Unlike during 2010, our 16th placed Andreas "MODDII" Fridh had a stable team in 2011 and even though he unexpectedly wasn't the star of his team for the most part, he still played on a very high level, leading ESC Gaming to their biggest success, 2nd place at GameGune.

Basic information

Player: Andreas "MODDII" Fridh
Team: alchemists, RG-Esports, ESC Gaming
Age: 22

Team achievements in 2011:

1st - WGF, HadeLAN
2nd - GameGune, EPS Germany Winter
3rd - Xperia PLAY (shared with mTw)

Stats from major LAN tournaments in 2011:

Kills per round: 0.76
Deaths per round: 0.60
Rating: 1.17 (?)
Maps played: 44
MoM: 8 times top rated in a match
Best tournament: GameGune
Best map: de_nuke
Most notable stat: Best M4A1 player (0.31 kills per round)

During 2010 Andreas "MODDII" Fridh established himself as one of the best players in the world, in the end being placed 9th on our Top 20 players of 2010 ranking. He spent most of the year as a stand-in for SK Gaming and became their best player in that period, while the rest of the time he had trouble finding a stable lineup. As SK Gaming didn't sign him on permanently at the end of the year, he had to look for new pastures, which he found in alchemists joining up with four Norwegian players.

Swedish-Norwegian mix would prove to give good results

Their first LAN together was in February, when they won HadeLAN in Norway over a Swedish mix-team aimbat. Right after that, they attended World Gaming Festival in Montenegro, once more ending up victorious, but they would likely want to forget that trip as their €5,000 prize was never paid out. Fridh was the MVP of that event, having an amazing 1.52 rating.

At the beginning of March, the team made a lineup change, adding another Swedish member in André "BARBARR" Möller. Shortly after that, four of the players left the alchemists organization and joined up with Markus "pronax" Wallsten in RG-Esports, forming the lineup that would stick together for the most part of 2011.

Their first event together was HLTV.org Xperia PLAY prelude, where they put up a very solid fight against mTw in the semi-final, although eventually losing in three maps. Fridh was the team's best player throughout the tournament, having a 1.23 rating and especially shining in their only map-win over mTw with a 33:15 score (1.96 rating).

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
Xperia PLAY 2011 (3rd/4th place)	1.24 (2nd)	+1%
All-Star nomination 3rd best K-D difference (+78) 2nd best rating in playoffs (1.18)

That proved to be good preparation for Xperia PLAY where they went on to reach the semi-final, losing to SK Gaming in another three-map encounter. Seeing as the tournament lasted until early hours of the morning, mTw and RG-Esports decided to split the 3rd place prize money, leaving both sides happy with their final placement.

Fridh displayed an excellent performance with a 1.24 rating, although surprisingly he wasn't the team's first star at this event. Still, he made significant impact, particularly in the latter stages of the tournament as the second best rated player in the playoffs, while he was the man-of-the-match in his team's tough quarter-final win over mousesports (59:39 score, 1.37 rating). Additionally, he ended up with the 3rd best kill-death difference of the tournament (+78) and earned an All-Star nomination for his contribution to RG-Esports' success.

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
DreamHack Summer 2011 (4th place)	1.01 (2nd)	+4%

About a month later, at the beginning of June, the Swedish-Norwegian squad left RG-Esports and joined ESC Gaming. Their first tournament under the new organization was DreamHack Summer, which they didn't get an invite to, but instead had to fight their way through the BYOC qualifier. After overcoming DTS in a 16-14 match in the last round of the qualifier, they were put in a group with mTw, Natus Vincere, Lions, Millenium and KaoS. To everyone's surprise, ESC acquired 4 wins, and despite losing to mTw they topped the group, once more reaching semi-final at a major event. They were paired up with the Danes once more and were unable to overcome them despite taking one map, while afterwards they also fell to Natus Vincere in the 3rd place decider.

In this 4th place campaign, Fridh had quite an inconsistent performance, playing well in some matches and not so well in others, finishing with just a 1.01 rating. He did end up man-of-the-match in one important win though, in the group stage over Natus Vincere.

MODDII as stand-in for duttdutt vs mTw in LUOPGAMES final

The finals of ICSC8 were up next for ESC, but they didn't manage to get out of a group containing WinFakt, Moscow Five and Virtus.pro, disappointingly finishing last and not making it to the playoffs. Fridh was, just like the rest of the team unspectacular, although he was their best with a 1.03 rating.

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
GameGune 2011 (2nd place)	1.29 (1st)	+13%
MVP nomination Selected for All-Star lineup Most kills (248) Most consistent 3rd most dominant (25x 3+ kills) 4th best rating in playoffs (1.30) 2nd best in pistol-rounds

A couple of weeks later, they attended GameGune with a stand-in Finn "karrigan" Andersen instead of Tommy "tacky" Mosgaard and managed to pull off a couple of surprising wins over fnatic and Natus Vincere, finishing in 2nd place only behind SK Gaming.

Fridh had his best performance of the year there in Spain, receiving an MVP nomination for being the team's best player (1.29 rating) on their way to second place. He was later selected for the All-Star lineup of the tournament and was also the event's most consistent performer, had the most kills (248) and did well in their most important clashes as the 4th best rated player in the playoffs.

MODDII's ace vs Anexis in IEM6 GC NY qualifier

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
ESWC 2011 (Group stage)	1.02 (4th)	-3%

The next major event for the team did not take place until three months later, when they attended ESWC near the end of October. By that time their rising star player Karl-William "kalle" Haraldsen had went inactive and was replaced by Jonathan "lidde" Lindgren, so it wasn't really too surprising that they didn't make it out of their group, staying behind Lions and AGAiN. Fridh didn't rise to the occasion either, being only the 4th best in his team with a 1.02 rating.

Tournament (team result)	Rating	Avg% +/-
DreamHack Winter 2011 (Quarter-final)	1.15 (2nd)	+6%
All-Star nomination

Before their last major event, DreamHack Winter, Haraldsen returned to the team and the result was topping their group ahead of AGAiN this time, but mousesports came in their way in the quarter-final. Fridh was once again the team's second best with a very good 1.15 rating, and despite losing to the Germans, he put up an impressive fight in that match with a 47:39 score (1.27 rating), along with having his highlight of the year:

Also worth mentioning is that ESC Gaming took part in EPS Germany Winter and finished in 2nd place behind mousesports, while Fridh was their best player throughout the season (1.24 rating).

In December after the EPS final, the team was released from the organization who picked up the Polish squad AGAiN as their team for 2012, leaving Fridh and his teammates without a home. 

What will happen to the squad is still unknown, but they seem to be going separate ways as three of the team's members participated together in the final stage of IEM6 GC Kiev qualifier, while Fridh played as a stand-in for Lions at the same time. He was nothing short of amazing in those four matches, helping Lions secure a spot at the tournament without any troubles, being by far the best rated of this short online cup with an unbelievable 1.88 rating, having 1.20 kills per round.

Lions' stand-in MODDII with 4 kills against x6tence

Less impressive than 2010, but still a great year

In 2010, Andreas "MODDII" Fridh was the frontrunner of SK Gaming where he did an excellent job as a stand-in, even being one of the most consistent players in the world. Compared to that, 2011 was somewhat less impressive as he was the second best player in ESC Gaming, although having the same rating in major tournaments as the year before (1.17), meaning the quality of his play didn't change.

He was the team's best player during their biggest success, 2nd place at GameGune, where he was nominated for MVP and selected for All-Star lineup of the event. In addition to that, he was nominated for All-Star lineups at two other major events, their semi-final campaigns at Xperia PLAY and DreamHack Winter, while also doing great in some important matches against big teams.

It would also be interesting to mention that he was the best of all players with M4A1, recording 0.31 kills per round with the Counter-Terrorists' main weapon.

Although this same rating guaranteed him a higher placing last year, since he wasn't the main star in his team this time and had less consistent performances he was ranked at place number 16.

Recommended demos of Andreas "MODDII" Fridh in 2011:

Opponent	Map	Event	Score	Demo
aimbat!	nuke	HadeLAN (Upper final, map 2)	32:11	POV
aimbat!	train	HadeLAN (Upper final, map 3)	26:6	HLTV
ENTiTY	train	WGF (Semi-final, map 1)	25:7	POV
Finland	train	CB Nations Cup XIV	21:4	POV
mTw	inferno	Xperia prelude (Semi-final, map 1)	33:15	POV
mousesports	train	Xperia PLAY (Quarter-final, map 2)	25:8	HLTV
SK Gaming	inferno	Xperia PLAY (Semi-final, map 2)	27:15	HLTV
Na´Vi	nuke	DreamHack Summer (Group stage)	23:14	POV
Virtus.pro	tuscan	ICSC8 finals (Group stage)	30:11	HLTV
paiN	nuke	GameGune (Lower semi-final)	21:14	HLTV
oldskool	tuscan	IEM6 GC Kiev qual stage 3	29:8	POV
x6tence	inferno	IEM6 GC Kiev qual stage 3	29:14	POV
fnatic	dust2	IEM6 GC Kiev qual stage 3	25:14	POV
WinFakt	tuscan	IEM6 GC Kiev qual stage 3	21:10	POV

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 15.