The Best Players From EUL Stage 2

Shaiiko is back, baby! The Frenchman gunned himself all the way to the top of the player rankings in the European League. That’s quite an achievement given that BDS only made fourth place overall.

But he isn’t the only top tier player in the league. Ben “CTZN” McMillan and Jack “Doki” Robertson recorded 1.24 and 1.23 ratings, respectively. They made their marks through a high number of kills per round. Georgi “GorgoNa” Stoyanov made fourth place in the player rankings. He was the only bright spot for Cowana Gaming and the main reason they didn’t descend any further in Stage 2.

EMPIRE: STRENGTH IN NUMBERS

Even though Empire made first place, none of the players have made the top spots. On a 1.19 rating, Dmitry “Always” Mitrahovich isn’t even part of the Top 5! So how did they actually manage to make it past all the other teams?

The key to this is teamplay. Unlike G2 or NaVi, whose players ranged between 1.20 and 0.90 ratings, the entire Empire roster is going strong. Dmitry “Scyther” Semenov only recorded a 0.94 rating, but he’s an outlier for his team. The results speak for themselves and show that players like CTZN and Shaiiko aren’t absolutely necessary, provided the team chemistry hits just right and the players know how to coordinate themselves strategically.

THE BEST SUPPORTERS IN EUL

At this point we could just copy and past a paragraph from our players feature on Stage 1. Loïc “BriD” Chongthep exited the server with the highest KOST value and the most plants overall. He had positive impact on 76% of his rounds, put the defuser down 18 times. With this he dominated the standings and mounted four 1vX clutches as well – making him the #2 in that category too! Considering that he topped this off with a 1.19 rating, this is just more proof of BriD being the best supporter in the entire league.

Medhi “Kaktus” Marty, Artur “ShepparD” Ipatov, and Nathan “Nathan” Sharp also delivered double digit plant figures. ShepparD survived in 44% of his rounds, which only Adrien “RaFaLe” Rutik managed to top. These players may not be the ones with the highest ratings and the most kills, but their contributions on the server are just as important. After all, someone has to do the preparation for all the highlight moments!

SHAIIKO IS DOING IT AGAIN

But the frontrunner of the entire European League is once again none other than Stéphane “Shaiiko” Lebleu. No support stats, no plants can change the fact that the Frenchman is the absolute best player on the server. On a 1.42 rating, he’s brought quite a bit of distance between himself and the others. His 1.18 kills per round paint a picture of outright dominance. So it’s quite unfortunate that BDS failed to utilize Shaiiko’s momentum to set themselves on top of the league.

But it is an important sign going into the Mexico Major. The EU scene desperately needs Shaiiko to be in top shape. At the Six Invitational, he failed to perform and BDS definitely felt that. Now, they have to hope that his online output in EUL will transition over to offline results.

The European League Stage 2 has seen the usual suspects make the top. We already knew that Shaiiko, CTZN, and Doki were the best performers for their respective teams. But they’ve proven themselves again. Should they manage to retain this level on LAN, Europe will finally be a strong contender at international competitions again.