Dmitry “sh1ro” Sokolov became the Most Valuable Player of the entire IEM Katowice 2021 tournament.
Following the success of Gambit Esports after defeating Virtus.pro in the IEM Katowice grand finals, their 19-year-old awper sh1ro got his career’s first MVP award.
Gambit’s run in the tournament has been a fairy tale. They stumbled upon an early loss against Evil Geniuses, but fought their way up in the competition from the lower bracket. Gambit were underdogs going into the tournament. However, they beat mousesports, Heroic, G2, Natus Vincere and Spirit to advance into the finals. Even after achieving a near impossible feat of victories, they were not the favorites to win the competition. They defeated VP in a 3-1 best of five battle for the title.
Sh1ro was outstanding throughout the tournament, his performance against Na’vi being the most notable one. Earning a rating of 1.27, he had an above average rating in 15 of the 17 maps played. Some important statistics defining his brilliance in the tournament include KAST: 77.8%, Impact: 1.16, K/D Ratio: 1.52 and Deaths / round: 0.48.
Gambit Esports worked as a unit, and whenever Sh1ro was not at his best, they filled in for him. That said, the youngster eclipsed Mareks “YEKINDAR” Gaļinskis one of the best performing players in the competition. If the mind-boggling numbers and exceptional performances from the youngster become consistent, he might go all the way and become the best player in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, surpassing Aleksandr "s1mple" Kostyliev who has been the best for a while now.
