We have reached the 16th place of our Top 20 players of 2010 list and it belongs to SK Gaming's Johan "face" Klasson, the Swedish team's most consistent performer throughout the year.

Basic information

Player: Johan "face" Klasson
Team: SK Gaming
Age: 22

Team achievements in 2010:

1st - SEC 2010, IOL FINAL4 Season 2, CB Nations Cup XIII
2nd - ESWC 2010, WEM 2010, Arbalet Best of Four
3rd - IEM4 World Championship, EPS Nordic II

Stats from major LAN tournaments in 2010:

Kills per round: 0.73
Deaths per round: 0.62
Rating: 1.10 (?)
Maps played: 93
MoM: 9 times top rated in a match
Best tounament: IEM4 World Championship
Best map: de_train

SK Gaming signed Johan "face" Klasson in September 2009 from H2k and shortly after he joined, along with Frej "kHRYSTAL" Sjöström, they won several tournaments including the last major one in 2009, Arbalet Cup Europe. Therefore, they had high expectations from the lineup for the year 2010. But, it didn't all go as well as planned due to some instability within the team and problems in finalizing the lineup when changes started taking place. However, Klasson was the team's most stable player and was apparently not part of the problem which is reflected in the fact that he will remain in the lineup for 2011.

A shaky start and a lineup change

The first tournament for Klasson and SK Gaming in 2010 was IEM4 European Championship Finals where they finished at a relatively disappointing 4th place after losing to eventual champions mousesports in the semi-final and then to the biggest surprise of the tournament Ravens in the match for 3rd place. Klasson's performance wasn't very satisfying with a 0.94 rating, with only a rare spark against Millenium where he had a 31-19 score in their group stage match.

After that event, opportunity arose for SK to bring in Rasmus "Gux" Ståhl and they acted upon it by replacing Sjöström in expectation of better results. The first stop for the new lineup was Hannover and the IEM4 World Championship which brought a much improved play by SK as well as Klasson. As the team finished 3rd, Klasson was their best player with an excellent 1.19 rating, which also made him the 4th best rated player at this event filled with star players.

SK's best player at IEM4 World Championship

At the next event for SK, Arbalet Cup Best of Four, Klasson was the team's second best player, with a string of solid but not great performances (1.02 rating) as they finished 2nd behind Na`Vi, but ahead of fnatic. In the following week, Klasson made a few appearances for the Swedish national team in the semi-final and the final of ClanBase Nations Cup XIII, helping them win the title even though he didn't shine in any of the matches.

In May, what followed was probably the worst tournament for SK, and Klasson individually, in 2010, Arbalet Cup Europe. In this event that took place on their home turf in Stockholm, SK didn't make it through the first group stage, while Klasson had only a 0.90 rating.

After that forgettable performance, SK recovered a month later and managed to win IOL FINAL4 Season 2 ahead of fnatic while Klasson had several good performances.

DreamHack Summer was just a day away and SK returned with their shaky form as they finished 4th, even though they had their bright moment defeating Na`Vi in the quarter-final. Klasson was the team's second best rated player, but only with an average 1.00 rating and no real stand-out matches.

Stepping it up in the second half of the year

The Swedes then consolidated and just two weeks later achieved their biggest success in 2010, which was finishing 2nd at ESWC in Paris, France. Klasson was on top of his form as he repeated the performances from IEM4 World Championship in another big event, finishing with a 1.17 rating (2nd best in the team). He played great in every match while SK were undefeated on their way to the final, both in the playoffs and in the group stages. His standout match was probably the one against compLexity in the quarter-final, when he had a 20-8 score in the second map.

Just after their biggest success with the lineup, their latest addition, Ståhl decided to switch teams and return to fnatic where he spent the previous year. Arbalet Dallas was only a few days away at that point so SK recruited Andreas "moddii" Fridh as a stand-in. The team played surprisingly well, even though they were defeated by H2k in quarter-final while Klasson was their best player with a great 1.20 rating (8th best at the event).

Next up for SK was WCG Nordic qualifier held in Finland which they won without much trouble, going undefeated for 8 maps and securing all expenses paid for WCG in Los Angeles. Klasson was again the team's first star with an impressive 1.39 rating and was the best player of the event. He also recorded his best individual performance of the year in the match against Playzone.fi with a score 26-5.

The time also finally came for SK to finalize their participation in EPS Nordic II, which they ended as the 3rd placed team. Klasson was the team's best player in this online league and also the 6th best rated player overall with a 1.16 rating. He had several impressive matches throughout the season, especially one against H2k when he put up a 33-9 score, as well as one in the 3rd place decider against MYM with a 30-12 score in the second map. Also, he made his highlight of the year in a match against Playzone.fi with two consecutive 4-kill rounds.

Klasson's two consecutive 4-kill rounds against Playzone.fi

The next LAN event for SK was SEC where they managed to win their only international title of 2010 after defeating mTw in the final. Klasson once again played great and was the team's 2nd best player with rating 1.19 (4th best at the event).

Then the time came to travel to United States for the WCG tournament, where Klasson started truly impressively, putting up a 36-11 score against Indian team ATE and then 33-12 against the Russians of MYM in the group stage. However, the team was then stopped by Frag eXecutors in the first round of the playoffs in one of the most exciting matches of the year. Klasson himself didn't disappoint in that match, playing especially well in the 3rd map which his team eventually lost 15-19, despite his 31-21 personal score. He finished the event with an unbelievable 1.42 rating, his best of the year.

World e-Sports Masters was the next tournament SK attended, although they had to use (another) stand-in for the Chinese event. Despite that, they managed an excellent 2nd place finish, largely thanks to some great performances by Klasson. In their first match against Power Gaming he had a great 21-9 score in a 16-3 win, while their next match against Na`Vi really brought out the best in him. After being down 3-12 at the half, SK managed a 13-0 comeback while Klasson was the leading force of the team with a 20-3 score as CT, directly influencing on the outcome of more than a few rounds. He ended up being the 4th best rated player at the event with a 1.19 rating.

Klasson played brilliantly at WEM

In the end of November SK's participation in online leagues was coming to an end as they finished at 5th place of EPS Nordic III, missing out on the LAN Finals. Klasson had a mediocre season this time, with a 1.00 rating, while he was much better at IEM5 European Championship recording a 1.13 rating while SK secured a place at the Finals of that event.

At the last major tournament of 2010, DreamHack Winter, Klasson didn't play at the same level as since July and ESWC, recording a string of average performances (rating 1.01) as his team ended their participation at the quarter-final after losing to mTw.

SK Gaming's most consistent player of 2010

SK didn't win any of the big tournaments in 2010, but whenever they placed well in one of them, Klasson played excellent, always as either the team's best (like at IEM4 World Championship) or second best player (ESWC, WEM). In addition to that, he was rated above 1.00 in 9 of 11 international LAN tournaments that he attended and played well regardless of the lineup changes that hit the team.

Although he wasn't the impact player for his team, top rated in only 9 of 93 maps that he played, he was a player whom SK could always rely on and has therefore earned himself another contract for 2011 as part of the new lineup and also a place in our Top 20 players of 2010 list.

Recommended demos of face in 2010:

If you want to check out some of his matches that were mentioned in this article, you can find links to those demos right here:

Opponent	Map	Event	Score	Demo
Millenium	nuke	IEM4 Europe Finals (Group stage)	31-19	POV
MYM	inferno	IEM4 World (Group stage)	25-16	POV
coL	inferno	IEM4 World (Group stage)	21-6	HLTV
H2k	nuke	EPS Nordic II	33-9	POV
Playzone	inferno	EPS Nordic II	25-18	POV
OK	inferno	EPS Nordic II	27-12	POV
dignitas	train	ESWC 2010 (Group stage #1)	29-16	POV
coL	train	ESWC 2010 (Quarter-final, map 2)	20-8	POV
Finesse	dust2	Arbalet Dallas (Group stage #2)	25-12	POV
Lions	nuke	Arbalet Dallas (Group stage #2)	26-18	POV
Playzone	train	WCG Nordic (Group stage)	26-5	HLTV
Power	train	WCG Nordic (Final, map 1)	28-13	HLTV
MYM	dust2	EPS Nordic II (3rd place, map 2)	30-12	HLTV
mTw	dust2	SEC 2010 (Final, map 1)	25-15	POV
ATE	train	WCG 2010 (Group stage)	36-11	HLTV
Fx	dust2	WCG 2010 (1/8 final, map 3)	31-21	HLTV
Power	train	WEM 2010 (Upper quarter-final)	21-9	HLTV
Na`Vi	train	WEM 2010 (Upper semi-final)	25-17	HLTV
Lions	dust2	EPS Nordic III	32-16	HLTV

If you missed our previous article about Bum-Ki "peri" Jung, click here or if you want to see who else is on the list when it is updated, head over to our Introduction article here.

What do you think about the performance of Johan "face" Klasson in 2010? Does he deserve a place in the Top 20? What was your biggest impression of him this year? Feel free to leave a comment on this topic and stay tuned to HLTV.org if you want to see what the rest of the Top 20 looks like, as we will bring you number 15 tomorrow.