The Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship was a five-day long clinic of North American professional Valorant. From start to finish, the event was action packed and had viewers on the edge of their seat. From the Group Stage to the Championship crowning Playoff bracket, there was plenty of Valorant for fans to kick back and enjoy.

Run It Back is beginning to take a more statistical and analytical approach when it comes to competitive Valorant. Rather than simply just covering the events and presenting them as news, a presentation will be delivered with stats and data pertinent to the performance of the teams involved. Below is a showcase of the top five performers outside of the final two teams, as well as the overall performances of the five members of Luminosity Gaming and Sentinels.

An MVP for the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship will be decided as Run It Back dives in to the Top Performers based on kills, deaths, assists, and K/D ratio.

Top 5 Performers (Full Event)

1 – Daniel “eeiu” Vucenovic of NRG tops the list in terms of KDA. 174 kills, 122 deaths, 74 assists, and a Kill/Death ratio of 1.43 put him at the top of the list for overall performers outside of the two Grand Final teams. NRG cruised through the opening match in the Group Stage and pulled off an incredible victory over Sentinels in the Winners’ Match. Despite losing a very close match in the Quarterfinals against Luminosity Gaming, eeiu left his mark.

2 – Anthony “mummAy” DiPaolo comes in second with a just slightly lower Kill/Death ratio of 1.42. There is no doubt that if Team Envy continued on in the tournament, mummAy would have taken home an MVP Award. Unfortunately, Team Envy was eliminated in the Quarterfinals by eventual Grand Finalist Sentinels, after dominating Group C.

3 – Brendan “BcJ” Jensen was the standout player in the Complexity x NSG Invitational and he continues to prove himself as a valuable asset to XSET. In this event, XSET defeated Luminosity Gaming, but fell to NRG in the Winners’ Match and allowed LG to get revenge in the Decider Match. Even after not making it from the Group Stage, BcJ made the most of his time on the battlefield.

4 – Ghost Gaming’s Marki “NiSMO” Tayar comes in fourth. Just signed prior to this event, Ghost Gaming came in with plenty to prove. They did not make it out of the Group Stage, but showed major promise in their matches against Equinox, Cloud9 Blue, and a victory to eliminate eUnited. While earning almost as many kills as mummAy, the K/D is slightly lower due to tacking on more deaths. NiSMO does have the third most assists on the list, however.

5 – Lastly, Cloud9 Blue sees one of their players round out the top five. Mitch “mitch” Semago and C9B fought hard, but were sent packing in the Quarterfinals by Andbox. The team had tough matches in the Group Stage against the likes of NOX, eU, and Ghost. With a K/D of only 1.28 because of so many deaths, mitch actually has the most kills out of the group. 162 deaths is 40 more than the next highest. This shows that he can put up huge number, but it does come at a cost.

Sentinels

1 – Finding Shahzeeb “ShahZaM” Khan on top of the Sentinels list is no surprise. The second place team did not have an easy path to the Grand Final match up. Without ShahZaM, they may not have made it there at all. Playing longer in the tournament, of course, means more kill and death opportunities. A 1.17 K/D is nothing to scoff at when the total amount of kills is 316.

2 – Hunter “SicK” Mims was second on the team with a 1.15 K/D, just underneath the 300 kill milestone for the event. There were only two maps in the Grand Final where SicK had less than 20 kills. Not to mention, he played a different agent on each map. Being able to put up any sort of performance, let alone second best on Sentinels, in those circumstances deserves praise.

3 – Jay “sinatraa” Won only missed out on the top or second fragging spot for Sentinels in the Grand Final once. That was on Bind, where LG picked up the map. Throughout the tournament, sinatraa was extremely consistent. A K/D of 1.03 may not look like an achievement, but it shows that he would rack up at least some sort of damage before being eliminated from the round. That is also proven by his 132 assists, third most in the entire Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship event.

4 – A Cypher player is not necessarily known for their fragging ability, but Michael “dapr” Gulino comes through with a 1.02 K/D. Anything in the black for this type of character is commendable. It just shows that dapr can hold down a site, provide intel, and deliver on the offensive front all at the same time. The Sentinel of Sentinels obviously did his job in order for them to make it to the Grand Final.

5 – Jared “zombs” Gitlin is the only member of Sentinels with a K/D under 1.0. Playing the Omen the entire event saw him have 36 more deaths than kills. His 118 assists were fourth overall just under sinatraa, however. Fragging isn’t everything in a game like Valorant. zombs‘ usefulness comes from his abilities and strategy as Omen. That is blatantly clear to anyone who watched the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship.

Luminosity Gaming

1 – Brady “thief” Dever went absolutely nuts. His 349 kills were the most throughout the enter event. Playing until the very end gave him the chance to really rack up the frags. His assists put him just outside the top five in that category. His performance in the Grand Finals was a tough one compared the remainder of the tournament. In LG’s incredible match against NRG, thief ended Split with 33 kills. That was third highest in a single map.

2 – Diondre “YaBoiDre” Bond was the next best performer on Luminosity Gaming. From here, each players’ K/D is under 1.0. YaBoiDre had the second most kills, but the highest death total. This just proves that to win some, you’ve got to die some. Coincidentally, his best performance also came against NRG in the Quarterfinals. With 438 rounds played throughout the tournament, the LG players had to be tired. That didn’t stop them from becoming the Champions.

3 – In the third spot for LG is Kaleb “moose” Jayne with a 0.98 Kill/Death ratio. His assists were second highest in the event, right under another LG member. It seems like the NRG contest was the one that lit the fire underneath Luminosity. That game also showcased the best performance from moose. As a whole, LG played a lot, won a lot, and these numbers can be easily misconstrued by anyone that didn’t watch the tournament.

4 – While Alex “aproto” Protopapas has the second lowest K/D on the team, he has the third most kills in the event. In the wild 19:17 loss to NRG on Bind, aproto put together a 36 kill performance. That would be the highest single kill map of the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship. During the event, he often took Cypher, but when he switched to Raze, productivity did not drop. Kudos to him for being so versatile.

5 – Brenden “stellar” McGrath may be at the bottom of Luminosity Gaming in terms of K/D. His performance was nothing short of stellar, though. Pun excruciatingly intended. He served his time quite well with the most assists in the entire event. Although his clutch percentage is not the best, his amount of clutches is incredible. He had 12 clutches won total in the event. That is second only to dapr‘s 13. He handled business when it mattered the most.

Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship: Most Valuable Player

The Most Valuable Player during the Nerd Street Gamers Winter Championship is none other than thief. The numbers speak for themselves — 438 rounds played, 349 kills, and a Championship victory. He truly went the distance and performed out of his mind for Luminosity Gaming. He had the most First Blood kills (64) and really made the Duelist category live up to its name. Congratulations to thief for being the MVP and to Luminosity Gaming for an incredible Championship run.

Stay tuned to Run It Back for more event coverage, breaking news, guides, and stats to back it all up!