SEC 2011: Top players

With the second big international event in October, SEC 2011 behind us, we now bring you the Top players list from the Polish event along with our usual MVP and All-Star lineup polls.

This year's Samsung Euro Championship took place in Warsaw, Poland and it hosted teams from 13 different European countries. With several of the world's top teams in attendance, the tournament turned out to be quite interesting, while the victory went to home team AGAiN, as they defeated Natus Vincere in the final.

Despite leaving the Frag eXecutors organization in the mean time, the Polish team's amazing performances continued, as after winning Xperia PLAY, ASUS Summer and e-Stars, they earned another first place cheque for their success at SEC 2011, this time worth $15,000.

70 players took part in this tournament, and 35 maps were played, which aren't really big numbers compared to some previous events, but someone had to stand out from the rest and thus we bring you our list of 18 players that did just that.

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Best rated players

18) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov Na´Vi 0.68 0.60 1.05

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.53 vs SK Gaming (Quarter-final, tuscan)

The Ukrainian team Natus Vincere finally made it past the 3rd place barrier that they've been stopped at in recent tournaments, but they still didn't go all the way. Even though their star player Yegor "markeloff" Markelov didn't perform as well as usual, he had an important role in their 2nd place finish.

Usually, Markelov is an example of consistent performances, but this time that wasn't the case as he was rated above 1.00 in only 3 of 9 maps. Apart from playing great in their two group stage matches, he stepped up in the very difficult quarter-final clash with SK Gaming.

Markelov was voted man-of-the-match for his performance against the Swedes, mainly thanks to his play in the second map, de_tuscan. On that map, he put on quite a show in the first half, having a 24:4 score as his team took a 14-1 lead which basically secured them passage to the semi-final at that point.

Aside from that, also mention-worthy was Markelov's overall AWP display. He actually wasn't the team's primary AWPer at this tournament, due to using the weapon only on de_train and de_dust2, but he still accumulated 58 total kills and 4th best 0.24 awpKPR.

17) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg SK Gaming 0.75 0.64 1.07

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.38 vs ENTiTY (Group stage, inferno)

After suffering an unexpected loss to Electronic Sahara in their group, SK Gaming were paired up with Natus Vincere in the quarter-final. The Swedish team ended up being the one to go home earlier than expected, but despite their overall disappointment, a couple of their players showed good performances.

Although he didn't win any matches by himself, SK's star Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg was the team's second best rated player thanks to playing well against each opponent. Additionally, he was the 2nd best rated in entry kills, with the best success rate in first duels of 69% (18:8 entry score).

16) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Sergey 'starix' Ischuk Na´Vi 0.70 0.60 1.08

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.59 vs myRevenge (Group stage, train)

Second placed Natus Vincere didn't actually have anyone stand out significantly, as four of their players stepped up at some point. One of them is Sergey "starix" Ischuk, who turned out to be the team's primary AWPer at this event.

Just as his team, Ischuk has struggled most of the year to repeat the amazing form from 2010, when he was one of the most consistent players, but recently he has picked it up, playing well at e-Stars and now at SEC.

Although he never shied away from the AWP before either, somewhat surprisingly he used the big green gun more than his teammate Markelov at this event. That produced good results for them, as Ischuk collected 72 kills with it and recorded his personal best 0.30 awpKPR this year (2nd best at this tournament).

What he will be remembered for the most from this event is the amazing display in the second map of the semi-final against WinFakt. After losing de_tuscan against the Finns, de_train followed where Ischuk recorded a rare feat of surviving every round of the first half (17:0 score). That obviously helped his team quite a lot, as they found themselves with a 14-1 lead that they later turned into victory.

15) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev Na´Vi 0.75 0.65 1.09

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.61 vs AGAiN (Final, dust2)

The next player of Na`Vi that had his share of good performances at this tournament is Ioann "Edward" Sukhariev. The pistol-king of the world in 2010 put up the numbers against big opponents, in the quarter-final against SK Gaming and in the final against AGAiN.

As the Ukrainians defeated the Swedes in the quarter-final, Sukhariev was the team's top rated player overall in those two maps (48:37 score, 1.24 rating). In the final versus AGAiN, he was the only one to put up some resistance in the second map, as he ended up top rated despite his team losing (31:19 score, 1.61 rating).

In his specialty, pistol-rounds, Sukhariev did the job expectedly well, getting the most kills of all players (19).

14) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Tomi 'lurppis' Kovanen WinFakt 0.74 0.63 1.09

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 2.29 vs eSuba (Quarter-final, inferno)

After being the best fragger among in-game leader in his previous two events, Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen is this time a close 2nd in that regard, while additionally he once more led WinFakt to a 3rd place finish.

Kovanen was one of only five players at the event who had a better rating in the playoffs than in the group stage (1.12 compared to 1.04). He accomplished that mostly thanks to his impressive play in the quarter-final against eSuba, when in the first map he had one of the best performances of the event by any player (26:7 score, 2.29 rating).

Also, Kovanen was once again among the best entry killers of the event, similarly to his e-Stars performance, this time having the highest total of 38 entry frags.

13) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Jirka 'jigetus' Ryhti WinFakt 0.72 0.61 1.11

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.67 vs AGAiN (Group stage, nuke)

In his second event with the team since joining, Jirka "jigetus" Ryhti was again an important part of their machinery that reached 3rd place both times.

Even though the match that put him on the map was in the group stage, it was still against the hardest possible opponent – the eventual winners AGAiN. As WinFakt made one of the biggest surprises of the event by defeating the Poles 21-9, Ryhti was by far the best rated player in that match with a 33:18 score and 1.67 rating, while he also accomplished this ace.

At the previous occasion during IEM6 GC Guangzhou, Ryhti was the best clutcher of the tournament, and this time he didn't fall behind much as the 3rd best, with 5 1vsX rounds won.

12) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Danylo 'Zeus' Teslenko Na´Vi 0.76 0.68 1.11

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.37 vs Fear Factory (Group stage, train)

Until this event, Natus Vincere had won 8 out of 9 grand finals at major tournaments, and that success was in large part attributed to the leadership abilities of their in-game leader Danylo "Zeus" Teslenko. Now at SEC, they found themselves on the losing side only for the second time, but Teslenko could be comforted by the fact that he excelled individually as the team's best and the best fragger among in-game leaders.

Teslenko was the team's most consistent performer, having 7 of 9 maps with a rating above 1.00. The semi-final match against WinFakt was his brightest hour as he was the best rated in that match (73:54 score, 1.24 rating in 3 maps).

11) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Engin 'MAJ3R' Kupeli eSahara 0.77 0.70 1.12

0 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.37 vs DooM (Group stage, nuke)

Electronic Sahara arranged one of the most pleasant surprises of the group stage when they defeated SK Gaming and claimed the top spot of their group, but later they were themselves surprised by Fear Factory in the quarter-final.

One of their two standout performers was expectedly Engin "MAJ3R" Kupeli. He was the team's best rated in that crucial match against SK and he played well in the rest of the matches, including their quarter-final loss, where he put up a solid fight and recorded a highlight ace.

10) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Artur 'BEn' Ostrach Fear Factory 0.74 0.67 1.13

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 2.31 vs myRevenge (Group stage, nuke)

Probably the biggest surprise of the tournament was the 4th place finish of the other Polish team, Fear Factory, and their campaign's best player was definitely Artur "BEn" Ostrach.

Although his teammate Tomasz "ths" Sopel was the architect of their main success of defeating eSahara in the quarter-final, Ostrach was great in that match too, but also much more consistent during the rest of their matches.

His best performance was in the group stage victory over myRevenge.hu that secured them the playoff spot. In that encounter, Ostrach almost by himself defeated the Hungarians recording a 28:9 score (2.31 rating, 68% above team's average), in one of the best individual performances of the tournament.

He was also one of the best pistol-round players of the event (1.67 pistol-round rating, 3rd best), which helped Fear Factory to be the most successful team in first rounds (11 of 16 won, 69%).

9) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Jakub 'kuben' Gurczynski AGAiN 0.70 0.53 1.13

3 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.66 vs Moscow Five (Quarter-final, nuke)

The winners of this event, ex-Frag eXecutors, now known as AGAiN, had four of their members stand out significantly and even making the top 10 best rated, starting with their in-game leader Jakub "kuben" Gurczynski.

Gurczynski already had his moments in the early part of this year, being twice nominated for the All-Star lineup, at IEM5 European Finals and IEM5 World Championship, but this performance of his at SEC was better than either of those occasions.

He was the only player at the event to be top rated in 3 maps, once versus BGDonLINE in the group stage and in both maps of the quarter-final against Moscow Five (50:23 individual score).

He played well in the final two matches too, and ended up with an excellent 1.21 playoff-rating (4th best). Additionally, he was by far the hardest to kill (0.53 deaths per round), which can be a very significant stat for an in-game leader, and he was also the shared-best clutcher of the event with 6 rounds won when left alone.

8) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Kimmo 'BASiC' Fagerholm WinFakt 0.75 0.61 1.14

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.94 vs BGDonLINE (Group stage, tuscan)

Another member of the Finnish team WinFakt, Kimmo "BASiC" Fagerholm, had a good overall display at SEC. Although he mostly excelled in the group stage, he still performed well enough in the rest of the tournament.

After a shaky performance in Guangzhou, Fagerholm is back to the usual suspects list, and he earned his spot mainly during the victories against TeG (30:11, 1.62 rating) and BGDonLINE (38:16, 1.94 rating) in the group stage.

Similarly to his e-Stars display, he was one of the best entry-fraggers of the event, with the second best EK-difference of +14 (35 entry kills and 21 entry deaths).

7) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Filip 'Neo' Kubski AGAiN 0.78 0.61 1.16

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.59 vs Na´Vi (Final, train)

The Polish superstar and definitely the best player of 2011 so far, Filip "Neo" Kubski was once again instrumental in his team's title-winning campaign. Despite not being their best fragger this time, he stepped up when it mattered most, in the final.

The three-time MVP winner this year had a quiet time during the group stage of SEC, but he woke up when the playoffs started, playing better and better every round as the tournament progressed.

His form culminated in the final against Natus Vincere, where he was the best rated over the two maps (52:34 score, 1.43 rating). He also had a very good display in the semi-final against Fear Factory (39:24, 1.31 rating), which together with an average display against Moscow Five made him the 2nd best rated player in the playoffs (1.25 rating).

Additionally, Kubski was one of the event's best entry killers, having at least 4 entry kills in 7 of his 9 maps (overall 3rd best rated).

6) Player Team KPR DPR Rating  Jarosław 'pasha' Jarząbkowski AGAiN 0.81 0.62 1.22

0 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.55 vs Fear Factory (Semi-final, inferno)

The tradition of Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski ending up as the Polish team's second best rated player whenever they win a major event has continued once more.

After showing impressive form in the last months, especially at e-Stars when he was even an MVP nominee, Jarząbkowski continued in the same manner at SEC. Despite not being top rated in any match, he delighted with consistency as he played well enough in every match, with his lowest rating being 0.96.

His best display was probably in the semi-final against Fear Factory, when he ended up overall top rated slightly ahead of his teammates with a 1.35 rating (39:24 score). Moreover, he was one of the most dominant players, having 19 rounds with 3 or more kills, and was also the 4th best in pistol-rounds.

5) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Christophe 'SIXER' Xia eSahara 0.85 0.67 1.23

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.76 vs ENTiTY (Group stage, inferno)

It is not too uncommon to see players who didn't make it to the very end of the tournament be highly rated, and this time three quarter-finalists made it to the top5. One of them is Electronic Sahara's super-talented Christophe "SIXER" Xia.

Xia was the second best fragger of the event on average, with an excellent 0.85 KPR, although, seeing as eSahara was stopped at their first playoff step, he mostly accumulated that in the group stage.

It was the matches against ENTiTY and DooM that Xia excelled in, destroying the Macedonian team with a 38:17 performance (1.76 rating) and the Bulgarians 31:16 (1.63 rating). He was also the team's best rated player afterwards, in their disappointing loss to Fear Factory.

4) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund SK Gaming 0.84 0.64 1.24

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.39 vs DooM (Group stage, tuscan)

The other SK member that didn't disappoint at all despite their early exit in the quarter-final is the one who practically never disappoints, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund.

With a rating above 1.00 and above team's average in each of their 5 maps, Alesund was the event's most consistent performer. Also demonstrating that is the fact that he had at least 23 kills in each match.

He was top rated in SK's two opening encounters, the loss to eSahara (24:19, 1.24 rating) and victory over DooM (24:15, 1.39 rating). In their only playoff match, quarter-final against Natus Vincere, Alesund put up by far the most resistance among his teammates, recording a 1.18 rating in the two maps.

3) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Timi 'aslak' Verkkoperä WinFakt 0.82 0.59 1.24

2 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.78 vs Fear Factory (3rd place decider, train)

One of the brightest talents that emerged in the scene lately, WinFakt's Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä, has continued impressing. After showing his potential at e-Stars, where he ended up top rated and best AWPer among many established stars, he has now affirmed himself with this performance at SEC.

Verkkoperä showed impressive consistency, playing on the same level both in the group stage and in the playoffs, being rated above 1.00 in 8 of 10 maps. He ended up as the 3rd best rated in playoffs (1.23 rating), and he accumulated the most kills of all players at the event (220 total kills). Also, he was the most dominant considering the amount of rounds with 3 or more kills, having 21 of them.

His AWP was as sharp as usual, as he had 74 kills with it, also the most of all players, for an average of 0.28 awpKPR, making him one of the best AWPers for the third event in a row. He best demonstrated his skills with the big green in the semi-final match against Natus Vincere, when on the first map, de_tuscan, he had 21 kills with it and made a highlight round in the process. He surpassed that number against his next opponent in the third place decider, Fear Factory, when he had 24 AWP kills in the first map.

2) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov Moscow Five 0.84 0.60 1.25

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 1.51 vs eSuba (Group stage, train)

Moscow Five was somewhat unlucky to meet AGAiN in the quarter-final after strolling through their group, which saw them head home unexpectedly early. Their by far best player of that short campaign was Mihail "Dosia" Stolyarov.

Although he played only four maps, Stolyarov managed to leave his mark at this tournament, having the 3rd best KPR of 0.84, playing great in the group stage and putting up a good fight in the quarter-final against AGAiN. He also did a great job in pistol-rounds having a 1.75 pistol-round rating.

1) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas AGAiN 0.92 0.61 1.35

1 x MotM, Highest rating: 2.19 vs TeG (Group stage, inferno)

Although it doesn't happen as often as one would expect that the best rated player comes from the winning team, this time Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas from AGAiN was far above the rest with an impressive 1.35 rating.

Wojtas hasn't been the team's primary star this year, but he has been in great form all year long, ever since the beginning when he was selected for the All-Star lineup of IEM5 European Finals in January. At SEC he exceeded all previous performances and had one of the best tournaments of his career individually.

He was by far the best fragger of the tournament with a 0.92 KPR, which probably is the best of his career. After starting with a loss and a bad display against WinFakt, both Wojtas and his team went on a run of incredible form, as they won all 8 of their following maps, while he had a rating of at least 1.15 in each of them.

The early signs of what is to come could have been spotted when Wojtas annihilated Romanian team TeG in the group stage, having a 45:19 score (2.19 rating). He then had great displays in each of the playoff encounters, culminating in the final against Natus Vincere where he had the most frags and was just one percentage behind his teammate Kubski with a 1.42 rating (55:35 score).

Therefore it is no surprise that he ended up as the best rated player even post-group stage, with a 1.35 playoff-rating. Overall in the tournament, he collected 216 kills (a very close 2nd) and had the best K-D difference (+71). Additionally, Wojtas was the best entry killer of the tournament, having the best EK-rating (1.37) and the best EK-difference of +16 (36:20 entry score).

Note: This ranking is based on Rating (read about it here). It doesn't necessarily represent an ordered list of the best players at the event, but instead singles out the ones who played well in their matches using the formula described in the page linked above.

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Top Awpers

#	Player	Team	awp Kills	awpKPR	% of kills
1.	Sergey 'Fox' Stolyarov	M5	36	0.33	48%
2.	Sergey 'starix' Ischuk	Na´Vi	72	0.30	43%
3.	Timi 'aslak' Verkkoperä	WinFakt	74	0.28	34%
4.	Yegor 'markeloff' Markelov	Na´Vi	58	0.24	36%
5.	Marcus 'Delpan' Larsson	SK	26	0.18	36%

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Top Pistol Round players

#	Player	Team	PR KPR	PR DPR	PR Rating
1.	Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov	M5	1.25	0.50	1.75
2.	Tomasz 'ths' Sopel	FF	1.06	0.56	1.71
3.	Artur 'BEn' Ostrach	FF	0.94	0.50	1.67
4.	Jarosław 'pasha' Jarząbkowski	AGAiN	0.94	0.56	1.54
5.	Ioann 'Edward' Sukhariev	Na´Vi	1.06	0.72	1.42

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Top Entry-kill players

#	Player	Team	EKpR	EDpR	EK-Rating	Won%
1.	Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas	AGAiN	0.15	0.08	1.37	64%
2.	Patrik 'f0rest' Lindberg	SK	0.12	0.05	1.32	69%
3.	Filip 'Neo' Kubski	AGAiN	0.15	0.10	1.30	60%
4.	Tomi 'lurppis' Kovanen	WinFakt	0.14	0.09	1.27	60%
5.	Kimmo 'BASiC' Fagerholm	WinFakt	0.13	0.08	1.27	63%

• 34 of 38 entry kills by lurppis led to a round win, more than any other player's
  
• WinFakt overall has a solid record of winning rounds even when they are undermanned early on, but when aslak died first in a round they lost 19 of 22 times
• Fear Factory lost the round 17 of 18 times when BEn was taken out first
  

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Top Riflers

#	Player	Team	rif Kills	rifKPR	% of kills
1.	Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas	AGAiN	185	0.78	86%
2.	Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund	SK	107	0.73	88%
3.	Engin 'MAJ3R' Kupeli	eSahara	90	0.68	88%
4.	Tomi 'lurppis' Kovanen	WinFakt	173	0.64	87%
5.	Robert 'RobbaN' Dahlström	SK	92	0.63	86%

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Additional stats leaders

Best Fragger:
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas (0.92 kills per round)

Hardest to kill:
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczynski (0.53 deaths per round)

Best pistoleer:
Mihail 'Dosia' Stolyarov (0.17 pistol frags per round)

Most kills:
Timi 'aslak' Verkkoperä (220 total kills)

Best kill-death difference:
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas (+71)

Most dominant:
Timi 'aslak' Verkkoperä  (21 rounds with 3+ kills)
Jarosław 'pasha' Jarząbkowski (19 rounds with 3+ kills)

Most frequent fragger:
Wiktor 'TaZ' Wojtas (57% of rounds with at least 1 kill)

Best clutcher:
Michael 'HaRts' Zanatta (6 times won 1vsX)
Jakub 'kuben' Gurczynski (6 times won 1vsX)

Most consistent:
Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund (100% of matches above 1.00 rating and above team average)

Top individual match performances:
lurppis vs eSuba on de_inferno - 26:7 (+19), 2.29 rating (+70%)
TaZ vs TeG on de_inferno - 45:16 (+29), 2.19 rating (+76%)
aslak vs FF on de_train - 30:16 (+14), 1.78 rating (+66%)
BEn vs myRevenge on de_nuke - 28:9 (+19), 2.31 rating (+68%)
BASiC vs BGDonLINE on de_tuscan - 38:16 (+22) 1.94 rating (+62%)
SIXER vs ENTiTY on de_inferno - 38:17 (+21) 1.76 rating (+52%)

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MVP and All-Star lineup vote

We have decided to nominate three members of the winning team AGAiN for the MVP, as each of them had a major contribution on their road to another title.

The most obvious choice was Wiktor "TaZ" Wojtas, the best rated player of the tournament who stood out in many aspects. Jarosław "pasha" Jarząbkowski also contributed with consistent great play and was one of the most dominant players at the tournament, while their usual star Filip "Neo" Kubski waited for the latter stages of the tournament to explode, particularly excelling in the final match.

From the second placed team, Natus Vincere, none of the members excelled in particular, with several of them stepping up at various important moments, although not enough to be nominated for MVP of the tournament.

But there will be another player in the MVP poll, and that is third placed team's Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä, whose AWP and consistency were a key factor in WinFakt's overall success.

[playerpoll=16]

We will also be choosing the All-Star lineup, so go ahead and select the 5 best players of this tournament in your opinion. Whether you want it to be a realistic squad where each player would have a role or simply the 5 best performers is up to you.

[playerpoll=17]

Just like during our previous votes, we will be having a separate poll for "experts" only, which will later together with the public poll decide the outcome of the vote. The experts will consist of players who took part in this tournament, as well as journalists from other websites.

For more statistics from this tournament you can go here, while HLTV demos can be found here. We will be announcing the results of the vote next week after we've gathered enough votes, so stay tuned to HLTV.org to see who will be the MVP and who will make it into the All-Star lineup.