stats.

[poll=15]

(you must be logged in to vote)

That concludes our coverage of IEM5 Global Challenge Shanghai, so as always feel free to leave your opinion on the matter and the reasoning behind your choice in the comments below. You can check out the rest of the stats from GC Shanghai here. Stay tuned to HLTV.org as the next event, WCG Nordic, starts already tomorrow!