Player stock shift: June

We have analyzed all of the important international LAN tournaments of June to find out which players' stocks are on the rise and whose fell over the course of the month. Here is the next edition of the monthly Player stock shift.

This edition of the Player stock shift features 16 players, nine of whom took part in at least one of the two big events of June, ECS Season 5 Finals and ESL One Belo Horizonte, which headlined the month.

CS:GO Asia Championships, June's third-largest tournament, also had its say in the stock shift with three of the eight risers, while the rest appeared at some of the smallest notable events of the month: DreamHack Open Summer, ZOTAC Cup Masters Europe Regional Finals, and, in one case, the GG.BET Majestic.

Several more players are on our watchlist for the tournaments to come. For example, we are still waiting for Marcelo "⁠coldzera⁠" David to return to his former level before we bump him back up, while underperformances from the likes of Fredrik "⁠REZ⁠" Sterner, Dauren "⁠AdreN⁠" Kystaubayev, and Hansel "⁠BnTeT⁠" Ferdinand have caused us to keep a closer eye on them as potential falling players in future editions.

If you have missed any of our previous Player stock shift articles, here they are:

May
April
March
February
January

June's rising and falling players are the following:

Rising stock

It's about time we include CeRq in the Player stock shift. The Bulgarian has been looking like a rising star for months, after entering "the big game" only late last year, when he played his first large-scale event at the ESL Pro League Season 6 Finals.

As such, the 18-year-old AWPer is quite understandably inconsistent, but as we saw at StarSeries i-League Season 5 and at the ECS Season 5 Finals, he is worth a watch when he turns up in form. Some of CeRq's very high peaks, such as a 1.38 series rating against North at the former tournament and a 1.77 rating against G2 at the latter, helped NRG grab deep finishes in June.

chrisJ is undeniably one of the biggest risers of June following a massive performance at ESL One Belo Horizonte, where he was one of the biggest candidates for the MVP award until mousesports lost the last map of the grand final to FaZe.

Taking over the main AWP role from Tomáš "⁠oskar⁠" Šťastný, who was absent at the Brazilian event, the Dutchman rose to the challenge and played one of the best tournaments of his life, carrying his team throughout the playoffs.

Another surprising EVP of ESL One Belo Horizonte came in the form of FaZe's stand-in, cromen. The Norwegian had put in rather unimpressive performances at his first event with the team, the ECS Season 5 Finals, but he fared much better at his second tournament with the European squad.

In Brazil, the former Heroic stand-in proved he can mesh well with some of the best players in the world with consistent showings throughout the entire event, including the grand final, in which he had four maps above a 1.00 rating.

Although Aleksandr "⁠s1mple⁠" Kostyliev received the CS:GO Asia Championships MVP medal in the end, byali was a close candidate for the highest award after spearheading Virtus.pro's run to the grand final, as well as their map win in the last series itself.

The Pole's numerous peaks — of which we haven't seen many throughout the year — tipped the scales in Virtus.pro's favor in their close affairs in Shanghai, such as a 1.39 rating in an overtime win on Cache against TYLOO and a 1.84 rating on Mirage in the semi-final rematch versus the Chinese.

Although Envy placed third-fourth at CAC, ScreaM was also in consideration for the MVP after putting in some vintage performances. Much like byali, the Belgian was the reason why his team made it that far and stayed competitive in their two (and only) losses, against Natus Vincere.

ScreaM dipped below a 1.15 rating only once, carrying Envy every step of the way, particularly in their tight win against Heroic in the quarter-finals, where he recorded a 1.68 rating on the deciding map, Train.

Edward was among the players we looked at as a potential candidate for the rising stock in May after his EVP-worthy play at StarSeries. He didn't make the list in the end, as the month also featured the ESL Pro League Season 7 Finals, where the Ukrainian's unremarkable level balanced out the above-average StarSeries showing.

This month, he added a strong event in the form of the CS:GO Asia Championships to his resumé, which has assured his place here, among the players on the rise.

The last two rising players of June are Imperial's star duo, EspiranTo — who had fallen last month after an atrocious DreamHack Open Tours from him as well as the team as a whole — and nexa.

The Lithuanian secured his first official MVP award in June, at DreamHack Open Summer, as he and his Serbian teammate powered Imperial in their undefeated run in Jönköping. The duo continued to play well at ZOTAC Cup Masters Europe Regional Finals, albeit they found no success there as they fell to the eventual winners, Kinguin, in the semis-finals.

Falling stock

fnatic have had a turbulent couple of months following their triumphs at IEM Katowice and WESG World Finals, placing fifth-sixth at both IEM Sydney and ECS Season 5 Finals, and changing two players in the meantime.

The starkest difference can be noticed in flusha, who had carried fnatic to the Katowice title and proceeded to contribute to the other in China. His form has since taken a downward turn, with the ECS Season 5 Finals being his lowest-rated tournament since DreamHack Masters Las Vegas, in February 2017.

Although KRIMZ was hardly as underwhelming as flusha over the last two tournaments, he certainly did not look like the top-five player in the world that he had been from January to April, which places him in a similar category to coldzera.

Expectations for Golden, who has already left the squad to make way for William "⁠draken⁠" Sundin, are a bit low in general, but he had been a valuable contributor to fnatic's run in February and March, which was not the case in the last three months.

Following his three-month break from competition, shox's return to competition at ECS Season 5 Finals was an unremarkable one, as he wasn't able to reclaim his form from early 2018, when the new G2 played their first tournament together in London.

Whether it's because he still isn't at a hundred percent when it comes to his recovery or due to the time he spent away from CS:GO, the 26-year-old has a lot of ground to make up, as does the new lineup.

steel falls a little over two months after his departure from Liquid, whom he had helped claim their first title at cs_summit and to go on a couple of deep runs at StarSeries i-League Season 4 and at IEM Katowice.

Upon his return to a fully Brazilian team, Luminosity, the 24-year-old did not quite live up to his status as the most experienced player of the lineup, recording his career-lowest 0.62 rating at ECS Season 5 Finals.

ESL One Belo Horizonte saw the Não Tem Como lineup play their first international tournament, which was also kNgV-'s first in over nine months, and it showed.

With the team placing last in their home country, the former Immortals and 100 Thieves member put in his lowest rating at an offline event, 0.79, and didn't make up for it in NTC's second try at ZOTAC Cup Masters Europe Regional Finals.

Though rarely a player we have high expectations for, USTILO has been on our radar since April, when he played one of his worst tournaments as part of Renegades in Marseille.

Since then, he has added two poor events to his resumé in the form of StarSeries i-League Season 5 and DreamHack Open Summer, which cemented his spot in the falling stock.

In his fourth — the most out of anyone so far — appearance in the Player stock shift, Jame's stock takes a dive for the second time due to the immense drop between StarSeries i-League Season 5 and GG.BET Majestic, which were only a few days apart.

The Russian was also AVANGAR's lowest-rated player in the ESL One Cologne qualifier, in which the Kazakh team placed last after suffering losses to ALTERNATE aTTaX and ENCE, the eventual winners of the tournament.