World Gaming Festival in Bijelo Polje, Montenegro came to an end last week when we witnessed alchemists from Norway defeating HEADSHOTBG in the final. It is now time to look back and see which players stood out the most and pick out the MVP and the All Star team of the event.

Throughout the two group stages and later the playoffs, 17 teams played 66 maps in total. Among those seventeen were many of the top sides from the Balkans region along with the only long-distance travelers, alchemists from Norway. The Norwegians ended up winning the event and taking the nifty €5,000 prize after a very close final encounter against HEADSHOTBG.

Let us now take a closer look at the best players of the tournament and see how they helped their teams reach as far as they did. Only those whose teams made it to the playoffs were considered, while at the same time not everyone with a good rating was included, as they were shadowed by their teammates.

Best rated players

15) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Orhan 'OKI' Hajrović gamesense 0.76 0.75 1.04

1 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.93 vs DiSnEyHeRoEs (Group stage #1, nuke)

Local team from Bijelo Polje and one of the youngest teams at the tournament, gamesense.itek (average age 16), made it to the quarter finals after recording several surprising wins. Their youngest member, and one of the youngest players at the tournament at only 14 years of age, Orhan "OKI" Hajrović, showed impressive form and was the team's best player at the event. His 1.04 rating was 26% better than his team's average (0.83), which is the most of all players, making him the most crucial member of any team. He particularly shined in gamesense's group stage #1 deciding match against HSGONLINE, as he recorded a 34-13 score which led the team to a 16-10 win and through to the next stage. He also performed very well in their quarter-final defeat against ENTiTY, especially in the second map when he was the team's only bright spot.

14) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Kristian 'KORN' Hokland alchemists 0.70 0.54 1.14

0 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.51 vs ENTiTY (Semi-final, nuke)

The recently formed Norwegian team alchemists seem to have found a great combination of players, as each of their members excelled in some way on their way to first place. Kristian "KORN" Hokland was perhaps the least influential player in the team, but he still managed to be the tournament's best clutcher with 7 rounds won in 1vsX situations (3x 1vs1, 4x 1vs2). Hokland was also the 2nd hardest to kill of all players with 0.54 deaths per round.

13) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Attila 'malibu' Szalai mihu 0.82 0.72 1.16

3 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.94 vs Eternity (Group stage #1, dust2)

Hungarian team mihu reached the quarter-final and ended up losing to HEADSHOTBG at that stage, finishing with a solid performance of 5 wins and 5 losses overall at the tournament.

Their player who left the best impression was Attila "malibu" Szalai, top rated in 3 of their wins and one of the best fraggers at the tournament. His 0.82 kills per round were the 7th most among all players, and in addition to that, he was also the 5th best in pistol rounds. Szalai was also one of the players who carried their team the most, with a rating 17% better than his team's average, and he was impressive on the Counter-terrorist side, with a 1.37 CT-rating (3rd best overall).

12) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Cosmin Andrei 'WHitE' Cetanas neXtPlease! 0.76 0.60 1.17

3 xMotM, Highest rating: 2.36 vs dT (Group stage #1, nuke)

neXtPlease! from Romania ended up in a very respectable 4th place after losing a marathon match against ENTiTY in the end. The team was flawless during the first group stage, when they recorded all 6 wins and announced themselves as one of the favorites, but they were in the end stopped by HEADSHOTBG in the semi final.

One of their two players who stood out was the best awper of the tournament, Cosmin Andrei "WHitE" Cetanas. He recorded a remarkable 123 kills with the awp, or 0.33 per round, both by far the best numbers among all players. Cetanas had 10 or more awp-kills in 5 different matches, including 15 in their group stage match against alchemists and later 27 against ENTiTY in the 6-overtime 3rd place decider. He was top rated in 3 matches, best of which were his performances during the quarter-final against gms when he had 20-5 and 20-6 scores in his team's 2 map wins. He was also shared best clutcher of the tournament along with Hokland (although Cetanas played 6 maps more), as he won 7 rounds when he was the last one left (4x 1vs1, 2x 1vs2, 1x 1vs3).

11) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Gunnar 'zEn' Eng alchemists 0.76 0.60 1.18

0 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.66 vs ENTiTY (Semi-final, train)

The in-game leader of the winning team alchemists, Gunnar "zEn" Eng had one of his best tournaments in recent times, showing impressive consistency by playing well in each of his 9 maps. He particularly played well during the semi-final encounter with ENTiTY (18-8 and 17-8 scores), as well as the group stage match against neXtPlease. Eng was also the 5th best rated player during the playoffs and was the 3rd best rated on the Terrorist side overall with a 1.26 T-rating. That is somewhat surprising as he was also in charge of leading and coordinating the team, which is for many in-game leaders a cause for poor form on the red side.

10) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Milen 'MILENK0' Le HEADSHOTBG 0.77 0.56 1.19

1 xMotM, Highest rating: 2.08 vs gamesense (Group stage #2, train)

HEADSHOTBG's Milen "MILENK0" Le is another in-game leader who had a great performance individually. His best display was in their first match of the tournament, against gamesense, when he had an astonishing 39-12 score. Le was also very hard to kill throughout the tournament, with the 4th best DPR (0.56), which he also displayed during clutch situations as he won 6 of them, including a 1vs4 during the first pistol round against SBC. That situation also helped him achieve a 1.84 pistol-round rating, the best at the event. He was also like Eng, surprisingly good for an in-game leader on the Terrorist side, with the 2nd best 1.33 T-rating overall.

9) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Jovan 'kalaN' Kalanoski ENTiTY 0.80 0.59 1.20

3 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.92 vs gamesense (Quarter-final, inferno)

ENTiTY's Jovan "kalaN" Kalanoski, the team's in-game leader, was one of their best players on the way to 3rd place, being top rated on 3 different occasions. Kalanoski was the 3rd best awper of the event with a 0.19 awpKPR. His best individual performance was in the quarter-final against gamesense when he had an incredible 1.81 rating during the two maps with 23-10 and 26-12 scores. Unlike the previous two in-game leaders mentioned, Kalanoski's better side was the CT one, as he was the 4th best on it with a 1.35 CT-rating.

8) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Anel 'NENO' Ceković ENTiTY 0.76 0.55 1.20

1 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.53 vs neXtPlease! (3rd place decider, nuke)

Second player from ENTiTY who excelled was Anel "NENO" Ceković, one of the event's most consistent players as he had a rating above 1.00 in 11 of his 13 maps. During the 3rd place campaign, Ceković was the hardest to kill outside of alchemists duo of Fridh and Hokland with 0.55 deaths per round. He also shined in other areas of the game, such as entry kills (6th best) and pistol rounds (7th best). His best match was in the 3rd place decider against neXtPlease, where he was top rated during the first map and had several crucial rounds in the second map during the overtimes.

7) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Tommy 'tacky' Mosgaard alchemists 0.76 0.57 1.21

0 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.55 vs Reaction (Group stage #2, inferno)

Tommy "tacky" Mosgaard was another one of the most consistent players at the event, with 8 of 9 maps rated above 1.00. Although he didn't really excel in any particular match, Mosgaard was always in good form, especially in pistol rounds, as he recorded the second best pistol-round rating of the event (1.70).

6) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Nikolay 'pNshr' Paunin HEADSHOTBG 0.83 0.62 1.22

1 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.74 vs mihu (Quarter-final, inferno)

The runner-ups from Bulgaria, HEADSHOTBG, did not have one player stand out, but instead they had a pair of players leading them to the 2nd place. One of them was Nikolay "pNshr" Paunin, who played well in every single match and was one of the best fraggers of the event. He especially excelled as an entry fragger, finishing as the best in that category in the entire event. He was also the 2nd most regular fragger overall, with 56% of rounds with at least one kill. Also significant, Paunin's form didn't drop when the opponents became tougher, as he had a great 1.20 rating in the playoffs (4th best).

5) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Hristian 'shEMETA' Spasov HEADSHOTBG 0.84 0.61 1.24

1 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.52 vs neXtPlease! (Semi-final, train)

The other one in the Bulgarian super-pair was Hristian "shEMETA" Spasov, who as Paunin kept playing well throughout the playoffs and even topped his teammate with a 1.23 playoff-rating (3rd best). He was also one of the best fraggers at the event with 0.84 kills per round (5th best) and 55% of rounds with at least one kill (4th). Spasov was also impressive in pistol rounds with the 3rd best 1.66 pistol-round rating, and was the 4th best entry killer of the event.

4) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Nemanja 'k1Ng0r' Bošković ENTiTY 0.85 0.60 1.27

3 xMotM, Highest rating: 2.57 vs HSGONLINE (Group stage #1, dust2)

ENTiTY's best player at this tournament was their recent acquisition from Serbia, Nemanja "k1Ng0r" Bošković. He shined early on in the event as the shared-best rated of the first group stage with an impressive 1.61 rating. In his first match he had the best individual performance of the tournament as he recorded a 2.57 rating (29-6 score) against HSGONLINE. Later on he continued being crucial for his team with great performances against gamesense in the quarter-final and neXtPlease in the 3rd place decider match. Especially significant was his contribution in the marathon 2nd map against the Romanian team, as he was ENTiTY's best rated player on that occasion. He ended up as the 4th best fragger of the event with a 0.85 KPR.

3) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Alexandru 'PusE' Popescu neXtPlease! 0.87 0.61 1.28

3 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.89 vs Eternity (Group stage #1, train)

Alexandru "PusE" Popescu was by far the best player in the Romanian team neXtPlease during their road to 4th place. He started off brilliantly with a 1.61 rating in the first group stage and continued as the team's best in the playoffs, and the best outside of the finalists, with a 1.13 playoff-rating. Popescu had 0.87 kills per round, the 3rd most at the tournament, and he was also one of the players who carried their team the most, as his 1.28 rating was 17% better than his team's rating. He had several stand-out performances, as he was top rated in 3 matches, last of which was in the 32-34 loss to ENTiTY when he had a 58-50 score. In that match, Popescu also picked up the role of the team's main awper and he recorded an astonishing 36 kills with the big green. That, along with his previous 10 awp-kills, ended up being enough to make him the 6th best awper of the event with a 0.12 awpKPR.

2) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Karl-William 'kalle' Haraldsen alchemists 0.90 0.56 1.35

3 xMotM, Highest rating: 1.84 vs ENTiTY (Semi-final, train)

The best of the four Norwegian players at WGF was without a doubt Karl-William "kalle" Haraldsen. He excelled on every step of the way, with particularly great performances against BGDoNLINE in the quarter-final when he was top rated on both maps, as well as in the semi-final against ENTiTY and in the final against HEADSHOTBG (overall 1.36 rating in the playoffs). Haraldsen was the 3rd best entry killer of the tournament, which he best demonstrated in the last map of the final, when he recorded 10 first kills and no first deaths. He also excelled in other areas, such as awping, in which he was the 5th best (0.13 awpKPR). In addition to that, he had an amazing 0.90 KPR (2nd best), 57% of rounds with at least one kill (1st), 0.56 deaths per round (5th least) which overall made him one of the truly stand out performers at this event. He was also by far the best player on the CT side with an incredible 1.62 CT-rating.

1) Player Team KPR DPR Rating Andreas 'moddii' Fridh alchemists 0.97 0.52 1.52

6 xMotM, Highest rating: 2.10 vs ENTiTY (Semi-final, train)

Before the tournament, it was expected that alchemists' biggest acquisition and the 9th best player in 2010 according to our ranking, Andreas "moddii" Fridh, would be the main star of this tournament. He did not disappoint in the slightest, as he was by far the best with a 1.52 rating and even though everyone in his team played excellent, he managed to stand out with 19% better rating than team's average. He was top rated in 6 maps, including both of the semi-final and all 3 maps of the final. He had an incredible 0.97 kills per round (1st) and 0.52 deaths per round (1st) and was also the 5th best entry killer of the tournament. Fridh obviously also had the best playoff rating (1.51), and was as well by far the best Terrorist-side player with a 1.62 T-rating.

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.

Top Awpers

#	Player	Team	awp Kills	awpKPR	% of kills
1.	Cosmin 'WHitE' Cetanas	neXtPlease!	123	0.33	43%
2.	Minko 'minko' Ivanov	HSBG	48	0.22	32%
3.	Jovan 'kalaN' Kalanoski	ENTiTY	61	0.19	23%
4.	Milutin 'OK' Obradović	gms	46	0.18	25%
5.	Karl-William 'kalle' Haraldsen	aU	29	0.13	15%

Top Pistol Round players

#	Player	Team	PR KPR	PR DPR	PR Rating
1.	Milen 'MILENK0' Le	HSBG	1.22	0.44	1.84
2.	Tommy 'tacky' Mosgaard	aU	1.06	0.56	1.70
3.	Hristian 'shEMETA' Spasov	HSBG	1.22	0.67	1.66
4.	Miklos 'hunt' Pocsik	mihu	1.10	0.70	1.50
5.	Attila 'malibu' Szalai	mihu	0.95	0.60	1.41

Top Entry-kill players

#	Player	Team	EKpR	EDpR	EK-Rating	Won%
1.	Nikolay 'pNshr' Paunin	HSBG	0.16	0.06	1.51	73%
2.	Jovan 'N1GHTMARE' Derebanoski	ENTiTY	0.15	0.05	1.48	73%
3.	Karl-William 'kalle' Haraldsen	aU	0.14	0.06	1.41	70%
4.	Hristian 'shEMETA' Spasov	HSBG	0.14	0.07	1.37	67%
5.	Andreas 'moddii' Fridh	aU	0.14	0.07	1.37	67%

MVP and All-Star lineup vote

This time we will only have the vote for the All-star lineup, as the MVP nominations would either include only two players (Fridh and Haraldsen) or too many players (we would have to add Popescu, Bošković, Spasov and Paunin). Therefore, the All-star poll will serve as the MVP poll as well, since the player who finds himself in the most teams will be named the MVP. We will also be contacting most of the players who participated in the tournament to gather their votes as part of the expert poll in addition to this public one.

[playerpoll=3]

In the end, check out this WGF frag-movie made by EL_GENERICO:

We hope this article gave you a better insight about some of the less familiar players on the international scene and their performances at WGF. But if it didn't, you can also make sure yourself by checking out the recently added POV demos from the event, as well as HLTV demos. Stay tuned to HLTV.org as we will announce the MVP and the All-star lineup of the tournament on Sunday, February 27th 2011.