The PGL Major Antwerp 2022 was the first time in history that an international team won a Major Championship as Faze's Rain, Karrigan, Broky, Ropz and Twistzz beat Navi 2-0 on the Navi's famous nuke and FaZe's cursed Inferno, ending the debate over who was the best team in the world in dramatic fashion.

But what actually happened? What made Faze the best team? Why did some star players shine so bright, and others didn't? Working with Leetify, I analysed every single game-tick across the entire tournament to find out.

Broad insights

Winning CT rounds appears to be highly correlated to succesful smoke grenades that stop enemy players passing through them. On the other hand, winning T rounds is correlated to HE nades that damage bombsite players AND even correlates to bad HE nades that damage teammates so its better to throw mediocre HEs than to throw none at all! Throwing molotovs also correlates to winning T rounds, whereas flashbang success correlates to round wins for both sides.

Aces only occur when utility usage is above a certain threshold and when teammates die in tradable positions. Moreover, when your teammates die in tradable positions, your team achieves far more multi kills and by dying in tradable positions, you are likely to survive more rounds so make your enemy pay your life.

Leetify Rating is highly succesful at predicting which team ranked higher, except for Outsiders who are a complete outlier - they performed fifth best in Leetify Rating but finished 13th. Faze and Navi were, on the other hand, far ahead of all teams in Leetify Rating although Navi were #1 overall.

Better aimers throw better flashbangs and players who react fastest seem to survive more rounds, and are much more succesful at trading kills. Faster reacting players seem to survive less rounds but they also are far more likely to successfully trade a kill.

Teams

Faze

FaZe Clan has long been famous for having the best raw firepower in the world but at PGL Antwerp they had no impressive aim-stats whatsoever. In fact, they were below average in many: all reaction to kill time stats, counter-strafing and crosshair placement stats. Surprisingly, in terms of individuals, FaZe only had three number one stats (two of which were Broky and one was Karrigan!).

That's because it was their teamplay that powered FaZe to the win, being second in successfully trading teammates and dying in tradable positions, first in milti-kills and rounds survived. FaZe weren't just walking into any fight and winning it, they were putting themselves into duels where they were less likely to die, more likely to kill multiple players and still survive despite dealing the most damage.

CS:GO is more CT sided than ever before and FaZe were the ones to make the most use of this fact with the highest overall CT Leetify Rating and second CT round-winrate, whilst being below average in T round-winrate. Despite not winning so many T rounds, Faze were first in damage dealt, and third in T Leetify Rating meaning they never let their opponents build up funds, stats or confidence on the CT side. They were the sorest losers on the T side.

Efficiency was the name of the game. FaZe were number one in least wasted utility per death, second in flashes that led to kills and third in flashes thrown meaning they had the highest output for what they spent. Moreover, Karrigan does not subscribe to the high-explosive grenade with FaZe being dead last in HE damage and average in HEs thrown. They would rather throw smokes, which is where they regained a top 2 placement in output.

NAVI

Navi were the reigning Major championships who were looking to start their era of dominance, lock FaZe into 2nd place, and after a 7 match streak leading up to a finals where they were 14-5 in the head-to-head, by all rights, It was their final to lose, and lose they did, but why?

The CIS team were the highest Leetify and HLTV rated at the major, by far, largely thanks to having the fastest reaction times, highest trade kill success and trade death success which all lead to Navi being the most deadly, highest rated T side team at the major. And this is where the problems seemed to occur, because they only maintained a slightly above average CT Leetify Rating and in CS:GO Defence is the best form of Offence. Had this Major taken place before the silenced meta, or even during the Krieg meta, would they have won?

When we look between these two top teams, Navi were second in multi kills and rounds survived, only behind Faze. Could this be where the difference in CT Leetify Rating and success can be found? To defend a bombsite you’re likely in a disadvantageous fight, say 3v5, meaning if you equally trade then your opponents can play post plant 2v2 (and therefore win more often). But the CTs that take out more than their fair share give their teammates much more doable retakes.

On the utility front, Navi maintained better stats in High-explosives, Smokes and a much higher use of Molotovs. Both teams had very similar philosophies, with neither being big on high-explosives, both using lots of smoke grenades. Where they diverged was their flashbangs; Faze was on top of all teams but Navi fell behind. Maybe some of those $600 Molotov's could have been 3 200$ flashbangs?

Individuals

Wasted Utility

Karrigan did not enter the buy menu without good reason, wasting only 127 dollars worth of utility per death. At Antwerp, he invested a frugal $32,000 in the after-life, whilst French ingame leader Apex burned $70,000 which could have been 14 rifles, 200 flashbangs or an Audi Q2 (If I had the budget, there would be a meme of Karrigan in a Q2 here). This trend extended to fellow IGLs Boombl4, Fallen, Jame and Hooxi who were all in the top 9.

High Explosives

Hey oSee ever heard of high explosive grenades? Clearly, mister Supremacy uses all his funds to buy the big green, with a yikes 0.5 HE damage per round average at Antwerp, over 7x worse than next lowest Ropz at 3.77. oSee only threw an average 1.5 grenades (all types) per round, and 1 HE per map whereas BIG leader Tabsen threw more than his fair share at 18, clearly relying on team-drops.

Another BIG player, Krimbo was firing nuclear bombs with 20 HE damage per round, alongside teammate Syrson at 19.1 and Tabsen not far behind at 16. The BIG three did over double the pro average, effectively turning three of their M4's into supercharged AK's every single round.

Flashbangs

24% of all Fallen's flashes hit true, leading the way, which was helped by him also having the highest flashes thrown at 36 per map. Like Fallen, Cadian played a quasi-support/awp/igl role with 23%, other AWPers Broky, m0NESY and Jame all sat in 19%. in 2022, AWPers can't just sit in their scopes; to be a team awper, you have to throw the flashbangs. Someone should let Degster know, because he was near the bottom of the list at 8.7%, and near the bottom in all other flash metrics.

Once again, when we look deeper; at flashbangs that actually led to a kill, BIG strikes with Krimbo at 18.7%, Syrson fifth at 14%. By contrast, Misutaa and Interz had a 0% flashbang to kill rate. However, lots of entry kill players were at the bottom of the list, which could suggest their flashbangs had another purpose, be it distraction, diversion or otherwise. Or maybe it's simply harder to throw flashbangs for your teammates when you're dead.

Molotovs

Whilst they were around the average in flashbang and high-explosive stats, Natus Vincere began to show up on the molotov charts, with Boombl4 and Perfecto rocking first and second at 21/20 thrown per map. Their success in denying space, pushing players into spots, blocking vision is hard to measure, but sheer volume alone is impressive, and an analyst might interpret their Molotov usage to be a sign that Blad3 believes flames leads to wins (especially on T side).

Sh1ro was on fire with 11 molotov damage to enemies per round, teammate Ax1le not far behind (C9 Coach Groove believes in the stoove). Berlin Utility Gaming clearly don't share their enthusiasm with two of the worst three players on molotov damage. Clearly, there is a difference of philosophy with Navi making use of molotovs, and BIG putting them much lower on their priority list. Karrigan, Rain and Twistzz were much higher than average (Karrigan top 10) in Molotov usage.

Smokes

Chopper was chucking out the smoke grenades with 23.7 thrown per map, meaning he was more than happy to buy his teammates 7 minutes of grey walls a map for $8000. Niko wasn't far behind at 23.1, alongside the in-game leader train of Boombl4, AleksiB, Hooxi, Cadian and Fallen. In fact, Niko was the only non-IGL of the top 7. This could be a sign that Niko is in fact a great in-game leader /s.

Smoke Success

How many enemy players were stopped by their smokes? Throwing them is one thing, throwing them in at the right place, at the right time is another. This is the third utility metric that BIG absolutely shines through, with Tizian first at 23 enemies stopped per map, followed by Gigachad Hooxi, Brollan and BIG players Krimbo and Faven.

Trade kills

Broky held down the fort with the most trade kills at 59 for 111 opportunities. He watched American Sniper with a pen and paper 'i trade ze kill' he wrote, and 'i trade ze kill' he did. FaveN did not want to let uncle Tabsen down with nearly 100% trade kill attempts. Shox wasn't about to let NA go untraded either at #2 (97%), and Magisk thought it was 2018 again at 94%.

Trade deaths

How often were they dying in positions that led to trade kills, or were they wandering far away. Hey- uh, what map is this? Teses, Jabbi, and Sjuush were a star trio at 59, 48 and 47%. Meaning they weren't wasting their valuable lives, or giving away kill rewards without a not-so-friendly rifle hot on their heels. Rain and Karrigan, Boombl4 and Electronic were also together in the top 10. Clearly, Major finalists believe in entry duos. By contrast, Shox, Yekindar and Buster were not making it easy for their teams at <10%. If Elige could keep a tighter leash on his new teammate, there's a good chance both their stats will significantly increase (and this has happened).

Crosshair placement

Despite Liquid finishing dead last, oSee (supremacy) only had to move his crosshair 5.29 degrees from placement to kill despite his team finishing joint last. He was in good company with Syrson, S1mple and m0NESY just behind. Scores as low as these suggest an extremely high level of intuition, gamesense and teamwork where your allocation of angles has been well thought-out by your igl and coach team.

FalleN, at the ripe old age of 31, scored 6th with a zoomer 6.9 degree. No doubt a testimony to his ability to balance looking at the minimap to make team calls, all whilst aiming in the right place at the right time. Other in-game-leaders (Nafany, Karrigan, Hooxi, Chopper, Art and AleksiB) were at the very bottom of the standings. Is FalleN's ability to subconsciously place his crosshair, whilst consciously making decisions, one of the reasons why he was able to lead Brazil to two major wins as in-game leader and Awper? Jame, who was 7th, is another example of a successful awp-leader, whereas Cadian sat at 23rd, second lowest amongst his big-green brothers. This can be interpreted as a sign that his team lacks self-direction, experience (given Heroic's youth), or a strong second-voice that can take the weight of Cadian's shoulders at the crucial moments.

Yekindar was first amongst the riflers at fifth with 6.8 degrees; his AK47 might as well be an unscoped AWP with how little he has to move his crosshair from sight to kill. It's hard to imagine a better use of his crosshair placement than first-man-in, taking out defenders before they can react, whereas other players rely more on info, trading and positioning.

Niko, frequent winner of 'best aim' discussions, was placed at 66th, close to dead last, with an 11 degree crosshair adjustment score. His 1.13 HLTV rating was despite his crosshair placement, not because of it. Niko's aim might rely more on the intangibles: how fast can he react to his teammates info, how fast does he move between pre-aims, and how accurate is his sense of where the enemy will peek from?

editor's note: this is likely because NiKo has insane flick accuracy compared to other players. Cross-checking this with spotted acc would be a great way to confirm that NiKo's crosshair placement actually increases because he is better at flicking, not because he is worse at pre-aim.

Reaction Time

In many of m0NESY's clutches he blurs the line between no-scopes and quick-scopes on the spectator point of view and for a reason. Out of all the players at Antwerp, m0NESY was the fastest to pull the trigger at 391 milliseconds after he saw the enemy. Perfecto didn't need a scope - the first rifler in the top echelons of reaction time, he came in at 418 milliseconds. And FNX still got it at a quick 440. Nitr0 was taking his time at 591, that being said, as was Rain, but that didn't stop him becoming HLTV Major MVP.

Spray Accuracy

Perhaps having almost 2/3rds of his kills with the AWP has left SyrsoN a little rusty on the spraying with a low, low 12% spray accuracy, less than half of next lowest oSee at 28%, and Cadian at 32%. Whereas Saffee saw no issue dropping the awp and spraying everything in sight accurately 57% of the time.

Multi Kills

One of the biggest round-winning correlated stats is killing multiple players which is harder now more than ever, given how meta trade-kills are, how good information is, and how much teams work on spacing. The reward for putting your team in a 5v3 is a roughly 90% round win-rate. Stavn and Ropz went above and beyond with 51 double kills a piece over Antwerp, which was over 10x the lowest players, and Stavn continued his dominance with the most triple kills. Beyond double and triple kills, luck is too significant a factor over this sample size, and only 15 players had the fortune of an ace, and of those only Magisk managed two.

Assists / Damage

Assists can be a symptom of many things, not hitting enough headshots, entry kills, over-spraying, etcetera. But what can be said for certain is a lot of Danes believe in sharing the love lead, with Teses sitting pretty at 56 assists total. Raw damage was where Stavn shined brightest at 28708 points of damage at Antwerp. Karrigan is a name you might be surprised to see up here, with 26k damage. Karrigan is big on starting kills and sending in the boys to finish them off whilst he watches the radar.

Leetify Rating

The way most armchair experts rank players right now is largely centred on ratings/ratios which themselves bias towards unimpactful kills, final-point, and ignores variables that win games and improves a teams odds of winning a game. Leetify celebrates true impact for you and your idols, and here is your top 20 Leetify Lasers for the 2022 Antwerp Major.

My personal picks for MVPs, in light of all these stats are: Stavn for his super teamwork, damage and multikills. M0nsey for having a higher T side Leetify Rating than even the highest CT side Leetify Rating in todays meta, whilst also having top 10 stats in flashbang stats. Broky for being top 10 in nearly every stat, especially trading his teammates, and Karrigan for maximising the value of his deaths, teammates and their finances.

That's me done but what about you? What are your takes? If you'd like the raw CSV/Excel sheets, shoot me a DM.

Here is all the team data and individual data as a downloadable image.

Writing, data analysis, and graphic design - u/Draemeth
Data processed by Leetify