Top 20 players of 2018: valde (20)

Coming in at No.20 on our top 20 list of 2018, powered by EGB.com, is Valdemar "⁠valde⁠" Bjørn Vangså, who makes his first-ever appearance on account of his consistency for North all year long.

Top 20 Players of 2018: Introduction

valde has spent the last two-and-a-half years competing at a top level, so it is easy to forget that, before being recruited by CPH Wolves in May 2016, he was virtually unknown outside of Denmark. Before that, he had competed in a handful of the QPAD King of Nordic weekly tournaments with stfuNerd alongside players like Emil "⁠Magisk⁠" Reif and Rasmus "⁠SandeN⁠" Sanden, and in some qualifiers with the likes of Granted and Singularity.

His first LAN event on record was the BYOC qualifier for Copenhagen Games 2016, where he put in a respectable 1.28 rating - still not enough for his then team, Krydsild, to advance to the main tournament as they were downed by Iwku in the final round of the playoffs. Less than two months later, he would be picked up by CPH Wolves, and, according to him, he immediately adapted to the more rigid system imposed by Lukas "⁠gla1ve⁠" Rossander and Marco "⁠Snappi⁠" Pfeiffer, two renowned tacticians still to this day.

“My journey until that point had been nothing out of the ordinary. I had been playing in some lower level Danish teams and attended a few local LAN events in Denmark. Other than that, I was just another casual player playing FACEIT, matchmaking and so on. I knew that I had always been better at Counter-Strike than most people, already from an early age when I started playing Source, but it never struck me that I would end up making a living out of it.

“I think it was a great experience once I got my chance in Copenhagen Wolves. Playing with people you had looked up to was a dream coming true, and from there everything went so fast. The transition wasn’t hard at all, at least not for me. It was just about listening and doing your best, and people were really nice to me in the beginning in terms of being forgiving if I made a mistake."

Just weeks later, valde made headlines as he and gla1ve were called to play for SK as stand-ins at DreamHack Summer as replacements for Magisk and Liquid-bound Jacob "⁠Pimp⁠" Winneche. He top fragged for the team against Immortals but struggled to make his mark in the other games, ending the tournament with a 0.89 rating.

"If I felt the pressure? Of course. It was a wild experience… I don’t think I even had a picture on HLTV at the time, and sitting on such a big stage, which I had never experience before, was a big task… probably also too big for me at the time. But overall I think I did fine, even though I didn’t have good stats."

valde did not let the below-average rating in Jönköping get to him and quickly bounced back. Despite Heroic’s shortcomings, he maintained a high level of performance in most of the team’s LAN outings, most notably at the SL i-League StarSeries Season 2 Finals (1.27 rating), ESWC 2016 (1.48) and IEM Oakland (1.31), while also leading Denmark to a semi-final run at the World Championships with a 1.32 rating. His heroics would be rewarded closer to the end of the year as the team picked up their first international title at IGL 2016, where valde boasted a tournament-leading 1.38 rating.

The then 21-year-old ended 2016 with a 1.19 rating, an achievement on its own for someone still taking his first steps on the international stage, prompting Ladislav "⁠GuardiaN⁠" Kovács to pick him as the player to watch in 2017.

"To be honest, I did not have any specific goals for 2017. It was a turbulent year with a lot of roster changes and uncertainty about our future. In the beginning, I was not even sure about my place in the team because I was still so new and all. But I think I was a fast learner, and when you also got some good roles and teammates who set you up, it was my job and responsibility to perform well. At least I expected that from myself."

valde began 2017 with a bang, helping Heroic to a semi-final run at DreamHack Open Leipzig with a 1.31 rating - which would be his highest of the year on LAN. Things would soon turn sour for Heroic, who, in the aftermath of a last-place finish at DreamHack Open Tours, surprisingly benched valde as the team were about to play in the closed qualifier for ESL One Cologne.

Three months later, an opportunity presented itself as Magisk was benched by North, and valde made an instant impact in his new team, whom he helped to a runner-up finish at DreamHack Masters Malmö and to a title-winning campaign at DreamHack Open Montreal, averaging a 1.17 rating at those two tournaments. Things seemed to be looking up for North, but the team quickly ran out of steam, with valde himself also looking out of shape as he had below-average ratings at three of his last four events of the year, ending 2017 with just a 1.08 rating on LAN.

"We had a really good start [with North], indeed, but overall I think we were very different players with different mindsets and visions on how to play the game. Our philosophies outside of the game were also totally different, and so I think it was inevitable that the old North roster wasn’t going to last forever.

"My personal goal for 2018 was to win a big tournament and become a better player than I was the year before. Winning a big one was something I had never done before."

2018 began for North like it did for many other top teams: with the ELEAGUE Major. Looking in hindsight, the previous struggles indicated that all was not well with the team, but at the time no one would have predicted that the Danes, one of the eight Legends from PGL Major Krakow, would bomb out 0-3 after recording losses to Vega Squadron, Astralis and BIG. For valde, there were still positives to take as he had a team-leading 0.99 rating, 9% higher than the squad's average.

Soon after the event ended, North pressed the panic button, shockingly raiding Astralis for Markus "⁠Kjaerbye⁠" Kjærbye and promoting Daniel "⁠mertz⁠" Mertz from their academy team to replace Kristian "⁠k0nfig⁠" Wienecke and René "⁠cajunb⁠" Borg.

"The mood in the team was very bad at the time. We did not have a set playing style that everybody was comfortable with, none of us had any confidence, and I think a lot of things were just off. So it didn’t come to a surprise to me that we failed that Major hard.

"From the outside (and the inside), the changes seemed like a no-brainer. We could get a pure AWPer that had shown good promise in the academy team, and getting Kjaerbye from Astralis was something we couldn’t pass up on. We thought the roles would be more well defined but we still had our issues, which eventually led to more roster changes."

The changes in North did not immediately pay dividends, as the team would bow out of cs_summit 2 in 5th-6th place following 0-2 losses to SK and Heroic. But despite the team's struggles, valde started to reap the benefits from the now more-defined roles as he boasted a tournament-high 1.32 rating - a whopping 26% higher than North's average -, while also ranking first for ADR, kills per round, and headshots per round, to pick up an EVP mention.

"I was definitely confident in my own game, but, for the unaware, CS is a team game, so it matters absolutely zero to me if I play a 1.30 rating tournament if we go out in the groups. I think I got moved around a little, though, getting new spots and new roles as Terrorist, and that helped me quite a bit, but, in my own opinion, I can play almost any role and do a good job. Being versatile is something I enjoy, and I think it’s necessary if you want to become a top individual in modern Counter-Strike."

Despite failing to get out of the groups at IEM Katowice, North's 7th-8th place finish is still regarded as positive by most people's standards as they were still in the top half. valde had some lively performances in the tournament and posted a 1.17 rating (18% higher than the team's average), single-handedly keeping the Danes in the series against NiP, which eventually went the Swedes' way.

North then won a much-needed trophy DreamHack Open Tours, dropping just one map throughout the entire tournament. valde led the team to glory with a 1.25 rating, boasting above-average ratings in all seven games that he played, but, in the end, he had to settle for an EVP mention as the MVP award was scooped by Issa "⁠ISSAA⁠" Murad.

"Winning always feels good, and it served as a small confident booster. But, without sounding arrogant, the smaller DreamHack Open titles are not what makes me satisfied. I want to compete in the big finals and to be a contender for the big trophies."

After four events in a row as North's top performer, valde was second to mertz at StarSeries i-League Season 5, and to Kjaerbye at DreamHack Open Summer, with the team finishing 3rd-4th at both events. At the Ukrainian tournament, which featured a best-of-three Swiss format, the 23-year-old had just five out of 18 maps with below-average ratings, and boasted ten 1.15+-rated maps, playing an important role in the team's success with a 1.29 rating in map wins leading to victories.

Things seemed to be picking up for the Danish team, but then they hit a new low with the roster as they bowed out of ESL One Cologne in the groups following losses to fnatic and MIBR, valde himself looking out of shape as he registered 1.0+ ratings in just 50% of the games and averaged a year-low 0.65 kills per round and 0.84 impact.

Just days after the German event, North set the wheels of change in motion, benching mertz as they toyed with the idea of going international. Their first experiment was a success as they won the rather uneventful DreamHack Open Valencia with Oscar "⁠mixwell⁠" Cañellas as a stand-in, repeating their campaign from Tours as they lost just one map throughout the tournament. valde went through peaks and troughs in the group stage, with three 1.30-rated maps but also two below-average ratings, but he swept everyone off their feet in the playoffs, averaging a 1.75 rating to inspire North to win the trophy, earning his first-ever MVP medal.

"It was a weird event in many ways, the most obvious one being that we had to switch our language to English in order to have mixwell with us as a stand-in. I also remember not feeling so well for a large portion of the tournament, so playing my best individual tournament of the year under those circumstances was a little bit surprising. But actually I had also been really ill during the cs_summit event and I also played some good CS there, so perhaps being sick makes me sick [laughs]."

North ended the tournament season on a high note and with a solid plan for what was to come as they recruited Nikolaj "⁠niko⁠" Kristensen from Heroic in a deal that saw mertz move in the opposite direction. But no-one could have predicted what was about to happen. The team entered DreamHack Masters Stockholm as semi-final material at best, but surpassed all expectations as they lifted the trophy following a sensational run that included victories over Astralis (twice), Natus Vincere and MOUZ.

With Mathias "⁠MSL⁠" Lauridsen surprisingly claiming the MVP medal, valde had to settle for an EVP mention for his pivotal role in the playoffs (1.21 rating, the third-highest overall), with key performances against Na`Vi and mouz.

"That was a good event, not because we won it, but because we finally felt we realized some of the potential we knew we had in us, but had been struggling to show in the previous half a year or so. I remember putting in a lot of work individually before the tournament started, and we were also playing really well in practice. We managed to go through the group as first seed, beating Astralis and TYLOO, and then we got the hardest possible quarter-final match-up against Na`Vi, who had been looking strong. We prepared really well for this game and did a lot of anti-stratting, and it all worked perfectly. I think we actually played our best BO3 ever there, against Na`Vi.

"In the semi-finals, we got mousesports, who are always a dangerous team, in my opinion. They can be pretty unpredictable and they have some really good individuals on that team who all can take over a game and bring the victory home. We won the game, but it was really close, and then we had Astralis waiting in the final. We came in with a good nothing-to-lose mentality and we weren’t playing scared. If you play scared versus Astralis, you might as well forfeit the game beforehand, but we kept our composure and won a close final. We all had our miracle rounds that are needed to win a big trophy, and everything just went according to plan that event.

“That was the best memory of the year. My first big trophy and just in general a tournament I will never forget. The walk-in to the stage was epic, the crowd was nice and the tournament ran smoothly.”

North had little time to rest on their laurels, though, as just days later they traveled to London looking to reclaim Legend status at the FACEIT Major. However, they ended up not even making it past the New Challengers Stage as they recorded losses to HellRaisers, Spirit and Vega Squadron, with only one of the three going on to eventually reach top eight. valde ended the tournament with a 1.0 rating, still not enough to erase the memory of yet another painful blow.

"We were too weak mentally coming into the Major and we were really bad at handling some of the issues that we faced at that event. But you live and you learn, and that tournament is in the past now. We can’t change the result but we learned some valuable lessons."

North were quick to react to the disappointing campaign on British soil, swapping in-game leaders and bringing back Nicklas "⁠gade⁠" Gade. It would take some time for the team to hit their stride under Casper "⁠cadiaN⁠" Møller, though, as they placed 5th-8th at StarSeries i-League Season 6 and 9th-12th at IEM Chicago, with valde still putting in solid numbers despite the squad's shortcomings (1.14 rating in Kiev and 1.12 in Chicago).

It was only at the ECS Season 6 Finals that North finally showed some real promise. The Danish team beat Liquid and NRG in the groups before losing to MIBR in a closely-contested semi-final series, with valde earning his fourth and last EVP nod of the year after once again proving to be a solid contributor for his team (1.15 rating, 0.75 kills per round and 73.1% KAST).

After the positive run in Texas, North had another meltdown, this time on home soil as they crashed out of the ESL Pro League Season 8 Finals in last place after being defeated by NRG and Sharks - a fitting ending to a rollercoaster journey, prompting valde to admit that the team still need to work on their consistency.

"The worst memory of the year was probably going out of the EPL Finals. I can speak for myself at least... I had definitely set myself up to be in the playoffs, and we all had friends and family coming over to see us play and it was so heartbreaking to disappoint them, but also yourself and the fans. That was probably the worst feeling of the entire year."

Why was valde the 20th best player of 2018?

One of the key factors behind valde's selection is his consistency. When it came to events that were taken into consideration for the ranking (those with MVP medals), he ranked 14th for rating (1.15), eighth for KAST (73.4%) and ninth for ADR (82.4). However, these numbers have to be put into context as a lot of his best performances came outside of the Big Events.

The smaller competitions were where valde truly excelled as he put in one of the most dominant MVP displays of the year at DreamHack Open Valencia (1.45 rating) and strong EVP performances at DreamHack Open Tours (1.25) and cs_summit 2 (1.32).

When it came to Big Events in 2018, he averaged a 1.10 rating, and it is worth mentioning that, at tournaments of this stature, he had above-average ratings on 70.8% of the maps (10th highest) and had a 79.8 ADR (13th). He was part of a strong North trio that contributed to the team's unlikely triumph at DreamHack Masters Stockholm, narrowly missing out on the MVP medal, and he was the squad's only EVP in their semi-final run at the ECS Season 6 Finals. And while he did not make the cut at IEM Katowice, he still played a key part in North's top-eight finish.

valde was North's top performer at nine of the 14 events that they attended, and their second-best player at the other five, which helps to explain just how important he was to the team. He held his own against quality opposition, averaging a 1.09 rating in matches between top 10 teams, and in the playoffs of Big Events, with a 1.13 rating from a short but still acceptable sample size.

Consistency on all levels (round to round, map to map, event to event, good or bad opposition) makes valde a logical pick for the top 20, ahead of some other strong candidates, but his lack of standout performances in comparison with other contenders explains why he could not occupy a higher place in the ranking.

"I would like 2019 to be the year where we take a step up as a team. I want to raise our bottom level and I want us to become a top team that contends for all the big trophies. As for myself, I know I can remain at the top. I know myself and what I’m capable of, and I promise you that I will play twice as much this upcoming year to do my part in taking North to that next level. Otherwise, I would be disappointed with myself."

Bold prediction:

valde had a hard time naming just one rising talent who could make the top 20 next year, in the end going with compatriot Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali, who made headlines on the last day of 2018 as he was picked up by OpTic.

Ismail "⁠refrezh⁠" Ali:

"The easy answer is ZywOo, I guess, but that would hardly surprise anyone, so I’m going to go with refrezh or blameF. Since I have to choose, so I’m going to go with refrezh because he is a bit further ahead in his career compared to blameF. refrezh is a good player, and I think we are yet to see what he is capable of. Lastly, I want to say sorry to GuardiaN for being a year late."

Stay tuned to our Top 20 players of 2018 ranking powered by EGB.com and take a look at the Introduction article to learn more about how the players were selected.