Surfs up. We're looking at the top 20
in-game leaders of 2025. I have already
collected all of the data, which I did
on my Twitch stream if you wanted to see
the whole process of this. I've been
streaming for an hour and a half
technically before even starting the
main meat of the content here, which is
breaking down these numbers plus using
my own subjective judgment to then make
a ranking list. So, I'm going to rank
all of these IGL's 1 to 20 for what they
did in 2025. As you can see, the data
that I collected is obviously their
name, the team that they're on, their
age. Age is not going to factor into
this. Okay, I'm ranking these guy. It's
nice to know their age because sometimes
it's interesting. It's like, oh, ZTR is
only 22 or oh wow, Fallen's 34. I mean,
you know, it it's just it's just
interesting to see those aspects. I see
the maps played generally the when when
I see this and it's higher, it just
means that they've been competing at all
the highest tournaments. In a way, it's
almost like the numbers are more
impressive if they're at that level. But
I still am going to make subjective
judgments where I'm going to rank some
people who have lower maps played over
guys with higher maps. I don't think
sample size is everything to me. Then I
have their T-side win rate, which I
would say is the most important aspect
of being an in-game leader. And then I
have their CT win rate and then I have
the difference between their T-side and
their CT side. So a higher number is
better here. And then I have their
individual rating because even though it
is I'd say the primary job of an in-game
leader is to make good calls, be a good
captain, stabilize the emotions of a
team, help them get through adversity. I
I think botting out is bad. Okay, I
think being a bot is a bad thing. I
think being a good fragger is a good
thing. I don't think that's a hot take,
but it's part of the whole in-game
aspect of in-game leading. If you just
want the leading aspect, you can be a
coach. So that will lightly lightly play
a factor, but I I still make most of my
judgments are are more on the the T-side
win rate and some subjective things like
how good of a captain I think they are.
When coming up with these, I had a
couple outliers. So the outliers I had
were Snappy, Jame, and Snacks. Snappy
and Jame had so few maps played with the
top 20 filter on that I didn't think
this was valuable. Uh, and for snacks,
he actually had an incredibly strong
T-side win rate versus his CT side win
rate. In fact, he had such a high
differential between these two that it
almost kind of broke the chart. However,
if we actually want to remember back to
the beginning of 2025, the first 6
months of the year, Anubis was in the
pool, which was the most T-sided map
ever. And on top of that, it was
pre-economy
shift CTside buff. That is when they
started giving $50 extra for every
player on the team for every kill the
CTs got. And so that led to CT side
T-side win rates moving in the direction
to favor CT side more. So now looking at
this, although I am going to be still
keeping these people in here, I'm going
to have to use more subjective judgments
to to rate them. That's Chopper and
that's Apex. The reason these guys to me
are outliers is that their CT side win
rates are so are so absurdly high that
it messes up their T-side the TCT
differential. Uh if you look at their
numbers, I mean Vitality had a 58.7% win
rate on CT side. If you look at a lot of
these other teams, I think the median is
more like 51. So this is so absurd. Uh,
another outlier kind of in the other
direction is Mutus where it's so low
what their CT side win rate is, but in
reality is T-side win rate isn't that
much better. So, it's not like he's it I
think it reflects the strength of the
team. But this is just these these
numbers are just so high for Chopper and
Apex that having a good differential
here was always going to be extremely
hard. Now, what I'm going to be doing is
I'm going to be going between tabs and
I'm going to be ranking them and I'm
going to go from 20 to one. All right.
Here we go. Let's sort the columns. The
worst in-game leader of the year.
[laughter]
Oh god. [sighs]
Okay, I'm between a couple names here.
There's a few people who I think really
fit the bill. Oh my god. I think I know
who it is. Dude, I just don't want to
get [ __ ] flamed in other languages.
>> [laughter and gasps]
>> These people will tell me that they're
going to come abuse my family. Like
they're going to actually just they're
going to get in my DMs and just say
ridiculous things. Do I protect my
family or do I actually keep it real? I
think I have to keep it real. I think I
have to keep it completely honest.
[gasps] The way I have described him
before is as a necessary evil for this
team because without him, this entire
region was lost. This entire region was
lost. they didn't have a competitive
team. The best you could hope for is
that they would get a cheeky upset and
probably in a B1 on a map like I don't
know Cash. And I'm gonna be real, I
think the IGL that has led the team who
to me had the highest expectations most
frequently astray through bad calling
and and I viscerally felt how bad the
calling was on a frequent tournament to
tournament basis. It is indeed Madager.
I'm putting him at 20th. I just was so
frequently disappointed by Aurora's
placings in tournaments most often due
to extremely poor T- sides. Oh, it's so
frustrating because one aspect that I
actually like Madra for is that I think
he's a captain in some aspects. I think
I think he through being able to bring
the team together and not just bicker
and fight with each other and give some
sort of unified vision, it made it
helped make the team a top 10 team for
most of the year. But I just I mean I
the T-sides were so atrociously bad in
the second half of the year because as
soon as Anubis left the map pool, this
team's T-sides were so bad. Okay, like
I'm going to I'm going to show the last
6 months and this is going to be further
evidence towards this. So 45.9%
quite bad. There are numbers that are
worse here. I just think the the failing
to deliver based off of expectations of
the players. I almost think this the way
I would even put it is this. Wadia was
probably one of the 20 best players this
year. I personally couldn't put Wadia on
my list because of Okay, Don v. Zyu.
Some people want to come up with the
argument that Zyw's played so many more
maps than Zyu than or Zyw played more
maps than Donk, whatever, whatever. But
it's like at least in major playoffs,
I've seen or in many deep runs in many
tournaments, I've seen Donk just
absolutely carry and get let down by his
team. Wadia almost was a victim of the
situation that Magic put him in so
frequently. Ah, [ __ ] One of the things
I really really have to say about Mager
is one map that I liked in particular
for Aurora was their overpass because my
team could copy it so easily. Like when
I was IGLing on this map, I would
personally look at let's look at round
24. Let's see how let's see how a major
T-side is run. Okay, we got a short
molly, got a door smoke. We're flashing
to get some space. We're doing a two
three split through con and up that and
now we're just fivemanning. And now we
are just fivemanning. That's it. It's
pure death ball. These are the kind of
strats that I would literally tell my
ESA main team and just say, "Guys, we're
going to send three con, two up short,
and we're just going to do an A hit
through short." And maybe he doesn't
have the best utility in that round.
Okay, let me let me let me get a full
util round. Okay, how many aids at the
beginning? They threw a molly short
again. They smoked off the door. They're
doing 4A. They're just doing Okay, so
they molly the end of bathrooms, they
move up, they flash long, and then they
do an exec. Round 22. What? What were
they up at this point? Weren't they up
like 11 to 8? They just go for the
full-on a hit. All they did was creep up
and hit a is not a persuasive way to
play the game. That's how I defend this
all. Okay, so how did they run this
round? Smoke front bathroom. Jot is
lurking. And then they go back. Okay,
they actually won this round cuz they
pressured towards a a bit and then they
went back. You know, that's better.
That's better. But it's just the
frequency with which Mader would call
the simplest macro strategy possible is
is just it it was it was it's damning to
his case to be a strong in-game leader
for me. Okay, so I'm going to I'm going
to show you guys the other people I was
thinking of of putting here. Okay, I was
thinking of putting ZTR. I was thinking
of also putting I think Big Ozer really
lost his way through the second half of
the year. The first half of the year I
actually thought it was kind of fine on
maybe a little bit of an Anubis boost,
but then I also I will be honest with
Big Oazera. I blame your teammates. I
blame I blame your teammates a lot more
than I blame you. That's just the truth.
I I I thought actually that frequently
his teammates were sacking the rounds
more than more than actually he did.
When I'm looking at the ideas behind the
rounds and even what he's trying to do
to get his team over the line, I'm not
I'm like, "Ah, man." Like, you kind of
you took good map control and like you
got an opening kill. I I'd almost be
surprised if the 5v4s for pain. I'd
think the 5v4s are probably dangerous.
Okay, they're not they're not as bad as
I thought. They're not as bad as I
thought they were. I'm also thinking of
this. Okay, so other other in-game
leaders I was considering also down
here. So, these are I I'm almost saying
this is an F. This is like a low tier.
Another one is Brolin, guys. I I I the
T-sides of Ma were also the biggest
problems with this team throughout the
entire year. Their CT sides were so
good. They were so so good. But
sometimes though, I would I would put
that on Exertion. Like the thing is I
think Zan Tarez this year was a better
player than Exertion. That's my opinion.
I felt like he was doing more with less
and uh he wasn't letting them down. It's
almost like this. Another reason I
punish Mader as opposed to punishing
Brolan who has exertion is that if I
were to take best entry fraggers in the
world, I would rank Zantara as probably
top three, but I would probably rank
exertion more in the fourth to seventh
range. But this is kind of my low tier
right now. I'll be honest. I also was
thinking I was also thinking Shuhei and
Sin. So Shuhei should be here and Sin
should be here too. I think these guys
all have a like in my head occupy the
lower tier of my in-game leaders. I'm
I'm making the I test list first. I'm
going to I'm going to consider these a
little bit more, but these are my
initial takes. These are my initial
takes. Actually, I'm going to move Sin
down. I think Sin is is ZTR the worst in
game leader of the year. He might be. I
think ZTR might be worse than Mader.
Actually, guys, if I'm going to be a
little bit more fair to Mader, I think
he is better. I did legitimately notice
that the mid rounds of gamer Legion were
very poor sometimes. I'm I might move
these people up or down, but these kind
of these guys more or less occupied the
the D tier to me. Let's move to 15 here.
Okay. Yeah, this just hasn't panned out
for Gravity as well as I would have
wanted. I mean, I actually thought that
3D Max looked kind of good in some of
these. I am a little bit of a sucker for
their set pieces, but I don't know if
that really makes him a good in-game
leader. I think I'm going to have to
move him down. I think a few of these
Okay, I Roland Brolan, even though their
T- sides were bad, I'm I'm not going to
overlook the fact that he's got a he's
got a trophy. You know, it's probably
more like that. This is taking shape.
What about the tactics? I mean, they had
a lot of good set pieces that like I
guess if I include set pieces in
tactics, then they they did that well. I
did copy his strategies. Let's see.
Number 14. I'm going to put LNZ on this
list. He might need to be lower,
actually. Like I I think he I don't
know, maybe I'm not familiar enough with
heroic, but I I thought they always
looked pretty well put together, but
then again, the last half of the year
they sort of fell apart. I think was
that the saw effect? I think the saw
effect helped. I'm going to put LNZ
there. I don't think he necessarily was
bad, but I think once he actually lost
the the saw training wheels, he did lose
his way pretty considerably on heroic.
So, that's going to be uh yeah, he's
going to be there for me. And then,
let's move on. Okay, now you're getting
the guys who definitely deserve respect.
I know that this looks like they're
pretty low on the ranking list, but all
of these all of these in-game leaders
definitely deserve considerable amounts
of respect. Okay, I'm going to make a
maybe a slightly hotter take here
because I saw the benefits that this
team found or acquired when this guy
became the in-game leader. Okay, I don't
think the team was his fault for falling
apart, but definitely No. Okay. No, I
got to be honest. I got to be honest.
Okay. Okay. I'll put him at 11. I'll put
I'll put I'll put him at 11. I'll put
him at 11, but I'm going to put Muturus
at 12. I'll put Mutus at 12. And that's
almost for a lack of familiarity where
the little bits I saw saw like at uh
what was it PGL Bucharest where he did
decently what they beat Liquid right or
who did they beat that that was okay. So
I'm going to I'm going to say yeah
Mutier saw I'll put him there. Now when
I go back to those guys at number 11 an
IGL that I don't think it's fair to say
that h these [clears throat] new guys
should be higher than him. Actually, I
don't think the these new guys should
definitely be higher than him. All
right, I'm going to be I'm going to be
completely honest. This is subjective. I
test I see I see a bright future for
this guy as an in-game leader, but I
don't necessarily actually think that he
got the most out of his pieces
throughout the entire season. Okay, and
this this is okay. See, this is a hot
take. This is a hot take. Even though
this guy walked away from 2025 with a
trophy, I don't necessarily think that
he was getting the most out of what he
had in the server with him. I think I
think that the saw training wheels are
clearly on right now and that's a good
track to be on, but beginning of the
season poor. End of the season poor. One
middle of the season trophy lift, it's
nice, but it doesn't necessarily speak
top 10 in-game leader to me. Okay, so I
will be placing Hunter here at number
11. And I know that may come as a shock
because he's coming along quite nicely,
but I just I feel like it's so limited
in the plays that that they run on on
G2. So, I'm going to I'm going to put
him there. Now, there's two guys that I
think of putting right above Hunter.
There's a few guys that I think are just
barely a smidgen above Hunter. Okay, I
I'll narrow it down for you guys. I'll
show you who I'm thinking right now.
Okay, I'm thinking Chopper. I'm thinking
Hookie. I'm thinking Lux. That's my next
tier of IGL's. Okay, Hookie had a nice
like he he came onto the Astralis team
and they immediately look better in my
eyes. However, their results ended up
being kind of bad and even if you look
at the round win the CTT difference
between these two, Hookies is
surprisingly bad. Hook's Hookie is
surprisingly bad on this and that's with
the ungodly CT side that Spirit were
putting forward. Okay, so I am going to
go out out of my way and say that I saw
less from Hookie than I did Lux and
Chopper this year. Okay. So, boom. 10th
best IGL of the year. Hookie, my eyes.
Okay. Did immediately improve the team
for reasons that are perhaps out of his
control, like St. He had to work with
different pieces, so I don't want to
penalize him too much, but didn't quite
get the team going in the later stages.
So, yeah, epitome of mid. That's a good
way to put it. Kodiak. Next up, I'm
going to put Lux. Okay. Yes, they were
able to lift the CAC trophy. I think
that's great. Kind of reminisce similar
to Hunter. I would even say that
Hunter's accomplishment is even better,
but the quality of players that are on
G2 to me merit a slightly stronger
performance from them or to find more
consistency. That is like you have a top
20 player in Malbs, you have a top 20
player in Heavy God, you have a Sun Pas
that was a top 20 player, you have
Mattis who everybody's now telling me
they always knew was a good player.
Like, okay, you know, you should be
getting a little bit more than than that
in my eyes. You should be qualifying for
playoffs a little bit more often. Moving
on, now I'll finally include Chopper.
This is why I defended him. I didn't
think he was that bad. I didn't think he
was my favorite in-game leader, but he
was definitely reasonable. Guys, if
you're getting I get I get he has Donk
on his team. But if for the year you
have a 53 T-side round win percentage,
and it's only a minus 3.5 for what your
CT side is, you're you're doing some
things all right. Compare to that to
look Lux, Hookie, and Hunter who have
these really bad T- sides in comparison
to their their CT sides. Even compare it
to Brolan. You know, Brol Brolan, I
could even make the case that Brolan is
a worse is a bigger problem for for for
Mao. In fact, that should be my take on
hot takepoint made that Brolan is a
bigger problem to Ma than Chopper was
for Spirit. There's seriously a case
there. So, that's where I land on that.
So, now moving on. Okay, one of these
guys I'm going to rate higher than many
people think he should be rated. That's
fine with me because Okay, here I'm
going to go through all of these here
and I'm going to do a little just of the
elite IGL's. We're talking about the top
seven in-game leaders, I would say, are
in Counter-Strike right now. I would say
that these are the top seven. We have JT
leading a group of inexperienced,
pluckucky underdogs to being a series
away from making the playoffs of the
major. That's one thing that's insane.
Also, comparing him to Lux, who
technically did something extremely
similar. JT is a better fragging in-game
leader and JT creates T- sides that are
the best T- sides per what their CT
sides are the best. That's that's crazy
to me. Okay, because if there's anything
that you think would probably be I mean
that that to me is extremely extremely
impressive. The JTC brain trust is up is
no joke. It's unironically up there with
Blade and Alexi right now. It's
unironically up there. doesn't have the
trophies, but you're not even giving JT
50% the firepower. It's insane. So, I am
not putting JT as my seventh. He is
going to pass one of these guys. If JT
had the players the rest of these guys
do, he would be incredible. That's
Junior. I agree. I totally agree. Who
knew all you had to do to get ranked
high as an IGL is having an abysmal CT
side? That's not even it because I've
seen JT's Tides develop over the C. So
right now I'll tell you the structure of
a JTT side is light years beyond a
hunter T-side. Light years. Okay. It's
not even close. It's not It's really not
even close. JT is doing like layered map
control takes, pausing, waiting for
people to like to push. They're using
their players to punish. There's
misdirect. You know what? Actually, what
Brams would be good right now is if he
could show me how many Passion UA snake
kills they get. Like the team average
for snake kills would be really really
cool to see because I I would imagine
that Passion UA on their T- sides gets a
decent amount of snake kills. Snake
kills being kills where you get it
outside of the field of view of your
opponent. I think Passion UA did a
really serviceable job at that. So, I'm
not putting them down yet. Fallen,
Kickan, Carrian, Blitz, Apex. This is
tough. I won't lie. It's tough because
Okay. Okay. Now, I'll keep going through
all the cases for everyone. Lexi B, I
would say consistently extremely
underrated per the year because Na'Vi
weren't finding the most success. But
then, dude, Macaz looked like he
mastered Ivy on train. The dude was so
good at sneaking behind opponents,
getting flank kills off. And I'm going
to be honest, I'm going to be honest, a
lot of people at the very beginning were
telling me that Macaz Yeah, he and and
even when I watched him, even when I
watched Makaz myself, he was good at
flying out mid on ancient. guys that are
good at flying out mid on ancient are
not necessarily the guys that I think
are going to be the cerebral Ivy lurkers
who then like find the perfect backstab
timing through smoke walkouts and stuff
like that. So that's good calling for
me. And then Fallen, I'm going to say I
think he's one of the best side skills
in the world. I and I say that not
through rose tinted vintage Fallen
glasses. I think that even when Furia
were in their down periods throughout
the year, in fact, I'm going to I
thought I I think that their T- sides
were very good. So here I'm going to
show you guys. So, let's let's even just
find the skulls lineup. 52.3%
T-side. It was the T-side meta. It was
the T-side meta, but on the CT side,
41%.
How bad was their CT side then? You
know, when you see the difference
between CT and T-side, what I gather
from it is that you actually don't quite
have the personnel to just play standard
CS because CT side, there's a lot of
active plays that you run. You know, are
we doing mid control on Mirage? Are we
trying to swing with the timing? Are we
doing like a, you know, gamble stack?
Are we doing, you know, stacking utility
on one bomb site on B inferno while we
try to do a recar towards middle on
bracket on A? You know, like there are
plays you run and some of those are
dictated by the in-game leader, but a
lot of rounds you're in a default 2B, 3A
setup and then you guys just need to
hold your bomb sides. That happens a
lot. And so roughly speaking, I do use
CT side win percentage as almost kind of
like a baseline for skill on the team.
And then T-side is kind of how well the
tactics are able to upset probably
higher skilled players. When you have a
terrible CT side, but you have a very
good T-side, I am just going to say your
tactics are great. You've got good good
strategies, but you're you're just not
putting things together. Uh you don't
have the personnel to last. So that's
why I think Fallen is is a completely
reasonable in game leader and has been
all year. Was he a reasonable oper?
Probably not. Okay, probably not the
best oper at this time. In fact, if I do
player stats for this time, where is he?
Okay, this is bad. All right, that's
actually quite bad. That's CT side
opting actually now that I think about
that. That's quite bad. Yikes. Yeah, so
as an oper that was that's quite poor.
Vu found this thing on on Skybox Edge
where he was like, you know, when Fallen
does have the OP in his hands, he's
actually quite serviceable. But either
way, Fallen's not going to be there. So
guys, I'm not going to have seventh. JT,
Alexi B, Fallen. Now, that means it's
down to Kickan, Carrian, Blitz, and
Apex. I'm going to tell you right now,
it's not Apex. Okay, champion of the
year. Going to be very hard to even
build a case that he's not top one.
Okay, it's going to be extremely hard
not include him. So, now it goes down to
Kicksan Carrian Blitz. This is where
it's tough because Blitz is the best
fragging in game leader. Fragging is not
wholly indicative of your in-game
leading skills. Calling should be
important, but the calling is not that
bad. Okay, so of the remaining IGL's,
there is a case for Blitz here because
he does have the worst T-side win rate
compared to their CTside win rate. So
clearly the T-sides aren't always
putting things together despite the fact
that there's clearly a lot of skill to
go around on the roster. But his his
in-game form is so good. Guys, I might
make a another hot take here. I might
have to go for another hot take here. I
think that the seventh best IGL of 2025.
Oh, I'm between two names. I'm just
between two names right now in my head.
I'm only between two names. And I feel a
little safer to do this. I feel a little
safer to do Blitz. I think it's Blitz. I
think it's Blitz. Okay. The reason that
I'm I'm wincing at doing this one is
because I I do I do value individual
rating and I think that he's great. I
think that he's great, but if I look at
the strength of the pieces on paper,
sometimes I would have wanted more from
Mongols this year. Okay, let's let's
see. So, for 2025 for their events,
let's see some of the placements. Okay,
see, okay, that's fine. That's fair. You
didn't have your top You didn't have
your five. You didn't have your five for
these tournaments. Changdu, fine. Also,
you didn't have your five. But then I
look at Thunder Pic World Championship,
guys, losing to Na'Vi. I mean, bar none,
Mongols have better players than Na'Vi
do. Okay. I I would take Mongols players
over Na'Vi. I don't know how I'm even
saying that for a team that's fiveman
Mongolian, but it's true. Okay, now
let's look at some of these other ones.
Like ninth to 12th here, you know, lost
to Na'Vi again. Fiser grand final. This
was versus Furia. That's fair. You know,
one of the best teams did win EWC. Uh
they actually beat Vitality. I mean, if
I look at the run, the Vitality win is
huge, but in my opinion, three teams
that they should beat otherwise. Okay,
now Bounty, this was against Spirit. Of
course, they're supposed to lose that.
Cologne, they lost here to Na'Vi. Again,
they lost to Na'Vi. Again, they lost to
Na'Vi. So, Austin Major, they beat a
FaZe Clan with Simple. They beat a Pain
roster. I almost in a way again, I kind
of just feel like you should win those
games. I say, I'll put it like this.
It's rather rare for Blitz and the
Mongols to outgame a team that they're
not supposed to beat. Okay, that's
that's kind of how I put this. It's a
little ah it's it's tough to read, but I
know who my next one is, though. I know
who my next in-game leader is, guys. It
it it's without question. It's without
question that my sixth ranked in-game
leader of 2025,
despite the fact that he is a legend, it
is indeed Carrian. I do think that at
times his own individual play if I were
purely to grade off of T-sides and
everything like that he might be a
little higher as like a pure caller and
captain but there again I do value the
individual aspect and Carrian is just
too big of an individual detriment
sometimes like legitimately sacking the
game so badly but that still puts him as
six guys like okay as the sixth best
in-game leader in the world he is so so
so far far beyond um he he's so he's
still so good. He's still so good. Okay,
the JT glaze is getting out of hand.
Well, it needs to stop because this is
finally where he meets his his position.
Okay, I just think that he gets so much
more out of his players than he than he
should. JT over Carrian is a bit crazy.
Is it really? He was a map away from
taking Carrian down. He was two maps
away. He was two maps away. He was a
couple rounds away. And look at the
players. Look at the players. Carrian
frozen top five rifler of the year.
Broki having a life tournament. Twist
the best North American player at
present. Jacob upand cominging European
player, one that has humbled millions
versus Nicks, a Maui twitch.tv
viewer. Grim, a man coached by Maui
Snake.
Hzerk, a guy that when he punches his
leg, it's a bad thing. When Nico does
it, it's fine. Cavem, I still don't even
know if I'm pronouncing his name
correctly when I say it. I think this
says a lot. I think that says a lot to
me. I'm making a little bit of a
statement here. I don't know. I watched
Blitz lose to Na'Vi in elimination games
five times this year when he clearly had
better players every single time. I'm
not really sure if I'm going to put
Blitz that much higher because the thing
is also think about this guys. Think
about what FaZe did this year. Think
about what their placements were in
these tournaments. Changdu last. Bounty
didn't even make the land portion.
Lisbon didn't even make the the the
arena. Dallas no playoffs. How many
playoffs did they actually make this
year? Six. He made six playoffs this
year. He missed. That doesn't I'm not
counting this one. It's just too small
of a turn. 1 2 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11. Dude,
he missed 11 playoffs with some of the
best players in the world. Let's see
what JT did. One game away from making
it to the playoffs of the Budapest
Major. They got the same placement at
the tournament that FaZe did. They won
Urban Ria Open. Okay, this one's not
great. This one I would have wanted them
to do better there. This one also. This
one also. This one made the playoffs.
Mhm. made the playoffs. Actually got
fourth place. How many playoffs have
they made? Two. [sighs]
Why you making my job so hard, JT? Why
couldn't you guys have made more
playoffs? It's hard to give you hard to
give you this. How many major finals? I
know the players are different. Hollzer
was the worst oper. I mean, that's I
would not be surprised if that's just a
factual statement, dude. I put Hullzer
as my lowest rated oper in the power
rankings that I made. Check Broki. 31.
Same as Broki. same as Broki. But then,
okay, so the thing that I do want to do
here is I don't want to just use overall
player like team ranking and just say
that makes them the better in-game
leader. You know, there has to be a
level of discernment to this or else I'm
just saying FaZe better than Passion, so
Carrian must be better than JT. I think
JT has been incredible this year. The
problem is I'm not watching all those
local lands. I don't know all the
failures. I'm not really sure about all
the failures, but this is an insane TCT
diff, guys. That is insane. Okay, so now
I've got this. We've got four guys left.
It's Apex, Kicksand Fallen, and Alexi B.
I know who I'm picking at number four.
The least embarrassing in-game leader,
the guy that never embarrasses himself.
A real legitimate threat on CT side to
have a multi-kill. It is indeed kicks
in. I saw some great calling out of
Falcons this year when in the Melbourne
Grand Finals. So frequently though, I
feel like we don't get that. I can't
tell you why we don't get that, but
sometimes it feels like the game plan is
too simplified. And I'm not sure if
that's Kickan. I'm not sure if that's
Zonic. I'm not sure if that's somebody
else on the team. You never really know.
At the major, they clearly had a single
game plan. Target Zoe. They didn't take
map control. They didn't even want to
pressure any parts of the map. They just
wanted to do a B exec on Dust 2. 30
seconds in. I don't think that's that's
not how I want to go down. That's not
how I want to go down. Melbourne Grand
Finals was sick, but frequently there
were times for Falcons where it felt
like their anti-ecos were kind of messy
where I mean they didn't necessarily get
the most out of their player personnel.
Yeah, I just I just don't know if I can
rate them any higher than that, but they
were elite for the remainder of the
year. Partially that's due to the
players, partially it's due to
Kickstand. Kickan was an asset in that.
Now, top three. I've got three guys.
I've got Alexi B, I've got Fallen, and
I've got Apex. And I'm gonna be
completely honest with you. I'm going to
be completely real. I think these are
the best three in-game leaders right
now. If I had a team, I would take two
of them tomorrow. I would take two of
them tomorrow. There's one that I
wouldn't take. I don't know what I would
get from him. I know I've seen some good
stuff, but the suspense for me lies in
two and three guys. It's seriously
tough. I'm really split because I think
that one team had better T- sides and I
think that one guy was the the
legitimately better caller throughout
the year because the truth is that the
narratives almost work against one of
these guys. the narratives work against
one of these guys. I think the
narratives have actually now begun to
work against Fallen. Okay? And I think
Fallen has been humble about this stuff.
I'm going to put Fallen at number three.
I know that's wild, but again, this is
discernment. Okay? Fallen has talked
about the fact that Yakandor is called
for an entire map. Yakandar has called
for an entire map. Okay, that's crazy.
That's just crazy to me. Okay, I mean, I
think that Fallen was a great in-game
leader all year, but it's still number
three, guys. It's still very good. So,
you know where that puts Alexi B? It's
at number two. I still rated Na'Vi
extremely highly all year for the
calling. All right, a plus 1.5 TCT
differential through the year. Over 131
maps while not being a major hindrance
as an individual. That is impressive
stuff. That is impressive. Impressive
stuff. Ema is a secondary caller. Okay.
But he's not calling for an entire map.
I'm going who I think is the best
in-game leader this year. It's not about
trophies necessarily, but when it comes
to Apex, it is. [laughter]
When it comes to Apex, it definitely is
a fact. Is there's a multitude of
factors here. There are a multitude of
factors here that play into him being as
good as he is as a call as a captain, as
a captain in game leader, as an
individual. Dude, there was a time this
year where for the first six months of
this year, I had this guy in my top 20
players. Now, that is a that is a huge
benefit to any team. This is my list.
Okay, I think I would change one thing.
I'm going to give Madager a little bit
more credit. Okay, guys. I'm giving
Mader more credit. I'm taking away some
credit from Bigazera. I think that needs
to change. No, I think Madra is better
than Gravity, too. I'm sorry, guys. I I
actually think that Madagra is a little
bit Okay, we're doing we're doing move
ups and move downs based off of my
feelings now. I think Magic does need to
be higher than gravity. Like, that's
just gravity. Just gravity. Just gravity
here. Yeah, I'm pretty comfortable with
this. If I put it like this, anybody
that's like 15 and below were at times
hindrances to their team. Okay, that's
just the honest truth. I think Sin I
don't know if I want to say that with as
much certainty for Sin. I think that's
the only one where I don't I almost
don't want to include him. Also, with
this few maps played against this level
of opposition, I have a hard time
standing by putting Sin on this list in
general. Yeah, I kind of have a hard
time with with putting him on this. I
don't I I think ranking him I I think
it's just a little bit it's a little bit
unfair. Number eight and on my biggest
concerns about placement are Mutus,
Lionus, and Sin properly rated because
I'm just not as familiar with their
calling. And is Shuhei and Magger who's
better? I'm I'm not I'm really unsure.
I'm really really unsure between the two
of them. I'm very confident with this
four. This three could be swapped up a
bit. I'm tempted to keep JT above car.
Actually, I'm tempted to just move Blitz
to number five and then move JT and
Carrian down one. Yeah, I'm gonna put
Blitz above both of them. Okay, that's
what we're doing here. In my heart of
hearts, this is how I actually feel
about them and trust them as in game
leaders. Okay, there we go. I like this
list a lot more. Now, is Kixan really
this good? I could tell you some
specific games where you could really
just marvel at Kixan's calling. So, yes,
I think he is good. And I really, really
want to emphasize he is not a hindrance
on CT on half the map. How close is the
Fallen via Alexi comparison?
Extremely close. Like so so so close
that I could wake up tomorrow and say
Fallen probably deserve this over Alexi.
And he probably he might. He might
actually. How many maps did Passion play
against top 20, dude? Like 40. I mean
the maps played are 46 right here. And
in in this time with uh Passion, it was
only um I think he has to be lower.
Okay. Okay, one of the Okay, after
digging more into this guys, one of the
reasons that Passion has this insane TCT
difference is because 15 or 16 of their
maps here were in the CT side buff and
30 of them were in the T-side buff and
they played Anubis a bunch of times
there. So, Anubis contributed for So, I
don't think I can actually have him this
high. H I don't think I can actually do
it. So, I'm gonna move I got to move JT
down a little bit. I'm not going to move
him down that much. He's gonna be above
Hookie. I'm thinking right beneath Lux.
Okay. I think this is just fairer. I
really just think this is fairer. Yeah,
the the low sample size is and the fact
that the sample size is skewed towards
the first half of the year means that
you can't take this number at face
value. All right. Okay. So, I'm going to
I'm going to post my list on Twitter as
well once Bram makes it however he wants
to. But this is my final list, guys.
Apex, Alexi, B, Fallen, Kicksand, Blitz,
Carrian, Chopper, Lux, JT, Hookie,
Hunter, Mutus, LNZ, Brolan, Sin, Shuhi,
Madager, Gravity, Bigazer, Ztr. Thank
you guys so much. As always, being toxic
is a choice.