At number 17 of our list we have its youngest member and one of the revelations of 2011, Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä. The 18-year-old Finnish AWPer was only really noticed in the second half of the year when the current WinFakt squad was put together, and he took the world by surprise turning into one of the most promising talents out there.

Basic information

Player: Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä
Team: munkka, paistit, ROCCAT, WinFakt
Age: 18

Team achievements in 2011:

1st - digifest Fall
2nd - IEM6 Global Challenge New York
3rd - SEC, IEM6 Global Challenge Guangzhou

Stats from major LAN tournaments in 2011:

Kills per round: 0.78
Deaths per round: 0.61
Rating: 1.17 (?)
Maps played: 42
MoM: 8 times top rated in a match
Best tournament: SEC
Best map: de_tuscan
Most notable stat: 5th best AWPer (0.29 AWP kills per round)

Before 2011, Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä was a completely unknown name in the international scene, only playing for second-rate Finnish teams while waiting for the right opportunity to come along. He spent most of 2010 playing for munkka as they were trying to make a breakthrough, and he did get to visit a major international event at the end of the year when the team attended DreamHack Winter. They even made it to the first round of playoffs, but Electronic Sahara turned out to be too good for them, defeating them easily in two maps. Still, experiencing a major international LAN tournament meant a lot to a team with three teenagers, including Verkkoperä.

Waiting for the right opportunity

As the calendar turned to 2011, Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä was still a member of munkka which meant that he would have to watch the first couple of major events from his home. The team's first appearance on LAN was at digifest in March, but as that event turned into a disaster there wasn't much to take from there, except maybe being put in their place of being far from Finland's top, losing 4-16 to Power Gaming.

At the end of March, munkka took part in our HLTV.org Xperia PLAY prelude, which is where Verkkoperä first turned attention to himself. In the first round of the tournament, the Finns outplayed Danish team Cheap Times in three maps, while Verkkoperä ended up best rated in both map-wins and the match overall (80:60 score, 1.20 rating). Their next opponent was mTw a few days later, and they were easily defeated as expected, but Verkkoperä proved that his performance in the previous round was not a one-time thing, as he put up a good fight against the powerful Danes, even recording a highlight with the AWP:

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
Xperia PLAY 2011 (Group stage #2)	1.34 (1st)	+34%

Although that tournament was online, the potential in the player was finally spotted by international audience, and it was time for him to prove it on LAN. That is exactly what he did at Xperia PLAY a couple of weeks later, where munkka managed to get through the first group stage at the expense of alchemists and right behind RG-Esports. They fell into a group of death in the next stage, having to face SK Gaming, fnatic and Lions, which spelled the end of the tournament for them. Still, Verkkoperä left an excellent impression as the team's first star, managing to get a 1.34 rating (7th best at the event).

The next event for them was ICSC 8 in May, which started online with two group stages. They made it out of the first group and at the end of the month earned a call to join a Portuguese-based organization Excello. In the second group stage they were drawn to meet SK Gaming, ESC Gaming and Virtus.pro, but by that time Verkkoperä had already left the team, and Excello would end up dropping out of the competition.

aslak vs Millenium during ICSC8 first group stage

The reason he left was that in mid-June, a new team named paistit was composed by Tomi "lurppis" Kovanen, with the purpose of competing in ICSC8 as a replacement for Online Kingdom. Verkkoperä's talent was recognized, as he got a call up to become a member of this new lineup containing Finland's best. They found themselves in a group containing Frag eXecutors and Moscow Five and they surprised everyone by managing to top this group with 2 wins, a draw and a loss, which secured them a spot at the LAN stage of the tournament.

The team then announced that they would become a permanent lineup and they took on sponsorship from ROCCAT in order to attend the ICSC8 finals, their first LAN together. They showed an average performance, doing well in the group stage, but being sent home by the Poles Frag eXecutors after a 0-2 quarter-final loss. Verkkoperä didn't delight in his first LAN experience with the team, having a below average 0.93 rating as team's 4th.

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
e-Stars Seoul 2011 (5-6th place)	1.27 (1st)	+16%
All-Star nomination Best rating (1.27) Best fragger (0.86 KPR) Best AWPer (0.46 awpKPR) Most consistent (90% of maps above 1.00 and team's average)

They still proved themselves enough to be called up by e-Stars as a replacement team for Evil Geniuses, and they found a new organization in form of Belgian-based WinFakt, which would help them get to Korea. That tournament turned out to be the one where Verkkoperä would make his breakthrough and establish himself as a world-class talent. Among so many big names in attendance, the young Finn ended up as the event's best rated player with a 1.27 rating, while his team also surprised many by finishing 5-6th.

Apart from also being the best fragger of the event with 0.86 kills per round, Verkkoperä was the best AWPer too, recording an amazing 0.46 awpKPR, the highest by any player at any major tournament this year.

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
IEM6 GC Guangzhou (3rd place)	1.10 (3rd)	-2%
All-Star nomination Best AWPer (0.39 awpKPR)

The next event for WinFakt was IEM6 Global Challenge Guangzhou, where they once more replaced an American representative, this time team Temporary. They finished in 3rd place, being outplayed by fnatic in the semi-final and by mousesports earlier in the group stage.

Verkkoperä didn't shine much this time, recording the team's 3rd best 1.10 rating, although mostly thanks to his performance in the 3rd place decider against eFuture (44:12 score, 1.93 rating). He did however end up as the best AWPer at his second event in a row (0.39 awpKPR) and also earned his second All-Star nomination.

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
SEC 2011 (3rd place)	1.24 (1st)	+12%
Selected for All-Star lineup Most kills (220) Most AWP kills (74) Most dominant (21x 3+ kills)

Only a few days later, the Finns came to Poland to take part in Samsung Euro Championship. They started the tournament by surprising the home team AGAiN and topping their group, while later being outplayed by Natus Vincere in the semi-final in a close three-map encounter. That turned into another 3rd place campaign, although it was their biggest success so far considering this tournament had better competition than the one in Guangzhou.

Verkkoperä was this time back to his e-Stars level, proving that his performance in Korea wasn't an accident. He was again WinFakt's best rated by far with a 1.24 rating (3rd best of all players), while he also had the most kills at the event (220), the most AWP kills (74) and was the most dominant player (21 rounds with 3+ kills). That made him an MVP nominee and resulted in later being picked for the All-Star lineup of the tournament. He also had significant impact with his AWP in the semi-final against Natus Vincere, recording 21 kills in the first map when his team won 16-13, while one of the rounds turned into a highlight:

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
IEM6 GC New York (2nd place)	1.00 (5th)	-6%
Best AWPer (0.32 awpKPR)

In the cluster of October tournaments, IEM6 GC New York followed for the Finns another few days later where they finished in 2nd place, being trashed in the final by SK Gaming. Verkkoperä was this time the team's worst with a 1.00 rating, although once more the best AWPer of a tournament (0.32 awpKPR).

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
ESWC 2011 (Quarter-final)	1.05 (2nd)	+9%

As the only team that attended all four major tournaments in October, WinFakt were seen at ESWC as well. They made it to the quarter-final without much trouble despite losing to Natus Vincere, but then once again fell to SK Gaming. Verkkoperä was solid in their short campaign, playing well in the group stage, ending up as the team's 2nd best with a 1.05 rating and for the fifth event in a row being one of the best AWPers (0.25 awpKPR).

WinFakt also attended MSI BEAT IT Russia in November which was their last appearance in 2011, and they finished in a somewhat disappointing 6th place, losing to Moscow Five in the quarter-final. Verkkoperä had a solid display, sharing a 1.12 rating with two of his teammates as their best. He also recorded 96 AWP kills, his personal high.

World-class talent on the rise

Born in 1993, Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä was only 6 years old when the first version of Counter Strike came out, and in 2011 he accomplished what many from his generation are still trying to do, what even more from previous generations didn't manage to do, and that is to become one of the best in the world.

He started the year quietly, in munkka, waiting for his chance to come. When it finally did in the second half of the year, with the formation of the current WinFakt team, he took the world by surprise by becoming the best rated player at an extremely competitive e-Stars Seoul event.

He later confirmed that he is the real deal with an excellent performance at SEC, where he helped WinFakt to a 3rd place, while also establishing himself as one of the best AWPers in the world.

Although he attended only 6 major tournaments, he managed to collect 9th most kills with the big green (277), while on average he was the 5th best of all players (0.29 awp kills per round).

All in all, he had an impressive 1.17 rating at those 6 tournaments, even spoiling it at the two less competitive ones (IEM6 GC Guangzhou and IEM6 GC New York). He also has an MVP nomination and an All-Star lineup appearance from SEC, along with another two All-Star lineup nominations, which made him a certain member of this list.

On the other hand, he didn't help his team to any notable titles and he missed many major tournaments throughout the year, which gave some other players advantage on this list despite his better rating, while he ended up at the 17th place.

Recommended demos of Timi "aslak" Verkkoperä in 2011:

Opponent	Map	Event	Score	Demo
Cheap Times	inferno	Xperia PLAY prelude (1/8 final, map 1)	43:26	POV
Cheap Times	dust2	Xperia PLAY prelude (1/8 final, map 3)	28:17	POV
iRage	train	Xperai PLAY (Group stage #1)	28:3	HLTV
Value	tuscan	Xperia PLAY (Group stage #1)	32:17	HLTV
MaxFloPlay	train	ICSC8 (Group stage #1)	33:17	POV
Lions	mirage	IEM6 GC Guangzhou qual #1	27:7	POV
ESC Gaming	mirage	ESWC online qualifier	33:12	POV
eFuture	tuscan	IEM6 GC Guangzhou (3rd place, map 2)	25:5	POV
Na´Vi	tuscan	SEC (Semi-final, map 1)	23:20	HLTV
Fear Factory	train	SEC (3rd place decider, map 1)	30:16	HLTV
CheckSix	mirage	IEM6 GC New York (Group stage)	23:10	POV
SK Gaming	mirage	IEM6 GC Kiev qual stage 3	49:26	POV
Anexis	train	IEM6 GC Kiev qual stage 3	31:13	POV

At 18 years of age, Verkkoperä definitely still has room for improvement, so what do you think we can expect from him in 2012? Can he perhaps become the world's best AWPer? Let us know what you think about that, as well as about his position in this list.

If you want to check out the entire ranking, go to our Introduction article as it will be updated daily until we complete the list. Stay tuned to HLTV.org because tomorrow we will bring you our number 16.