As we continue with our Top 20 players of 2010 series, at number 8 we have the first Danish player of the list, Danny "zonic" Sørensen. He has been playing at the top for many years now, and has once again been one of the best players in one of the best teams in the world, having some incredible performances that helped mTw maintain their world-class status.

Basic information

Player: Danny "zonic" Sørensen
Team: mTw
Age: 24

Team achievements in 2010:

1st - DreamHack Summer, EPS Nordic II, EPS Nordic III, Cph Games
2nd - WCG, DreamHack Winter, SEC, fnatic PLAY BEAT IT finals
3rd - ESWC, Arbalet Cup Europe, ASUS ENC

Stats from major LAN tournaments in 2010:

Kills per round: 0.76
Deaths per round: 0.62
Rating: 1.14 (?)
Maps played: 100
MoM: 14 times top rated in a match
Best tournament: DreamHack Summer
Best map: de_nuke
Most notable stat: 1.56 rating at DreamHack Summer, best by any player at any major tournament in 2010

Danny "zonic" Sørensen became familiar to the international scene when he joined the Danish squad of SK Gaming in May 2005 with whom he then finished 2nd at ESWC that year. A while later, in the beginning of 2006, he made headlines when becoming a part of the new international lineup of NoA, a team which eventually turned into a full-Danish lineup and was finally in the end of 2007 merged with mTw. He had many accomplishments during his time in NoA, but he achieved his greatest success afterwards with mTw during 2008 when they dominated the scene and were named the eSports Team of the Year, while Sørensen himself was nominated for the Best Counter Strike Player award.

In 2009, the team was hit with two lineup changes, but they still managed to get the bronze medal at WCG. They also finished the year on a high note with 2nd places at DreamHack Winter and Arbalet Cup Europe, while using stand-ins for both events as their star player Christoffer "Sunde" Sunde was taking a long vacation at the time.

Bad start for the team and for Sørensen

In the early days of 2010, mTw attended the IEM4 European Champioship Finals, although once again with a stand-in in form of Timm "ArcadioN" Henriksen as Sunde had not yet returned. Being one of the favorites to win the event, they largely disappointed with 3 losses in their 5 group stage matches as they didn't manage to reach the playoffs. Sørensen started the year off with a very bad performance overall, as the team's worst player at the event recording a 0.83 rating, which ended up as his worst of the year.

However, mTw still managed to qualify for the IEM4 World Championship as one of the top 9 teams at the European Finals. Before that next event, long-time absentee Sunde had returned to the team, but that didn't help much as they turned in another disappointing performance in Hannover. This time with an even worse record in the group stage with 4 defeats in 5 matches, they finished as 5th of their group, again missing out on the playoffs. Sørensen's performance was again below average, although with a slightly improved 0.90 rating.

The next event for mTw was a minor one, Copenhagen Games, which they managed to win without much trouble, while Sørensen was the team's second best rated player with an excellent 1.27 rating.

Arbalet Cup Europe was next for the Danes and they finally managed to take a medal home with them, as they took bronze after defeating Ukrainians PinG in the match for 3rd place. However, Sørensen himself still hadn't found his form, again being the team's worst with a 0.91 rating.

An explosion at DreamHack Summer

As the first half of the year was nearing its end, Sørensen and his team attended another event in Sweden - DreamHack Summer. This tournament would end up being the turning point of the year for mTw and especially Sørensen, as they won their first (although and only) international title of the year and he was named the MVP of the tournament. Sørensen drastically improved his form compared to previous events and he recorded an incredible 1.56 rating, the best by any player at any major event in the entire year. He played amazingly throughout the tournament, starting with the match against H2k, their eventual opponents in the final, as he posted a 30-7 score in their 16-3 group stage win. He continued in the group stage against the French team aAa with a 27-9 score in a 16-8 win, as well as in the quarter-final against Fair Frag with a 31-13 score in their second map win of 16-11. His performance culminated in the final of the tournament, when in the second map against H2k he had 3 aces, including one of the best highlight rounds of the year, which was him winning a 1vs5 situation.

Sørensen's incredible 1vs5 round in the final of DH Summer

A few weeks later, he continued with his great form at ESWC in France, where mTw took the bronze medal. They had an impressive campaign, winning all of their matches except the one in the semi-final against Na`Vi, finishing the event with 11 wins in 13 maps. Sørensen's great performances coincided with those wins, as he was rated above 1.00 in each of them, finishing with a 1.23 rating (9th best at the tournament). This time he didn't have any explosive performance as during DreamHack, as his best one was probably in the first group stage against Alternate. He recorded a 30-17 score while helping his team reach a very hard 16-14 win and secure the first place in the group.

After their return from France, mTw took part in a very competitive online tournament, fnatic PLAY BEAT IT finals. They finished in 2nd place behind H2k, while Sørensen had a solid performance during his 12 maps of the tournament, recording a 1.08 rating without standing out too much but still contributing to his team's success.

Just a day later, they traveled to United States in order to participate in Arbalet Cup Dallas. They had another very good display, recording 7 wins in 9 maps, but were once again stopped by the Ukrainians Na`Vi, this time in the quarter-final losing both maps after overtimes. mTw finished as 5-6th while Sørensen was again great, as the event's 6th best rated player (1.24 rating).

In August, Sørensen represented his national team at the ASUS ENC 2010 Finals as they finished 3rd, defeating Russia in the bronze medal fight. He played well throughout the competition, including the online stage, as he ended up with a solid 1.10 rating, 3rd best of his nation.

mTw's next tournament was the Samsung Euro Championship, where they lost in the final to SK Gaming. Sørensen had an excellent tournament overall, finishing as the event's best rated player with an impressive 1.41 rating. He excelled in the quarter-final against TeG having an excellent 26-8 performance in the 2nd map, and also in the semi-final against .no having a 1.63 rating during the two maps.

Near the end of September, mTw also had to finish their postponed final of EPS Nordic II against fnatic. They managed to win the last map of the tournament and take the title as the best Scandinavian team. Sørensen performed solid during the league, finishing with a 1.08 rating, 3rd best of his team, without impressing in any match in particular.

The World Cyber Games in Los Angeles followed for mTw, a tournament which they already won in 2008 and expected to repeat that success. They had another great performance overall, but have once again had to succumb to Na`Vi, this time in the final although they were very close, losing the 3rd map after double overtime. Sørensen was his team's best rated player and one of the best players of the tournament with a rating of 1.24. He played well throughout the event, while his most important display was in the first map of the semi-final against compLexity, when he led his team to victory with a 26-9 score.

For their next two tournaments later in October mTw didn't need to travel anywhere, as they attended DSRack #3 and KGC #2 in Denmark. However, the home turf meant more to their compatriots from Full-Gaming, as they knocked mTw out of both tournaments. At DSRack, Sørensen's team finished in 4th place, losing to Lions in the 3rd place decider, while he had a solid performance with a 1.12 rating, although only as the team's 4th best. At KGC #2 they reached the final of the Danish playoff before they were stopped, while Sørensen had an average performance overall with a 1.04 rating.

In online leagues during the second half of the year, mTw was as successful as possible, winning the EPS Nordic III and retaining their title, while also performing flawlessly in the IEM5 European Championship and qualifying for the Finals in Kiev. In the Nordic league, Sørensen was very good, as he was the 9th best in the league with a 1.16 rating, while being very consistent and having 13 of 15 matches with rating above 1.00. During the IEM5 competition, he was even better, finishing as the 2nd best rated of the event with an impressive 1.43 rating. He had several standout performances, but perhaps the most interesting one was in the only map that his team lost during the tournament. In the match against Millenium, mTw lost the second map 12-16, but Sørensen was a real one-man army during that clash as he put up an incredible 38-22 score.

4 headshots by Sørensen in the pistol round against Millenium

At the end of October, the team decided to make a change in the lineup, replacing Sunde with the player who was a stand-in for him early on in the year, Henriksen. Their first appearance on LAN after the change and the last one in 2010, was at DreamHack Winter where they managed to reach the final again, but were once more unable to defeat Na`Vi. Sørensen didn't excel in this new lineup, with only an average 0.99 rating, 4th of the team. He did however have one exceptional performance, which was in the 2nd map of the quarter-final against SK, as he had a 30-12 score in his team's 16-9 win, which leveled the score in that match and enabled his team to get another chance.

Unstoppable once he found his rhythm

There aren't many players who have played at the highest level for as long as Sørensen has, and he kept it up during 2010 as well. Despite the bad run of form at the start of the year, he picked it up and never looked back, as mTw started delivering the results that were expected of them. Even though Sørensen's first three tournaments were nothing to brag about, he managed to have extremely good peaks of form later on that outweighed any downsides.

He has acquired 6 medals from international LAN competitions with his team, which include 1st place at DreamHack Summer, 2nd places at WCG, DreamHack Winter and SEC, as well as 3rd at ESWC and Arbalet Cup Europe. In addition to that he won two titles in EPS Nordic and was 3rd placed with Denmark in ASUS ENC.

As far as personal achievements are concerned, he was named the official MVP of DreamHack Summer, for what was one of the best individual performances in any tournament that we saw the whole year. Furthermore, he played excellent in some of the biggest tournaments of the year such as WCG, ESWC and Arbalet Dallas, having ratings above 1.20 in each of them. All of that makes him an excellent choice for the 8th spot on our Top 20 players of 2010 list.

The thorn in mTw's side

The biggest thorn is Sørensen's and mTw's 2010 performance will remain their dismal record against Na`Vi, who becamse their arch-nemesis throughout the year. They were unable to defeat the Ukrainians on 7 different occasions, 5 of those during playoffs of major competitions, while their overall map score was 2 wins and 14 losses. During those encounters Sørensen accumulated the team's lowest -90 kill-death difference, so that will make him especially motivated in their future clashes and we should expect a real treat when these two teams meet in 2011.

Recommended demos of Danny "zonic" Sørensen in 2010:

If you want to check out some of his matches that were mentioned in this article, you can find links to those demos right here:

Opponent	Map	Event	Score	Demo
UK	nuke	CB NC XIII (Group stage)	34-14	HLTV
Ab Ovo	inferno	Cph Games (Upper final)	24-9	HLTV
H2k	nuke	DH Summer (Group stage)	30-7	HLTV
aAa	inferno	DH Summer (Group stage)	27-9	HLTV
Fair Frag	dust2	DH Summer (Quarter-final, map 2)	31-13	HLTV
H2k	dust2	DH Summer (Final, map 2)	30-15	HLTV
Alternate	train	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #1)	30-17	HLTV
Fx	nuke	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #2)	22-14	POV
mousesports	tuscan	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #2)	22-8	POV
Fx	nuke	ESWC 2010 (3rd place, map 1)	21-10	POV
Poland	train	ASUS ENC 2010 (Group stage, map 1)	24-10	HLTV
The Dons	dust2	Arbalet Dallas (Group stage #1)	20-8	POV
TAU	train	Arbalet Dallas (Group stage #1)	31-6	POV
TeG	inferno	SEC 2010 (Quarter-final, map 2)	26-8	HLTV
F.azer.Z	tuscan	WCG 2010 (Group stage)	39-7	HLTV
coL	train	WCG 2010 (Semi-final, map 1)	26-9	HLTV
Millenium	inferno	IEM5 European Championship	38-22	HLTV
Alternate	inferno	IEM5 European Championship	27-11	HLTV
plan-B	inferno	IEM5 European Championship	24-5	HLTV
SK	inferno	DH Winter (Quarter-final, map 2)	30-12	HLTV

If you missed our previous article about Andreas "moddii" Fridh click here, or if you want to see who else is on the list when it is updated, head over to our Introduction article here.

What do you think about the performance of Danny "zonic" Sørensen in 2010? Does he deserve a place in the Top 20? What was your biggest impression of him this year? Feel free to leave a comment on this topic and stay tuned to HLTV.org if you want to see what the rest of the Top 20 looks like, as we will bring you number 7 tomorrow.