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The Best Players From NAL Stage 2

The NAL Stage 2 concludes the second league phase for this year. Earlier, Oxygen Esports stood at the top,... Fabio | 1. August 2021

The NAL Stage 2 concludes the second league phase for this year. Earlier, Oxygen Esports stood at the top, but now, it’s Spacestation Gaming. The player rankings have undergone severe changes as well.

This season took place on LAN again. Many of the roster changes that were unable to take place before the Six Invitational have now finally been dealt with. The old guard has shown up in style. Only Oxygen Esports have exited the Top 4. In their place, Susquehanna Soniqs made a dash for the top and placed one of their players at the forefront of the fight.

HOTANCOLD AND REXEN IN JOINT FIRST PLACE

This time, the numbers say that there is no clear “best” player in the league. SSG’s Matthew “Hotancold” Stevens and Richie “Rexen” Coronado from the Susquehanna Soniqs are both tied at a 1.33 rating as the frontrunners of NAL. Paul “Hyper” Kontopanagiotis almost manages to match them on a 1.29 rating. The Top 10 in large parts consists of Spacestation Gaming individuals, but there is one surprise: What is Disrupt Gaming doing up there?

They have a whopping three players in the Top 10. This is because their three map wins were decisive victories. Their overtime win over Oxygen Esports ended with them having positive or almost positive ratings. Even in their losses, individuals like David “iconic” Ifidon excelled.

THE OVERACHIEVERS: SPACESTATION GAMING

SSG don’t just field Hotancold, they have the highest performing team in the entire league. Even their IGL, Javier “Thinkingnade” DeAndre Escamilla, concluded the stage with a 1.04 rating. Every single player is positive and has managed to stand out in their own category. Of course Hotancold is leading the charge with his 1.33 rating. But Dylan “Bosco” Bosco also made his mark with 3 1vX clutches, for instance.

THE BEST CLUTCHERS

But Hyper still managed to top this with 5 clutches won. The North American ended up with a 1.29 rating and exactly 1.0 kills per round. On top of that, he was the only player to mount a three digit kill count during NAL Stage 2. With 4 clutches, Braden “Chala” Davenport is in second place. But he also managed to attain the highest survival rate, staying alive in a whopping 49% of the rounds he played.

nal bestplayers 10

The best players from NAL Stage 2 (via SiegeGG)

THE BEST SUPPORTERS

After all these frags, we shouldn’t forget that the supporters have a job that is just as important to the success of their teams. During his prime, Troy “Canadian” Jaroslawski was known for the ridiculously high amount of plants he would record in every season. ThinkingNade, who has largely taken over his job, can’t really contend with him. While 9 plants are a nice figure, this doesn’t hold a candle to what his legendary predecessor used to do. However, most of their matches were smooth sailing for SSG and often they didn’t even have to reach for the defuser.

This is partially true for most supporters. With 10 plants, Alexander “Retro” Lloyd is at the top. But he failed to make a mark in other categories and he lacks a high KOST rate. This value explains how many rounds the player spent either killing, planting, defusing, surviving, or being traded by a teammate.

His colleague, Jack “J90″ Burkard, was much more competitive in that regard. His 77% KOST rate is admirable, but Hotancold can almost match that as well. DarkZero Esports’ youngster, Nick” njr” Rapier, also ended up with a similarly strong 75% KOST rate.

The North American League Stage 2 has a familiar face at the top in the form of Hotancold. However, players like Rexen and Hyper are turning up the heat. J90 is an impressive young talent and his colleagues’ performances indicate that Disrupt might be able to mount a better run in the upcoming Stage 3.