Game Show Global eSports Cup 2016 came to an end with the Finals in Vilnius, Lithuania last weekend and we picked out the MVP, EVPs and other top players of the event.
As the next part of our recently reintroduced Top players feature we'll focus on the $200,000 Game Show GEC Finals that took place last weekend in Lithuania, where EnVyUs lifted their first trophy of 2016.
We will once again pick the MVP, EVPs (exceptionally valuable players) and VPs (valuable players) of the event according to the definitions set last week in the above linked article.
Who were the stars of GEC 2016 Finals?
To jog your memory about the event - EnVyUs beat dignitas in the grand final 3-0, while before that they eliminated Astralis in the semis and Cloud9 in the 1/4 final. dignitas topped their group ahead of the Frenchmen earlier in the tournament, and went straight to the semis where they knocked out the other surprise - CLG (who eliminated G2 in the 1/4).
It's worth pointing out that due to the format that was used there were several matches that proved to be of little consequence to the final placings and have thus somewhat skewed the stats of some players, but we took that into account.
Table of contents:
1. Team overview & stats leaders
2. MVP: 
kennyS is back in form
3. EVPs
- Happy - similar numbers, different performance
- 
k0nfig & Kjaerbye - the new faces of dignitas
- Xyp9x continues his rise, device shows star level again
4. VPs
Before we start we'll take a look at all 8 teams that took part at the event and how their players contributed within the team. In addition to the basic kills, assists and deaths per round, we added some advanced stats, including average damage dealt per round, damage difference per round and more.
A notable stat, the one players are sorted by within a team, is net round shares, which aims to estimate how much difference for the team the player actually made. For example, based on Kévin "Ex6TenZ" Droolans's performance in G2's 163 round wins we calculated that he earned 29.5 of those for his team (round win shares) and inversely 25.5 round loss shares of their 138 round losses. That results in +4.0 net round shares, third in the team.
Furthermore, according to the RWS% and RLS% columns we can see that those 29.5 RWS rank only 5th in the team (18.1%), meaning he was the one who contributed the least to winning rounds. On the other hand, he also only had 18.5% RLS which means the team didn't lose many rounds because of him either, and as mentioned before he was a net-positive overall meaning they won more rounds than they lost thanks to his contribution.
(click to enlarge)
Lastly, in addition to the Rating 2.0 (which is more well-rounded than the original formula as it includes, assists, opening kills, clutches and more) we listed how much a team benefited from each player's contribution. In some cases that can indicate how much a player was missed when he didn't contribute (with a kill, assist or surviving), while in others how valuable the contribution was to the player's team when he did contribute.
Also, here are the stats leaders of the event in 24 categories including many of the new damage stats.
kennyS is back in formMVP of GEC 2016 Finals
The MVP of the previous CS:GO major at DH Cluj, kennyS, didn't have a great start to the year, having put up a lethargic performance and only stood out in one map at StarSeries in Minsk last month (although that one was vs. fnatic) as his team finished in 3rd-4th place.
In Lithuania, however, he was a different beast, reminiscent of his late 2014 and early 2015 form. Perhaps not in the sheer dominance (which is also unnecessary considering the teammates he's surrounded with) but certainly in consistency.
kennyS did have a bad series against dignitas in the group A winners' match, but aside from that he put in a flawless performance, especially in all 3 of his team's playoff series.
What's more, he kept getting better as the tournament progressed, peaking in the grand final (67:37, 1.45 rating) and in his team's hardest match, the semi vs. Astralis (79:46, 1.43 rating).
4 times he was the MotM, and all four of those occassions were in the playoffs - two in the final against dignitas, one against Astralis and one against Cloud9.
kennyS returns to form with an MVP performance
He ended up with tournament-high +21.3 net round shares, over twice more than his closest teammate. He contributed in 92% of the rounds EnVyUs won, the most of all playoff participants. And he dealt 100+ damage in 45% of his rounds, the most of all players.
If that's not enough to show how valuable he was, consider the fact that when he didn't have a kill, assist or survived, EnVyUs won a mere 16% of the rounds (18-97 record). But thankfully for them that didn't happen very often as he contributed in 71.5% of his rounds, again highest at the event.
With additional context in the fact that 14 of his 16 maps were against the other top four finishers (the last two were vs. C9), his 0.82 kills per round, 1.22 rating and 24% of rounds with multiple kills paint a much clearer picture of how amazingly he played at the event and how important he was on EnVyUs' road to grabbing their first title of 2016.
So, while it was obvious even from the most basic stats or simply the eye test that he deserved the GEC 2016 MVP award, hopefully some of these stats added to the story to show just how good his performance actually was.
EVPs of GEC 2016 Finals
Happy – similar numbers, different performanceAfter what at first glance looked like a solid consistent performance at StarSeries but we determined was a rather inefficient display by Happy (his contribution made the least difference out of all players at the event), he put in what looks like a similar display in Vilnius according to the numbers, only this time it was far more helpful to his team.
In fact, his basic stats on the outside even appear to be worse, a 1.07 rating compared to 1.14 in Minsk. But when we take a deeper look we can see that this time he contributed in 88% of the rounds EnVyUs won compared to 81% last time, and that the team's win percentage went from 22% to 72% when he contributed (+50%) compared to only +23% before.
Most importantly, he made big impact with multi-kills as the team won 56 of 61 rounds when he had 2+ kills (92% success rate), compared to 76% at StarSeries, which goes to show that he was a lot more involved and much better at his role than before.
Happy made a lot of impact this time
To be fair, he did have some poor performances at the start of the tournament, but as soon as he started playing better so did the team, as if they were woken up by the group stage loss to dignitas and the 0-1 deficit against CLG after that.
Since that CLG series Happy was one of the best players at the tournament, which includes the entire playoffs and especially the grand final.
In the first map of the Bo5 rematch with dignitas Happy had his best performance of the tournament – 24:9 score in a 16-4 win on Cobblestone, with 118 average damage per round (127 in rounds won). He continued with great play in the rest of the series and finished as the second best player of the grand final with a 62:37 score (1.29 rating).
So thanks to his contribution to the team's success, especially with great play in the playoffs, a good case can be made to name him the 2nd best player of the tournament. But even if you don't want to go that far, there's no denying that he was an exceptionally valuable player last weekend.
k0nfig & Kjaerbye – the new faces of dignitasFor the second tournament in a row the two Danish teenagers confirmed their rise to 2016 stardom. Back in Leipzig Kjaerbye picked up most of the plaudits and was one of the tournament's EVPs, while both him and k0nfig made their name in the big overtime win over Virtus.pro.
This time k0nfig was the main star of this young team on their way to even greater success, a 2nd place finish, as he put up 0.80 kills per round throughout the tournament – good for 2nd best of all players.
He was the consistent one of this duo, with only one poor game (the first map of the final), and he was also a great impact player with a multi-kill in 23.4% of his rounds. In that he ranked 2nd, only trailing the MVP, while his 83.4 damage dealt per round ranked 3rd overall.
k0nfig and Kjaerbye becoming the new faces of dignitas
17 year old Kjaerbye wasn't far behind at all with 82.6 ADR and was actually involved in more rounds that dignitas won (91%).
He played a crucial role in getting the team to the final, but in the biggest match he was very much neutralized by the Frenchmen. Nonetheless, that also went to show how important his contribution was, as did the fact that dignitas had an 11-71 win record (13%) when he left no mark on a round.
Also worth noting is Kjaerbye's impact on opening rounds on the T side. Even though he wasn't the one who attempted to get the first kill most often, he was the most successful one. And not in the sense that he got that kill since he only had a 9:14 T-side opening score, but as a result of his early involvement the team won 65% of those rounds (all 9 when he got the kill and 6 of the 14 when he didn't). That number ranks him 3rd at the event among players who were involved in above average amount of opening kills on T side.
If their first two events of 2016 are any indication, these two Danish youngsters have emerged as the new stars of dignitas, having proved to be worthy successors of the two big names that the squad lost near the end of last year - Jacob "Pimp" Winneche and Philip "aizy" Aistrup.
Xyp9x continues his rise, device shows star level againJust like with Luminosity at StarSeries, you could make a good argument that Astralis were the 2nd best team at GEC despite finishing in 3rd place. The Danes only lost one match - to EnVyUs in the semi-final, in a 1-2 fashion, and they were the best rated team of the event – albeit in part thanks to the one sided 3rd place decider vs. CLG.
The player they have to thank the most for performing so well this time is Xyp9x, who put in his best performance in their key match and was overall one of the best players of the tournament.
The 20-year-old averaged the most damage per round (86.6), the highest damage difference (+19), the most assists (0.25 per round) and despite being a support player (25.5% of rounds without a kill, but with an assist or surviving) he was the one whose contribution was the most valuable in his team (+56% win rate increase).
Add to that his performance against G2 in the match that propelled Astralis to the semi-finals – 70:53 score, 1.21 rating and a 1-on-3 clutch in the key round of map 3 – and the fact he contributed in 90% of the rounds the Danes won, it should be clear why he is an EVP of this event.
We also have to point out that he didn't perform that well in the maps the team lost in the EnVyUs semi-final, which on one hand contributed to their demise, and on the other shows how well he played in other matches to still rank so high in many categories.
device & Xyp9x showed up at GEC 2016 Finals
Following up a VP performance at DH Leipzig and a forgettable display at StarSeries, device returned to star status as the highest rated player of this event (on par with the already crowned MVP), with a very consistent display that included only one poor performance (the first semi-final map vs. nV).
He actually played well in every series overall and had only 18% of the team's round loss shares, and also dealt over 100 damage in 44% of his rounds (2nd most at the event). With that in mind he can't take much of the blame for not reaching even bigger heights, while he was a big factor in his team notching in another top four finish.
VPs of GEC 2016 Finals
Ruben "RUBINO" Villarroel (dignitas)
Adil "ScreaM" Benrlitom (G2)
Mike "shroud" Grzesiek (Cloud9)
Josh "jdm64" Marzano (CLG)
We'll also touch on the other Valuable Players of GEC 2016 Finals, starting with nV's entry killing duo of apEX and NBK-. In addition to being successful at opening rounds, they had impressive performances in some of the big matches – apEX in the semis vs. Astralis and NBK- in the final vs. dignitas.
Astralis' dupreeh was statistically one of the best players of the event, but he didn't make it into the EVP category due to most of his impact coming in the team's easiest match vs. Method, as well as in the not-so-important 3rd place decider vs. CLG.
The runners-up dignitas didn't only rely on the two abovementioned stars, but in what was a valiant team effort they also got great contribution from RUBINO - who was the only one that played well in all 3 maps of the final - and MSL – who was the hero of their group stage campaign, especially with impressive numbers in the big win vs. EnVyUs (44:25, 1.49 rating).
RUBINO (on the right) provided great cover for the team's stars
On the other hand, CLG's surprising top4 finish didn't come as a result of any big star performances, as all of their players had their moments, such as when James "hazed" Cobb and Stephen "reltuC" Cutler showed up in one map each during their win over G2. Nevertheless, jdm64 did stand out slightly by having 22% of the team's round win shares and making a lot of impact with his AWP on the way to the semis.
The newly picked up G2 did lose in the 1/4 final to the Americans, but their overall performance wasn't as bad as the final placing indicates, considering that they managed to take Astralis to an overtime on the 3rd map, as well as having beat the other 5-6th finisher Cloud9 on two occasions.
And while Edouard "SmithZz" Dubourdeaux was their biggest contributor in the rounds they won, he was also the biggest reason they lost rounds, so in fact it was ScreaM and shox that made the most difference for them with around +10 net round shares each.
ScreaM and shox played quite well individually
While Cloud9 also didn't reach far enough to call this a successful trip, shroud had some good games himself, especially in the 1/4 final vs. EnVyUs when he put up 31:15 in a second map loss.
Lastly, cajunb made the cut thanks to his consistency, not just from match to match but also from round to round as he dealt 75+ damage in 51% of his rounds (2nd most at the event).
What do you think about our picks for the MVP, EVPs and VPs? Would you pick differently and how? Let us know in the comments below.
Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt 
Age: 21 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 861 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.65 
Edouard 'SmithZz' Dubourdeaux 
Age: 27 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 847 KPR: 0.68 DPR: 0.67 Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom 
Age: 21 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.16 Maps played: 11 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer 
Age: 24 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 720 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.65 
Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth 
Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 10 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.55 
Josh 'jdm64' Marzano 
Age: 25 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 0.97 Maps played: 15 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.73 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire 
Age: 22 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 16 KPR: 0.70 DPR: 0.70 Richard 'shox' Papillon 
Age: 23 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 794 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.66 Stephen 'reltuC' Cutler 
Age: 27 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 282 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.64 
Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye 
Age: 17 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 430 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.65 Ruben 'RUBINO' Villarroel 
Age: 21 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 335 KPR: 0.71 DPR: 0.68 Markus 'Kjaerbye' Kjærbye Age: 17 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 0.99 Maps played: 9 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.65 René 'cajunb' Borg 
Age: 26 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.13 Maps played: 10 KPR: 0.77 DPR: 0.62 Josh 'jdm64' Marzano Age: 25 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 1.09 Maps played: 236 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 Dan 'apEX' Madesclaire Age: 22 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.07 Maps played: 691 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.71 Andreas 'Xyp9x' Højsleth Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.03 Maps played: 758 KPR: 0.67 DPR: 0.62 James 'hazed' Cobb 
Age: 26 Team: CLG Rating 1.0: 1.01 Maps played: 273 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.68 
Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek 
Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 265 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.66 Nathan 'NBK-' Schmitt Age: 21 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.00 Maps played: 16 KPR: 0.64 DPR: 0.63 Adil 'ScreaM' Benrlitom Age: 21 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 637 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 
Philip 'aizy' Aistrup 
Age: 19 Team: FaZe Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 463 KPR: 0.75 DPR: 0.68 Mike 'shroud' Grzesiek Age: 21 Team: Cloud9 Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 9 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.66 René 'cajunb' Borg Age: 26 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 608 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.64 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen 
Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.11 Maps played: 697 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.65 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz 
Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 606 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.64 Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen 
Age: 21 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 9 KPR: 0.65 DPR: 0.69 Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke 
Age: 18 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 1.15 Maps played: 9 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.64 Ruben 'RUBINO' Villarroel Age: 21 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 1.04 Maps played: 9 KPR: 0.69 DPR: 0.64 
Jacob 'Pimp' Winneche 
Age: 20 Team: SK Rating 1.0: 1.08 Maps played: 679 KPR: 0.73 DPR: 0.63 Mathias 'MSL' Lauridsen Age: 21 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 0.94 Maps played: 682 KPR: 0.66 DPR: 0.72 Richard 'shox' Papillon Age: 23 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 11 KPR: 0.78 DPR: 0.69 Nicolai 'device' Reedtz Age: 20 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.20 Maps played: 10 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.59 Kristian 'k0nfig' Wienecke Age: 18 Team: Dignitas Rating 1.0: 1.10 Maps played: 186 KPR: 0.76 DPR: 0.69 Vincent 'Happy' Schopenhauer Age: 24 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.05 Maps played: 16 KPR: 0.72 DPR: 0.63 Peter 'dupreeh' Rasmussen Age: 22 Team: Astralis Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 10 KPR: 0.79 DPR: 0.63 Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub 
Age: 20 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.24 Maps played: 16 KPR: 0.82 DPR: 0.57 Kévin 'Ex6TenZ' Droolans 
Age: 25 Team: G2 Rating 1.0: 0.92 Maps played: 767 KPR: 0.60 DPR: 0.64 Kenny 'kennyS' Schrub Age: 20 Team: Envy Rating 1.0: 1.18 Maps played: 744 KPR: 0.80 DPR: 0.62