The Best Players of Six Invitational 2021

The Six Invitational 2021 delivered two weeks full of high-octane action and masterful performances. The best players in the world fought for the trophy. In the end, a team with no MVP players won the entire event! Most of the individually best performing players didn’t even make it into the Grand Finals. So who actually put up a dominant display on international soil?

Not the Ninjas in Pyjamas, as it turns out! With the exception of the entry KD category, where Gustavo “Psycho” Rigal delivered the best performance, the playing field was dominated by Liquid and Empire individuals. But how did the Ninjas then manage to win the event?

The answer is quite simple: No single NiP individual actually dominated the opposition, but all players performed above-average across the board. For this, we’re taking a look at the rating, since it’s the best measurement across all performance factors. There, Psycho, Murilo “Muzi” Moscatelli, and Gabriel “pino” Fernandes all landed in the Top 15 with ratings between 1.10 and 1.15, which is quite impressive. Take this as a counter-example: Ben “CTZN” McMillan breezed past them, but the next best G2 Esports player only achieved a 1.00 rating.

So the Ninjas sent the most consistent lineup to the Six Invitational with quite a margin. But if we want to highlight the performances of individuals, CTZN deserves a special commendation. No one in his team managed to keep up, nobody even came close to his performance. That he still managed to exit the tournament on a 1.18 rating and 0.96 kills per round – despite G2 temporarily being in last place of their group – is quite the achievement. So if G2 won’t get their act together and finally play to a better level, he should maybe seek his luck in a different lineup.

WHERE WAS SHAIIKO?

For the Frenchman, the Six Invitational 2021 might be the single worst disappointment of his career. Rarely has he ever had such issues with keeping up with the rest. Last year, Stéphane “Shaiiko” Lebleu mounted the highest KD difference and a 1.21 rating, coming close to the top performers. This year, he got stomped on a 0.93 rating. In his place, Loïc “BriD” Chongthep rose to prominence, but this was obviously not enough to compensate for the absense of BDS’ most important individual.

The downfall of Jake “Virtue” Grannan was just as surprising. The Australian may never have been the frontrunner for G2, but a 0.80 rating is more than unusual for him. Many top rosters had this problem, as the likes of Emilio “Geometrics” Leynez Cuevas and Javier “Thinkingnade” DeAndre Escamilla also dragged their teams down quite a bit.

THE BEST SUPPORTERS

Just like last year, Davide “FoxA” Bucci was among the best support players in the entire tournament. With a 73% KOST contribution and 9 plants, he was the support structure for his team. However, one Frenchmen still manages to overshadow all of this. He’s known as the best supporter in all of Europe: BriD.

A whopping 34 plants is what he put to the plate at SI2021 – on 18 maps nonetheless! Thiago “xS3xyCake” Reis may come a little close with 29 plants, but that took him ten more maps. BriD obviously dominates this category. With regards to the survival rate, he also ranks within the Top 5, only narrowly being overtaken by Artur “ShepparD” Ipatov, who was one of the best supporters at the event as well.

WHO HAS THE BEST RATING?

With his 1.16 rating, Jason “Beaulo” Doty only narrowly missed the Top 5. CTZN and Danil “JoyStiCK” Gabov share a joint fourth place. Parabellum Esports’ Xavier “Eskaa” Avoine made a dash for the Top 3, which is surprising given his team’s overall performance and placement.

Liquid occupy the top two spots with André “nesk” Oliveira and Luccas “Paluh” Molina. The former managed to attain a 1.24 rating and earned 0.99 kills per round for his team. On top of that, he mounted five clutches at the event. But his colleague’s stats show a different kind of dominance still.

THE SI2021 MVP: PALUH

SiegeGG have announced Paluh as the best player of the Six Invitational 2021. There’s no arguing around that, as the young Brazilian has been the top performer across most categories. He took home the most kills and also broke the 200 kills mark at a LAN event for the first time ever – 280 kills in two weeks! On top of that, he had the best KD, the second-highest entry KD, the highest KOST value, and the most clutches. This performance is even more admirable given the tragic circumstances surrounding the playoffs.

Only few days before the Grand Finals, news reached him that his father had passed away in the hospital. Just a little earlier, the man had still reassured him over the phone that he was getting better again. Nonetheless, Paluh entered the Lower Bracket match and delivered yet another monster performance. It’s obviously a little unfortunate that it wasn’t enough for the trophy. At the very least he can sleep easy knowing that he was the absolute best player at the Six Invitational 2021!