Several new faces were awarded EVPs in one of the most unpredictable Majors in history.

The dust has settled on IEM Rio, a tournament full of surprises, and it's time to hand out EVP (Exceptionally Valuable Player) awards to the players that managed to find safe water as CS:GO's world order collapsed in a flurry of upsets. As a result, many of the stars that would be expected in a Major EVP list are absent; there is no Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut, Sergey "⁠Ax1Le⁠" Rykhtorov, or Mareks "⁠YEKINDAR⁠" Gaļinskis here, nor any of FaZe's star-studded roster.

Instead, a new generation rose above the rest. Outsiders' star rifle pair, Petr "⁠fame⁠" Bolyshev and Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev, were a revelation, while Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato and David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský carried their post-break form into the most prestigous event of this half of the year. Joining them are six others, ranked in this order:

HLTV.org's EVP picks for IEM Rio:

Kaike "⁠KSCERATO⁠" Cerato
Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev
Petr "⁠fame⁠" Bolyshev
Dmitry "⁠sh1ro⁠" Sokolov
Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller
David "⁠frozen⁠" Čerňanský
Ihor "⁠w0nderful⁠" Zhdanov
Oleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev
Yuri "⁠yuurih⁠" Santos
Martin "⁠stavn⁠" Lund

KSCERATO's surge in form since the player break continued in Rio de Janeiro, with his rating event history now reading 1.34 (EPL S16), 1.21 (RMR), 1.40 (Challengers Stage), and 1.33 in the Major's top 16. Second only to Dzhami "⁠Jame⁠" Ali in rating overall, the Brazilian lurker completed all ten maps of play at the Major with a positive kill differential and rating over 1.00, winning 4 1v2s and multi-fragging in 22% of rounds.

That he carried his form into playoffs only makes this more impressive. When you take into account his struggles in his two previous Major quarter-final appearances — a 0.65 rating in Antwerp and a 0.96 in Stockholm — his story only becomes more alluring. A 1.37 rating against Natus Vincere in the quarter-finals this time around to knock out s1mple and company was a real coming of age moment for Brazil's best player.

It would be easy to point to the home crowd as the reason for KSCERATO's superstar form in Rio, but he performed just as well in Malta — it's not just the support of the fans that is powering KSCERATO. He has gained form in a similar way to Nikola "⁠NiKo⁠" Kovač at the back end of 2021, hitting s1mple and ZywOo's benchmark with what is supposed to be inferior weaponry.

FURIA will not attend the last two events of the year, so KSCERATO cannot extend the sample size of his new-found form in 2022 but make no mistake: KSCERATO is worthy of his place as the second highest-rated player only behind ZywOo since the summer break.

FL1T's potential has been obvious since his days as FORZE's star player. Replacing Sanjar "⁠SANJI⁠" Kuliev in Outsiders was never going to be an easy task given their differences in playstyle, but FL1T has quietly gone about his business to become one of the very best riflers in the world.

A 2.11 rating in the final map of the Major, a 16:5 drubbing of HEROIC, is proof of his growth, and the only blemish on his best of three record at the Major was a slow Overpass against MOUZ in semi-finals is ⁠— the other 9 maps were above a 1.10 rating.

FL1T's 1.32 rating on CT-side is second only to his captain Jame, but even that statline does not completely illuminate how effective a rotator the 21-year-old can be. In 22.4% of opening kill attempts on defence, FL1T won his 50-50 duel on 69.4% of occasions. For a rifler, that is simply ludicrous.

It's a real challenge to put FL1T or fame above one another and it's probably easier to think of KSCERATO as 1A and the two Outsiders riflers as 1B. Where FL1T had a 69.4% opening duel success rate, fame has 68.3% whilst attempting 3.1% more duels. That rifle partnership, added to Jame's similar levels of success at the start of the round, meant Outsiders started 65.8% of their CT-rounds a player to the good. To make matters worse, they won 82.1% of the rounds they had that 5v4 advantage, so it's no surprise that other teams found it so hard to play against Outsiders.

fame joined Outsiders with little fanfare amid the departure of YEKINDAR. Even Outsiders may not have realized how good the 19-year-old was, having to adjust his roles to swap him with David "⁠n0rb3r7⁠" Danielyan into positions like toilet on Overpass a few events after his arrival. He has not looked back since that responsibility was placed on him.

A 1.27 rating in Rotterdam was a warning more of us should have heeded, as fame came into the Major to eclipse even FL1T in consistency by finishing 11 of his 12 maps with a green rating. A 1.30 Impact rating was powered by his previously mentioned prowess in opening duels as well as a respectable 18.8% multi-frag percentage. When professional players and analysts talk about the skill gap between tier one and tier two teams closing, it's people like fame that embody the shift. As clean mechanically as any seasoned professional, fame is more than worthy of his Major trophy and EVP to go with it.

Joining Jame and KSCERATO as the only players to finish every single map of the Major above a 1.00 rating, sh1ro was a force to be reckoned with in Rio. Cloud9 may not have even made it to the Legends stage had their star AWPer not dragged them through the Challengers. Finishing the play-in with a 1.45 rating, sh1ro was nearly as impressive in Legends at 1.32 and unfortunate to be eliminated in playoffs with a 1.28 rating.

Looking at his radar chart, we can see just how well-rounded a player sh1ro was this event. He was one of the hardest players to kill with a 50% survival rate, paired with multi-kills in 23% of rounds and an opening pick in 15%. Though he is fairly passive even for modern AWPers, that was not always the case this Major. He was unstoppable as an opener, in the mid-round, and in his usual domain as the closer.

The highlights included a 1.81 rating over two maps against HEROIC, a performance that only looks more impressive considering the Danes have now reached back-to-back finals. More than a few teams will rue their failure to win one of the most open Majors in history in Rio, but Cloud9 and sh1ro will be chief among them — his form deserved more than a quarter-finals exit.

cadiaN had a volatile event, hitting the highs of a 1.97 rating in maps against fnatic and 2.00 against Liquid, but also the lows of 0.77 and 0.87 ratings in series defeats versus Cloud9 and Outsiders, respectively.

Overall it was a mature, well-rounded performance from cadiaN. As well as maintaining his high flash assists (0.12 per round), he was exceptionally effective (0.17 OpKPR) in garnering 5v4 advantages for HEROIC on CT-side. There was a time that AWPing IGLs seemed off-meta, given the wealth of talent on the AWP you would have to compete with whilst calling, but cadiaN and Jame's form since the summer break suggests the demise of that playstyle has been exaggerated.

cadiaN is a very different player to Jame, despite the obvious comparison. His more aggressive style of AWPing lends itself to inconsistency, but he showed just how effective he can be in Rio. It's harder to pull off, but also harder to stop. It's only fitting that one of Counter-Strike's great entertainers outside of the server has an in-game style to match, in both his super-active style of calling and AWPing.

The addition of Dorian "⁠xertioN⁠" Berman has unlocked frozen. Inheriting some of the lurker positions of Aurimas "⁠Bymas⁠" Pipiras, the Slovakian attempts just 15.9% of his team's opening duels on T-side, something reflected in his top-heavy radar chart. Yet, that new-found passivity has enabled him to become the consistent star player MOUZ needed him to be since Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool's departure.

Performances like his 1.43 and 1.40 ratings against Cloud9 in the quarter-finals speak to this, showing an impressive mettle to bounce back from a 0.71 rating in map one of that series. What is even more impressive about frozen is that he performed better on the harder T-side than on CT this event (1.18 to 1.10), one of only a few players to do so.

He will be disappointed by his drop-off in form in the semi-final against Outsiders, but more than a few players were left feeling the same after this Major. An impactful quarter-final and strong peaks in the group stage leave him worthy of a Major EVP.

Spirit were the surprise package at the last Major and they came into Rio as pretty heavy underdogs once again after losing their Star AWPer, Abdul "⁠degster⁠" Gasanov, to OG. A slow start in Cologne for degster's replacement, w0nderful, only exacerbated those fears.

Like many players in this list, however, his form has gone up a notch since the summer break. A 1.52 rating in a victorious run at FiReLEAGUE Global Finals was proof of his potential and he consolidated that at the Major with a +60 kill-death differential over 10 maps, enough to get him to a 1.20 rating overall.

degster's aggressive style and strong belief in himself defined Spirit during his tenure there and it's telling that Spirit picked a more conventional passive AWPer in w0nderful as his replacement. The 17-year-old spent an average of 82.6 seconds alive per round at the Major, third to Jame and sh1ro.

He used his time alive well: A 1.22 rating on T-side is among the best, as is his 0.77 KPR (23.1 kills in an 30-round game). A solid portion of those kills did come in lost rounds — 0.55 kills per lost round is second only to Rasmus "⁠Zyphon⁠" Nordfoss —, but that is a product of his strong form in losses rather than impactless exit frags. A 1.25 rating in an 0-2 defeat to HEROIC in his Major playoffs debut sums this up as, shining despite defeat.

s1mple, by his standards, did not have a good Major in Rio. He faltered as Natus Vincere — who had been crowned as favorites after FaZe, Vitality, and Liquid were eliminated in groups — crashed out in quarter-finals to FURIA, with a miserable 0.87 rating. Strong performances in stomps over Bad News Eagles and BIG are expected of the best player in the world; it's the FURIA match that will remain in the minds of both fans and analysts when we talk about s1mple in Rio.

But it's only against these lofty expectations that s1mple falls. Remove the nameplate, and a player with a 1.29 CT-rating, 0.76 KPR, and 0.17 opening kills per round on CT-side would rightly be considered as one of the best players of the event. That s1mple is getting the 'Messi treatment,' where to be considered the best he must not just be the best but comfortably do so, only shows how great of a player he is.

That said, few would have expected such a disastrous quarter-final for s1mple and it's the reason he is near the bottom of this list. It's just important to put into perspective how impressive it is for him to still gather an EVP in his worst event of the year.

yuurih, FURIA's second fang, did not hit the heights of KSCERATO in Rio, but he remained a huge part of the Brazilian team's semi-final run on home soil. When FURIA were on fire, yuurih was burning the coal: He posted three maps above a 1.60 rating against ENCE and BIG in convincing group stage victories.

In playoffs, a decent performance in the victory against Natus Vincere gave way to a team-wide collapse against HEROIC. yuurih could only muster 19 kills in an overtime defeat on map two of that series, where KSCERATO posted a 1.65 rating during an enthralling FURIA comeback. Without his partner in crime, however, HEROIC saw off KSCERATO and an exhausted FURIA in overtime and on map three.

Despite that, yuurih's 1.42 rating in the group stage leaves him with a deserving EVP. In a perilous Swiss system where the highest-ranked teams faltered, having a player in as good form as yuurih for that stage was invaluable. Thanks to that, FURIA made it to the Jeunesse Arena for an experience none of them will ever forget.

The final EVP goes to stavn, who just creeps into the list. The Dane had a peculiar event, with a weak group stage and grand final but strong performances in the quarters (1.19 series rating) and semi-finals (1.29). Had his final gone differently, it is not impossible he would have left Rio with an MVP medal.

Unfortunately, it did not: His fall-off in the grand final (0.78) was arguably more representative of his event than his strong showings against Spirit and FURIA. This is visible on his radar chart, where stavn struggles to stand out in overall statistics.

When we narrow the statistics down to just playoffs, stavn emerges with more credit. He was the highest-rated player of HEROIC in that stage (1.12 rating), averaging 1.18 Impact and 83 ADR in spite of the final. His 1.96 rating against FURIA on the deciding map, Nuke, may well have been the best one-map performance in playoffs. FL1T had a higher rating in the final but was boosted by an eco ace; stavn's map included a gun round 1v4 ace clutch to lock in his first ever Major final. Chances are, it won't be his last.

Honourable mentions

Zyphon's 1.20 rating despite Sprout going 1-3 in the Legends stage was impressive and the Dane finished the Major with the highest KPR (0.92). Ilya "⁠Perfecto⁠" Zalutskiy out-performed both Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy and Denis "⁠electroNic⁠" Sharipov with a 1.12 rating, while Ax1Le recovered from a poor Challengers stage.

Leonid "⁠chopper⁠" Vishnyakov received his Major buff as usual, ending the event with the same rating as stavn (1.06). Robert "⁠Patsi⁠" Isyanov managed to record a 1.10 rating despite a -3 kill differential, continuing to cement his status as one of the most impactful riflers in the game. Álvaro "⁠SunPayus⁠" García's performance (1.51 rating over two maps) to knock Vitality out of the Major should not be forgotten either, with the Spaniard starting to look more and more comfortable in the ENCE system.