At the 5th spot of our Top 20 players of 2010 list we have the pistol king Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev. In the first several months of 2010 he was probably the best in the world as he really dominated at every tournament, which helped put Na`Vi on the map as the new big force in the scene.

Basic information

Player: Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev
Team: Na´Vi
Age: 23

Team achievements in 2010:

1st - IEM4 World Championship, ESWC, WCG, Arbalet Cup Dallas, DreamHack Winter, Arbalet Cup Best of Four, Arbalet Cup Asia
2nd - Arbalet Cup Europe, ASUS ENC
3rd - GameGune, IEM5 Global Challenge Shanghai, ASUS Summer

Stats from major LAN tournaments in 2010:

Kills per round: 0.82
Deaths per round: 0.63
Rating: 1.19 (?)
Maps played: 127
MoM: 31 times top rated in a match
Best tournament: IEM4 World Championship
Best map: de_tuscan
Most notable stats: 3rd best KPR (0.82), 3rd best player on de_tuscan (1.32 rating)

Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev joined his current team Na´Vi in December 2009 after being a part of HellRaisers and many other Ukrainian top teams, as well as the former Russian giant Virtus.pro. He was under the close watch of the international audience for quite a while, even though his teams didn't amount to much success outside of their own borders. But finally, in 2010, he proved himself on the highest level as one of the stars of the new Ukrainian powerhouse.

Superb start of the year by Sukhariev

As the year began, the brand new Ukrainian team attended the IEM4 European Championship Finals in Germany under the name KerchNET. After a solid group stage, where they won 3 matches, but lost to fnatic and oXmoze, the Ukrainians ran into mousesports. After winning the first map, they ended up losing the second after overtime and later the third, which left them only in the fight for the 5th place with the French team oXmoze. Sukhariev showed the public eye already in his first appearance in the tournament what should be expected of him, as he topped the scoreboard in the match against fnatic despite his team's 14-16 loss. He later ended up as the 4th best rated player of the event with an excellent 1.25 rating, after some more great performances, including one against n!faculty when he posted a 35-16 score.

At the end of January, the team went to Almaty in Kazakhstan, which hosted Arbalet Cup Asia. Here they managed to win their first event in 2010, while Sukhariev had his best rating of the year (1.36) and was the best rated player of the tournament. Even though he wasn't named the Best Player of the tournament (his teammate Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko was), his contribution was invaluable as he played well in every match, especially doing great in the semi-final against TyLoo.

One month passed, and the Ukrainians were back in Germany in the beginning of March, this time in Hannover and this time with a new name – Na´Vi. They surprised the world and managed to win this event which had the highest prize purse in 2010 ($100,000), overcoming the likes of mousesports, Evil Genius and fnatic in the playoffs. Sukhariev put in an MVP-worthy performance, along with his teammate Yegor "markeloff" Markelov, being rated above 1.00 in 11 of 12 maps ending up with a 1.31 rating, the best at the event. He particularly shined in their opening match against compLexity when he had a 36-12 score, and also in the 3rd map of a very close relegation encounter against mousesports, when he was top rated with a 31-20 score in his team's 16-14 win.

The next tournament was Arbalet Cup Best of Four in Kiev, where Na´Vi had a chance to defend their title of the world's best. They managed to do that in competition with SK, UNiTED and fnatic, while Sukhariev was named the Best Player of the tournament. However, he finished as the 3rd best rated with a 1.17 rating playing solid in most of his matches. But what made him stand out was that on several occasions he really exploded, putting up scores such as 34-10 against SK on de_tuscan and 39-16 against UNiTED on de_inferno in the first two days. He saved the best for the last day and the match against fnatic when he made what was later voted the Best Highlight of 2010, a 3-second pistol-round ace. After that action he continued with the amazing performance and finished the match with an impressive 41-16 score.

Best Highlight of 2010: Edward's 3-second ace vs fnatic

In May, Na´Vi traveled to Sweden to attend Arbalet Cup Europe, where they ended up being outplayed by fnatic in the final, after going undefeated in 8 maps during the earlier stages of the tournament. Sukhariev continued with his impressive form, especially in those 8 maps before the final as he was top rated in 5 of them. He ended up as the 2nd best rated at the event with an impressive 1.31 rating, while his best performance was in the opening match of the first group stage against MYM when he had a 42-20 score.

Varying form in the second part of the year

A month later, they came to Sweden once more to take part in DreamHack Summer, but they had even less success this time, losing to SK Gaming in the quarter-final. Sukhariev didn't impress much, even though he had a very good 1.15 rating, it was mostly due to his excellent performance in the match against Dutch team KaoS in the group stage.

The Ukrainians came back to the top of the world at the next tournament, during their stay in France, where they won one of the most prestigious events of the year, ESWC. Despite their troubles in the group stage, they then defeated fnatic, mTw and SK Gaming in the playoffs and claimed the gold medals which affirmed them as world's number one team. Sukhariev was the team's second best rated player with a 1.23 rating and was one of the stars of the tournament overall. He especially stood out in the first map of the semi-final against mTw where he made another one of his trademark pistol-round aces, while also earning an impressive 1.95 rating for his 24-9 score.

Sukhariev's pistol-round ace against mTw in the semi-final of ESWC

Shortly after, Na´Vi went to United States and attended Arbalet Cup Dallas, the tournament with the second highest prize purse of the year ($80,000). They were once again victorious overall, after overcoming mTw, EG and in the end mousesports in the final. Sukhariev didn't leave much of an impression overall, finishing with a 1.09 rating after a string of solid performances. He did have one match where he excelled, which was against TAU in the second group stage when he posted a 35-19 score and made another one of his highlight rounds of the year:

Sukhariev's ace against TAU during Arbalet Dallas

Only days later, without even having time to check-in at home, the Ukrainians traveled to Spain in order take part in the GameGune tournament. They finished in 3rd place, behind fnatic and Frag eXecutors, while Sukhariev had another solid but not excellent tournament. He ended up with a 1.15 rating, without ever disappointing in any match, while his best performance was in the Lower Bracket final against wCrea when he led his team to a 16-9 victory with a 25-10 score.

Five days after the tournament in Spain, Na´Vi found themselves in China attending the IEM5 Global Challenge Shanghai. They once again finished in 3rd place, after being defeated by fnatic in the semi-final in an extremely close 3-map encounter. Sukhariev had his worst tournament of the year, with a 0.96 rating in the end and no mention-worthy performances.

A few weeks later, Sukhariev represented his nation at the ASUS ENC Finals in Cologne. Ukraine finished second behind Sweden, while Sukhariev didn't show his best at the Finals. However, he did help the team during the online stage, as he recorded a solid 1.05 rating in the tournament overall. Another one of his highlight rounds took place during the relegation match between Ukraine and France, as he accomplished another pistol round ace during the 3rd and deciding map:

Another pistol-round ace by Sukhariev, this time against France

After that, he attended ASUS Summer with Na´Vi, which they finished in a relatively disappointing 3rd place after losing to k23 in the semi-final. Sukhariev himself had a very good tournament this time, finishing as his team's best rated player (1.27 rating).

A break followed for the team in duration of one month while they prepared for the next event, the World Cyber Games in Los Angeles. The team once again reached the top of one of the most prestigious tournaments and Sukhariev was again one of the key performers. He finished with an excellent 1.23 rating, 3rd best in his team while having several crucial performances, especially the one in the first map of the final against mTw, when he recorded a 29-15 score, having 11 kills more than the next best player.

The next event for Na´Vi was World e-Sports Masters in China, where they finished 4th, while Sukhariev performed great in their two wins, but quite bad in their two losses, which in the end earned him a solid 1.10 rating.

In the online stage of IEM5 European Championship, Na´Vi secured the first place in their group without losing a map while all of their players performed excellent with ratings around 1.20. Sukhariev had a rating above 1.00 in 9 of 10 maps, which in the end gave him an overall of 1.22.

One more tournament was left for Na´Vi to attend, and that was DreamHack Winter. Their 3rd visit to Sweden was their most successful one, as they ended up winners of the tournament after defeating fnatic, Frag eXecutors and mTw during the playoffs. Sukhariev had a good performance, as the team's 3rd best rated player with a 1.15 rating, while his best match was in the semi-final against Frag eXecutors when he was top rated during the first map which his team won 19-17 after overtime, having a 34-22 score.

The pistol-king of the world

What many have already said, statistics have confirmed, that Sukhariev was the pistol-king of the world during 2010, as he had an overall 1.41 pistol-round rating in major LAN tournaments, the best of all players. In addition to that, he was the 3rd best fragger with 0.82 kills per round, had an impressive number of 31 matches where he was top rated (also 3rd most) and was the 9th best entry fragger.

As part of the best team in the world during 2010, he achieved 7 first places, including the ones at the most prestigious tournaments – IEM4 World Championship, ESWC and WCG. Individually, he was named the Best Player of Arbalet Cup Best of Four and was also, although arguably, the MVP of IEM4 World Championship. 

As part of the "big three" in Na´Vi and the "big six" of 2010, where each of them impressed at some point, Sukhariev was the least consistent with 69% of matches rated above 1.00, so he is placed at the 5th position. He is in front of Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg due to his much more impressive list of achievements, while they had very similar stats.

Recommended demos of Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev in 2010:

Opponent	Map	Event	Score	Demo
fnatic	inferno	IEM4 Eu Finals (Group stage)	27-17	POV
n!faculty	train	IEM4 Eu Finals (Group stage)	35-16	POV
oXmoze	train	IEM4 Eu Finals (5th place, map 2)	21-8	POV
TyLoo	inferno	Arbalet Asia (Semi-final, map 2)	28-16	HLTV
coL	train	IEM4 World (Group stage)	36-12	POV
mousesports	tuscan	IEM4 World (Relegation, map 3)	31-20	HLTV
SK	tuscan	Arbalet Best of Four (day 1)	34-10	HLTV
UNiTED	inferno	Arbalet Best of Four (day 2)	39-16	HLTV
fnatic	tuscan	Arbalet Best of Four (day 3)	41-16	HLTV
MYM	inferno	Arbalet Europe (Group stage #1)	42-20	HLTV
Norway	nuke	ASUS ENC	38-24	POV
KaoS	nuke	DH Summer (Group stage)	23-4	HLTV
fnatic	dust2	ESWC (Quarter-final, map 1)	19-9	POV
mTw	dust2	ESWC (Semi-final, map 1)	24-9	POV
SK	dust2	ESWC (Final, map 1)	26-17	POV
France	tuscan	ASUS ENC (Relegation, map 3)	24-13	POV
TAU	tuscan	Arbalet Dallas (Group stage #2)	35-19	HLTV
wCrea	dust2	GameGune (Lower final)	25-10	POV
Lions	inferno	WCG (1/8 final, map 2)	25-9	HLTV
mTw	inferno	WCG (Final, map 1)	29-15	HLTV
Power	inferno	IEM5 European Championship	29-16	POV
TyLoo	dust2	WEM (Upper quarter-final)	27-12	HLTV
Fx	train	DH Winter (Semi-final, map 1)	34-22	HLTV

If you missed our previous article about Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg 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 Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev in 2010? Does he deserve a place in the Top 5? 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 4 tomorrow.